Man, it feels good to be back.  I have to start by thanking the whole Fantasy Alarm team starting with Steve for filling in for me over the last two weeks.  It started with a seven hour trip to the ER on the Tuesday before the Wells Fargo Championship and then ended with a family vacation to Jamaica.  I'm all tan and ready to bring you excellent daily fantasy golf advice for this upcoming week.  The timing of my return could not have worked out any better as we've got the second major of the PGA Tour season, the PGA Championship this week at one of the best courses in the country, Bethpage Black.

Bethpage Black has almost a mystic feel about it.  It all starts with the famous sign that greets the players near the first tee warning only "highly skilled" golfers should play the Black.  When the course was first built, it drew the biggest names in the game at the time like Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen and Byron Nelson.  Snead even famously called it "an unfair test" after beating Nelson in a 1940 exhibition.  The course is a par 70 (played as a par 71 when it hosted the Northern Trust twice) that stretches out 7,432 yards and makes its third appearance as the host of a major championship.  We saw Tiger Woods take the 2002 U.S. Open posting the only under-par score of the tournament.  A sidenote to that 2002 U.S. Open, Phil Mickelson finished second, three shots back of Woods and it is still the only time that those two finished in the top two spots on the leaderboard in a major.  Then, believe it or not, Lucas Glover captured the 2009 U.S. Open in rain-soaked conditions, Woods finished T6.  Since that event, we've seen it in the rotation of the Northern Trust in 2012 and 2016 and will play host to the 2024 Ryder Cup.  One other person to take note of this week is Sergio Garcia.  He is the only player in the field with three Top 10s at Bethpage with a 4th in 2002, 10th in 2009 and 3rd at the 2012 Northern Trust.

This 83-year-old course forces these golfers to play with a more balanced attack.  The course management (aka shorter hitters) players on Tour will have to muscle up to keep up with the bombers as they will have an advantage this weekend.   The bombers will also have to pick their spots as the fescue awaits those wayward drives.  The primary concern is the three-a-half inch framing the relatively narrow and at-times angled fairways.  Then we get to the poa annua greens which are varied in size and smaller than Tour average.  There are players who prefer and putt better on poa annua greens, the one that always comes to mind is Brandt Snedeker.  These players will have to go low to win, I fully expect the winner to be in the double digits under par.  Distance control, precision on approach and a taut short game are the keys to success on Bethpage.      

The three biggest storylines of the week will be Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and the weather.  Tiger will be playing his first competitive round of golf since he won his historic 15th major championship at the Masters about a month ago.  He is the odds on favorite at 9-to-1 coming into the tournament.  Brooks Koepka defends his PGA Championship title from last August at Bellerive, where he held off a late charge from Tiger to win his third major title in the last six that he had played.  If he were to go back-to-back at the PGA, it would be the first time since Tiger Woods did it back in 2006-07.  A sidenote, Jordan Spieth is also taking his third crack at winning the career grand slam this weekend but most don't believe he's got the game right now to make that a reality.  The last thing to discuss is the weather.  This is the first time the PGA Championship has been played in May and it happens to be in a northern city which automatically brings weather into play.  The latest weather report saying high 60s with rain in the forecast on Friday.  We will keep you updated as we get closer to Thursday.

Lets get into the players I'll be targeting this weekend at the PGA Championship ...

Stacks

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