Daily Fantasy Golf Course Primer: Quicken Loans National
With Jordan Spieth's walk-off bunker shot to win last week's Travelers, it's only fitting that PGA fans are met with a massive letdown just a few days later for the 2017 Quicken Loans National.
Still, it's hard to complain too much after this shot.
Jordan Spieth holes out from the sand on 18 and wins in a playoff, celebration is an A+ pic.twitter.com/rvM4uCRunL
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) June 25, 2017
But alas. We must move onward.
The Quicken Loans National moves to TPC Potomac, which hasn't hosted a PGA event since 2006 (and underwent a redesign, ruling out any learning chances from events in the early 2000s).
TPC Potomac did host an event in 2012 and 2013 for the Web.com Tour, but even those aren't super revealing for our purposes.
However, we can always dig in and get a leg up on the competition this week. Here's what you need to know about TPC Potomac.
Course and Tournament Overview
This par 70 spans around 7,100 yards. The winners at the Web.com events (David Lingmerth in 2012 and Michael Putnam in 2013) played eight and seven strokes below par, respectively.
That was a lower level of competition than the PGA Tour, of course, but we still shouldn't expect a parade of birdies here at TPC Potomac. Among players who played well enough to play all four rounds in those events, scores averaged around 2.7 strokes over par.
The field is 120 players, and the top 70 plus ties make the cut.
Key Stats
Certain stats -- such as strokes gained: tee to green and putting as well as birdie or better rate -- are always things to consider, but at this particular course, we're honing in on the following stats.
Key Stats for the Quicken Loans National at TPC Potomac |
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Good Drive Rate |
Strokes Gained: Approach the Green |
Strokes Gained: Around the Green |
Par 4 Scoring |
With a lack of history to study, we'll be going fairly broad with our stats. But that doesn't mean we're just guessing.
The par 70 lends itself to par 4 scoring, and with the narrow fairways, we should favor accuracy to distance. However, we're also prioritizing greens in regulation, and good drive rate lumps that all together.
Strokes gained: approach and around the green are also on the list for the same reason: we want our guys to avoid disaster and get on the green with a chance for par or better.
You can obviously tweak things to your liking, but this all-around approach looks like a safe way to attack TPC Potomac this week.
Course History "Studs"
We have a good handful of players in this week's field who played here at least once in 2012 or 2013, though not all of them are in DFS contention.
Web.com Results at TPC Potomac | 2012 | 2013 | FanDuel Price | bet365 Win Odds |
---|---|---|---|---|
Danny Lee | CUT | $7,800 | 40 | |
Adam Hadwin | T25 | T47 | $7,600 | 70 |
Si Woo Kim | T11 | $7,300 | 50 | |
David Lingmerth | 1 | $7,200 | 30 | |
Kevin Tway | T34 | $6,700 | 70 | |
Morgan Hoffmann | T6 | $6,400 | 90 | |
Sung Kang | T6 | $6,400 | 90 | |
Luke List | T13 | $6,200 | 100 | |
James Hahn | T36 | $6,100 | 60 | |
Robert Streb | T25 | $6,000 | 175 | |
Ben Martin | CUT | $5,900 | 140 | |
Whee Kim | CUT | $5,900 | 140 | |
Billy Hurley III | CUT | $5,700 | 125 | |
Hudson Swafford | CUT | T27 | $5,700 | 125 |
Fabian Gomez | T52 | $5,500 | 200 | |
Kyle Reifers | CUT | $5,300 | 175 | |
Sam Saunders | T8 | CUT | $5,300 | 225 |
Troy Merritt | T38 | CUT | $5,300 | 200 |
Kelly Kraft | CUT | $5,100 | 175 | |
Alex Cejka | W/D | $5,000 | 275 | |
Blayne Barber | CUT | $5,000 | 250 | |
Jim Herman | CUT | T15 | $5,000 | 160 |
Tyrone Van Aswegen | CUT | T47 | $5,000 | 200 |
Brett Stegmaier | 60 | $4,800 | 300 | |
Derek Fathauer | W/D | CUT | $4,700 | 250 |
Andrew Loupe | 65 | CUT | $4,500 | 500 |
Jason Gore | T57 | T11 | $4,500 | 160 |
So, most of the list is uninspiring, but the top of it boasts some guys who should have your attention.
Danny Lee finished T3 last week at the Travelers and was T47, T49, 6, and T5 in the four prior events. He's running hot, has experience here, and has strong win odds at 40/1.
Adam Hadwin has cooled off a bit of late (T57 last week, T60 at the U.S. Open, cut at the Memorial, T53 at the DEAN & DELUCA, T30 at THE PLAYERS, T72 at the Valero). However, he's still made 17 of 19 cuts on the season and has 7 top 25s.
Si Woo Kim makes for an interesting option this week as well, but just know that he missed 8 of 18 cuts so far this season. Of course, he won THE PLAYERS and was T13 at the U.S. Open and has some experience at TPC Potomac.
David Lingmerth won the Web.com event here in 2012 and has reeled off six straight cuts (T18, T72, T12, T15, T21, T26).
Kevin Tway is also a hot name, but he has come back to earth after a T3 at the Valero, T20 at the Byron Nelson, and T18 at the DEAN & DELUCA. He was cut at the Memorial, T31 at the St. Jude, and T43 last week at the Travelers. For the asking price, though, that's not bad.