Daily Fantasy PGA Picks for DraftKings - The Barclays

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The Barclays

Bethpage State Park (Black) - Farmingdale, NY

Par 71 - 7,468 Yards

Welcome back to another week of daily fantasy golf. The regular season grind is now over as the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the shot at $10,000,000 begins. The Top 125 golfers in FedEx Cup standings will now take part in a four tournament, five week playoff to determine the champion. It all starts at the Barclays where there is a normal cut of Top 70 and ties and at the end of the event the Top 100 in the standings move on to the Deutsche Bank Championship next week. From there the Top 70 move on to the BMW Championship and finally after a week off, the Top 30 golfers in the standings will travel to East Lake for the Tour Championship. Both the Tour Championship and BMW Championship are no cut events. Let's take a look at this week.

Round 1 of the playoffs starts this week with the Barclays. The field will consist of just 121 players as Anirban Lahiri, Danny Willett, Sergio Garcia, and Shane Lowry will sit out. This years event will be held at Bethpage State Park(Black Course). It is famous for it's sign as you enter the property "WARNING: The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers". Ya, it's a tough course. It is a longer course for a Par 71 and has very tight fairways, thick rough, well placed, difficult bunkers and small greens making it a daunting task. It will most likely be played similar to a US Open this week with a winning score around -5 to -10. Bethpage was last used for this event in 2012 and was also the host to the 2009 and 2002 US Opens. I have highlighted and included all three of these years on my cheatsheet under tournament history. 

Below are the keys stats I am weighting this week:

• Strokes Gained: Tee to Green
• Strokes Gained: Around the Green with emphasis on Sand Save %
• Driving Distance/Total Driving
• Proximity from 175-200 Yards & 200+ Yards
• Par 5 Scoring
• Birdie or Better %

 

If you have any questions leading up to lineup lock Thursday morning you can reach me in a variety of ways. Leave a Q below in the comment section and I will get you an answer. You can hit me up in the new chatroom here at DFSR(It's crazy busy with MLB talk so try and private message me for specific PGA Q's). I will also be joining Doug on the Wednesday Podcast to discuss the tournament each week. Also on Wednesday, you can join me for a live Google Hangout over at Slurv.com. I am always available on Twitter as well(@jager_bombs9). Good luck this week!

 

 

 

High End Targets ($9,000+)

Dustin Johnson
Vegas Odds - 9/1
Draftkings - $11,900
FantasyAces - $6,100

First of all, in a field this strong it may be worth mixing it up at the top as there are so many terrific plays. I like DJ the most this week at the very top due to his overall distance and proximity stats. He leads the Tour in both this season as well as Birdie or Better%. He is also 2nd in Par 4 Scoring and 15th in Par 5 Scoring. He is having a terrific season with two wins, including his first career major, to go along with 12 total Top 10's and nearly 8 million in earnings. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship at the end of July and I think this will help keep his ownership a bit below Day's in most formats. DJ is also my favorite to win the 10 million dollars at the Tour Championship and I believe he kicks it off in a big way this weekend.

 

Jordan Spieth
Vegas Odds - 14/1
Draftkings - $11,000
FantasyAces - $6,000

Spieth could be overlooked this week in a range with the likes of Day(3 wins including the PLAYERS), Johnson(2 wins including US Open), Stenson(OPEN Championship win and Olympic Silver), and Justin Rose(Olympic Gold). I could easily see him being the lowest owned of all the golfers over $10K making him an elite GPP play this week. While it is being cast as a disappointing season by many that is simply not the case. Despitenot being big events, Spieth still has two wins this season and only missed two cuts. He isn't long off the tee but he isn't short either averaging 296 yards. It is the accuracy that can get him into trouble at times but he quickly makes up for it with his Scrambling where he ranks 9th on Tour. He also ranks 19th in Sand Save% which all wraps up into a 7th overall rank in Strokes Gained: Around the Green which I am heavily weighing this week. He loves the challenge of a difficult golf course and I could easily see him taking home this title.

 

Bubba Watson
Vegas Odds - 33/1
Draftkings - $9,100
FantasyAces - $5,650

Bubba checks every box for me this week. He is coming off an 8th place finish at the Olympics and if there was anyone who seemed to embrace the experience 100% it was definitely Bubba. His mental game and attitude towards the whole thing was great to see. He now comes back to the USA primed for a run at the FedEx Cup. He has made four straight cuts at the Barclays including a 3rd last year and 10th in 2012 when the tournament was last held here at Bethpage. He also finished 18th in 2009 when Bethpage hosted the US Open. He brings a ton of length to the table and ranks 22nd in Good Drive %. His overall Proximity is nothing to get excited about(72nd) but his key number this week could be the 175-200 range in which he ranks 13th. At $9,100 he makes an excellent value play in any format.

 

Also Consider - Hideki Matsuyama

 

 

Mid Tier Targets ($7,000 - $8,900)

Patrick Reed
Vegas Odds - 50/1
Draftkings - $8,800
FantasyAces - $5,600

Don't get me wrong I love Sneds as well but with the amount he is being discussed I tend to find myself leaning on some other options in this range. Topping that list is Patrick Reed. Under $9K is just too cheap for a golfer with his form coming into this week. His last five tournaments have looked like this: T22, T11, T11, T13, T12. I would reserve him mostly for GPP as he can be somewhat wild off the tee(154th in Driv Acc) but like Spieth can make up for it around the green. He is 9th in SG: ATG, 8th in Scrambling, and 26th in Sand Save % to go along with a 22nd rank in Par 5 Scoring and 20th in Bogey Avoidance which could be big this week on a tough course.

 

Ryan Moore
Vegas Odds - 66/1
Draftkings - $7,700
FantasyAces - $4,900

Looking at tournament history you may not think Moore is a great fit this week but remember this tourny has a different course each season. Last time it was played at Bethpage Black Moore finished T24 and while that doesn't seem too impressive he also finished T10 at the 2009 US Open. He is familiar with the course and showed he can succeed here as well. He is currently in his best stretch of the season having made seven straight cuts including a win at the John Deere Classic. He is coming off a disappointing T53 last week which could help lower his ownership as he was highly owned after his win the week before. The issue was his Par 3 Scoring last week(+5) which we most likely won't see moving forward as he ranks 4th on Tour in that category. Look for Moore to continue his hot play and crush his salary this week.

 

Russell Knox
Vegas Odds - 80/1
Draftkings - $7,300
FantasyAces - $5,150

What a tremendous season it has been for Knox. Not only did he pick up his first win back at the HSBC Champions but he followed it up with another win two weeks ago at the Travelers Championship. Knox has been very consistent making 17 of 21 cuts this year and finished Top 30 in three of the four majors. He has finished 20th and 38th in his first two Barclays but has never played Bethpage Black. While he lacks the distance I like to see he is extremely accurate ranking 11th in Driving Accuracy, 10th in Good Drive %, 2nd in GIR and 13th in Proximity. He is also very good at avoiding the big number as he ranks 8th in Bogey Avoidance. At his low $7K price tag he is safe in all formats.

 

Also Consider - Luke Donald

 

Low End Target (Min Price - $6,900)

Daniel Berger
Vegas Odds - 100/1
Draftkings - $6,900
FantasyAces - $4,900

A terrific stretch of golf that started back in March at the Cadillac Championship and saw Berger make 10 straight cuts and pick up his first career win at the St. Jude Classic. He was injured shortly after the win and was forced to withdraw from the Bridegestone Invitational which burnt a lot of people. I am hoping with a combination of that and the enormous amount of great plays in the $6K range lead to low ownership for Berger. He is coming off a T5 at teh Travelers that could have easily been another win had he not crapped the bed with a 74 on Sunday. He was very impressive in the the three previous days and shot a season low 62 on Saturday. He has distance off the tee and shine sin the Proximity game ranking Top 20 in 150-175, 175-200 and from 200+ yards.

 

K.J. Choi
Vegas Odds - 200/1
Draftkings - $5,800
FantasyAces - $4,100

If you are looking to stack a few of the top guys in a cash game lineup this week I suggest pairing them with Choi. He comes in at pretty much min pricing and has been fairly consistent. He has made three straight and five of his last six cuts this season and has excellent tournament and course history. He has made four straight cuts at the Barclays and eight of 11 in his career. He has played Bethpage Black three times finishing 73rd in 2012(Barclays), 47th(09 US Open) and 30th(02 US Open).

 

Also Consider - William McGirt

 

 

The Barclays Update Thread

 

 

Want to see how more analysis and information on building lineups for The Barclays? Chris has his targets and cheatsheet for only $5. He covers DraftKings & FantasyAces. Fill out the form below or Purchase Through PayPal.

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.