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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The Bridgestone Invitational Preview
Dustin Johnson – T3
DJ finished tied for third and with the third most fantasy points on the week. Although DJ did not look the greatest on Thursday & Friday he lit up the tournament on the weekend by going on an absolute tear. As mentioned in SlackChat, I wanted to match the field/potentially be slightly over by pivoting off of Tiger amongst top end salaries. The play worked as DJ was the top option above 10k for the week.
Tiger Woods – T31
I wrote up Tiger as an extremely interesting player on the week. Because of course history/recent performance Tiger was sure to be very highly owned in lower buy-in GPP’s. I decided to pivot off of Tiger and attempt to match the field/be slightly higher on all players above 10k and extremely overweight on Fowler. Amongst the salaries above 10k Tiger finished 4th out of 5 in performance and the fade worked out.
Justin Thomas – Win
As mentioned in my write-up I loved JT as a play in GPP’s and luckily for me he found his way into my cash game format (I wrote up in detail for SlackChat members the importance of value and birdie makers in no cut events). JT was an obvious play, as the salary simply did not match. I felt that even in this loaded field JT would be one of the highest owned players on the week and I wanted to match the field or be slightly overweight. I ended with 30% JT which gave many line-ups shots at the big payday. Unfortunately for me I also loved Alex Noren on the week and saw myself pivot off of JT in many lineups for the lower owned Swede.
$8000-$7800 On DraftKings (Tony Finau, Xander Schaufelle, Marc Leishman, Bryson Dechambeau)
I thought this range was really interesting because I saw ownership going to Tony and Xander and away from Leishman and Dechambeau well thinking that all four players made great plays for the week. I advised on SlackChat that all four were viable but understand your roster construction and pivot accordingly. Was Tony your favourite guy? Great, play him but make sure you don’t have other chalky players or are keeping a few hundred on the table to make your line-up unique, otherwise pivot to Leishman.
The PGA Championship Preview
The final major of the year will be played in St. Louis Missouri at the Bellerive Country Club. The par 70, 7600 yard course has not hosted a PGA Tour event since 2008 when Camilo Villegas won the BMW Championship here at Bellerive.
As far as the course goes, @dfsupnorth has written a spectacular hole by hole preview the can be found here
I had no previous knowledge of this course and the hole by hole breakdown allows you to fully understand what skill will be needed for success this here.
If the preview isn’t enough for you we will also have feet on the ground, as DFS Army contributor @choppodong will be there during practice rounds sharing thoughts directly with members in our SlackChat.
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Interesting Plays
Dustin Johnson – DK: $11400 FD: $12600
Once again we see DJ at the top option going into a major. After a surprising missed cut at The Open Championship, DJ rebounded with a win at the Canadian Open and a T3 finish at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. The T3 is equally impressive considering DJ really didn’t perform on Thursday & Friday and outplayed the entire field on the weekend to vault up the leaderboard. Personally, my decision on DJ will depend exactly on where we think ownership will be going. I will definitely be checking out @dfsupnorth’s Chalk Donkey writeup and sharing thoughts in SlackChat to see how he sees things playing out.
Jordan Spieth – DK: $10700 FD: $11500
I think we can all agree this hasn’t been a great year for Jordan Spieth. After many were already anointing him the next great one over the past three seasons Spieth has failed to come up with a victory during the 2018 season. Outside of the U.S. Open this year we have come to expect Spieth to be right in the thick of things for any major despite performance coming in. I like the idea of rostering Spieth at an affordable $10700 at a Major where I see him under owned as players pivot to DJ, Rory, Fowler or Tiger. I will definitely be talking about Spieth later in the week.
Brooks Koepka – Justin Rose – Jason Day (Underpriced Studs)
Well you can probably still add JT to this list coming in with a win and being defending champion, these three all see themselves as the underpriced studs on DraftKings. All three I feel have prices that do not match their odds to win the event and as such should see high ownership for the week. Rose makes more sense after a WD after week but if he is healthy than all three should see serious ownership for the week (especially Day). I like all three for different reasons and I also REALLY like other players as lower owned pivots.
Tony Finau – DK: $8100 FD: $10600
I think Tony has become my new golfer that I automatically see his price and mark him down as a guy to write-up. Finau continues to come close to his win but just has not been able to put together the 72 holes necessary for the win. Finau has made the cut in his last 5 events and has come T21 or better in four of these five making him a very consistent cash game play. As of right now I will definitely has Finau in both cash and GPP’s.
Paul Casey – DK: $8000 FD: $10900
Casey is an early lock for the highest owned player in both GPP’s and Cashgames on DraftKings. Casey has been extremely consistent dating back to last year as he has only missed 2 cuts since the beginning of the 2017 season.
Keegan Bradley – DK: $7500 FD: $9200
Keegan has traditionally played well at past PGA Championships and looked real good at his last appearance with a T4 at the Canadian Open. Bradley has been absolutely fantastic this year approaching the green, if he can put together the rest of his game like we saw in his last outing don’t be surprised if Keegan’s name is in the mix come Sunday.
Kyle Stanley – DK: $7100 FD: $8500
I still think Casey beats Day and Stanley as the chalkiest player for the week however I would not be shocked if Stanley surprises and ends up in the #1 spot. When Stanley is on he showed last season he can play with the worlds best because of his elite tee-to-green game. Stanley showed everyone he is in fine form last week with his 2nd place appearance in the elite field Bridgestone Invitational. Because of the result I am seeing Stanley touted just about everywhere. I like Stanley too but I think there are also great pivots at his price that I will be discussing in more detail in our SlackChat later in the week.
As always, these are initial thoughts and not necessarily the plays I will be making. As the week goes on I will update my thoughts in our member SlackChat as well as discussing multiple other players and my thoughts for both Cash and GPP’s.
Other DFS Army PGA Golf Tools and Articles
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