Friends in fore,
For the first time in Golf SZN's two-year history, Max Homa is our top pick.
After winning a few weeks back, Homa is continuing his journey from "goofy dude" to "goofy dude who is sometimes good" to "wait, is he elite?"
He's the round 1 leader, and if he wins, he'll almost have shaken the "goof first, golfer second" persona. Almost.
GENESIS INVITATIONAL PICKS
- YEYPO
- Big John
- Your group picks (get in a group with friends!)
Homa bagged 18% of our picks, and six golfers have at least an 8% pick share (Homa, JT, Hovland, Rahm, Morikawa, Xander).
But let's talk about the number you all came here for.
Did Tiger Woods (now ranked 1294th in the world) get picked in his first non-major appearance in years?
I'm kidding. That's not the question. This is Tiger f***ing Woods we're talking about.
The question is HOW MANY OF US POUNDED A BUD LIGHT LIME AND SMASHED "TIGER WOODS" ON THE YEYPO PICK SHEET?
Answer: 8 brave souls.
You had to scroll REAL deep down the page to get to Tiger. I know many of us did that. And eight of us decided to live a little.
Tiger birdied 16, 17, and 18 en route to a 2-under opening round. The guy can still play.
PICK STATS
YEYPO One And Done
- Homa is just 11th best player in the field by World Rank
- That fact, coupled with picks like Adam Scott (66 picks; 30th by field ranking) produced a 4.4/10 pick boldness score.
- Not bold. But also not straight chalk. I guess this is progress for us?
- Rory (#2 in the world) was just our 7th most picked golfer, and Scheff (#1) was 9th.
- Saving those big guns. (Or feeling Scheff won't go back to back.)
- Rahm (130 picks; 8%) is now our most picked golfer on the year, at 33% utilization.
- If you flip that around, 2/3rds of us still have Rahm in the tank.
- Full skin opportunities (1 pick): Aaron Rai, Alex Smalley, Beau Hossler, Brian Harman, Corey Conners, J.T. Poston, Kevin Kisner, Nick Hardy, Patrick Rodgers, Russell Henley, Sam Ryder, Seamus Power, Shane Lowry, Si Woo Kim.
- Half skin oppos (2 picks): Adam Hadwin, K.H. Lee.
- That's huge value on Hadwin, who was in the thick of it last week, and opened with a 4-under round.
- Power (28th in the world), Harman (25th), and Lowry (22nd) being full skin opportunities shows how strong the field is this week.
Big John Survivor
- We're down to 522 after just 4 weeks.
- Homa was also our top pick here, bagging 17% of picks.
- In terms of SZN utilization, Rahm is also on top (at an even higher 37.2%) with Homa right behind at 36.6%.
- Nobody picked Tiger.
- Commish gets it but C'MON PEOPLE LET'S LIVE A LITTLE.
- Shout-out to our lone picker on Wyndham Clark (#77 in the world).
- 148 of us (29% of those alive in Survivor) took the same golfer in both competitions. This is the exact same % as last week, and it seems we've hit an equilibrium number in this department.
- 106 of these 148 also took the same guy in both competitions last week. So it does appear this is an "every week" strategy for most of the people who go this route. (And it's worked for them so far!)
WEEKLY AWARDS
The 1-iron Moxie Award
Boldest pick. You can't win a SZN competition without a little Moxie!
@limetime (Tiger Woods, YEYPO): "Tiger's coming back. He may not be able to walk, but I don't care. GOAT FTW."
Commish says: If he can win a major with one leg (2008 U.S. Open), HOW MANY CAN HE WIN WITH ZERO?!
John Daly's Pants Award
Our best weekly comment (or three), because John Daly's pants always win
@RobbieRuss (Wyndham Clark, YEYPO): "Heading to Denver this weekend to go skiing. Haven't skied in something like 23 years but the wife (who "doesn't do sports") has been telling me for years that she's an excellent skier. Time for her to put her (my) money where her mouth is... personally I'm really in it for the Apre Ski hot tub/cocktails, & am just praying I make it to Monday without tearing my ACL and destroying my golf season. Fingers crossed, but all that aside I figure it's a perfect week to take a Coloradan to win this week. Turns out those are hard to come by & unfortunately neither Hale Irwin nor David Duval are in the field. That leaves me with Wyndham or Hubbard, maybe Laird but he's a CSU guy not a true Coloradan. So I'm going with Wyndham, and will now shift my focus to remembering that if I french fries when I'm supposed to pizza I'm going to have a bad time this weekend. See you later, Darsh"
Commish says: If it weren't for Tiger, this would be a Moxie winner. For many reasons. Your return to the slopes (Moxie), picking a golfer that only has 4 other picks this week (Moxie), and running the risk of your wife seeing this and deciding to completely pwn you on the slopes this week (Moxie?). Even if the wife "doesn't do sports", does she "do fun"? GET HER IN THE POOL!!!
"Bryson Approves This Pick" Award
Most convincing comment (There's logic, and then there's Bryson-level logic)
@mahatma19 (Seamus Power, Survivor): "I have a strong belief that you should never yell your own name out during sex...unless you have this dude's name...then it's fine! "
Commish says: I did not consider whether Bryson has ever yelled "DECHAMBEAU!" in such scenarios. I DID NOT. NOPE. DIDN'T DO IT.
Spieth's 89-degree Lob Wedge
The spiciest/wildest take (like Spieth's wild short game)
@Jeff_w (Viktor Hovland, YEYPO): "3.6 million dollars worth of Chipotle incoming"
Commish says: Jeff, we need more from you. Are you buying $3.6M in franchises? Are you eating $3.6M in burritos? Are you eating $1,000 in burritos and then spending the remaining $3.599M frontloading your future health insurance needs?!
MORE COMMENTS
@Awuwert (Viktor Hovland, YEYPO): "Back to back elevated events means back to back elevated picks. I’ve destroyed my strategy from the beginning of the year, and have set up deliveries of BLL’s every time my guy makes a cut. Here’s to an endless supply for the year!!"
Commish says: CAN YOU INTRO ME TO YOUR BLL DELIVERY GUY IS HIS NAME ALSO VIKTOR?
@Jevans4 (Viktor Hovland, Survivor): "Vik will do way better than Vic Fangio’s 2-week contract to help the Eagles “prep” for their Super Bowl loss."
Commish says: Do we think Viktor Hovland has ever played a game of football? No way, right?
@HaveYouCheckedYourButthole (Justin Thomas, YEYPO): "I've always believed in karma, and i think i've mentioned before that JT probably ranks 3rd on tour for punchable faces. So I was a little nervous taking him in the Daly last week, but he looked beyond my past transgressions and had me cruising to a comfy cover. So we're gonna ride that karma train! Lets do this little buddy!!"
Commish says: How are you gonna keep making this comment and not tell us who punchable faces 1 and 2 are?!
@Mr_Rodgers_Neighborhood (Aaron Rai, YEYPO): "Meh, he's got a nice smile. I'm getting creamed in this comp anyways, so might as well go with a flier"
Commish says: I think we need you and @HaveYouCheckedYourButthole to make your picks based on best smile and most punchable face each week, and then we can tabulate at the end of the year to see which strategy was better.
@Jevans4 (Max Homa, YEYPO): "Clearly the Happy Gilmore club toss got Homa amped up for this week. Easy dub."
Commish says: You know how the original XFL had the crazy scrum that replaced the opening coin toss? Shouldn't LIV require all golfers to Happy off the first tee? HEY SAUDI FAM YOU CAN PAY ME $100M TO BE THE LIV COMMISH.
@RotoJeff (Tom Kim, YEYPO): "Burned Morikawa last week, he'll probably win this week. Let's see if I can't jinx Tom Kim this week."
Commish says: Tom is not off to a hot start. Are you the jinx, Jeff? And if so, is this actually a massive opportunity? "Hey Rory, want me to pick Patrick Reed in YEYPO this week? $10K I'll do it." ... "Hey Patrick, Rory wants to pay me $10K to pick you. Want to pay me $100K to actually pick him instead?
@Henpen77 (Jon Rahm, YEYPO): "I’m the Jinx!"
Commish says:WHO IS THE JINX?!
@Eannarelli (Thomas Detry, YEYPO): "Skin me"
Commish says: Please have a friend film you walking into a bar yelling "SKIN ME, THOMAS DETRY!!!"
@iheartsloths (Adam Scott, YEYPO): "I really like Adam Scott the actor so I’m hopeful that the golfer bearing his moniker can similarly impress me."
Commish says: DO SLOTHS LOVE THE SHOW "SEVERANCE" TOO?
@MONSTERXXX (Jason Day, YEYPO): "This is Day i was looking for WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH !!!"
Commish says: MONSTER I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU IS THE DAY BEFORE THURSDAY WOOOOOOOOOHNSDAY?
Yours in metal stick swinging,
The Commish