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Taking their talents to the southeastern coast of England, there is a full field of 156 golfers ready for the challenge that Royal St. George's has to offer.
The Open Championship always offers a unique challenge because links golf is played so differently than the week-to-week grind out on TOUR.
Dealing with firm and fast conditions while also managing the elements that Mother Nature throws at you, this course demands creativity and course management.
To search for golfers that might enjoy that challenge we are going to look at a few different stats. First, we will find out who plays well on tough courses, and then we will look at golfers that outperform their baseline in windy conditions. I think the combination of these two should give us some names to ponder this week when building out our FanDuel rosters.
Tough Course Performance
Royal St. George's has hosted The Open 14 times and the two most recent winning scores were 275 (-5) and 283 (-1). Very tough!
What is causing the difficulty? Undulating fairways, tough bunkers, small targets on approach, and tough weather conditions.
Let's see who has gained the most strokes per round when the course has played +0.75 RTP or tougher, over the last two years:
Jon Rahm
Collin Morikawa
Scottie Scheffler
Paul Casey
Patrick Reed
Bryson DeChambeau
Xander Schauffele
Rory McIlroy
Louis Oosthuizen
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Tyrrell Hatton
Justin Thomas
Matthew Fitzpatrick
Brooks Koepka
Tony Finau
We can also look at a golfer's performance versus their baseline to see who over-performs most. Here is that list:
Francesco Molinari
Will Zalatoris
Mackenzie Hughes
John Catlin
Brendan Steele
Brendon Todd
Romain Langasque
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Lucas Herbert
Dean Burmester
Dylan Frittelli
Tony Finau
Adam Long
Byeong Hun An
Charley Hoffman
Overlap List: names that show up on both lists include Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Tony Finau.
Bezuidenhout has some of the top short-game skills in the world which allows him to contend on tougher courses without needing his best stuff off the tee or on approach.
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Windy Warriors
Dealing with the wind is almost always a factor when The Open rolls around. Or anytime the TOUR heads to a coastal course, in general.
This week looks to be no different with the early-week forecast calling for a steady 10 to 15 MPH all week with gusts around 25 MPH.
Here are the top performers per round, when playing in wind speeds over 14 MPH, over the last two years:
Jon Rahm
Tyrrell Hatton
Patrick Reed
Scottie Scheffler
Webb Simpson
Collin Morikawa
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Rory McIlroy
Harris English
Matthew Fitzpatrick
Xander Schauffele
Louis Oosthuizen
Daniel Berger
Patrick Cantlay
Will Zalatoris
We can also look at a golfer's performance versus their baseline to see who over-performs most. Here is that list:
Marc Leishman
John Catlin
Brandt Snedeker
Jimmy Walker
Scottie Scheffler
Matt Jones
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Byeong Hun An
Tyrrell Hatton
Patrick Reed
Troy Merritt
Harris English
Jorge Campillo
Will Zalatoris
Branden Grace
Overlap List: names that show up on both lists include Scottie Scheffler, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Reed, Harris English, and Will Zalatoris.
As you can see from the lists above, golfers that grew up or currently reside in Texas are pretty solid when it comes to dealing with windy conditions (Scheffler, Reed, Zalatoris).
FanDuel Focus
Christiaan Bezuidenhout ($8,900): He showed up on both overlap lists above. His game is not based on power so a second/third-shot course like Royal St. George's should suit him well. The South African arrives with 20 straight paydays worldwide. That includes a few warmup events in GB&I so he's acclimated to the time zone already. The best part is his price tag as he'll cost you just 14.8% of your total salary allowed on FanDuel.
Patrick Reed ($10,600): Most weeks I lean heavily on ball-striking stats like off-the-tee and approach. That shifts a little bit when heading to a links course like Royal St. George's that is going to yield incredibly low GIR rates. In my opinion that puts a slightly bigger emphasis on short-game skills and Reed certainly passes all the short-game checkboxes. He has finished T28 or better in four of his six starts at The Open and I'd expect that to be 5-of-7 after this week.
Good luck with your lineups this week and check back tomorrow for some more course-fit analysis.