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 on DraftKings and FanDuel in both Cash Game and GPP formats. For more updates throughout the week follow me on twitter @_bschnarr
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DFS Snake Draft and Dream Team notes can be found in Slack Chat here*
Valero Texas Open Recap
With no DraftKings or FanDuel event for the Zurich Classic this recap will be for the Valero Texas Open
Charley Hoffman – Top End – T64
Hoffman combined solid recent form with ridiculous course history. Outside of one T40 finish, Hoffman had never placed outside of the top 13 at this event until this week. For the price the finish was certainly not ideal.
Luke Lust – All Formats – Missed Cut
List came in extremely hot and was one of the highest owned players for the week. With eight straight cuts there was good reason to play List even with his recent price increase. Those that faded List were rewarded as he missed the cut for the week.
J.B Holmes – Cash Games – MC
This pick was geared towards DraftKings as I felt that given the price J.B was simply too cheap despite a lack of recent success. Like the rest of my early picks, J.B disappointed.
Zach Johnson – Cash Games – 5th
At least one of my picks showed up for the week! The 54 hole leader was looking great heading into Sunday but was unable to go low and fell back into 5th place. Given his price, ZJ was a great play and exceeded value.
The Wells Fargo Championship
Before we begin it is important to note the 2017 results should be disregarded as the event was played at an entirely different course. Instead of playing at Quail Hollow the event was held at Eagle Point Golf Course. Despite this, Quail Hollow still hosted an event for the year as the course played host to the PGA Championship. The course has also changed slightly sense 2016 with the first and 11th holes being lengthened and two holes being removed and replaced entirely. Overall, when looking at course history this week it will be important to remember these changes.
Quail Hollow is a lengthy 7,554 yard par 71 that rewards players with distance off of the tee. Relatively speaking, the fairways are rather wide open as well as wider than tour average so players who can get the extra distance off of the tee will have a big advantage. Quail Hollow’s distance comes from the long par fours which is even more reason for driving distance to be important for the week. Distance off of the tee can also result in eagle opportunities on the three par fives that all measure less than 600 yards.
I will also be looking at our DFS Research Station to look at efficiency stats on longer par fours. With four longer par fives (450-500 yards) players these holes will be crucial to the overall success of a player for the week so I will be adding this statistic to my key stats for the week.
Key Stats
-Shots Gained: Approach
-Driving Distance
-Par 4 efficiency
-Birdie or Better %
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Picks
Rory McIlroy – Top End – DK: $11800 FD: $12300
With the highest price on DraftKings and second highest price on FanDuel it’s a lot more expensive to roster McIlroy than in his last appearance at The Masters. However, the price increase is justified with a win at The Arnold Palmer Invitational and a 5th place finish at The Masters. As far as course history goes it’s harder to find much better than McIlroy at Quail Hollow who has no finish outside of T22 in the last six years at this course.
Brooks Koepka – GPP/Fade – DK: $8600 FD: $10700
In his return to action we see Koepka still priced reasonably high. With the amount of time I have no concern that Koepka has fully recovered. However, there has to be worry about how well he will perform and how ready he is to compete at this level again. With uncertainty Koepka is an obvious fade in cash game but makes an interesting potential play for those entering multiple line-ups. My final decision will be dependent on news coming out throughout the week about how he feels and what his expected ownership will be.
Adam Hadwin – DK: $7400 FD: $10400
My fellow Canadian might not have the ideal length we want at this event but it is extremely hard to ignore him in cash (on DraftKings) given his price. Not enough can be said about his recent success as Hadwin has looked absolutely dialled in this season. However, Hadwin has also missed all three cuts at this course making him an interesting for the week. Will he be chalk or will players go to other options at the same price point?
Xander Schauffele – Check SlackChat – DK: $7400 FD: $9400
At this price point, it’s hard to ignore Xander at this event. Because of the course length we should see Xander being touted across the industry which will likely lead to high ownership. My play on Xander will be dependent on how high we see ownership going and what our own ownership projections are displaying.
Luke List – GPP – DK: $7400 FD: $9700
After a missed cut and an appearance in a much better field a price decrease should be expected. However, $7400 on DraftKings is simply far to low for what we have seen out of List this season.
*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 and my final thoughts on the slate are released.*
Other DFS Army PGA Golf Tools and Articles
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