GOLF

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: AT&T Byron Nelson

With a few stars in the field and a steep drop off, we are looking at a potentially common lineup construction on DraftKings built around two studs. Here are our picks, including pivots away from the chalky lineup construction.

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 AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch.

Key Stats

Key Stats for the AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch
Strokes Gained: Tee to Green
Strokes Gained: Approach
Birdies or Better Gained
Strokes Gained: Par 5s
Strokes Gained: Putting (Bentgrass)


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

Jon Rahm (DraftKings Salary: $11,000 | FanDuel Sportsbook Win Odds: +850) - We'll skip right on past all that Bryson DeChambeau ($11,200 | +700) chalk and pivot to Rahm, who will certainly still be plenty popular but isn't part of the hometown narrative and just the in-your-face newsworthiness that DeChambeau brings to the table. Rahm is 2nd in strokes gained: tee to green, 4th in strokes gained: par 5s, 8th in birdies or better gained, and 10th in strokes gained: approach. He's 36th in strokes gained: putting on bentgrass -- but -- he is 2nd in total strokes gained on bentgrass courses. A missed cut at the Wells Fargo will only help keep his roster percentage in check, and it's not like the form is bad. He had top-10 finishes in seven of his prior nine events and hadn't missed a cut since the first event back out of the pandemic layoff last year.

Jordan Spieth ($10,700 | +1100) - This week's field is so top-heavy that we can expect a fairly common lineup construction of two golfers at $9,500 and up in almost every lineup. A unique construction would be to forego both Bryson and Rahm and start with Spieth, then add multiple golfers in the (admittedly dark) $8,000 range. We can avoid the volatile $6,000 range that the public will likely delve into more freely than in other weeks in an effort to jam in two top-tier stars. Spieth is a worthy anchor, having just recently won in Texas and contended at The Masters. He has a stellar putting record just about everywhere, and while he's third in strokes gained with the flat stick on bentgrass, those numbers don't include his incredible Augusta National putting performances. He's also third in birdies or better gained, fourth in strokes gained: approach, and ninth on par 5s.

Brooks Koepka ($9,900 | +1600) - Whether you think last week's missed cut was a chink in the armor or a one week blip for Plano, Texas native Will Zalatoris ($9,700 | +2600), we still expect him to be on more rosters than the four-time major champion. With the PGA Championship on tap next week, Koepka would not be here if he was not ready to play and find some form before Kiawah Island. He ranks 5th in birdies or better gained, 9th in strokes gained: tee to green, 12th in strokes gained: approach, and 30th on par 5s.

Mid-Salaried Options

Sam Burns ($9,300 | +2900) - We don't have to pivot away from every Dallas native, and if we are making 150 lineups to max-enter tournaments on DraftKings it makes sense to include DeChambeau, Zalatoris, and Scottie Scheffler ($9,400 | +2000) in your player pool. All are cash-viable as well, but if we are looking at single entry or three-max contests, pivoting to recent winner Burns over Scheffler is another viable play. The price tag is hefty for the Valspar Champion, and many DFS players will be hard-pressed to pass on Scheffler for just $100 more. We can gain leverage by moving to Burns, who ranks 2nd in birdies or better gained, 5th on par 5s, and 9th in strokes gained: approach, compared to 6th, 19th, and 50th for Scheffler.

Ryan Palmer ($9,100 | +3400) - Palmer ranks 1st in strokes gained: par 5s, 9th in birdies or better gained, 17th in strokes gained: approach, and 19th in strokes gained: tee to green. He is Rahm's playing partner in the team event in New Orleans, and we've seen him play well at courses where we favor Rahm, notably Muirfield Village and Torrey Pines. Like Rahm, his putting splits on bentgrass are pretty poor but his overall performance is still solid, as he ranks 124th in his last 50 rounds putting on bent but 16th in overall strokes gained. With just two top 20s in his last six events, he's hardly an eye-popping choice this week, and at an awkward price point, he could be under the radar despite good stats and a good record in Texas.

Si Woo Kim ($8,800 | +3400) - Si Woo tailed off after winning the American Express in January, with three missed cuts and a T50 in his next four starts. Since then, though, he's been quite good and as consistent as he looked toward the end of last season and the beginning of 2020-21. He has had a nice break since he last played when he was T33 at the RBC Heritage. Prior to that, he was T12 at The Masters, T23 at the Valero Texas Open, and T9 at THE PLAYERS. He ranks 7th in strokes gained: tee to green, with individual ranks of 20th off the tee, 17th in approach, and 1st around the greens. So he's doing it all and getting solid results, and for Kim, it may just come down to whether or not he putts it well.

Aaron Wise ($8,300 | +6500) - Wise gained 9.3 strokes tee to green at the Wells Fargo to finish tied for ninth, a fairly out of the blue result considering he had just one finish better than 44th in seven events since the calendar turned to 2021. He's struggled with some truly awful putting form of late, with a minus-0.6 figure at Quail Hollow his second-best week since early November. He was worse than 4.0 strokes lost putting four times in that span, including a ghastly minus-10.2 mark at TPC Scottsdale. We can throw out his former win at this event because it was held at Trinity Forest Golf Club, but Wise has some pedigree and is still a young player who cannot be counted out if he starts to build confidence.

Low-Salaried Options

Charles Howell ($7,800 | +8000) - We'll pivot off the popular Talor Gooch ($7,900 | +7000) to go to Howell, who rates out poorly in the long term stats thanks to a couple of poor runs of approach play. He has a good record in Texas and on bentgrass. He ranks 13th in strokes gained: putting on bentgrass greens and 22nd in total strokes gained on those courses. With five top 40s in his last six evenst, he's a low-cost play that actually has a decent floor and should be well off most DFS players' radars.

Sebastian Munoz ($7,600 | +12000) - When he's on, Munoz can be one of the most prolific birdie-makers on Tour. Coming off two missed cuts, he should be on a low number of rosters, and at a course most of the field will be seeing for the first time, his natural scoring ability should come in handy. His best finish of the year came in Texas, where he was 9th at the Valero Texas Open. He ranks 18th in strokes gained: par 5s, 23rd in birdies or better gained, and 24th in strokes gained: approach. Munoz is also 19th in total strokes gained on courses with bentgrass greens.

Doug Ghim ($7,500 | +8000) - Ghim was a popular play at the Valspar and promptly lost 4.0 strokes putting and missed the cut. It was his sixth straight event losing with the putter, but he's gained tee to green and on approach in all six. He ranks 3rd in approach and 5th tee to green, as well as 14th in birdies or better gained. He has some Texas ties, having played college golf in Austin. Ghim has pedigree too, having been the top-ranked amateur in the world and winning the Ben Hogan Award for the top collegiate golfer in 2018.

Ben Martin ($7,400 | +12000) - Martin played well at Quail Hollow and finished T11, and was just one of 11 golfers in the field to break 70 on Sunday. Now he heads to TPC Craig Ranch, where he played as a member of the Korn Ferry Tour in 2012 and finished T13. He's put up a couple good results in Texas recently, with a T34 at the Valero Texas Open and T9 at the Korn Ferry Tour's TPC San Antonio Open at the same course. He ranks ninth in strokes gained: putting on bentgrass.

Bargain Basement

Hank Lebioda ($6,900 | +21000) - Lebioda fired at 67 on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Championship, and his recent events have showcased what he can accomplish if he gets it all to click at once. He gained 6.2 strokes on approach but lost 5.2 putting at Quail Hollow to finish T51. On the other hand, he gained 5.7 putting at the Valspar but lost 1.4 on approach. He ranks 26th in strokes gained: approach and strokes gained on par 5s.

Roger Sloan ($6,900 | +27000) - Sloan has showed some good form lately but has been too inconsistent to capitalize on it. He has seven top-40s on the 2020-21 season, and he's shown he can survive in weaker fields. He ranks 29th in total strokes gained on bentgrass courses and is otherwise solid if unremarkable -- 37th in approach, 41st in putting on bermuda, 47th in birdies or better gained, and 53rd in both tee to green and par 5s.



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.