Daily Fantasy Golf Tips
Before you jump into this article for the 2020 Rocket Mortgage Classic, I encourage you to take advantage of FantasyData’s FREE PGA Optimizer that you can use to construct your daily fantasy lineups. Do you player and lineup due diligence, and all the best this week!
Last week was a tough week for many fantasy golf owners as the likes of Justin Thomas, Justin Rose, Bubba Watson, Tony Finau, Scottie Scheffler, Gary Woodland, and other quality golfers missed the cut at the Travelers Championship. I was among the victims in fantasy golf but after having a huge week the week prior, I suppose I was due for a decline. This week is another week of potential huge success though so if you were one of the unfortunate losers from last week, don’t stress and look to rebound strong starting on Thursday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The field won’t be as strong this week as we’ve been used to since PGA Tour golf returned three tournaments ago, but there are still some A-listers to snag your attention and the field is still much stronger than last year so that’s a positive. Shout out to Dustin Johnson who won his first event of the season by taking home the trophy at the Travelers Championship last week. Interestingly enough, he has now won at least once every season since joining the PGA Tour 13 years ago.
There’s a $7.5M purse this week for the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and the golfer who has the best score at the conclusion of round 4 on Sunday will win $1.3M and secure 500 FedEx Cup points. Improve your odds to win more PGA DFS contests with these powerful tools. The field size will be again a full 156 golfers deep and the top 65 players plus ties will move on to play rounds 3 and 4 on the weekend. This is just the 2nd installment of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, it’s first winner last year was Nate Lashley with a dazzling score of -25 to pace the tournament by a whopping 6 strokes over Doc Redman.
This event will again be played at the Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan – it’s a par 72, features a length of 7,334 yards, and the greens are bentgrass. Some of the key stats to focus on this week are Stokes Gained: Off the Tee, Strokes Gained: Greens in Regulation, Strokes Gained: Approach and Driving Accuracy.
Let’s get some big contest wins this week, here are my 15 picks which include my top 10 players to pay up for and 5 value picks (all 15 players are in no particular order), plus I include player salaries for DraftKings. I provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their performance at this event last year (when available), and mix in some insightful tidbits of information as well.
10 Players to Spend Big on This Week
Bryson DeChambeau (Salary: DraftKings – $11,700) – DeChambeau was my pick to win the Travelers Championship last week but he came up short by finishing T6th. It was still his 6th top 8 in a row though and he has to be considered the favorite this week. He didn’t play here last year so he doesn’t have course history, but that’s fine because he’s a super-elite golfer now plus there are a good number of players without Rocket Mortgage Classic experience also.
Webb Simpson (Salary: DraftKings – $11,000) – Coming off a big win at the RBC Heritage two weeks ago, Simpson will aim to get his 3rd victory on the season this week in Detroit. He has 6 top 10’s in just 8 starts and has all of the tools needed to win golf tournaments on a regular basis. He’s a rookie this week but course history doesn’t matter nearly as much as usual with this event still being very new to the Tour.
Tyrrell Hatton (Salary: DraftKings – $10,700) – What an impressive comeback Hatton made two weeks ago by finishing T3rd, his first golf tournament played in three and a half months. Hatton won the Arnold Palmer Invitational back in March, has four top 6’s in 5 starts this season and his other finish was a 14th so he’s very consistent which is what we all love in fantasy sports.
Sungjae Im (Salary: DraftKings – $9,800) – Im hasn’t been all that great over the last two weeks but still has a win on the season, 6 top 10’s, and just two missed cuts in 17 events this season. He is one of the best players in the field this week who played last year at this tournament where he finished T21st and it could have been much better had he not finished with a par in round 4.
Patrick Reed (Salary: DraftKings – $10,500) – Reed made the most of this event’s debut last year by finishing T5th. Reed has 8 top 25ths this season in 11 starts, will be looking for his 2nd victory of the season, and is a very strong contender to win this week.
Hideki Matsuyama (Salary: DraftKings – $10,200) – Matsuyama missed a rare cut two weeks ago but don’t expect that to happen again, just chalk it up to rust after his long break when the Tour shut down. He was 13th here last year and I see a similar result this week and potentially even higher assuming his rust is behind him.
Viktor Hovland (Salary: DraftKings – $10,000) – What an impressive young player from Norway – he just keeps getting better and more comfortable playing on a world-class stage. He won the Puerto Rico Open back in February and his results over his last four starts just keep getting better leading up to an 11th last week. He was T13th here last year, right with Matsuyama. His price tag jumped from $7.9K to $10K in just a week but it’s justified in a weaker field this week, his continued strong play and his solid finish from a year ago.
Doc Redman (Salary: DraftKings – $8,500) – Finished runner up to Lashley last year and is looking for more success this year. Redman tied for 11th last week, a season-best, but I see him topping it this week in Michigan.
Kevin Na (Salary: DraftKings – $9,100) – Na seems to either bring his A-game or D-game on any given week. Last week was his A-game on display as his consistent play led to a T5th. Na won back in October at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and if he continues his strong play he could add win number two on Sunday.
Harris English (Salary: DraftKings – $8,900) – English has 5 top 10’s this season in 13 starts and sits in the 27th position in the FedEx Cup standings. He has 4 top 17’s in his last 5 starts and finished 55th here last year, so he does have some experience on this track which is good.
5 Solid Value Picks ($7,500 or less on DraftKings)
Brian Stuard (Salary: DraftKings – $7,400) – Stuard was born in Michigan so that could add motivation for him and his play this week. He was 5th here last year so it does seem like there is a local connection to draw from. He has played some sound golf since the PGA Tour returned as he has a 43rd, a 52nd, and he was 20th last week. Stuard is my favorite value pick for the week by a wide margin.
Mark Hubbard (Salary: DraftKings – $7,200) – Hubbard is another player who must have taken his golf game seriously when the PGA Tour was suspended as he has connected a 43rd, a 33rd, and a 37th since the return of golf. I see no reason why another good finish doesn’t come this week, especially with the weakest field we’ve seen over the past four weeks.
Lanto Griffin (Salary: DraftKings – $6,800) – Griffin was one of my top depth plays for a while this season but he missed two cuts in a row when golf returned so I was wondering if we would see anything from him last week and we did as he pulled down a 24th. He won earlier this season at the Houston Open in October and for a player at just $6.8K he’s a very good bet for another top 25 this week.
Harry Higgs (Salary: DraftKings – $6,800) – Rookie Higgs had only missed one cut in 11 starts prior to last week but he made that 2 missed cuts in his last 12 starts with a poor showing in Connecticut. I expect a bounce-back this week and looking at his last two missed cuts, he followed those up with a runner up finish and a 9th, so it appears missed cuts wake him right back up.
Cameron Tringale (Salary: DraftKings – $6,600) – Rust showed last week with Tringale’s first start since the PGA Tour rebooted itself as he missed the cut. That only makes two missed cuts in 13 starts this season though so he’s a good value player to make cuts, plus he was T5th here last year, so there’s that positive fact too.
Recapping my 15 pick’s finishes from last week’s Travelers Championship
My High-Priced Picks
- Rory McIlroy – T11th
- Jon Rahm – T37th
- Justin Thomas – Missed the cut
- Bryson DeChambeau – T6th
- Gary Woodland – Missed the cut
- Justin Rose – Missed the cut
- Bubba Watson – Missed the cut
- Webb Simpson – Withdrew after my article was published
- Abraham Ancer – T11th
- Brooks Koepka – Withdrew after my article was published
My Value Picks
- Dylan Frittelli – Missed the cut
- Matthew NeSmith – Missed the cut
- Lucas Glover – T20th
- Harry Higgs – Missed the cut
- Corey Conners – Missed the cut
