Nothing dishes out an exercise for those watching where the action lands more than a new tournament on what amounts essentially as neutral turf. That’s the narrative at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES on South Korea’s Jeju Island. Keen-eyed gamers don’t care as much about the highly invested as much as those lurking in the shadows. Russell Henley (8.2 percent), Cameron Smith (6.5 percent) and Charl Schwartzel (3.2 percent) are under-owned in the season’s third event. Should any prevail, gamers on board will soar past those of us who aren’t. It’s basic logic to which a handful of notables are always qualified. Our own Experts champion from 2016-17, Sean Martin, used this contrarian method to his advantage throughout his dominating run. He didn’t apologize, hide or often deviate from it. I rode chalk for all but maybe two tournaments en route the title the previous season, so there are multiple paths to the same promised land, but timing is still everything. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO NOTE: Rob’s Rating refers to where our Fantasy Insider slotted a golfer in his Power Rankings (“PR”) and other preview material. Owned Rank Player Percentage Rob’s Rating 1st Tony Finau 55.3% PR1 2nd Jason Day 47.9% PR9 3rd Xander Schauffele 41.9% PR5 4th Paul Casey 40.2% PR3 5th Justin Thomas 35.9% PR2 6th Pat Perez 32.5% PR4 7th Keegan Bradley 30.8% PR10 8th Marc Leishman 28.0% PR8 9th Adam Scott 16.1% Draw 10th Ollie Schniederjans 15.5% Sleeper Golfers in the Power Rankings and outside the top 10 in most owned Power Ranking Player Owned Rank Percentage 6 Russell Henley 18th 8.2% 7 Rafa Cabrera Bello 13th 11.9% 11 Cameron Smith 26th 6.5% 12 Chez Reavie 17th 8.7% 13 Anirban Lahiri 25th 6.5% 14 Sung Kang 12th 14.7% 15 Kyle Stanley 32nd 4.4 % Wild Card Patrick Reed 11th 15.3% Other notables Owned Rank Player Percentage 14th Kevin Na 10.4% 15th Daniel Berger 10.2% 20th Sangmoon Bae 7.8% 21st Thomas Pieters 7.8% 39th Charl Schwartzel 3.2% PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO One of the popular theories to succeed in this format is to stick strictly with chalk throughout the season with the intent that you’re going to run into a windfall every now and then. Aiming at the center of the fairway may not be as fun as going for the green off the tee on a drivable par 4, but the emotion eventually subsides. What’s left is the residue of your decisions, sometimes in the form of chalk dust. Whether Xander Schauffele will sustain the kind of faith that slots him atop the 78-man field at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES is to be determined, but chalk can be manufactured at any time. What a rise it’s been for the youngster in just over one year with a PGA TOUR card. In my One & Done column on Wednesday, I lifted Paul Casey and Marc Leishman as smart alternatives to the premiums in play. Lo and behold, both rank ahead of Jason Day, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed and Adam Scott, the foursome who triggered the motivation to approach the inaugural event with an open mind. Owned Rank Player Percentage 1st Xander Schauffele 13.7% 2nd Tony Finau 13.5% 3rd Sung Kang 10.9% 4th Paul Casey 7.5% 5th Keegan Bradley 6.8% 6th Pat Perez 4.1% 7th Rafa Cabrera Bello 3.5% 8th Marc Leishman 3.1% 9th Cameron Smith 2.9% 10th Jason Day 2.3% Other notables Owned Rank Player Percentage 11th Justin Thomas 2.0% 15th Patrick Reed 1.4% 17th Gary Woodland 1.2% 19th Thomas Pieters 1.0% T22 Adam Scott 0.9%
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