GOLF

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: RBC Canadian Open

Dustin Johnson looks to bounce back from his missed cut at The Open Championship. Which other golfers should you be targeting this week on DraftKings?

Daily fantasy golf requires a new approach for each and every event.

The course and field change week after week, making no two contests alike. That means you need to refine your approach for each PGA Tour event to try to find golfers who are primed to excel for your daily fantasy golf lineups.

Each week, we have a course primer, and our daily fantasy golf projections and lineup builder can help you get started, but these golfers stand out specifically on DraftKings for the RBC Canadian Open.

This Week’s Course

The PGA Tour returns to North America this week for the RBC Canadian Open, hosted at Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville, Ontario. The par 72 stretches 7,253 yards and features poa annua greens, according to Josh Culp’s Fantasy Golfanac. Birdies and eagles abound, so golfers who put themselves in position consistently and convert their opportunities at a higher rate are primary targets. Most of those are going to come on the full allotment of par 5s this week, so scoring on those holes is also a major factor. Long hitters are favored, but with none of the individual strokes gained metrics standing out this week the overall tee-to-green play should be factored in.

Key Stats

Key Stats for the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey GC
Strokes Gained: Tee to Green
Birdies or Better Gained
Strokes Gained: Par 5s
Greens In Regulation Gained


Now, onto the picks.

All stats are from Fantasy National Golf Club and are for golfers in the field over the last 50 rounds, unless otherwise noted.

High Priced Studs

Dustin Johnson (DraftKings Price $11,700 | PaddyPower Win Odds: 6/1) - Standing on the 17th tee at Carnoustie, Dustin Johnson looked up at his score and realized he was right on the cut line. “Well that won’t do,” he thought. DJ promptly went bogey-double bogey to miss the cut at The Open Championship, but he should be primed to bounce back this week. Johnson is first in strokes gained: tee to green and birdies or better gained, second in strokes gained: par 5s, and sixth in greens in regulation gained. He's also well clear of the next-closest golfer -- Brooks Koepka | 11 -- in win odds.

Tommy Fleetwood ($10,500 | 16) - Fleetwood faded over the weekend at Carnoustie after a dazzling Friday 65 vaulted him into contention. He is ranked no worse than 12th in any of the key stats this week and should feast on this weaker field. Aside from a missed cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, Fleetwood has not finished outside the top 26 in a PGA Tour event since February.

Tony Finau ($9,800 | 14) - Finau profiles very well for this course, as he is a long hitter who can take advantage of the gettable par 5s and put up round numbers. He is first in strokes gained: par 5s and greens in regulation gained, third in birdies or better gained, and fourth in strokes gained: tee to green.

Mid Priced Options

Gary Woodland ($9,200 | 33) - Woodland is inside the top-15 in each of the key stats, including top-5 in greens in regulation gained (3rd) and birdies or better gained (5th). With just one finish inside the top 25 since his win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Woodland's shaky putter can always derail an otherwise solid round. But his game sets up nicely for this course, and he finished fourth here last year.

J.B. Holmes ($8,900 | 50) - Another big hitter who can unleash his driver this week, Holmes is 8th in strokes gained: tee to green and 17th in strokes gained: par 5s. He has missed the cut the last two times he teed it up on Tour, but prior to this rough patch he had two straight top-5s. Priced so close to the highest salary tier (and, often, ownership), Holmes could come in with very low ownership in GPPs this week.

Charley Hoffman ($8,700 | 20) - Hoffman has quietly strung together a nice run recently, with three straight top-20 finishes in his last three PGA events, including The Open Championship and the U.S. Open. Even without the strokes gained data for the majors, Hoffman is 13th in birdies or better gained, 16th in greens in regulation gained, and 27th in strokes gained: tee to green. He was the runner-up at this event last year.

Keegan Bradley ($8,100 | 45) - Like Woodland and Holmes, Bradley is often a disaster waiting to happen on the greens. It didn’t matter here last year, when he lost 1.4 strokes putting but still finished 14th thanks to his stellar tee-to-green game (2nd in this field). Bradley is 10th in strokes gained: par 5’s and 13th in greens in regulation gained.

Low Priced Options

Byeong Hun An ($7,800 | 45) - One of the best values on the board, An was priced $8,600 just a couple weeks ago at the Quicken Loans National in a similarly weak field. He is 7th in strokes gained: tee to green, 20th in strokes gained: approach, and 23rd in birdies or better gained. He has just 1 missed cut in his last 10 events. Take the price discount here and diversify your lineups elsewhere.

Chris Kirk ($7,600 | 45) - Kirk is 8th in strokes gained: approach, 10th in strokes gained: tee to green, and 20th in strokes gained: par 5s. He has seen an even more extreme price drop than An over the past couple weeks, as he was $8,900 at the John Deere Classic. He finished 70th at the RBC Canadian Open last year, but was top-25 each of his three prior attempts.

Joel Dahmen ($7,400 | 100) - Dahmen is in the conversation for best current form in this entire field, as he has seven top-25s in his last nine events, including four straight. He is 40th or better in each of the key stats in his last 50 rounds, but no worse than 11th in any in his last 24 rounds.

Keith Mitchell ($7,400 | 80) - Given that Dahmen’s strong recent form will attract a lot of attention in this range, finding comparably priced players can be a good strategy to differentiate lineups. Mitchell is 7th on the entire Tour in driving distance (Dahmen is 96th), and he is just as solid in the key stats. He is 4th in birdies or better gained, 5th in strokes gained: par 5s, 11th in greens in regulation gained, and 12th in strokes gained: tee to green.

J.J. Spaun ($7,200 | 80) - Spaun is 6th in strokes gained: approach, 10th in birdies or better gained, and 14th in strokes gained: tee to green. He has earned his reputation as a poor putter, but in the events where he has putted well he has flashed top-5 upside (2018 Byron Nelson and 2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open).

Bargain Basement

Jason Kokrak ($6,800 | 125) - Kokrak has missed the cut in four of his last five events, but the outlier in that sample was a third place finish at the Greenbrier. That result came despite losing 3.6(!) strokes putting, one of the 12 worst putting performances of the week. Kokrak is 10th in greens in regulation gained and 26th in strokes gained: tee to green. He is a bomber who can attack the par 5s here, and that warrants consideration in this range.

Tom Lovelady ($6,800 | 66) - Lovelady rounds out the crop of big hitters who can’t putt. He is fourth on Tour in driving distance (behind only Finau in this field). He is also 6th in strokes gained: par 5s and 26th in greens in regulation gained. He finished T2 last week at the Barbasol Championship, so you could worse in this range.



Mike Rodden is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Mike Rodden also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mike_rodden. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.