Deutsche Bank Championship – Fantasy Golf Preview
Published: Last updated:
Here’s a quick history lesson for you: Labor Day is a public holiday in America, celebrated on the first Monday in September. It honours the American labour (with a ‘u’) movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity and wellbeing of their country.
It is also the reason that this week’s PGA Tour event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, is the only PGA Tour event that runs from Friday to Monday, instead of the usual Thursday to Sunday.
Man of the moment Jason Day is looking for a third consecutive win that would edge him ahead of Jordan Spieth on wins for the year (they’re currently tied on four each).
22-year-old Spieth clearly didn’t enjoy being world number one very much, missing the cut at The Barclays to let Rory McIlroy regain the crown, despite the Northern Irishman not even entering the event. And they say the world rankings don’t make sense…
This will be the first event since the PGA Championship to see the new big three of Spieth, Day and McIlroy go head-to-head, and with a TPC Boston course that usually proves one of the easiest on the circuit, get ready for some red number fireworks.
Here’s our team for the week:
Jason Day, £4.5m
We took a gamble and left him out last week, thinking he might have a Major hangover, and it failed to pay off in a BIIIIG way. He’s won three of his last four events and finished in the top 10 here three times. He’s also the best player on Tour at the moment, which is reason enough to let him lead your team.
Jordan Spieth, £3.5m
Even the best are allowed a bad week, and we’re expecting Spieth to bounce back from last week’s missed cut in style. He shot a final-round 62 here two years ago on his way to a T4 debut at the event.
Tony Finau, £1m
He’s made 12 cuts in his last 13 events, and only gone on to finish outside the top 25 once. His power (he’s ranked 8th in driving distance) should help him make easy work of the two short par 4s and he’s been scoring well on par 5s and long par 4s, which typically proves key to success at TPC Boston.
Jason Bohn, £0.9m
Four top 15s in his last five starts, including a T9 at The Barclays last week. He can’t compete with Finau’s power off the tee, but makes up for it with laser-guided approaches, (he’s second on proximity to the hole). He’s finished in the top 15 in his last four non-Majors. He’s made the cut in all five visits here, including a runner-up spot in 2005.
Robert Streb, £1.2m
After opening near the lead last week, Streb had a poor weekend and stumbled to a T39 finish. That followed an impressive top 10 finish at the PGA Championship, one of nine top 10s this year. He’s made the cut in 22 of 27 events and was on a run of five Top 20s before last week’s slip. He ranked fifth in birdies or better here last year and we’re backing him to rack up plenty more this week.
Rickie Fowler, £3.5m
Fowler has been up and down like the lift in a busy hotel lately, with five top 10s in his last 12 starts, including two wins, but also four missed cuts during that period. He was in contention here last year before fading to a T23 finish. Take a gamble and hope this is one of his good weeks…
