GOLF

Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: Corales Puntacana Championship

Emiliano Grillo is a heavy favorite this week. Who else should be on your DFS radar?

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 Corales Puntacana Championship at Puntacana Country Club
Par 5 Scoring
Driving Distance
Strokes Gained: Approach
Proximity From 200+ Yards


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

Best of the Best

Emiliano Grillo (FanDuel Price: $11,700 | bet365 Win Odds: 9/1) - Despite sitting as a fairly heavy favorite, Grillo ranks fourth in salary on FanDuel. He leads the field in strokes gained: tee to green and in approach over the past 50 rounds on tour, per FantasyGolfMetrics. Grillo, at 75th in the Official World Golf Rankings, is the class of the field, as well.

Scott Piercy ($11,900 | 18) - Piercy's odds rank him third, as does his FanDuel salary. He's been more up than down lately, as well. He missed the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week after a 17th, 20th, missed cut, 6th, and 25th. The good is worth the bad here, though, in a field this weak. Piercy is the top birdie maker in the field over the past 50 rounds, as well.

Patrick Rodgers ($11,500 | 20) - The 25-year-old American enters with two top-10s in the past six weeks (7th at the Arnold Palmer and 8th at Pebble Beach), with a 26th, 33rd, and 59th in between. Rodgers should score well on the par 5s, and that can vault him near the top of the leaderboard this week.

Trey Mullinax ($11,200 | 40) - Mullinax finished 11th at this course in 2016 and most recently finished 8th at the Valspar and 47th at Pebble Beach. He knows the course at least and ranks first in driving distance and sixth in birdie or better rate over the past 50 rounds among this field. He's an upside play for tournaments with that scoring potential, especially if a few chalky options emerge by Thursday.

Rory Sabbatini ($10,900 | 20) - Sabbatini's ripped off seven straight cuts and most recently finished 17th at the Honda Classic and 5th at the Valspar. Sabbatini has scored well on par 5s of late and ranks 11th in this field in proximity from greater than 200 yards over the past 50 rounds. The odds are also in his favor, relative to the price.

Mid-Range Options

Robert Garrigus ($9,900 | 35) - Garrigus' stats outweigh his recent form: 31st, cut, cut, 52nd, 8th, 57th, cut. He's top-10 in the field in strokes gained: tee to green and approach, birdie or better rate, and driving distance over the past 50 rounds.

Derek Fathauer ($9,500 | 45) - Fathauer snapped a mini-run of top-16s (16th at the Genesis Open and 13th at the Honda Classic) with a missed cut at the Valspar. Still, he's playing well overall lately and doesn't have many holes in his game in terms of stats relative to this field. The 264th-ranked golfer in the world is actually 26th by the OWGR rankings in this particular field. Plus, his win odds have improved from 55/1 to 45/1 as of Tuesday morning.

Paul Dunne ($9,500 | 30) - Dunne's 84th-placed OWGR ranking puts him second in this field, and with few other options even close (Grillo (75th), Seungsu Han (85th), Chris Wood (95th), and Fabrizio Zanotti (109th) are the others inside the top 125), Dunne certainly deserves a look. The 25 year old from Ireland hasn't played much lately: just three times in the past eight weeks. He missed two cuts and finished 55th in those, but he's worth the risk in this field.

Sam Ryder ($9,000 | 60) - Ryder actually has course form here, as the Web.Com alum played here both in 2016 and 2017. He finished 2nd and 12th, respectively, so that puts him on the radar. It's been 14 events since he's finished better than 25th, but some course familiarity with decent win odds isn't a bad bet at just $9,000.

Low-Priced Picks

Retief Goosen ($8,900 | 55) - Goosen's finishes tanked in tougher fields recently (cut at the Valspar, Honda, and Waste Management, plus 53rd at the Genesis). Prior to those, he was 12th at the Farmers Insurance Open, 20th at the BMW in South Africa, 29th at the RSM, and 34th at the OHL, which should correlate to success here. Goosen ranks top 15 over the past 50 rounds in strokes gained: tee to green and approach, plus par 5 scoring.

Nate Lashley ($8,800 | 60) - Lashley won here last year on the Web.Com Tour but hasn't made a cut in any of his three events over the past eight weeks. Like with Goosen, the early-season finishes were a little better (29th at the CareerBuilder, 39th at the Sony Open, and 49th at the RSM). Of course, those came after four missed cuts on the PGA Tour season. Still, with a field this watered down, Lashley is in play given the 2017 win at Puntacana.

Abraham Ancer ($8,000 | 50) - Ancer finished 41st in his debut at Puntacana last year, so at least he knows the course. Ancer enters with a 52nd at the WGC-Mexico and a 16th at the Valspar, so that alone puts him on the radar. He's also 8th in approach, 9th on par 5s, and 16th in birdie or better rate over the past 50 rounds.

Seungsu Han ($7,200 | 55) - Han enters with good form. Across Euro and Japanese events, Han's finishes read 13th, 4th, 58th, 29th, 27th, 3rd, 1st, 23rd, 3rd, and 5th. He is up to 85th in the Official World Golf Rankings, and at 55/1 to win, per bet365, he's an underpriced option on FanDuel this week.