Draws and Fades: Recap of new fantasy scoring at the Fortinet Championship
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Ah, the value of par. If you play PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, then you know all about that now. Last week’s Fortinet Championship launched you into the next era of our game that rewards it.
With pars rising from zero to one point each in the scoring system this season, overall scoring was promised to increase commensurately. And it did. It yielded two outcomes that were predictable, but now there are receipts to influence you moving forward.
First, cuts made has returned as a priority in roster construction. If, like me, you had only three cash at Silverado, then you swallowed a pair of zeroes on the weekend in one slot on your roster. In the old version, it was a hit that you could absorb every now and then, but not no more!
Conservatively, for every zero post-cut, you will forfeit 10-20 points per round before end-of-round bonuses are applied. Obviously, you can’t earn FedEx bonus points unless you have a Starter complete the final round, but since those bonus points remain the same as they were in 2021-22, the overall impact of them is reduced.
That’s the other reality of the scoring. While the value of FedEx bonus points fluctuates with the difficulty of a course and actual scoring at a tournament – fewer par breakers equates to lower fantasy scoring before bonuses are applied – the swing of that value isn’t as broad with pars yielding one point each.
As an example, let’s compare last year’s overall fantasy winner with this year’s.
For the 2021 Fortinet Championship when pars were worth zero points, the winning user totaled 315 points. Of them, 101 (or 32%) were FedEx bonus points.
Last week, Bostons paced all of us with 442 points. Of them, 97 (or 21.9%) were FedEx bonus points. Bostons’ R4 lineup consisted of Max Homa (Win; 50 points), Danny Willett (2nd; 30), Byeong Hun An (T4; 12) and Tom Hoge (T12; 5).
Note that Bostons totaled four fewer FedEx bonus points but still outscored the 2021 champ by 127. Ignoring all bonus points, that’s an increase of almost eight points per golfer per round. And Bostons did it on a harder Silverado. Last year’s field averaged 71.038 on the par 72; this year’s checked in at 71.518.
By comparison, I totaled 298 points last week. Of them, 59 were FedEx bonus points (thanks primarily to Homa), which is a cut of 19.8%. That’s just two clicks lower than the champ, but I was 144 points behind overall.
Concerning weekly contenders, and crudely estimating, FedEx bonus points will drop from about one-third to about one-fifth of overall totals. Given that Bostons prevailed with the winner, the runner-up and another top five, dare I say that we may have arrived at the harmony between gamers who care only about overall finish and those who love the sweat of following their charges among whom many won’t be contending often.
Fantasy league championships require contributions from all, including the fellas in the trenches. The elevation of the impact of cuts made replaces the all-in need for tournament contenders. Sure, it’d be awesome and fun to assemble a team as Bostons did at Silverado every week, but the reality is that a four-pack of T27s will be just as handy, and more so when your competition is hanging up zeroes.
RECAP – Fortinet Championship
POWER RANKINGS
Power Ranking Golfer Result
1 Max Homa Win
2 Maverick McNealy MC
3 Corey Conners MC
4 Sahith Theegala T6
5 Taylor Pendrith T67
6 Justin Suh MC
7 Kevin Streelman T59
8 Emiliano Grillo T25
9 Brandon Wu MC
10 Brendan Steele MC
11 Taylor Montgomery 3rd
12 Austin Eckroat T64
13 Nick Hardy T67
14 Michael Kim MC
15 Carl Yuan MC
Wild Card Hideki Matsuyama T25
SLEEPERS
Golfer (Bet, if applicable) Result
Will Gordon (+400 for a Top 20) T36
Mark Hubbard (+300 for a Top 20) T21
Zac Blair T12
Michael Gligic MC
Scott Harrington T43
GOLFBET
Bet: Justin Suh (Top 20) – +275
Result: MC
BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE PGA TOUR
September 20 … Chad Collins (44); Cody Gribble (32); Kyle Westmoreland (31)
September 21 … none
September 22 … none
September 23 … none
September 24 … none
September 25 … Adam Long (35)
September 26 … none