We’re at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California for the final event of the annual west coast swing. Riviera is a 7,279 yard par 71 which is pretty long for a par 71. We’re finally done with silly multi-course events and return to the standard single course top 70 and ties cut setup. You can look at a very detailed hole-by-hole course tour here. It’s a pretty well-rounded course and while Driving Distance helps, shorter accurate players have had success too. The greens are fairly small and protected by greenside bunkers so players good at Greens in Regulation and Sand Save % should fare well here. 3 out of 4 par 3s fall in the range of 150-175 yards so approach stats from that range may also be worth a look.

This week’s field is loaded at the top with quality plays followed by a quick dropoff in salary and a ton of players in the 7500-6500 range. With so many top plays I don’t expect any one stud to be highly owned for a change, so I think a solid gpp strategy will be to pick a few core studs and commit to fading a few of the top plays and hoping for the best. There aren’t too many values in the super scrub range, but just enough in the low 7k high 6k range to be able to fit 3 decent studs. This week you only need to pick 5 guys instead of the usual 6 because we have ourselves a seriously underpriced course horse and I’ve dedicated an entire section to him:

K.J. Choi $7,100

There are very few times when I’d be okay with rostering a player 100% but K.J. has a long, storied course history here. In 15 straight years of playing at Riviera he’s made 15 cuts and hasn’t finished any worse than T33 in 10 YEARS. Him missing the cut last week will be a blessing for us this week as far as ownership goes. Before last week he had a T17 at Phoenix and a T2 at Torrey Pines so he’s not rusty by any means. Lock him into your cash lineups and a huge portion of your gpps for a very cheap top 30 lock.

High End Plays

Jordan Spieth / Rory McIlroy $13,200

Rory is back from Europe and joins Spieth in the “hella expensive” range. Their elite skills go without saying but they both cost a pretty penny. Rory has never played here before while Spieth has a T4 and T12 in his 2 professional starts. (He missed the cut as an amateur) At their prices they’d need about a top 3 finish to return value so I recommend fading them for the plethora of great plays below them.

Dustin Johnson $11,300

DJ has quite the up and down course history here with 4 top 5s and 2 missed cuts in the last 6 years. As always he makes the case for a solid gpp play but you could probably be safer in cash. It may be best to either load up on him or get ballsy and fade him for the other guys in this range.

Hideki Matsuyama $11,100

Fresh off the win at Waste Management, Matsuyama gets a chance at another course he’s played very well at in his young professional career. He has the well-rounded game we’re looking for, but carries a hefty price tag now, exceeding the pedigree names of Rose, Walker, and Watson.

Jimmy Walker $10,600

This is the final week we can roster Walker with utmost confidence. He’s made every cut here in the past decade and has been posting consistent high finishes so he makes the case for a solid core play yet again.

Bubba Watson $10,400

The 2014 Northern Trust champion has a course history very similar to DJ. In his 8 tournaments he has 5 top 15 finishes along with 2 missed cuts and a withdraw. The course fits his style of play because it’s friendly to his lefty draw. The strategy with him is the same as DJ, play him in gpp and either make him a core play or fade him entirely. I’m leaning towards using him a lot.

Sergio Garcia $10,100

Sergio is back and this is a tournament he loves. All top 15 finishes in his recent performances including T4 last year. He’s excellent at ball striking and hitting greens, so he should be a safe play in cash games.

J.B. Holmes $9,800

I don’t think anyone is hotter than J.B. right now with a T11 and 2 T6s over the last 3 weeks. He’s played very well here with 7/8 cuts made and 4 top 10s since 2008 and I expect him to be a popular play in gpp. His distance is on par with Bubba and DJ right now, so he’s basically the same play at a discount.

Charl Schwartzel $9,600

I know I’m listing everyone here but all of these top plays are legitimately great and it would be foolish not to talk about them. This is Schwartzel’s first PGA start of the year but he’s been tearing it up overseas lately. The former Masters winner has excellent course history here with 2 top 5s in 3 starts and no missed cuts.

Bill Haas $9,200

The 2012 winner has been playing excellently with 3 top 10s in his last 4 starts and always played well at Riviera until his missed cut last year. His MC was absolutely legitimate though, given his child was due and he clearly had more important things on his mind. He’s excellent at sand play and hitting greens so have a few shares of him for sure.

Paul Casey $8,900

He lost in a playoff along with Bubba last year and in 3 tries here he’s never finished worse than T22. He ranks 6th this year in GIR along with 5th in 2015 and that’s exactly what we’re looking for here. I love him in cash.

Mid Range Plays

Harris English $8,100

People will probably flock to Na at $8,000 with the price cut but his course history here is pretty bad so I like English as a pivot play. He’s got a nose for making cuts and he’s never missed one here. His game is pretty well-rounded and his odds are pretty nice relative to his price. He’s not a sexy name so his ownership should be pretty mild.

Fredrik Jacobson $7,900

He legitimized his T4 at Torrey Pines with another T4 last week at Pebble Beach. Throw in a T3 here in 2013 and you’ve got yourself a nice gpp play.

Keegan Bradley $7,800

Bradley is back past the $7,000 mark but is still underpriced for his skill level. He’s posted 4 top 20s in the last 4 years and seemed to have shaken his cold streak with a good showing at Waste Management.

Matt Jones $7,700

Jones helped me a lot last week with a T11 and yet another cut made. He’s never missed a cut here before either and his high birdie % should help him net a lot of fantasy points.

Charles Howell III $7,600 (fade)

The public is going to look at his game log, see all those top 25 finishes in a row, hear he won here in 2007, look at his price and roster him all over the place. Hopefully they overlook the fact that after the odd win 9 years ago he’s done horribly. Here are his last 8 finishes at Riviera: T61, MC, MC, MC, T66, MC, T59, T55. This is a prime opportunity to fade him completely and possibly gain a huge edge on the field, as I expect him to easily surpass 20% owned, maybe even more in cash games.

James Hahn $7,300

The defending champion has been playing much better this season than last, despite missing his first cut in the season last week. He’s never missed a cut here in 3 tries so at his price he makes for a very strong play.

Patrick Rodgers $7,300

The young bomber has made 6/7 cuts on the year with 5 top 20 finishes and currently ranks 9th on tour in GIR. I expect his first shot at Riviera to be a very good one.

Will Wilcox $7,300

Speaking of good GIR players, Willy Wil finished the 2015 season ranked 4th. That’s a better mark than the likes of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Justin Rose, etc. so the guy can legitimately pin seek. He also seems to be back in form after a rough start and his price isn’t back to where it was when he was missing cuts.

Si Woo Kim $7,100

Just keeps making cuts and is still cheap.

Cameron Tringale $7,000

I really like Tringale for cash games. He doesn’t bogey a lot and he’s a perfect 5/5 with 4 top 25 finishes here. Sure he’s missed his last 2 cuts, but those were on courses he’s never played well on in the past and he’s a player who tends to stay consistent with course history.

Value Plays

Charley Hoffman $6,900

Hoffman’s vegas odds in comparison to salary stick out like a sore thumb. Seems like there’s always one of these guys every week. He’s a high birdie % player and he’s made 6/8 cuts here so he makes for a great cheap play if you want to load up on the top end.

Adam Hadwin $6,900

The Canadian made his 4th straight cut at Phoenix with a T17- his 2nd top 20 of the year. Last year in his first attempt here he placed T22 so he makes for a good punt.

Vaughn Taylor $6,800

Last week marked Taylor’s first PGA Tour win in over 10 years. No he’s not going to win again but he also came T22 here last year and if you look back to last season he ended the year with a nice streak of 10 straight cuts made. Another key note- he currently ranks 2nd on tour in the key range of 150-175 yards behind only Rory himself.

Hiroshi Iwata $6,800

Iwata followed up his T18 at Farmers with a T4 last week at Pebble Beach. He’s ranked 7th on tour in sand save % which is going to be key here.

Seung-Yul Noh $6,700

T22 and T16 in 2 tries here. Worth a shot.

Daniel Summerhays $6,500

Summerhays sees a ridiculous price drop after his first missed cut on the year. He’s still 7/8 in cuts made on the year so this price is insane for a player of his caliber. He’s posted 2 top 30 finishes here in the last 2 years so it’s not like he has terrible course history or anything. He’s probably the steal of the week besides Choi.

CHEAT SHEET – FOR DFS ARMY VIP MEMBERS

You can access the weekly cheat sheet with complete course history, odds, and recent form for each player by visiting our Slack channel on the channel #only-taco-posts-here where I keep it pinned at. You can also hit me up on the #pga-talk channel to ask me any questions you may have for the week. Good luck out there this week.