The PGA Tour heads to St George’s golf and country club for the Canadian Open. Canada’s national championship is finally back after a 2-year absence due to the pandemic and it returns to St. George’s Golf and Country Club for the first time since 2010.
The Candian Open is a regular stop on the PGA tour having been first played in 1904 and has been held annually since then. This golf course is about to test the best golfers in the world with its tree-lined fairways and small bentgrass greens, this week’s players will have to be dialed in.
This course will offer a true test for the 156-man field that features the best golfers in the world. The top 65 and ties will get the opportunity to play the weekend.
More information can be found on our Canadian Open preview by CLICKING HERE
FanTeam Memorial contests start on 9th June at 11.40 pm BST.
This week’s Main Event contest features two buy-ins, €2 and €20. The difference in the contests is of course the prize pool at stake. In the low entry, the prize pool sits at €1,200. A massive €4,000 is up for grabs in the high entry, with €600 awarded to first place!
FanTeam has also added a High Roller main-event contest with a €75 buy-in and €150 progressive prize pool up for grabs.
Satellite contests will run side by side with the Memorial Main Event contest and users can win up to 30 seats in the U.S. Open monster contest. Buy-in is set at €3 per entry for the satellite contest.
Standard FanTeam golf fantasy scoring applies.
The great thing about FanTeam as a platform is I can play daily fantasy contests, and player matchups and make my sportsbook bets all in the same place.
WEATHER
The players this week are about to see cool and wet conditions. At present, there is a clear AM/PM split on Thursday and Friday so it might be worth factoring into lineup construction. As always with the weather, it’s not guaranteed and is always worth monitoring.
Thursday: Thursday is a mixed day all around. The early morning starters will go out in cold and damp conditions at present with a chance of rain. The afternoon starters are expected to get sunshine to start but the wind is projected to get up around 1pm and there is a chance for thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Friday: The morning starters will have wet conditions to start the day on Friday with sustained wind gusts of 10mph. Temperatures will warm up through the day as the rain clears for the afternoon starters. The wind will be around 10mph for the whole day on Friday.
Saturday: It will not get easier for those that make the cut on Saturday as those wind gusts remain up to 10mph. There is a slight chance for rain also which at present is due to arrive around midday.
Sunday: The winner Sunday would have earned it. Wind gusts are expected to stay around 10mph throughout the day with a 66% chance of rain around 10 am.
Obviously, things can change hour to hour with the weather so I would look again before lock tomorrow but at present the weather favors the AM/PM split for Thursday and Friday.
STATS I’M LOOKING AT
All stats in my model are based on the last 50 rounds.
- Strokes gained off the tee (Fairways Gained) – St. George’s is a very narrow driving course where it is essential to hit fairways. I am trying to identify the most accurate drivers in the field, as well as players that raise their off the tee baseline on short and narrow golf courses.
- Strokes gained on approach – Approach will once again be the main feature of my model this week. In 2010, this golf course featured the 8th most difficult greens to hit on the PGA Tour. They are small and there is no room for error. So once again strokes gained on approach is the key stat we need to be looking at this week.
- Strokes gained around the green –Similar to TPC Potomac and Muirfield Village, I definitely have an above-average weight around the green play this week. These greens are small, and I am expecting a low green in regulation percentage, especially with the fact the players will be approaching many of them with a long second shots.
- Strokes gained putting – As usual I will be weighting the ever-important putting between the 0-10ft range within my model again this week.
- Bogey Avoidance –St. George’s does not seem like the type, of course, that will reward players for their aggressiveness. I also don’t believe that St. George’s will be brutally challenging and we will need to identify players who significantly raise their baseline in difficult scoring conditions.
TOP 25 PLAYERS IN MY MODEL
Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Adam Hadwin, Ryan Armour, Scottie Scheffler, Corey Conners, Sebastian Munoz, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Sam Burns, Shane Lowry, Harold Varner, Aaron Rai, Martin Laird, Mark Hubbard, CT Pan, Chris Kirk, Tyrell Hatton, Keith Mitchell, Vaughn Taylor, Cameron Smith, Luke Donald, Justin Rose, Austin Smotherman, and Tyler Duncan.
TEAM REVEAL
Although I will be entering multi entries, this is one of my lineups for the Canadian open contest on FanTeam.
As you can see my selections are based on players within my player pool this week.
Matthew Fitzpatrick –Coming off that missed cut I’m expecting Fitzpatrick to be lower owned this week. Fitzpatrick missed cut came due to his putting having lost 7.57 strokes with the flat stick. That was the worst putting performance of his career to date. Fitzpatrick gained strokes everywhere else on the course last week so I’m more than happy to go back again. He has played 9 PGA Tour events this year and has finished inside the top 20 in 7 of them, so if that putter just comes back to the baseline a little then he should be in line for another top 10 finish this week.
C.T. Pan –.I think whatever injury Pan was dealing with has well and truly gone after making yet another cut last week. Pan has gained strokes on approach in his last 9 starts and that’s going to be important here this week. In that time he has finished anywhere between tied 15th and 53rd. He has also only missed one cut this year which was all the way back in February, so as long as his game holds up, look for another strong finish here this week.
Austin Smotherman – Ah back here again! For good reason though, Smotherman has gained strokes on approach over his last 9 events. Something is really clicking with his iron play at present and that is something that will have to continue here. There is some room for concern, especially with his around the green play, but should he keep up his good Green in regulation percentage then I’m not that bothered. Smotherman has 2 top 25 finishes in his last 3 starts and that can only improve should his around the green game improve.
I will be building a large chunk of my teams this week around the 3 core plays above with a variety of others based within my player pool. As you can see above this is a very balanced build so I will be spreading the captaincy across my 3 core plays.
FanTeam Canadian Open Contests can be found by CLICKING HERE
FANTEAM SPORTSBOOK BET
Matthew Fitzpatrick Top 5 (4/1) – Before last week Fitzy had been playing excellent golf. His last missed cut before that came at the RBC Heritage, he would then go on to finish runner up the week after so I’m predicting a similar bounce back this week. This golf course should suit his game down to the ground with precision being key.
A £20 bet would return £100 should it land.
Harold Varner Top 5 (13/2) – Varner was tied for the lead in the last round at the Charles Schwab challenge recently, but a disastrous back nine, 45 destroyed his chances. Varner was tied 3rd at the RBC Heritage in April and has not missed a cut since the Genesis. He is edging closer to his maiden win on the PGA Tour and that could come this week.
A £20 bet would return £150 should it land.
The Sportsbook lobby can be found by CLICKING HERE.
I hope this article has given you plenty of food for thought – especially for those of you that know very little about Golf but are playing in the Canadian Open contests.
Please feel free to message me on Twitter @JackHumphreyKM if you have any questions – all support queries should go to @FanTeamOfficial.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
If you’re new to FanTeam then you’ll need to create a new account here – alternatively, head on over to fanteam.com and click the green ‘Register’ button in the top right corner.
Existing users can click the graphic below for direct access to the game lobby.
Best of luck to everyone entering – I look forward to seeing your usernames on the Leaderboard.
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