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 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
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Quicken Loans Recap:
Francesco Molinari – DK: $10600 FD: $10700
I Wrote up Molinari as an early favourite of mine. The thought persisted throughout the week as Molinari was a core play for me. Thanks for going low Francesco!
Joaquin Niemann – DK: $9000 FD: $10000
Niemann was written up because of the potential low ownership in GPP’s. As the week went on Niemann moved up in expected ownership a little bit but still came in under 8% in the big $5 on DK. Above $9000 Niemann finished fourth with 81.5 DK Points.
Byeong Hun An- DK: $8600 FD: $10800
I really liked An this week and thought he made for a great play allowing me to roster upper end salaries. An was a staple in both Cash and GPP’s rosters for me but came up a little short of what I had hoped with his T41 finish.
Gary Woodland – DK: $8100 FD: $10200
Woodland was one of the chalkiest plays of the week with one of the highest ownership percentages across multiple GPP’s. Because of the price, this was expected and I liked Woodland for cash games while avoiding Woodland in GPP’s.
Cash Game Team (2-1)
Despite rostering Molinari; Rory Sabbatini and Kieth Mitchell’s missed cuts caused my 4/6 line-up to narrowly miss the cash line.
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A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier
*From article last year*
The Greenbrier Classic sees the tour head to West Virginia for one of the most underwhelming fields of the year. No offence to Patrick Reed, but with no players inside of the top 20 of the world golf rankings the tournament lacks the star power to draw in significant attention. As a result of many top players skipping the week we see lots of players we are not used to/do not know as well. This is perfect from a DFS perspective as we can get a leg up on the field with DFS Army VIP tools like our Spreadsheet with tour adjusted stats so you know how the players you don’t recognize have done this year in relation to the field; or our Domination Station line-up optimizer where you can see how we project each and every player in the field to do for the week.
As far as the course goes, Old White TPC is a 7,287 yard par 70 that has seen a certain type of players perform well in the past. Old White TPC has played host to The Greenbrier Classic sense 2010, aside from flooding in 2016 which caused the cancellation of the event. Although the course is long for a par 70 and sees wider than average PGA fairways players don’t need to be bombers to perform here. Yes the extra yardage helps but finding areas of the fairway that provide the angle to attack the pin is crucial with lots of bunkers surrounding the greens this week.
Over the years we have seen ball strikers win here. Guys with great approach games have stood out for their ability to make up strokes through hitting greens and avoiding the trouble that surrounds tough pin placements.
As a result I will be heavily prioritizing Shots Gained: Approach and Greens in Regulation for the week. With a weaker field and many players we have seen little of this year I will be relying a lot on our VIP Spreadsheet with field adjusted stats that can show me exactly who has been gaining strokes within these categories for the year.
Interesting Plays
Tony Finau: DK: $11500 FD: $12000
Although Finau has been lights out as of late it is interesting to me to finally see him as the favourite to win the event and the highest salary on DraftKings. Like I said despite playing great golf lately Tony Finau has only won on tour once in 2016, in the Puerto Rico Open (the event features one of the worst fields we see on tour every season). Because of this it’s interesting to me to see Finau up so high despite him being the best golfer in the field. At Finau’s price he almost has to win to return value for you and give you a change at winning a GPP and we will have to see if the putter holds him back from getting that win once again.
Xander Schauffele DK: $10200 FD: $10200
An interesting narrative always follows around the defending the champion of any event. For Schauffele, his win last year came basically out of nowhere and vaulted him up the FedEx Cup leaderboard where he eventually became the champion. What was more interesting to me last season about Schauffele’s win was that he didn’t really check any of the boxes that we expected were necessary at this event. Nevertheless, Schauffele is returning as champion but has played a really weird stretch of golf lately. With more attractive names showing up above and below Schauffele I suspect lower ownership than what we are used to seeing out of defending champions.
Joaquin Niemann: DK: $9700 FD: $10400
After another solid performance last week I would expect Niemann to see a steep rise in ownership once again. Everyone was on the train going into the St. Jude Classic and people will want to be back on now that Niemann showed some solid form. I will discuss my strategy with Niemann in GPP’s later in the week.
Charles Howell: DK: $9300 FD: $11200
With last weeks weak field and Howell’s consistent play he became one of the highest owned players in GPP’s. I would suspect more of the same on DraftKings this week with a very reasonable salary for what’s almost becoming a guaranteed made cut with good upside of a top twenty finish.
Ted Potter: DK: $7600 FD: $8100
Potter is a name I am seeing thrown around early on in the week given his skill-set compared to the course and past course history between 2012-2014. Obviously Potter has figured something out at this event in the past with a win in 2012 and given the weak field we could see Potter become somewhat chalky (never thought I would say that). My personal decision for GPP’s will be dependent on where I expect ownership to be but I do expect myself to be overweight compared to the field on Potter. However, this could easily change and you should check back into SlackChat later in the week for an updated decision.
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