Jordan Spieth of the United States plays a shot on the 16th fairway during the second round of the SMBC Singapore Open golf tournament at Sentosa Golf Club's Serapong Course on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Chris will be bringing you weekly PGA picks, analysis, and breakdowns to help you cash on DraftKings and FanDuel. Want more? He also provides a cheatsheet with stats, course history, current form, player write-ups for cash and GPP, a customizable model, and much more.
Premium DFSR members get access to my expert sheets as a part of their membership. That's a $10 value every single month, just for signing up for a DFSR membership! Want my sheets on their own? Head on over to my Patreon Page
Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB, NBA, PGA, NHL, and NFL optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below.
St. Andrews Links(Old Course)
Par 72 - 7,313 Yards
Greens - Fescue/Bent/Poa
**Click the image above to see a hole-by-hole breakdown from PGATour.com**
Welcome back golf fans. This week the best players in the world head to St. Andrews and the Old Course for the 150th OPEN Championship. Each major championship is unique in its own way and with the OPEN there are many starting with links setup where the weather can play a huge role. The early forecast shows four days of hot and dry weather combined with regular winds in the 12-18 mph range with gusts in the 20-25 mph range.
The most important thing with links golf, and especially at the Old Course, is imagination as there are so many different ways to play shots into these huge greens. This definitely pushes the narrative of anyone can win as there is no one player type who excels here, especially with the dried-out, fast fairways which helps the shorter hitters s their drives should get lots of extra run leading to shorter irons.
With the largest greens golfers will see all year, Strokes Gained: Approach is one of my top stats at just hitting the green won't exactly get it done. If you are wanting to break it down more, Proximity from the mid ranges(125-150 and 150-175 yards) will be the key zones I will be focusing on this week. Right there with SG: APP this week is Par 4 scoring as the Old Course is made up of 14 Par 4's with just two Par 3's and two Par 5's.
The strategy for building lineups at these majors is a lot of fun and we usually get a nice spread of ownership with the pricing so soft. Initially, a balanced build is what I am looking at for the bulk of my lineups as the mid-tier of pricing is loaded with talented golfers. Ultimately, it will come down to the final weather forecast but we will discuss that in chat closer to lock on Wednesday. For now, let's dive in and take a look at a few of my core plays for this week.
Jordan Spieth
World Golf Ranking (#12)
Vegas Odds (18/1)
Draftkings ($10,000)
FanDuel ($11,100)
No golfer thrives more when the need to be creative comes into play than Jordan Spieth. This is a key reason why he has a terrific track record on links courses and at the OPEN specifically where he returns with four Top 10's including a win in 2017 at Royal Birkdale and a T4 here at the Old Course back in 2015. Like 2017, he comes in with excellent form which includes made cuts in seven of his last eight events with a win at the RBC Heritage and more recently a T10 last week at the Scottish Open. It's an elite field of players but Spieth checks every box for me and is at the top of my player pool in terms of exposure.
Shane Lowry
World Golf Ranking (#22)
Vegas Odds (22/1)
Draftkings ($9,300)
FanDuel ($11,500)
There is definitely no avoiding the chalk for me in the top tier this week as another former winner comes in at #2 in my player pool this week. The 2019 win was a huge breakout for Lowry who is one of the best links players in the world and had previously missed four straight cuts at the OPEN. He is coming off a missed cut at the U.S. Open but that doesn't concern me as the form was near-elite before that as he made eight straight cuts including four Top 10's, three Top 5's, and no finish worse than T32 in that time. In this field, he also ranks 9th in SG: Tee to Green, 4th in SG: Approach, and 7th in Par 4 scoring over the last 24 rounds. Lock and load in all formats.
Tony Finau
World Golf Ranking (#17)
Vegas Odds (55/1)
Draftkings ($8,400)
FanDuel ($9,900)
Finau's game has translated very well to links golf and especially the OPEN where he has made all five cuts, has not finished worse than T27, and has two Top 10 finishes. That history is only part of the equation, however, as he also checks the form box making eight of his last nine cuts including two runner-ups and four finishes of T13 or better. In that time, he ranks 2nd in SG: Tee to Green, 2nd in SG: Around the Green, 5th in Par 4 scoring, and 1st in 3 putt avoidance(huge on these giant greens). At these prices, I will have a ton of exposure to Finau in all formats.
Seamus Power
World Golf Ranking (#37)
Vegas Odds (100/1)
Draftkings ($7,400)
FanDuel ($9,200)
Power went through a rough stretch earlier this spring missing four of six cuts but what stands out is the two cuts he made were a T33 at the Players and T27 at the Masters. More good news, as he has also been much better since summer rolled around and has made four of his last five cuts including back-to-back Top 25 finishes coming into the week. Statistically, he has also shined recently ranking 24th in SG: Approach, 12th in SG: Around the Green, and 17th in Par 4 scoring over the last 12 rounds. Power made his major championship debut in 2022 and has looked terrific with a T27 at the Masters, T9 at the PGA Championship, and T12 at the U.S. Open. I think that continues this week with a clean sweep of solid major finishes and there is also an outside chance he could contend for the win so get some exposure to that 100-1 number in the betting market.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
World Golf Ranking (#57)
Vegas Odds (125/1)
Draftkings ($7,300)
FanDuel ($8,800)
This $7K range on DraftKings is absolutely loaded this week but I don't Bezuidenhout will get enough love from the public in the low to mid-stakes contests as he is still relatively unknown. Either way the ownership falls I am all over him this week as he comes in hot with a T2 at the John Deere and followed it up with a T16 at the Scottish Open last week. Overall, he also been very consistent in his first full season on the PGA Tour making 14 of 18 cuts(78%) and has six Top 25 finishes in 15 2022 stroke-play events. Lock and load in all formats.
Joohyung Kim
World Golf Ranking (#39)
Vegas Odds (175/1)
Draftkings ($6,500)
FanDuel ($7,600)
In terms of Official World Golf Rankings compared to pricing, Kim is easily one of the top values this week at near min price on both sites. He is an Asian Tour regular and looking at the stats from that Tour, he is ranked near the top in almost every stat(GIR, Scrambling, Scoring average, Birdie average) and finished 6th or better in his last four events on that Tour. He has limited starts on the PGA Tour but in three events in 2022 has a T17 at the Byron Nelson and T23 at the U.S. Open. To top it off, he looked terrific last week at the Scottish Open where he came in 3rd. He is a consistent golfer, helps us easily fit 2-3 elite golfers, and is likely lower owned. A recipe for a top value.
image sources
Week 12 DraftKings and FanDuel cash game NFL plays.
DraftKings and FanDuel Week 11 cash game NFL plays
Week 10 NFL cash game picks for DraftKings and FanDuel
Daily Fantasy DraftKings and FanDuel NBA Picks & Projections Playing NBA DFS Nightly? Join one…
Week 9 NFL DFS plays for DraftKings and FanDuel
Packed slate of NBA action on FanDuel and DraftKings