GOLF

Daily Fantasy Golf Course Primer: Quicken Loans National

This week offers up a weak field on a seldom-used course. What do you need to know about TPC Potomac?

With Jordan Spieth's walk-off bunker shot to win last week's Travelers, it's only fitting that PGA fans are met with a massive letdown just a few days later for the 2017 Quicken Loans National.

Still, it's hard to complain too much after this shot.


But alas. We must move onward.

The Quicken Loans National moves to TPC Potomac, which hasn't hosted a PGA event since 2006 (and underwent a redesign, ruling out any learning chances from events in the early 2000s).

TPC Potomac did host an event in 2012 and 2013 for the Web.com Tour, but even those aren't super revealing for our purposes.

However, we can always dig in and get a leg up on the competition this week. Here's what you need to know about TPC Potomac.

Course and Tournament Overview

This par 70 spans around 7,100 yards. The winners at the Web.com events (David Lingmerth in 2012 and Michael Putnam in 2013) played eight and seven strokes below par, respectively.

That was a lower level of competition than the PGA Tour, of course, but we still shouldn't expect a parade of birdies here at TPC Potomac. Among players who played well enough to play all four rounds in those events, scores averaged around 2.7 strokes over par.

The field is 120 players, and the top 70 plus ties make the cut.

Key Stats

Certain stats -- such as strokes gained: tee to green and putting as well as birdie or better rate -- are always things to consider, but at this particular course, we're honing in on the following stats.

Key Stats for the Quicken Loans National at TPC Potomac
Good Drive Rate
Strokes Gained: Approach the Green
Strokes Gained: Around the Green
Par 4 Scoring


With a lack of history to study, we'll be going fairly broad with our stats. But that doesn't mean we're just guessing.

The par 70 lends itself to par 4 scoring, and with the narrow fairways, we should favor accuracy to distance. However, we're also prioritizing greens in regulation, and good drive rate lumps that all together.

Strokes gained: approach and around the green are also on the list for the same reason: we want our guys to avoid disaster and get on the green with a chance for par or better.

You can obviously tweak things to your liking, but this all-around approach looks like a safe way to attack TPC Potomac this week.

Course History "Studs"

We have a good handful of players in this week's field who played here at least once in 2012 or 2013, though not all of them are in DFS contention.

Web.com Results at TPC Potomac 2012 2013 FanDuel Price bet365 Win Odds
Danny Lee CUT $7,800 40
Adam Hadwin T25 T47 $7,600 70
Si Woo Kim T11 $7,300 50
David Lingmerth 1 $7,200 30
Kevin Tway T34 $6,700 70
Morgan Hoffmann T6 $6,400 90
Sung Kang T6 $6,400 90
Luke List T13 $6,200 100
James Hahn T36 $6,100 60
Robert Streb T25 $6,000 175
Ben Martin CUT $5,900 140
Whee Kim CUT $5,900 140
Billy Hurley III CUT $5,700 125
Hudson Swafford CUT T27 $5,700 125
Fabian Gomez T52 $5,500 200
Kyle Reifers CUT $5,300 175
Sam Saunders T8 CUT $5,300 225
Troy Merritt T38 CUT $5,300 200
Kelly Kraft CUT $5,100 175
Alex Cejka W/D $5,000 275
Blayne Barber CUT $5,000 250
Jim Herman CUT T15 $5,000 160
Tyrone Van Aswegen CUT T47 $5,000 200
Brett Stegmaier 60 $4,800 300
Derek Fathauer W/D CUT $4,700 250
Andrew Loupe 65 CUT $4,500 500
Jason Gore T57 T11 $4,500 160


So, most of the list is uninspiring, but the top of it boasts some guys who should have your attention.

Danny Lee finished T3 last week at the Travelers and was T47, T49, 6, and T5 in the four prior events. He's running hot, has experience here, and has strong win odds at 40/1.

Adam Hadwin has cooled off a bit of late (T57 last week, T60 at the U.S. Open, cut at the Memorial, T53 at the DEAN & DELUCA, T30 at THE PLAYERS, T72 at the Valero). However, he's still made 17 of 19 cuts on the season and has 7 top 25s.

Si Woo Kim makes for an interesting option this week as well, but just know that he missed 8 of 18 cuts so far this season. Of course, he won THE PLAYERS and was T13 at the U.S. Open and has some experience at TPC Potomac.

David Lingmerth won the Web.com event here in 2012 and has reeled off six straight cuts (T18, T72, T12, T15, T21, T26).

Kevin Tway is also a hot name, but he has come back to earth after a T3 at the Valero, T20 at the Byron Nelson, and T18 at the DEAN & DELUCA. He was cut at the Memorial, T31 at the St. Jude, and T43 last week at the Travelers. For the asking price, though, that's not bad.