DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: Hero World Challenge
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 Hero World Challenge.
With just 18 golfers in the field, the plays are narrow and differentiation will be key. DFS players should be liberal with roster construction and can choose to either leave money on the table or try to identify a unique lineup construction to avoid duplicating lineups with our opponents. We'll discuss the entire field with that goal in mind this week.
Key Stats
| Key Stats for the Hero World Challenge at Albany |
|---|
| Strokes Gained: Tee to Green |
| Strokes Gained: Approach |
| Birdies or Better Gained |
| Strokes Gained: Par 5s |
| Scrambling Gained |
Let's get to the picks. For details on why these stats stand out this week, check out the course primer.
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
Patrick Cantlay (DraftKings Price: $10,200 | FanDuel Sportsbook Win Odds: +800) - Cantlay gets the edge over Jon Rahm ($11,600 | +430) and Justin Thomas ($10,600 | +650) as the only three golfers above $10K. Cantlay is first in birdies or better gained, strokes gained: par 5s, and scrambling gained, second in strokes gained: tee to green, and fifth in approach. At Rahm's price and ownership, he basically has to win to be worth rostering. He is the defending champion at the Hero and is coming off a victory at the DP World Tour Championship. Fade the chalk and differentiate immediately.
Xander Schauffele ($9,800 | +900) - Always dangerous in small, strong fields, Schauffele makes for an ideal starting point in a balanced lineup that fades the $10K group entirely. With pricing so loose and the $6K range populated with plenty of household names, many players will click Rahm and Thomas or Cantlay together and happily fill out their lineup with the cheapies. Plugging in the X man and then picking at the lower prices while leaving several thousand on the table or going mostly balanced will both be unique lineup constructions this week.
Mid- and Low-Priced Options
Rickie Fowler ($8,200 | +1200) - Fowler lacked his typical consistency to close the season, with finishes of T43 or worse in five of his last nine starts. He flashed upside in the four good ones, however, most notably a T6 at the Open Championship. Fowler is the forgotten man among the world's elite, an also-ran whose most famous memories at major championships are often hugs of congratulations to his victorious friends. A bacterial infection following his honeymoon should further dampen enthusiasm for him in his first event of the season. He is easy to avoid if you plug in two of the top options, making him a solid leverage play.
Bryson DeChambeau ($7,600 | +1600) - Last fall into winter was prime Bryson SZN, as he rattled off four wins between the Playoffs and the first month of the New Year. The wins dried up, and DeChambeau has been starved since, with a runner-up at the 3M Open over the summer and a T4 his last time out at the Shriners his closest calls. DeChambeau has been bulking up since Vegas, and the world gets their first look at Bulk Bryson in the Bahamas. DeChambeau is going to (rather obnoxiously sometimes) analyze every possible angle when making this type of decision, and if he thinks this program is the path to the next level of success, we should give him the benefit of the doubt.
Bargain Basement
There are a LOT of options down here, but Jordan Spieth ($6,600 | +2200) and Tony Finau ($6,500 | +1800) make for the best plays this week in this cheap tier. Many DFS players are loathe to click Spieth's name, but he's done well every year he's played the Hero and has something to prove after missing out on the President's Cup. Every other member of the team is in this field (except Dustin Johnson, who withdrew in hopes of getting healthy for Australia), and while the long term form is lacking, Spieth still has more major championships than all but one man in the field.
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.
