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***Complete DEAN & DELUCA Picks & Preview Coming Monday Afternoon***
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational
128 Players | Top 70 & Ties Make The Cut
Closing out the Texas swing, the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational, formerly The Crowne Plaza, suffers in quality with a schedule date opposite the EURO TOUR’s flagship tournament the BMW Championship. Fortunately, the field isn’t a complete wasteland like the 2016 event.
Seven of the Top 30 players in the world rankings will be in Dallas: Masters champ Sergio Garcia (6), defending champ Jordan Spieth (7), Jon Rahm (12), Paul Casey (14), Matt Kuchar (18), Phil Mickelson (21), and Siwoo Kim (29). Eleven of the Top 20 in the FedExCup standings are in the field too: Rahm, Pat Perez, Adam Hadwin, Spieth, Brian Harman, Sergio, Kevin Kisner, Billy Horschel, Wes Bryan, Marc Leishman, and MacKenzie Hughes.
Beyond that, we’ll get a splattering of TOUR regulars, former champs, and recent leaderboard trollers at Colonial: Brandt Snedeker, Charley Hoffman, Zach Johnson, Ryan Palmer, Webb Simpson, Kevin Tway, Sung Kang, Tony Finau, William McGirt, Emiliano Grillo, Kyle Stanley, Ryan Moore, Cam Smith, Bill Haas, Steve Stricker, and Graeme McDowell.
Of note for DraftKings players, there’s only 128 players in the field this week, meaning, a higher percentage of the field will make it through the cut line and
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational Key Stats
Strokes Gained: Approach
Par 4 Birdies or Better
Scrambling
Par 3 Efficiency 175-200 Yards
Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational Course Details
Colonial CC | Par 70 | 7,209 Yards
As is the case for most Par 70 layouts, making the easy birdies on the Par 5s is imperative to victory, if only because they’re so easy, a par essentially means you’ve made bogey. Par 4 scoring is THEE important factor. I guess Par 3 scoring is too but that’s far less predictable. Scanning the length of the Par 4s, seven of the 12 on the course measure between 400-450 yards. Normally, that’s counterbalanced with some more difficult, lengthier Par 4s, but that’s not the case at Colonial. There are only three longer than 450 yards, leaving cheap birdie making opportunities at No. 2 (389 yards) and No. 17 (387 yards), two of the easier holes on the course. The field can also vault up the leaderboard if they’re dominant on Par 3s from 190-200 yards. Three of the four Par 3s fall in that specific range.
Overall, any style can win at Colonial. Driving accuracy has been critical to success in the past, but the stat “Driving Accuracy” doesn’t really do this course justice. Since we’re dealing with a layout that will force the field to leave their drivers in the bag, even the least accurate players will see a boost in that stat this week. Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee is the stat I like better in its place. Some will overlook SG: Approach, but that’s foolish. Iron play has been the best predictor of success over the years, but it always seems to be trumped last minute by a hot putter or sensational scrambling game. That’s going to happen at almost any course, though. I’d prefer to target the stat that will give me the most players in contention, and hope to get lucky through volume. These are difficult greens to hit, so the less the field must scramble, the easier it will be.
However, there is a speed bump to watch out for: The “Horrible Horseshoe.” Holes 3-5 can cripple any player. NO ONE IS SAFE!!!!!!!!!!
Since 1983, the Horrible Horseshoe has played to a combined score-to-par total of over +6,600. In 2016, Hole No. 3 was the fourth most difficult on the course (+0.147), No. 4 was second (+0.157), and No. 5, as it historically is, was the toughest (+0.265). For some context: 106 bogeys, 13 double bogeys, and 3 “others” were made at No. 5 against 40 birdies last year. And, of 12,000+ rounds played at Colonial, there are only 21 players to have a career relative to par score under par on the Horrible Horseshoe.
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational Picks (Yahoo Game)
Note: Today’s a holiday for me, so I’m skimping on the picks section. Watch the show and you’ll get the full skinny.
A-List: Graeme McDowell & Marc Leishman
B-List: Paul Casey, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Kisner & William McGirt
C-List: Nick Taylor & Kyle Stanley
The Pat Mayo Hour covers the entire scope of the Fantasy sports landscape from Football to Reality TV, daily and yearly leagues and everything in between. You can watch the Pat Mayo Hour every weekday at noon, 3:00pm EST, 8:00pm EST and Midnight on the FNTSY Sports Network Television channel or on your Apple TV, Xbox, Roku or Amazon Fire Stick. If you have a Fantasy question, general inquiry or snarky comment, ship it to Mayo at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and the best will be addressed on the show.
