DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: Houston 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 the Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course.

Key Stats

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.

High-Salaried Studs

Dustin Johnson (DraftKings Salary: $11,500 | FanDuel Sportsbook Win Odds: +750) - Johnson returns to action for a tune-up after missing the no-cut events out West due to a positive COVID-19 test. The stats all line up for DJ as the top player in this or any field, but it remains to be seen how he handles a few weeks off and battling the disease. We certainly hope for a lot of reasons that he is fully recovered, and how he looks this week will give us some indication of how chalky he'll be next week at The Masters.

Tony Finau ($10,900 | +2200) - Finau is the top par 5 player in the field, ranking first in our last 50 samples. He is also 4th in birdies or better gained, 7th in strokes gained: tee-to-green, 11th in strokes gained: approach, and 14th in strokes gained: off the tee. Finau is recovering from a bout with COVID as well, but he seemed to pick up right where he left off with an 11th place finish at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD.

Tyrrell Hatton ($10,300 | +1600) - Hatton has three worldwide wins in the past 12 months, and even with the caveat that his Euro win at the BMW PGA Championship won't count toward his PGA stats he still rates out very well this week. He is second only to Johnson in birdies or better gained and fifth in strokes gained: approach.

Mid-Salaried Options

Doc Redman ($8,800 | +4500) - Redman was in the hunt last week in Bermuda, and we can see him finding the podium again at Memorial Park. He is eighth in strokes gained: approach, and he's been knocking on the door recently when his game is clicking. His T4 at Port Royal was the third top 10 finish in his last six events. He also has two missed cuts in that range, and over the past couple of years, he's put together good finishes at "easy" courses. The other recent finishes were T3's at the Safeway Open and the Wyndham Championship, and thus far his best career finish is a runner up at the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic. He was T13 at the Golf Club of Houston in its final year as host of this event, and solid form at a course he can conquer makes Redman very attractive this week.

Corey Conners ($8,700 | +5000) - Conners has the right ballstriking profile this week, ranking 6th off the tee and 12th on approach. He's been hot and cold lately, with finishes of T8, T61, and T17 in his last three events. He gained in all four strokes gained metrics at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and the Sanderson Farms, but lost in all four at THE CJ CUP. Long term, the tee-to-green game is where his strengths lie, but if he is able to gain with the putter he should be firmly in contention. His best results on Tour came on Bermuda tracks, first a runner up in Hawaii and, of course, at his win at the Valero Texas Open in 2019.

Si Woo Kim ($8,300 | +4500) - Memorial Park underwent a redesign by renowned architect Tom Doak to get Tour-ready, his first course to host a PGA Tour event. Doak is a noted disciple of Pete Dye, the legendary designer who counts TPC Sawgrass among his creations. Kim made his name when he won THE PLAYERS in 2017 with a ballstriking display for the ages. He has elite upside with a long iron in his hand on approach, and Memorial Park has three par 3s over 200 yards and an extra par 5 to attack this week. With just one missed cut in his past 13 events and recent finishes of T8 and T17 leading into this event, Si Woo has found some consistency to go along with his high variance potential.

Low-Salaried Options

Erik Van Rooyen ($7,700 | +7000) - We seem to fall into this trap frequently with EVR at easier tracks, where he lines up well but disappoints only to bounce back at a much tougher track the following week. He's missed cuts at the Safeway Open, the 3M Open, and the Rocket Mortgage Classic since the restart, but has top 25s at the RBC Heritage, the Memorial, the WGC FedEx-St. Jude Invitational, and the U.S. Open. He looks the part again this week, ranking 9th strokes gained: off the tee, 12th in birdies or better gained, 13th in strokes gained: par 5s, and 22nd in strokes gained: approach. PGA-only watchers will note that he does not have a start since the U.S. Open, but he's played well on the European Tour since then, with a T6 at the Scottish Open and T27 at the BMW PGA Championship. If he misses the cut this week, fire him up at Augusta with confidence.

Sam Burns ($7,500 | +9000) - "Bermuda Burns" was not invited out West and opted to skip the Bermuda Championship, so he tees it up for the first time since the Shriners almost a month ago. He is third in strokes gained: off the tee, sixth in birdies or better gained, and seventh in strokes gained: par 5s. While he's just 58th in approach, he makes up for it with the short stick. Burns is 15th in strokes gained: putting overall, and a stellar 3rd if we split out just his record on Bermuda greens.

Luke List ($7,000 | +10000) - List ranks 7th in strokes gained: off the tee and 10th in strokes gained on par 5s. He is not exactly a safe play, but a $1,400 discount from his price last week at least gives us enough pause to consider List. He carded a 68-72-72-72 week in Bermuda, but he scored two triple bogeys on the par 4 15th on Friday and Saturday that makes his week look much different if he avoids the blow-up.

Sepp Straka ($7,000 | +10000) - Straka will feast on the extra par 5, as he ranks sixth in strokes gained on such holes over his last 50 events. He is also 17th in birdies or better gained and 19th in strokes gained: off the tee, and while he's just 52nd in strokes gained: approach that's mostly due to one extremely poor performances with his irons -- he lost 6.4 strokes with his approaches in his third round at the Memorial. Straka would rank in the 30s in approach if he just missed the cut that week. He was T4 last year in Houston, just one stroke off the lead after the first round and in contention all week.

Bargain Basement

Jhonattan Vegas ($6,600 | +15000) - Vegas is 2nd in strokes gained: off the tee, tied for 10th in birdies or better gained, and a respectable if not spectacular 34th on par 5s. The form is not there, but as we saw last week that shouldn't disqualify anyone at these swing season events, especially at a course that is largely an unknown. This is a long enough course but it's still a muni, and the distance for guys like Vegas -- who ranked 15th on the entire Tour last season -- could potentially overpower Memorial Park.

Will Gordon ($6,400 | +20000) - Right behind Vegas in last season's distance rankings is Gordon at 17th on Tour. Gordon is 10th in both strokes gained: off the tee and birdies or better gained, good enough in this range. After a few duds, he finished T34 last week in Bermuda, his best finish since the Wyndham Championship in August.

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.