GOLF

Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: Arnold Palmer Invitational

With Tiger Woods back and locked in at a course he's dominated in the past, can you afford to fade him on FanDuel?

By now, you've probably dabbled in daily fantasy sports, but if not, don't worry. Now is a great time to start, especially with FanDuel now offering a revamped version of PGA golf.

Golf can be one of the most exciting DFS sports to follow, as tournaments span four days and allow ample time to prepare each week, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the basics of building a lineup on FanDuel, the scoring setup, and advanced stats to know about the PGA.

But whether you're brand new to the PGA or daily fantasy sports in general, we have you covered.

Let's take a look at some golfers to target this week.

Key Stats

Key Stats for the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida
Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermudagrass
Scrambling
Strokes Gained: Approach the Green
Proximity from 175+ Yards
Par 5 Scoring


For more on why we're targeting these stats, check out our course primer.

Best of the Best

Tiger Woods (FanDuel Price: $11,900 | bet365 Win Odds: 5.5/1) - So, here's the thing. Woods owns -- by far -- the best win odds in the field but is the third-most expensive golfer on FanDuel. He finished tied for second last week and has won here eight times, including four of his past five tries (2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013). With a strong field at the top, Woods isn't a shoo-in to contend, and with heavy ownership, he makes for a gutsy fade in tournaments. Per FantasyGolfMetrics, Woods ranks 28th among the field in strokes gained: tee to green over the past 12 weeks of PGA Tour action, and he's 19th in approach and 4th in career strokes gained: putting on Bermudagrass. He makes a lot of sense to plug in, but you don't have to do it with so many other viable options near the top.

Jason Day ($12,500 | 12) - Day won here in 2016, with a 17th and 23rd bookending it, so he's got course form of his own. He's played just twice over the past seven weeks, but those finishes were a win and a second-place outing. Day ranks 104th in the field in strokes gained: approach over the past 12 weeks, but he's 7th on par 5s and 5th in scrambling, as well as 11th in career strokes gained: putting on Bermudagrass.

Justin Rose ($12,200 | 14) - Rose, since 2006, has four top-10 finishes at Bay Hill in nine tries, plus two more top-15 showings. His past eight weeks of action include a 22nd, an 8th, a 37th, and a 5th, last week at the Valspar. Over the past 12 weeks of action, Rose ranks 27th tee to green and 11th in scrambling, as well as 19th in the field in proximity from greater than 200 yards. He fits well here and is yet another viable pivot from Tiger Woods.

Tommy Fleetwood ($11,700 | 20) - Fleetwood's just $200 cheaper than Woods but has excellent form of his own. His past eight weeks include a win, a 6th, a 37th, a 4th, and a 14th. His debut at Bay Hill a year ago yielded a 10th-place showing. Further, over the past 12 weeks, Fleetwood sits 3rd in this field in strokes gained: tee to green, 24th in approach, 1st in par 5 scoring, and 9th in proximity from greater than 200 yards. Though he has just five Bermudagrass events to his name on the PGA Tour, he ranks 114th in the field in strokes gained: putting on Bermuda, but he's 2nd in strokes gained: around the green and 13th in birdie rate on such courses.

Tyrrell Hatton ($10,600 | 25) - Hatton most recently finished 3rd at the WGC-Mexico, after a missed cut at the Honda Classic. But prior to that, he was 3rd in Dubai and 15th in Abu Dhabi. In his debut at Bay Hill, Hatton finished fourth last season. He's 11th in the field in strokes gained: tee to green over the past 12 weeks, as well as 7th in proximity from greater than 200 yards and 27th from 175 to 200 yards. In eight career events on Bermudagrass, Hatton sits third in strokes gained: putting among the field.

Mid-Range Options

Zach Johnson ($10,200 | 60) - Johnson continues offering some solid upside at a near-average price. His past nine weeks include three top 20s in four tries (the other being a 57th). He's played Bay Hill plenty, and his past three finishes were 9th, 5th, and 66th. He's 10th in the field in tee-to-green play over the past 12 weeks, plus 12th in approach, 17th in par 5 scoring, 8th in scrambling, and 23rd in proximity from greater than 200 yards. Oh, and he's 20th in putting on Bermuda greens.

Kevin Chappell ($10,000 | 55) - Chappell's form here has been up and down over the past six years: 24th, cut, 14th, cut, 2nd, 49th. He's not a great Bermudagrass putter (104th in the field), but he does just about everything else we're looking for of late: 8th in approach, 28th on par 5s, 17th in scrambling, and 21st in proximity from 175 to 200 yards away.

Francesco Molinari ($9,900 | 60) - Molinari is 9th in strokes gained: tee to green over the past 12 weeks, as well as 30th in par 5 scoring, 16th from 175 to 200 and 27th from greater than 200. He also has this course figured out, as he has finished 34th, 5th, 17th, 9th, and 7th in his five tries since 2013. The Italian comes in with an affordable price and some decent upside.

Jason Kokrak ($9,500 | 60) - Kokrak also has some upside at Bay Hill, as he was 4th, 6th, and 20th from 2014 to 2016. In 2012, he missed the cut, and he finished 56th a year ago. The recent stats are also a bit iffy, and he really only stands out in par 5 scoring (11th) and proximity from greater than 200 yards (32nd) among the key stats. Still, the win odds are strong relative to the price, and that makes him worth considering.

Low-Priced Picks

Luke List ($9,200 | 55) - List generally is an option when we need distance, and that doesn't make the cut this week, but he's basically in the top half of the field in every key stat over the past 12 weeks, and he finished 17th in his only try at Bay Hill last year. As with Kokrak, the odds (55/1) put him on the radar as much as anything else.

James Hahn ($9,100 | 90) - Hahn ranks 4th in approach and 14th on par 5s over the past 12 weeks, as well as 20th in proximity from 200-plus yards. His form at Bay Hill is just two missed cuts (2013 and 2016) plus a 49th last year. But Hahn has made six straight cuts over the past nine weeks, including a second-place outing at Sony Open and four top-26 finishes.

Emiliano Grillo ($9,000 | 60) - Grillo's record at Bay Hill is abbreviated with just two events, but he made good on those tries, finishing 17th in 2016 and 7th in 2017. He enters with back-to-back top-eight finishes over the past three weeks. It's worth noting that he played on the Asian Tour last week (where he finished sixth), but travel will be somewhat of a factor.

Sam Burns ($9,000 | 100) - Burns hasn't played Bay Hill before, but he enters with three straight top-12 finishes. He was 2nd on the Web.Com Tour's Club Colombia Championship and then 8th at the Honda Classic and 12th at the Valspar last week. Burns ranks sixth in approach and top 40 in par 5 scoring, scrambling, proximity from 175-plus, and he is second in strokes gained: putting on Bermuda in six career events.

Chris Kirk ($8,700 | 125) - Kirk has spotty history here at Bay Hill, with a 16th, 60th, missed cut, 12th, and missed cut since 2013. Still, he's 9th in approach, 13th on par 5s, 13th in scrambling, and 6th in proximity from 175 to 200 yards over the past 12 weeks. He also ranks 20th in birdie or better rate, 8th in strokes gained: approach, and 19th in strokes gained: around the green over 103 career Bermudagrass events.

Vaughn Taylor ($8,300 | 225) - You don't want to find yourself scraping the bottom of the barrel this week, but with 120 players, a higher rate of golfers push through the cut. That's something the 42-year-old has done in six of his past nine tries at Bay Hill. He's got four top-25 finishes in those six made cuts, most recently netting a 23rd a year ago. Taylor ranks 13th in tee-to-green play over the past 12 weeks, 26th in approach, 15th on par 5s, 9th in scrambling, and 10th in proximity from 175 to 200 yards. You could do worse with a punt play.