DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: U.S. Open

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 U.S. Open.

Key Stats

Let's get to the picks. For details on why these stats stand out this week, check out the course primer.

Most stats are from Fantasy National Golf Club and are for golfers in the field over the last 50 rounds. Total Driving stats are from the PGA Tour and cover the entirety of the truncated 2019-20 season.

High-Priced Studs

Jon Rahm (DraftKings Price: $11,000 | FanDuel Sportsbook Win Odds: +900) - Certainly you can start your lineups with Dustin Johnson ($11,500 | +750), the recently crowned FedEx Champion with recent finishes of first, second, first, and second his last four starts. But given how many popular we expect DJ to be, we'll drop down to Rahm as our first pick. Rahm won on the two hardest courses since the restart at the Memorial and the BMW Championship, the latter in a playoff over Johnson himself. Rahm is first in total strokes gained, second in bogeys avoided, second in total driving, third off the tee, and eighth in scrambling gained.

Justin Thomas ($10,700 | +1200) - JT rode the world No. 1 carousel with Johnson and Rahm this summer, earning the distinction for the first time in his career after winning the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. His finishes since then are: T37 at the PGA Championship, T49 at THE NORTHERN TRUST, T25 at the BMW Championship, and T2 at the TOUR Championship. He lost at least three strokes putting on all but the BMW Championship, but firm, fast greens bode well for him as his weaknesses are less magnified when the greens are hard for everyone. He ranks 2nd in strokes gained: approach, 3rd in birdies or better gained and scrambling gained, 5th in total strokes gained, 9th in bogeys avoided, and 16th in strokes gained: off the tee.

Xander Schauffele ($10,000 | +1400) - Schauffele has been knocking on the door all year, and of course the week he posts the best 72-hole score he can't even count a win due to the starting strokes at the TOUR Championship. Schauffele thrives at the U.S. Open setups, with three top 10s in each of the past three years. He ranks 15th in total driving and 32nd in strokes gained: approach, giving him a nice ballstriking profile from both a power and accuracy standpoint. His short game and scoring are on point as well, as he ranks first in bogeys avoided, fourth in total strokes gained, and sixth in scrambling gained.

Mid-Priced Options

Daniel Berger ($9,200 | +2700) - Berger has been a frequent name in this space since the restart, and he finished the 2019-20 season with seven top 10s. He arrives ranking 2nd in total strokes gained, 2nd in scrambling gained, 7th in bogeys avoided, 10th in strokes gained: approach, 12th in total driving, and 19th in strokes gained: off the tee. He gained just about everywhere, and it must be said, he's putt quite well throughout his hot streak. The flat stick has cooled a bit, losing strokes in three of his last four events. But the consistency was long and diverse enough that we'll buy Berger again now that he is actually due for some positive regression with the putter.

Tony Finau ($9,100 | +3300) - Finau always brings his A-game for major championships, with six top-5 finishes in the last nine majors. That run includes a solo fifth at Shinnecock Hills, arguably the most difficult set up of the past decade. Finau is solid across the board, ranking 17th in total strokes gained, 18th in strokes gained: approach, 19th in bogeys avoided, and 30th in strokes gained: off the tee. He is hungry for his first full-field win, and for a golfer with such a noticeable lack of hardware Vegas certainly gives Finau a ton of credit this week.

Adam Scott ($8,700 | +4000) - Scott has played a light schedule the past few years, and especially this year with the long COVID layoff he featured in just 10 official PGA events. That brief season included a win at Riviera, another challenging track with firm, fast greens. His 50-round sample goes back a bit further than most, but Scott ranks 10th in bogeys avoided, 12th in total strokes gained, 14th in strokes gained: approach, and 33rd in scrambling gained.

Tyrrell Hatton ($8,100 | +4500) - Hatton survived the elements at Bay Hill earlier this year for what looked like one of the toughest tournaments of the season. Olympia Fields no doubt held that honor by season's end, and another beast awaits the field this week. He ranks 9th in strokes gained: approach, 10th in total strokes gained, and 27th in bogeys avoided. Hatton missed the cut at the PGA Championship after having made the weekend at eight straight major championships, including three top 10s. Shinnecock was among those strong finishes, a good sign for Hatton's prospects this week.

Low-Priced Options

Paul Casey ($7,900 | +5000) - Your leader in total driving for the 2019-20 season, Casey ranked 23rd in distance and 52nd in accuracy for the year. The ballstriking profile gets better, ranking 11th in strokes gained: approach and 12th off the tee. He's eighth in bogeys avoided as well, and a runner up finish at the PGA Championship set Casey right after a disappointing restart. He is always popular in DFS thanks to his cut making ability, but if you're looking to play cash games on DraftKings this week Casey is a nice piece that works whether you are going stars and scrubs or a more balanced build.

Harris English ($7,900 | +7000) - English's only weakness right now is the driver, but he is certainly capable and ranks 34th in total driving. He ranks eighth in total strokes gained, and his short game has really carried him, as he ranks first in scrambling gained and third in bogeys avoided. He has just two finishes since January outside the top 20, including a T9 in difficult conditions at Bay Hill. Had DJ not gone nuclear, English would have capped off his great season with a win at THE NORTHERN TRUST. Instead, he settled for a runner up 11 strokes behind Johnson and is still looking for his first win since 2013. That would be a stretch this week, but English has been one of the steadiest golfers on Tour this year, and we'll need to find golfers who are content with saving par and escaping.

Abraham Ancer ($7,800 | +8000) - Ancer offers a nice stat profile in the $7k range, ranking 15th in bogeys avoided, 17th in strokes gained: off the tee, 19th in total strokes gained, 30th in strokes gained: approach, and 40th in scrambling gained. He has three runner-up finishes in the past 13 months but is still looking for that first PGA Tour win. After starting the 2019-20 season with consecutive missed cuts, Ancer has played the weekend in 17 of his 18 events since.

Henrik Stenson ($7,200 | +15000) - A bit of a pivot since he is far behind the biggest drivers, but Stenson is a fairway machine and still an elite ball striker with his long irons. We wouldn't expect him to keep pace in a shootout, but then again we don't expect anything of the sort this week. Like Scott, he played a very light schedule this year and missed the cut at the PGA Championship in just his third start of 2020 on the PGA Tour. But his history in majors is impressive -- before the MC at Harding Park, he'd made the cut in 9 of the last 11 majors with two top 10s in the past two U.S. Opens.

Bargain Basement

Erik Van Rooyen ($6,900 | +20000) - EVR is a tricky one. He flops in fields where he looks like one of the top talents and then puts up strong finishes in the best fields. He's made the cut at all five of the majors he's played and has three top 20s. He ranks 14th in strokes gained: off the tee, 22nd in strokes gained: approach, and 26th in total strokes gained:.

Max Homa ($6,400 | +35000) - Homa started the season strong, with three top 10s on the West Coast and a T24 at Bay Hill. Aside from a T3 at the 3M Open, his post-COVID performance has been disappointing, with no other finishes inside the top 40. His career is marked with random top 10s amidst lackluster performances. Back on poa annua, he has the potential for a spike week at Winged Foot.

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.