Daily Fantasy Golf Course Primer: THE CJ CUP

The third week of the PGA Tour stays overseas, this time in Korea, for Korea’s first-ever PGA Tour event.

THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES (yes, that’s the official name) is yet another 78-player event (60 from the FedEx Cup standings, and 18 from Korea), so it’s essentially the same format as we had last week for the CIMB Classic.

But, we have no past information on this course. So what gives?

Course and Tournament Info

The Club at Nine Bridges spans 7,196 yards and is a par 72, so it's a little short for a par 72 but not drastically so. For context, it would have ranked 17th in distance of the 25 par 72s played last season.

Also, Nine Bridges has eight bridges, not nine. The ninth is a metaphorical bridge between the club and its members and guests, so there's that. Not sure it helps for lineup building though. Just digging for anything we can get here.

Unfortunately, there's just not much else to go on here. The greens are bentgrass. There are a good number of bunkers, and water looks to be in play on maybe five or six holes, primarily the 18th, an island green, which looks pretty gnarly. Also, elevation looks to be a significant factor, which you can examine for yourself. And the weather should be pretty mild (in the 50s or 60s most of the weekend).

Key Stats

The key stats for this course are going to be based on assumptions rather than prior correlations, so feel free to bump down the importance of key stats in your research this week.

When in doubt, just look to strokes gained: tee to green to help identify the best players in the field. That's where I'm starting this week, and I'll be weighting it heaviest of any other stat.

It is a par 72, of course, so par 5 scoring is on the list. The par 5s range between 550 and 600 yards, yet only the 12th seems to require more distance than accuracy.

And in the no-cut event with fewer than 80 players, we need to make sure that we can find par breakers to help elevate golfers' fantasy floors. With 72 chances for birdies or better and with some scorable par 5s, par breakers should make up the majority of our lineups.

Recent Form Studs

With no course form to examine, we'll at least break down some of the players with the best recent form in the field.

Paul Casey maintained strong form with a 7th-place finish last week, tacking that on to a 5th, 33rd, 4th, 5th, 13th, and 5th in the past 12 weeks.

Jason Day has had a month off but has reeled off six straight top 25s. Justin Thomas disappointed with just a 17th-place finish last week but has two wins and a 2nd in the past 12 weeks of his own.

After a win last week, Pat Perez has four straight top-16s. Patrick Reed hasn't played in a month but has finished 13th, 65th, 6th, 20th, 2nd, 36th, and 19th in the past 12 weeks.

Tony Finau has three straight top-seven finishes to his name, and Xander Schauffele posted a third-place result in last week's CIMB Classic after his win in the TOUR Championship.