Rickie Fowler on the 16th hole during the final round of the Phoenix Open golf tournament, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
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TPC Sawgrass - Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Par 72 - 7,215 Yards
James Hahn ended a brutal eight tournament missed cut streak with a win this past weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship. Talk about a low owned value in GPP's at less than 1% owned. Hahn won in a playoff over Roberto Castro, who himself was less than 5% owned. It was definitely a stars and scrubs in daily fantasy golf.
We now turn our attention to one of the best fields in golf, outside the four majors, The PLAYERS Championship. This week 46 out of the Top 50 players in the world will take on TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. The course is a Par 72 that stretches 7,215 yards through Florida Wetlands and is a true test of every part of a golfers game. No specific range for can be targeted as the Par 3's, 4's, and 5's have varying distances and doglegs setup inboth directions. With a shorter course distance won't be as much of a factor as all types of golfers have had success here. Distance is definitely an advantage on the longer holes, Par 5's especially, but accuracy is also important as there is a ton of water and sand to get players in trouble. Ball Striking(Total Driving + GIR) and a Tee to Green game are at a premium this week. A list of all the key stats I am weighting on the cheatsheet this week can be found below:
I will again this week be interacting through the comments section below and ready to answer any questions about Fantasy Golf or anything you wanna talk about. Join the conversation. And as always, I am available on Twitter @Jager_bombs9.
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High End Targets ($9,000+)
Rory McIlroy
Vegas Odds - 7/1
Draftkings - $11,700
Fantasy Aces - $6,150
Look out for the world #3 golfer. Rory is heating up just in time for a summer run at some giant tournaments, starting this weekend at the PLAYERS. He made a run on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Championship shooting an impressive 66 and finishing T4 so he is coming in with some momentum. He comes back to TPC Sawgrass where he started his career with three missed cups('09, '10, '12)but since has gotten very close to taking home the hardware. In the past three years he has finished T8, T6, T8, shooting par or under in 10 of those 12 rounds. Rory is a bomber who is also accurate(Good Drive % Rank - 37) and hits a ton of greens. He also is tied for first in Par 5 Scoring and 4th in BoB%. With the softer pricing this week it is completely viable to build a cash game lineup headed by Rory and he always makes a terrific GPP play.
Rickie Fowler
Vegas Odds - 18/1
Draftkings - $10,600
Fantasy Aces - $6,000
I have been on Rickie for the last two weeks and to jump off now would be crazy. He hasn't won but is trending in the right direction with a T20 at the Zurich Classic and a T4 last week at the Wells Fargo Championship. He now comes back to TPC Sawgrass to defend his PLAYERS Championship title and comes in 4th in DraftKings salary this week. I actually like his stat makeup a little better than McIlroy. He ranks higher in Ball Striking, GIR, Par 4 Scoring, Bogey Avoidance and the biggest gap between the two is in Scrambling and Strokes Gained Putting. Looking at some GPP ownership from last week in a weaker field, Fowler came in around 16% while McIlroy and Matsuyama came in around 30% owned. I think we could see more of the same this week with the soft pricing and elite talent coming in over $10K. I will be overweight on Rickie this week.
Hideki Matsuyama
Vegas Odds - 22/1
Draftkings - $9,700
Fantasy Aces - $5,700
I could just copy and paste what I wrote last week about Hideki as it carries over to this week. He was third in my model last week and finished T11 at the Wells Fargo Championship and now enters a much tougher field and course and ranks 1st in my model. He checks off all the boxes(Stats, History, Form) and once again comes in under $10K making him a terrific play in any format. The only stats that I can see that keeps him from winning more is his scrambling and putting. He is obviously comfortable here at TPC Sawgrass playing here twice finishing T23 in 2014 and T17 last year. At his current salary I will be using Hideki in all my cash games(50/50's, double ups, and H2H's) but will be limited in GPP as he is always very highly owned.
Also Consider - Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson
Branden Grace
Vegas Odds - 50/1
Draftkings - $8,600
Fantasy Aces - $5,450
He withdrew from last weeks Wells Fargo Championship for unknown reasons but it appears to be nothing serious as he is back this week and will tee it up with Jason Day and Jordan Spieth on Thursday. He is the #11 ranked golfer in the world right now and comes in as the 15th in salary on DraftKings. He followed up a disappointing missed cut at the Masters with his first career PGA Tour win at the RBC Heritage and a T9 the next week at the Valero Texas Open. His game lines up for TPC Sawgrass as he is 11th in SG:T2G, 23rd in GIR, 1st in Par 4 Scoring, and 11th in Bogey Avoidance. He has played here twice in his limited PGA Tour schedule and finished 48th and 42nd. I am expecting a much better finish in his first full PGA Tour season.
Kevin Na
Vegas Odds - 66/1
Draftkings - $7,800
Fantasy Aces - $5,000
I absolutely love this range on DraftKings this week. You can easily create a balanced lineup in the mid range this week and feel comfortable in both cash games and tournaments. It was very close for me at the top between Na and Kisner but I am leaning Na due to more course history and much better current form. Kisner finished 2nd last year in his first trip to TPC Sawgrass while Na finished 6th(his 2nd Top 10 here in last 3 trips). While Na's Ball Striking ranks 93rd due to his lack of distance, he is 15th in Good Drive %, 13th in SG:T2G, 5th in Par 4 Scoring, 28th in Bogey Avoidance and 24th in BoB%. Pretty impressive for a shorter hitter. He comes in with some momentum and confidence coming off a T4 at the RBC Heritage and comes in under $8K on DraftKings.
Russell Knox
Vegas Odds - 66/1
Draftkings - $7,600
Fantasy Aces - $4,850
Coming in as the 29th ranked in salary on DraftKings, Knox is a great value play in any format this week. He is elite in many of the key stats(Ball Striking-11th, Good Drive %-3rd, GIR-3rd, Bog Avoid-2nd, Scrambling-20th) and comes back to a course where he has had success. He has played here in each of the last two years and finished 34th in 2014 and 17th last year. I expected more from Knox back at the Masters as he came in with four straight made cuts but after missing the cut he bounced back in a huge way. He came close to winning the RBC Heritage the following week and ended up with a T2. Another Top 20 here at the PLAYERS is definitely not out of the question.
Also Consider - Patrick Reed, Kevin Kisner
Charles Howell III
Vegas Odds - 100/1
Draftkings - $6,700
Fantasy Aces - $4,800
He let us down last week missing the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship after a terrible opening round 76 on Thursday that put him way behind the 8 ball. I love him to rebound this week as he has made just over 82% of his cuts over the past three years and has only missed back to back buts three times. Oh ya and he seen a price drop from $8,100 down to $6,700. He is ranked Top 40 on Tour in SG:T2G, GIR, Par 3/4/5 scoring, Bogey Avoidance, BoB%, and Scrambling. Don't pass on this value.
Jhonattan Vegas
Vegas Odds - 200/1
Draftkings - $6,300
Fantasy Aces - $4,350
With so many great options in this tournament the value trickles down the list almost to the bottom. It is a great week to go stars and scrubs and one of my favorite "scrubs" is Jhonattan Vegas at TPC Sawgrass. He is 9th in Ball Striking(highlighted by a 10th rank in GIR) and 29th Tee to Green. He scores on all the holes(Par 3/4/5) and ranks Top 30 in Bogey Avoidance. He missed the cut here back in 2011 in his first trip but since then has a T7 and & T42 last season. At his current price in the mid $6K range you would be happy with a made cut but Vegas also comes with upside for a Top 20 this week.
Also Consider - David Hearn, Chris Stroud
Want to see how these picks and more fit into lineups for The PLAYERS Championship ? Chris is selling lineups only $5. He covers DraftKings, FantasyFeud & FantasyAces Cash Games & Tournaments. Fill out the form below or click here to purchase using PayPal. This is a separate service than our traditional monthly membership.
Wells Fargo Championship
Chris Durell has been playing Daily Fantasy Sports for three years and fantasy in general for more than a decade. He is active player in college football, NFL, NBA and of course PGA. He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada with his wife and two daughters. You can follow him on Twitter at @jager_bombs9 for advice, strategy, answers to any PGA questions and how he copes with the winters up north.
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