Every week of the year the PGA Tour plays on a new course. There are some examples in other DFS Sports of environment 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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WGC-HSBC Recap
Brooks Koepka – T16 – 66 DK Points
I wrote up Brooks as my favourite play amongst top salaries on DraftKings (over $10k). I felt Brooks would likely be the highest owned but I still really liked him to start off your teams for the week. Brooks finished just behind McIlroy in ownership and finished right in the middle of the pack for points amongst top salaries. Brooks didn’t win you any GPP’s this week but his finish compared to other top end salaries meant your team wasn’t finished if you happened to go with Koepka for the week.
Hideki Matsuyama – T30 – 56.5 DK Points
My main reason for Hideki this week was getting a top end player at a reasonable price with low ownership. Hideki averaged 7.74% ownership which is extremely low typically in this price range and the lowest of anyone priced over $9k on DraftKings. A bad third round kept Hideki from any shot near the top of the leaderboard.
Francesco Molinari T43 – 45.5 DK Points
Boy was I wrong on Molinari’s ownership. I wrote up how my play on him will be largely dependent on ownership but that I am more than comfortable to pivot to anyone within his range. I figured Molinari would be right around 20% and was comfortable playing him in 10% of my GPP’s, just slightly under actual ownership.
Tommy Fleetwood – T7 – 81 DK Points
Clearly anyone I thought who might play Molinari chose to go with Fleetwood instead. Tommy was an obvious value play who ended up coming through for owners with a solid top 10 performance.
Jon Rahm – T22 – 69 DK Points
Rahm ended up being the highest owned player on the slate with just over 30% average ownership across GPP’s. I was heavily on Rahm and hoping the public would be off but that was ultimately not the case. Much like Brooks, Rahm had a solid performance that didn’t win you lots of money but kept your teams in it if you made other solid picks.
Thorbjorn Olsen – T7 – 80.5 DK Points
As I mentioned, I loved Olsen this week for a variety of reasons. Luckily for me, Olsen performed and finished with a top ten fantasy performance for the week at a terrific price.
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Shriners Preview
The PGA Tour has finished its Asian swing (and its no cut events!) and is back in North America for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The event takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada at TPC Summerlin, a 7,255 yard par 71. It’s mentioned by just about everyone but the course plays much shorter as a result of TPC Summerlin being right around 2,700 feet above sea level. The event sees a better field than last year with Rickie Fowler, Tony Finau and Jordan Spieth headlining. The event features a few other top end players including Bryson Dechambeau and Patrick Cantlay.
All of these players will likely be putting up lots of birdies, as the winner usually ends up right around -20 for the week. To get birdies you need to be hitting greens, as a result I will be emphasizing Shots Gained: Approach and Greens in Regulation this week. I will be relying on our DFS Research Station and our field adjusted statistics to get the most reliable numbers out there in the industry. This event has had a mix of winners over the years but everyone who has won has been able to gain a whole lot of strokes in these measures.
Birdie or better % will be another key stat for me this week. With so many birdie opportunities it is essential to find the guys who will be able to make them and get you the most fantasy points possible. Finally, Driving distance is another thing I will be putting more of an emphasis on this week. This course does not penalize players for being wayward as much as others so we will see guys bombing it off of the tee, the close you can be to the hole the better.
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Interesting Plays
“As I looked over my writeup from last year I found this little tidbit and couldn’t help but laugh. I hope Smylie soon returns to relevance in the golf world but pretty crazy how much can change in a year.
Smylie Kaufman – DK: $8200 FD: $5900
A winner here two years ago, Kaufman is coming into the event with a top-five finish and fits the statistics I am weighting highly this week. After an off year, last season Kaufman is trying to get back to winning and join his good buddies Jordan, Justin, and Rickie as a serious threat on the PGA Tour. Specifically, on FanDuel, Kaufman is CHEAP and gives great value for the potential he provides.”
Jordan Spieth – Rickie Fowler – Tony Finau
These are the three elite golfers in the field and the three with salaries over $11k on DraftKings and $12k on FanDuel. The dynamic between these three for DFS purposes is extremely interesting to me. I will start by saying I like all three and think there are justifications and good reasons for playing any of them. Finau is extremely just showed us what he can do with his 2nd place finish in a loaded field last week. Fowler was one of the most consistent players all of last year and Jordan Spieth was a very short time ago considered by many to be the best in the world. There is also a case to be made to fade all three, save money and create a more well rounded team with a second tier stud as none of these players have won in the 2018 season and you very likely need your top end salary to win to justify his price tag. Personally, I am leaning towards Jordan Spieth, followed by Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler but check into slack as we have more information for my final write-up to members.
Patrick Cantlay – DK: $9900 FD: $11900
The defending champ has been ever so steady with twelve straight made cuts. Recently, Cantlay has finished T17 and T7, and fits the mould for this event. I think Cantlay will soak up all of the ownership that does not go to the top end players but I am okay with eating a bit of chalk on Cantlay and going contrarian elsewhere.
Lucas Glover – DK: $8300 FD: $9000
Glover makes a solid cash game play as he was a consistent cut maker last season. This season he has also shown signs of life with a T17 and T14 finish. Glover is not much of a birdie maker though so overall he is just a cash game consideration for me.
Under 7K on DraftKings
DraftKings has a variety of options at $7K and under this week. A shortlist that I have interest in include; Jason Dufner, Ollie Schniederjans, Kelly Kraft, Corey Conners, Adam Svensson, Dominic Bozzelli
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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