Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship

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's daily fantasy golf offering.

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. It's a great balance between time to research and time spent tracking your team.

But whether you're brand new to the PGA or daily fantasy sports in general, we have you covered -- and we have daily fantasy golf projections and lineup building tools, too.

Let's take a look at some golfers to target this week.

Key Stats

The past two winners at Corales were 18-under par, meaning we should be anticipating a birdie-fest this week, a big deviation from the U.S. Open we got last week at Winged Foot.

There's no strokes gained data from the two events at this course, so that's a huge bummer. That said, we've seen good drive rate and greens in regulation separate the pack in each of those two years. Effectively, those are strokes gained: off the tee and strokes gained: approach, respectively. Putting -- the surface is a seldom seen paspalum -- should also matter, as birdie conversion is key.

For a more detailed breakdown on the course, check out our course primer from Mike Rodden.

Stats cited below come from FantasyNational and include the past 50 rounds on the PGA Tour unless noted. Ranks are among the field. For this week, I'm making sure the cutoff is the past calendar year for golfers, as PGA Tour samples are spotty for some of these guys.

High-Salaried Plays

Will Zalatoris (FanDuel Salary: $11,800 | FanDuel Sportsbook Win Odds: +1100) - Zalatoris is the favorite in this weak PGA Tour field, and you should recognize that name if you were glued to U.S. Open coverage: he finished T6 and led the field in in strokes gained: approach. Zalatoris, in 2020, led the Korn Ferry Tour in ball-striking, which should help us buy into the elite ball-striking we saw at Winged Foot.

Adam Long ($11,400 | +2000) - Long pops statistically relative to the field. He is 25th in strokes gained: tee to green in our sample -- as well as 12th in putting over a full 50 rounds. No other golfer is top-25 in each. Long has played this course twice on the Korn Ferry Tour: missing the cut in 2016 (71-70) and finishing T8 in 2017 (71-67-67-67). He had a hot short game last week but still finished 13th at the U.S. Open. That's not nothing.

Others to Consider:
Sam Burns ($11,600 | +1800) - Field leader in total strokes gained average with top-20 off-the-tee play and putting; T12 here last year.
Adam Schenk ($10,700 | +4500) - Is 10th off the tee and top-50 in approach and putting; has played here four years running with four made cuts.
Sepp Straka ($10,200 | +3700) - Top-27 in both ball-striking stats as well as 10th in putting; can rack up birdies (26th).

Mid-Salaried Plays

Henrik Norlander ($9,700 | +4000) - Norlander ranks 7th in approach and 19th off the tee ultimately to rank 28th in birdie or better rate gained in our sample. He missed the cut at the Safeway due to a terrible short game and a pretty neutral ball-striking showing. He had made six straight cuts before two straight early exits at THE NORTHERN TRUST and the Safeway. Trust the long-term form here.

Xin-Jun Zhang ($9,500 | +6000) - Zhang is someone I bet frequently for top-10s because he's good and volatile. Among the field, he's 26th off the tee and with the putter and ranks 12th in birdie or better rate gained. From a raw stats standpoint, I have him ranked ninth in the field. He shot 74-67 in 2017's Korn Ferry event and then finished fifth in 2018.

Others to Consider:
Thomas Detry ($9,900 | +2700) - T49 at the U.S. Open and two runner-ups on the Euro Tour since the start of August.
Jhonattan Vegas ($9,800 | +6000) - Field leader off the tee and just a better long-term golfer than anyone with a salary below $10,000.
Chris Baker ($9,500 | +9000) - Off a missed cut, Baker has gained from ball-striking in six straight events with spike weeks from the irons.

Low-Salaried Plays

Keith Mitchell ($8,900 | +5000) - Mitchell is pretty much guaranteed to gain strokes off the tee against this field, as he is sixth there. After that, it's a little messier, but he actually sits 21st in putting over the past 50 rounds and ultimately ranks 8th in birdie or better rate. He also has finished second here in 2018.

Will Gordon ($8,400 | +5500) - Gordon has super short odds for the salary, and it's warranted -- sort of. He ranks fourth in strokes gained: tee to green over a 30-round sample on the PGA Tour over the past year. He's made three of five cuts since June and virtually always adds strokes off the tee, including 4.0 at the Wyndham and 6.3 off the tee.

Others to Consider:
Matthew NeSmith ($8,900 | +10000) - 2nd in approach and 33rd in putting but just 91st in birdie rate. Long-term form is good for this range (behind only Mitchell).
Vaughn Taylor ($8,800 | +13000) - Elite long-term data for $8,800 but just one made cut since the restart in six attempts.
Seamus Power ($8,200 | +6500) - Finished 7th, 5th, and 44th here and a balanced stats profile.