GOLF

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: THE PLAYERS Championship

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 PLAYERS Championship

Key Stats

Key Stats for the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass
Strokes Gained: Approach
Birdies or Better Gained
Strokes Gained: Par 5s
Scrambling Gained
Proximity Gained: 200+ yards

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

Rory McIlroy (DraftKings Price: $11,700 | FanDuel Sportsbook Win Odds: +650) - Who else? McIlroy is the defending champion and in such great form that even with the admission that he doesn't need to be mentioned every single week, it's hard to argue against him. He is first in this field in total strokes gained, strokes gained: tee to green, birdies or better gained, and strokes gained on par 5s. He's 2nd in scrambling gained and 10th in approach, and by gawd, he's finished inside the top five in every event he's played since before Halloween. He'll be popular for sure and not quite as head and shoulders above the field as he was last week, but Rory is still the man to beat.

Justin Thomas ($10,700 | +1400) - Thomas has uncharacteristically missed the cut in two of his past four events, but outlier wind conditions at the Sony Open and a complete nightmare at Riviera at least let us convince ourselves we can give JT a break. He bounced back for a sixth-place finish in Mexico, and he'll be happy to have missed the last two extremely difficult courses in favor of more practice time at Sawgrass. He has a great record in Florida and decent to good finishes at THE PLAYERS, with a T3 in 2016 his best result. Thomas is tied with McIlroy for the best performance on par 5s, and he ranks second to Rory in total strokes gained, strokes gained: tee to green, and birdies or better gained. He also ranks third in strokes gained: approach and aside from those two missed cuts hasn't finished worse than T17 since June.

Adam Scott ($9,600 | +4100) - Scott got off to a bad start at Bay Hill and could not battle the conditions to mount any sort of comeback attempt. His missed cut was just his 3rd worldwide in the past 12 months, and we can expect a better showing at a track where he's made eight straight cuts with six top 20 finishes. He is 6th in proximity gained from 200-plus yards, 7th in strokes gained: approach, 9th in birdies or better gained, 28th on par 5s and 32nd in scrambling gained.

Mid-Priced Options

Webb Simpson ($9,200 | +2900) - Since his blowout at Sawgrass in 2018, Simpson has sustained a terrific level of performance and finally broke through for another victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. He well could have earned that win a few months prior, when at the RSM Classic he lost in a playoff to Tyler Duncan ($6,000 | +47000). That makes a win and a near miss on overseeded bermuda so far this year. Simpson does not pack the punch off the tee that most of the rest of the elite golfers do, but at THE PLAYERS most golfers are forced to club down and focus on accuracy anyway given the variety of dog legs and heavy tree lines. He is 3rd in proximity gained from 200-plus yards, 11th in strokes gained: approach, 12th in birdies or better gained, and 22nd in scrambling gained.

Hideki Matsuyama ($8,800 | +2700) - The putter is always the big question, but Matsuyama has had success on overseeded bermuda in the past, particularly in Phoenix, and he's fared pretty well on these surfaces. He's never lost more than 1.2 strokes putting at Sawgrass, and in fact has two spike weeks when he gained 2.7 and 6.5 strokes putting in 2019 and 2016, respectively. He is 4th in birdies or better gained, 5th in strokes gained: tee to green, 13th in strokes gained: approach, 14th on par 5s, and 17th in scrambling gained. The only mark against him is a disappointing 82nd in proximity gained from 200-plus yards, but that is a result of a few horrible performances in his sample than a consistent leak in his game.

Patrick Reed ($8,500 | +3600) - Despite two wins in the past seven months and just two finishes outside the top 25 since June(!), Reed is criminally underpriced and undervalued once again this week. His Sawgrass resume leaves a bit to be desired, but he is playing some of the best golf of his career and gaining in all facets over a significant sample. He ranks 3rd in birdies or better gained, 15th in scrambling gained, 17th in strokes gained: tee to green, and 30th in approach.

Paul Casey ($8,200 | +4900) - Typically an elite ballstriker and reliable cut maker, Casey is somewhat off the radar this week. In 11 tries at TPC Sawgrass, Casey has missed the cut 6 times and withdrawn when he likely would have once. A look at his recent PGA results will also leave fantasy owners wanting, with no top 10s since the Travelers Championship back in June except the small field TOUR Championship. But a closer look at both numbers reveals some hidden upside. Most of those missed cuts came more than seven years ago, and the times he has finished the event he's been inside the top 25 each time. Likewise, looking only at Casey's recent finishes on the PGA Tour will make you miss the win at the Porsche European Open and T5 at the Emirates Australian Open. Rarely do we get Casey at an ownership discount -- take advantage this week.

Low-Priced Options

Collin Morikawa ($7,900 | +3700) - The reigning cut-maker Tommy Fleetwood ($9,000 | +2700) faltered at Bay Hill, and now Morikawa will try to avoid the same fate in his TPC Sawgrass debut. It cannot be overstated how remarkable a start to a pro career this has been -- no cuts in his first 21 events, 11 top-30 finishes, and a win at the alt field Barracuda Championship. He ranks 1st in strokes gained: approach, 19th in birdies or better gained, and 24th in strokes gained: par 5s.

Viktor Hovland ($7,700 | +9500) - We just can't pass up the chance to roster Vik! He is priced at a perfect spot this week for either balanced or top-heavy builds, and Hovland is an absolute stud in the making. This will be by far the strongest field he's been tested in, but he profiles as one of the game's future stars and he will crash the party at some point. Hovland is 13th in strokes gained: approach and strokes gained: tee to green, 15th in birdies or better gained, and 17th in proximity gained from 200-plus yards. He has aspirations for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and The Masters -- and even the Ryder Cup -- and a splashy finish at Sawgrass will go a long way toward checking off those boxes ahead of schedule.

Marc Leishman ($7,600 | +3500) - With pricing posted early last week, the runner up and winner at Bay Hill -- Leishman and Tyrrell Hatton ($7,400 | +3800) -- stand out as the two biggest pricing values. One of those golfers will get back on the grind and the other won't be in a "fit state" until Wednesday. Leishman already got his win this year back at Torrey Pines, and his complete game should make him as fit as anyone at Sawgrass. The results haven't quite been there, with two missed cuts and two finishes in the 60s in his last four tries. But he was top 25 in each installment before then.

Daniel Berger ($7,200 | +7500) - Berger has been not-so-sneakily rounding into form and the switch to bermuda greens was pegged by many to be just what he needed to turn the corner and push for a title. A T4 finish at the Honda Classic gives him three top 10s in a row for the first time in his career. He is 5th in scrambling gained, 15th in proximity gained from 200-plus yards, 21st in birdies or better gained, and 31st in strokes gained: tee to green.

Erik Van Rooyen ($7,200 | +17000) - Van Rooyen has a limited track record on the PGA Tour, but he has shown well even considering the missed cuts in two of his last three events. Between those MC's was a T3 finish in a strong field in Mexico, and while that course couldn't be more different than Sawgrass, the things that van Rooyen does well should still translate. He still gained 2.1 strokes on approach at PGA National despite missing the cut, and in eight measured events, he's lost strokes on approach only twice. His sample is a bit wonkier than most given his limited scope of events, but van Rooyen ranks 10th in birdies or better gained, 17th in proximity gained from 200-plus yards, 27th in strokes gained: approach, and 30th in strokes gained: par 5s.

Bargain Basement

Harold Varner ($6,900 | +21000) - Varner finished T7 at THE PLAYERS two years ago, and despite a missed cut here last year will have to be confident heading to TPC Sawgrass this week. He was right in the mix at Riviera before a poor final round, and he started strong at Bay Hill before succumbing to the wild winds and finishing T36. He is 1st in proximity gained from 200-plus yards and 30th in strokes gained: par 5s. He had a poor stretch of four straight missed cuts to start 2020 but has rebounded nicely with three straight made cuts in pretty difficult conditions.

Corey Conners ($6,800 | +19000) - Conners is an elite ballstriker who has had his best putting weeks on bermuda greens, especially the similar overseeding of poa trivialis and velvet bentgrass at the Valero Texas Open. He Monday-qualified and then won in San Antonio, and he'll need a similar miracle to contend here, but his elite ballstriking widens his range right up to the very top of the board. He's gained strokes via approach in five of seven events to start 2020, and in that span, he's lost at least 2.5 strokes putting in all but one event. He gained 5.1 on the only bermuda course in that span at the Sony Open.


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.