Daily Fantasy PGA Picks for DraftKings & FanDuel - RSM Classic

DFSR is proud to bring you, Chris Durell. He'll be bringing weekly PGA picks, analysis, and breakdowns to help you cash on DraftKings and FanDuel. As every week in DFS PGA changes with the course setup, field of players and weather, Chris will be providing a range of different picks for cash games as well as upside plays for tournaments. If you have any questions to lineup lock you can reach him a variety of ways. Leave your question/comment below in the comments section, find him in the DFSR Chat room or hit him up on Twitter(@Jager_Bombs9). Chris is also providing his DFS PGA Weekly cheatsheet where he provides stats, course history, current form, fantasy points, and much more. Grab your copy today and edge out the competition.

RSM Classic

Welcome back golf fans. This week the PGA Tour heads to Sea Island, Georgia for the RSM Classic. Since changing names three years ago(formerly the McGladrey Classic), the event has been played at two different venues here at Sea Island Resort for the first two days of the event. Golfers will get a crack at both the Seaside and Plantation courses on Thursday and Friday and those who make the cut will then play their final two rounds of golf on the Seaside course on Saturday and Sunday.

Both courses are on the short side so I when weighing Strokes gained: Off the Tee this week, I will putting emphasis on accuracy once again. This is, even more, key on the Seaside course where a majority of the holes have water and/or bunkers and marsh just outside the primary rough area. The Seaside course is also a Par 70 and has 12 par 4's and looking at the hole composition below, you will notice that nine of those Par 4's fall between 400 and 450 yards so that will something I will be looking at closely as well. The average winning score here over the past five years has been -16 and even saw a tournament low -22 two years when Kevin Kisner took home the hardware.

The other factor to pay attention to this week will be the weather as the course is a Links-Style setup being on the coast. Looking at the weather update at the bottom of the article, the wind looks to be worse on Friday but not too terribly bad at the moment. I won't be putting too much emphasis on it besides maybe targeting a few more players playing on the Plantation course on Friday as it is more inland than the Seaside course. Tee times are not yet listed so be sure to refresh the page on PGATour.com Wednesday morning.

Let's now take a look at some of the course and tournament trends and then jump right into my top picks looking at course history, current form, and stats.

The Course

Sea Island Resort(Seaside)
Par 70 - 7,005 Yards

**Click HERE or image above to see the course breakdown from PGATour.com**

Sea Island Resort(Plantation)
Par 72 - 7,058 Yards

Hole Composition & Approach Shot Distribution for Seaside Course

**Info below courtesy of Fantasy National Golf Club**

Last Five Years Winners

• Mackenzie Hughes(-17)
• Kevin Kisner(-22)
• Robert Streb(-14)
• Chris Kirk(-14)
• Tommy Gainey(-16)

Top Stats in the Model

• Strokes Gained: Approach
• Par 4 Scoring(Specifically from 400-450 Yards)
• Birdie or Better %
• Strokes gained: Off the Tee/Driving Accuracy

Top Course History Targets

Charles Howell III
World Golf Ranking (#61)
Vegas Odds (25/1)
Draftkings ($9,500)
FanDuel ($8,500)

Howell fits right into my model this week with a terrific balance of form and history and sits #3 overall. He has been trending in the right direction since the start of the season with finishes of T51, T19, T15, and a T4 last week at the OHL Classic. He now comes back to Sea Island Resort where he has had some success with finishes of T7, T27, T73, T9, and a T13 last year. He is rarely on my radar for an outright win but is a tremendous cash game play ranking 6th in Scoring Average before the Cut, 22nd in Par 4 Scoring, and 7th in the field in Bogey Avoidance.

Jamie Lovemark
World Golf Ranking (#86)
Vegas Odds (40/1)
Draftkings ($8,400)
FanDuel ($8,200)

Also coming back to Sea Island with terrific course history is Jamie Lovemark despite not completely fitting the mold as a distance guy. He has only played here twice but has finishes of T9 and T6 the last two years and during that timeframe(last 8 rounds on Fantasy National Golf Club), he leads the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green and is second in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking. Looking at my cheatsheet, what stands out statistically for me is his 6th rank in Par 4 Scoring(combo of 2016-17 & 2017-18 stats) and 15th rank in Birdie or Better %. I won't be using him in my main cash game lineup coming off a missed a cut at the Shriners but will have exposure in GPP formats for sure.

Top Current Form Targets

Webb Simpson
World Golf Ranking (#42)
Vegas Odds (18/1)
Draftkings ($9,800)
FanDuel ($9,400)

Webb comes in #1 in my overall model this week and is the only player in the field that ranks Top 20 in all four categories(form, history, stats, DK points last 5). He hasn't posted a Top 10 yet this season but has back to back Top 20's at the Safeway Open and Shriners Open and comes back to Sea Island Resort where he has enjoyed success over the years. His last two trips weren't great with a T36 and T41 but he did finish 7th in 2013-14, runner-up in 2011 and T12 in 2010. Then comes the stats where he ranks 9th in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach, 13th in Strokes Gained: ball Striking, 4th in Proximity, 3rd in Par 4 Scoring, 3rd in Bogey Avoidance, and 4th in Scrambling. With a sub $10K price tag on both sites, I will be targeting Webb in all formats.

J.T. Poston
World Golf Ranking (#261)
Vegas Odds (90/1)
Draftkings ($7,200)
FanDuel ($6,500)

For my second current form pick, I wanted to dip down into the value tier and the first name that stood out was J.T. Poston. He started off his year with a 69 in the opening round of the Sanderson Farms Championship but unfortunately followed it up with a 74, 72, and 73 and finished T53. Since then, he has been trending in the right direction with a T4(-8) at the Shriners and a T14(-10) in last weeks OHL Classic. He also fits the stat model ranked 29th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, 19th in Par 4 Scoring, 21st in Bogey Avoidance, and 14th in Birdie or Better %. He is a player I will have exposure to in cash games and GPP's this week.

Who the Stats Like

Chesson Hadley
World Golf Ranking (#83)
Vegas Odds (28/1)
Draftkings ($10,200)
FanDuel ($7,300)

After battling to make the cut last week at the OHL Classic, Hadley to withdraw after getting sick after eating the Mexican cuisine. He has had plenty of time to rest and bounce back and is once again near the top of my radar in large part to his stat rankings where he is #1 in my model this week. He ranks 1st in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking, Strokes Gained: Putting, Scoring Average and is also Top 10 in Proximity from 125-150 and 175-200 yards, Bogey Avoidance and Birdie or Better %. He has yet to have much success here at Sea Island(T45, Cut, T32, Cut)  which makes him a possible low owned(at least lower than he has been this season) GPP play this week and his best value comes on FanDuel where his price has dropped into the mid $7K range.

Tyler Duncan
World Golf Ranking (#407)
Vegas Odds (175/1)
Draftkings ($7,300)
FanDuel ($5,000)

I am taking a shot here with my final pick of the week with PGA Tour rookie Tyler Duncan. He had a successful Web.com Tour season in 2017 with a runner-up, four Top 10's, and eight Top 25 finishes and ended up 31st on the money list after a T12 in the Web.com Tour Championship. On top of that, he finished 1st overall in Driving Accuracy, 16th in Putting, and 9th in Birdie Average. he should be well under the radar after a T50 at the OHL last week and back to back missed cuts at the Sanderson Farms Championship and Shriners Open but started the year out in style with a T5 at the Safeway Open. His stats have carried over to the PGA Tour as he ranks 5th on my sheet in Driving Accuracy, 17th in Putting, 9th in Driving Accuracy, 4th in par 4 Scoring, and 7th in Birdie or Better %. i won't be using him in cash games but I will be takign a few shots in my GPP lineups.

Tournament Update Thread

**Weather Update**

Chris Durell has been playing Daily Fantasy Sports for five years and fantasy in general for more than a decade. He is active player in college football, NFL, MLB, NASCAR, NHL 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.