Every week of the year the PGA Tour plays on a new course. There are some examples in other DFS Sports of environments impacting performance, such as Coors Field in Baseball; Golf, however, offers an entirely unique environment each and every week. This article will break down the week’s PGA course and attempt to find what skill sets are needed for success. This article will then combine the course breakdown with the DFS Army Domination Station & VIP Research Station and give a few players to target in both Cash Game and GPP formats. For more updates throughout the week follow me on twitter @_bschnarr
Before I begin congratulations to our latest $100,000 DFS Army winner, enjoy the payday!
Waste Management Phoenix Open Recap
Jordan Speith – GPP – Missed Cut
Surprisingly the top end of golfers let down a lot of players this week with none of the top five salaries finishing inside of the top 10. Spieth missed the cut making any GPP line-up utilizing him done on Friday. Despite great recent form and course history, Spieth was unable to make the cut – that’s DFS Gold for you!
Webb Simpson – GPP – Missed Cut
Another player in more core who let me down this weekend was Webb Simpson. Webb also came in with solid recent form to go with excellent course history but just could not out it together this weekend.
Matt Kuchar – Cash – T5
Although my GPP plays did not work out my cash game plays saved me. Kuchar is one of the most reliable players on tour and he did not disappoint this week. Kuchar was able to finish in the top five and help any team with his affordable salary.
Brendan Steele – Cash – T3
Brendan Steele also performed excellently and was in contention until the end when a three-putt sunk his chances. Steele is another player who was underpriced and if you took advantage chances are you had a good chance at cashing this week.
Weeks like this for anyone playing DFS show us how important bankroll management is and how our concept of laddering can help when your GPP line-ups don’t cash. Luckily we have both a bankroll management podcast and a whole bunch of content around the idea of laddering your lineup. There’s also help available 24/7 in our SlackChat from over 20 coaches available to help with tweaking these concepts depending on the sport.
DFS Army Pricing – Use code PGA for 10% off membership!
DFS Snake Draft and Dream Team notes can be found in Slack Chat here*
Pebble Beach Preview
The Pebble Beach Pro-Am is one of golf’s most popular non-major events each year. Taking place in Pebble Beach California, the event is played on three separate courses with the final cut-taking place after three days instead of two. The cut consists of any player who finishes tied for 60th or better after three days – instead of the usual tied for 70th or better. These little changes do alter strategy for both cash games and GPP’s slightly, in our SlackChat I’ll be going over how these changes affect roster construction.
Pebble Beach – Par 72 – 6,816 yards
The most known of the three courses, Pebble Beach hosts two of the four rounds on the week with everyone finishing up competition at Pebble on Sunday. The course is very short by PGA standards and players should not have too much difficulty with the course being set up for the pro-am. The course itself requires a strong approach game as greens are very small. As a result, I will be looking at Shots Gained: Approach as my most important stat for the week.
Spyglass Hill – Par 72 – 6,953 yards
Over the past few years, Spyglass Hill has played the toughest of the three courses. The course features tree-lined fairways so it is important to not be too far off the fairway – but with wider fairways, I wouldn’t think too much about it and still favour driving distance over accuracy for all three courses
Monterey Peninsula – Par 71 – 6,816
This par 71 still features four par 5’s and had 25 total eagles in the round last year. Monterey Peninsula has played as the easiest of the three courses over past seasons.
Ultimately, all three courses see a lot of par fours between 400-450 yards. Finding players who have shown an ability to play proficiently on these holes through our PGA Research Station will be a priority of mine this week. Also, recent top-end finishers have been exceeding at greens in regulation % – with small greens getting on and giving yourself a chance at birdie has been a big correlation of success.
DFS Army Pricing – Use code PGA for 10% off membership!
Picks
Top end – check back to SlackChat
With DJ, Rahm, McIlroy, Day and Spieth all being over $10000 on DraftKings and over $12000 on FanDuel there are some hard decisions to be made at the top of the board. I’m leaning a specific way as of right now towards my favourite but there is solid reasoning behind going with any of the five. Later in the week, I will update SlackChat with how my ownership will end up in GPP’s.
Paul Casey – GPP – DK:$9400 FD: $11600
Definitely check back into our SlackChat as this thought could change but I think looking at pricing Paul Casey could come in very under-owned and give you a top-end talent playing well with low ownership. Casey’s price makes him tough to roster if going for any of the top end guys and I think it is much easier when constructing rosters to spend less on Cantlay, Kucher or Perez. Casey is still playing good golf as he showed with his T9 finish a few weeks ago at Abu Dhabi and although he has no course history he has shown over the years his ability to adapt to new courses. Casey also has an incredible streak of 24 made cuts making him safe despite the lack of course history.
Patrick Reed – DraftKings Value – DK: $7900 FD: $10700
Whatever was wrong with Reed’s game a few weeks ago seems to be a thing of the past with back-to-back finishes inside of the top 25. Despite the 10th best outright odds to win the event, Reed is priced as the 20th highest salary on DraftKings. Reed has also played this event the past five seasons and never finished outside of the top 30. Currently, Reed is looking like a cash game lock and a solid core player in my GPP grouping.
Kevin Streelman – FanDuel Value – DK: $7300 FD: $8700
Streelman has been solid lately relying on gaining strokes off of the tee and approaching the green. Although he has been losing strokes putting that can easily turn around week to week and I like the way he has been playing recently. With seven straight made cuts and two straight top 20’s at Pebble Beach, I think Streelman is a solid option given his price.
As always, this article is published as a first look, things change leading up to lock and SlackChat should be checked as thoughts are changed when new information arises.
Other DFS Army PGA Golf Tools and Articles
DFS Army VIP Members also have access to our PGA Cheatsheet!
DFS Army VIP Members also have access to our DFS Army Domination Station Lineup Optimizer!
DFS Army VIP Members also have access to our Euro Tour Cheatsheet!
Be sure to sign up to our DFS Army VIP Membership in order to utilize our custom Domination Station projections, PGA spreadsheets and access to chat with Taco, myself and many other proven winners. Use Coupon Code “PGA” to receive 10% all of this PGA content as well as content for MLB, NBA, NFL and every other DFS sport your heart desires.