It's a quirky week with the two-man event in New Orleans
which coincidentally is where I will be this weekend. I will not, however, see
a single shot. Instead I'll be checking-out bands like Zigaboo Modeliste and
the Funk Revue along with some guy named Chris Stapleton as part of my
inaugural Jazz Fest experience. I'm really looking forward to bumping into
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele grooving-out to Fi Yi Yi & The
Mandingo Warriors.
There will be no Historical Performance Chart this week
because: (a) The field has been decimated by LIV defectors, and (b) I was too
lazy to put it together. So we're going to do the memorial tribute here . . .
and it's a big one for me.
Back in the late 60's, guitarist Forrest Richard
"Dickey" Betts (1943 - 2024) collaborated with a guy named Duane
Allman who had a brother named Greg and they formed a band. Duane died in 1971
but the band played on and Dickey wrote a few songs for them called Jessica, Ramblin'
Man and Blue Sky. The latter being Dickey's vocal debut with the band
as it was dedicated to his girlfriend Sandy "Bluesky" Wabegijig,
a fact I learned five minutes ago.
At some point in the early 2000's, my two college roommates
were living in Manhattan and invited me to come-up to see Dickey Betts and
Great Southern at the B.B. King Blues Club in Times Square. They were
playing two shows that night and someone in our party (not me) had the
foresight to buy tickets to both of them. The same guy then had the additional
wherewithal to grease the doorman who gave us the front row table for the
second show.
So for two and a half hours I got to watch and listen to the
guy who wrote some of my favorite songs of all-time perform them while standing
right in front of me. The whole show was spellbinding but the song that still
to this day stands-out for me was Back Where it all Begins. Basically,
from where I was sitting, it looked exactly like this.
I've always been a drummer guy and find myself mesmerized at
concerts for entire songs by their skills. Dickie's band had two drummers so I
was doubly mesmerized that night with my attention bouncing back and forth
between them. As they closed-out the second show, with the whole room in a
state of euphoria, Frankie Lombardi stood-up from behind his set and flipped
one of his sticks into the crowd. And, as Neil Peart as my witness, I snatched
the fucking thing right out of the air. Everyone just kind of stared for a
second like "what the fuck just happened" before erupting again. Top
ten memorable moment of my life . . . if not top five.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Apparently I'm not as close as I'd hoped to hearing my southern friends saying "yo I'd rather push a Tesla than drive a Rivian."
GOLF ANALYSIS
Speaking of Cantlay, if you inexplicably had faith and hung-in with the FGR during the recent dry spell, then you have been handsomely rewarded with nearly $5M in earnings over the past two weeks. Sure the rest of the gambling advice has been dreck but, as we like to say around these parts, "if you don't like it, go join Elkridge."
The safest bet this week is obviously one of the aforementioned favorites who won here in 2022 and backed it up with a T4 last year. However, almost just as safe and with far better odds are the teams of Moore/NeSmith and Horschel/Whoever. The first pair has finished T4 each of the last two years and it doesn't seem to matter who Horschel plays with as he's gone 1st, T13, T4, 2nd, T11 over the past five years with Scott Piercy and Sam Burns. (Though this Tyson Alexander character might be a bit of a stretch).
For a deep sleeper, take a look at the Coody brothers who have been spotty in the early stages of their careers but they did finish T6 and T13 in Puntacana last week. And don't underestimate both the power of two brothers playing together and how annoying two brothers playing together can be to their opponents. Trust me. I've been there.
One and Done Pick: Matthew NeSmith
|
By picking NeSmith, we also get to feature this absolute fucking specimen. |
Other Guy I'd Pick: Adam Hadwin
Sleeper Pick: Mark Hubbard
DraftKings Top Ten Values
Patrick
Cantlay
|
$11,200
|
Sahith
Theegala
|
$10,300
|
Nick
Taylor
|
$9,200
|
Billy
Horschel
|
$8,900
|
Andrew
Novak
|
$8,100
|
Matthew
NeSmith
|
$7,700
|
Nick
Hardy
|
$7,500
|
Matti
Schmid
|
$7,200
|
Mark
Hubbard
|
$7,000
|
Parker
Coody
|
$6,600
|
Email the Fantasy Golf Report here.