Draftkings Value Plays by @Blatant_Chief
The Masters was a monumental moment for Hideki Matsuyama in breaking his major drought, and grabbing the green jacket for Japan heading into the Olympics this summer. Chief was on Justin Rose and Si Woo Kim last week, so let’s take a look at who could be a value this week on Draftkings for the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links...
$7,900-Si Woo Kim-there is a ton of value in the upper $7-8K range, with Old Man Kuch, Cousin Russ Henley, Bobby Mac, Chuck, THE BEZ, Kis, POULTA, Grace, Wallace, and Munoz all having merit to lurk on Sunday, but I will choose two others to back, starting with Joey Legs’ favorite, and one featured in last week’s blog, SWK. Si Woo is not only a Pete Dye specialist, but also is back to his proper form after a brief bumpy stretch earlier this Spring. The continuing tutelage of Claude Harmon has done SWK well. He could have even stolen the green jacket from his President’s Cup teammate Hideki if not for an epic Happy Gilmore-style destruction of his putter at Augusta. He actually finished that round mostly unscathed, and the tournament overall in 12th. Even with his so-so course history here, if he can keep it together between the ears, I’d be borderline shocked if he wasn’t peeking his head into T10 range come Sunday at Harbour Town.
$7,500-Chris Kirk-my second favorite in this range will be one of the Georgia (close enough) Bulldogs, Chris Kirk. A favorite of @romeothecaddy for years, we all know by now the battles Captain Kirky has experienced off the course, but it’s his story between the ropes that has been particularly intriguing to me. A board member of my “Bermuda Boys Club”, he should feel right at home at Harbour Town, with a few instances of contention of the years. Additionally, his form dating back to the Sony includes a 2nd, 16th twice, with an 8th, 48th, and 25th on the Florida swing, and finally a 6th at Valero coming in. This guy is ready for a breakthrough win very soon, potentially in 6 days from now.
$6,900-Matthew NeSmith-even the casual degenerate will likely have by now heard that this SC Gamecock standout proposed to his future wife Abigail on the 18th hole of Harbour Town (she said yes btw), underneath the watchful eye of the iconic lighthouse. Despite some normal early career struggles, this good ole Southern boy has become a ball-striking aficionado. With approach numbers at the beginning of the year that would have rivaled those of Hogan in the 1940s, he’s cooled down a bit of late. Yet, with a return to a place near and dear to his heart, I expect a resurgence back to prime lurk territory for Mr. NeSmith.
$6,700-Stewart Cink-the consummate professional and former Champion Golfer of the Year, with the head of Stewey from Family Guy, has had a mid-life renaissance. After winning The Safeway to start the wraparound season, he has poked his head (ok enough head puns, got it) into numerous other events over the last 6 months, especially those on coastal bermuda tracks. Most recently, he was 19th at the Honda (another windy bermuda locale), and most impressively a T-12 at Augusta yesterday. I expect Uncle Stewey to be lurking in T20 range yet again this week in Hilton HEAD (sorry, had to).
Sicko Special: $6,100-Chesson Hadley-regular listeners to the pod know how much agita I’ve gotten from Cousin Chesson (ok maybe he’s not in the Family Tree yet), but his recent numbers don’t lie. His improved ball striking is paying off dividends with a 13th at the correlated Corales coastal track, followed up by a respectable 23rd at the Valero Texas Open in a stronger than normal pre-Masters field. He seems super positive on the Twitterverse as well, so we can roll the dice on old Chesson once again this week. Let’s just hope he doesn’t blow away in the gale force winds...
*Follow @Blatant_Chief on Twitter for updates and more sleeper value plays throughout the week.