Daily Fantasy Golf Tips
Before you digest this article’s insights to improve your fantasy golf picks for the 2020 Tour Championship, I encourage you to check out FantasyData’s PGA Optimizer to elevate the builds for your daily fantasy lineups. All the best this week!
What a test of golf last week’s BMW Championship was at the uber challenging Olympia Fields Country Club with the winning score only being -4. Shout out to Jon Rahm for winning the event thanks to his dramatic 66-foot birdie in the 1st playoff hole against Dustin Johnson. The PGA Tour heads from the Chicago area to Atlanta for the Tour Championship and where the conclusion of the shortened 2019-2020 PGA Tour season will become a reality. The top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings get the honor of competing in this exclusive tournament where there’s a ton of money and pride on the line – the winner getting $15M and wins the high coveted FedEx Cup. The winners at the Tour Championship over the past five years include last year’s victor Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods won in 2018 for his third time, Xander Schauffele was the 2017 champ, Rory McIlroy also won in 2016, and 2015 saw Jordan Speith win the tournament.
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FedEx Cup purse: At the conclusion of the Tour Championship event, the winner of the FedEx Cup gets a whopping $15M, runner up takes home $5M, 3rd receives $4M, and down the line where a total of $70M is allocated to all the deserving golfers.
Course and key stats: Over the years for the Tour Championship we have seen East Lake Golf Course often play host for this event, and this year remains the same. The track is fairly long at 7,319 yards in length, is a par 70, and the greens are Bermuda grass. Some of the key stats to pay attention to this week are Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, Strokes Gained: Approach, Birdies or Better Gained, Strokes Gained: Par 3s (From 200+ Yards), and Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermuda.
The field: We have a small but supreme field featuring the top 30 players over the course of this season. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to again be an A with the world’s best teeing it up. There again is no cut line this week so your golfers will all play four rounds unless they withdraw or are disqualified for some reason.
Notable storylines: Dustin Johnson has two runner up finishes and a win over his last three starts and will look to win the FedEx Cup for the first time in his career – he starts the Tour Championship as the leader in the standings and begins the tournament at -10. Jon Rahm is coming off the playoff win at the BMW Championship and starts at -8 since he holds the 2nd place position in the FedEx Cup standings – he has also yet to win the FedEx Cup. McIlroy started 5 shots back of Thomas last year and won the FedEx Cup for his 2nd time – he starts this week at 12th in the standings and likely won’t be a factor to win for the third time.
Betting strategy this week: With no cut line to worry about this week, you can take on more risk for your lineups and play it more as you do for small-field events. Also, keep in mind that it will be quite difficult to build unique lineups with the greatly reduced field, so by taking players with lower projected ownership (especially lower-cost players), you will give your lineups more of a chance to be original. Also, pay attention to how much salary you’re allocating, try to stay at least $500 under the $50,000 max limit on DraftKings.
Best of luck for locking up some contest wins this week – here are my 15 picks which feature my top 3 players from each tier on DraftKings (DK) in no particular order, plus I include player salaries for DK and FanDuel. I consistently provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their performance at this event over the last 5 years (when available), and add in some helpful pieces of information as well.
The $10K+ Range
Jon Rahm (Salary: DraftKings – $12.7K, FanDuel – $12,500) – What a remarkable win Rahm had last week to take the BMW Championship by sinking his long-bomb 66-foot birdie putt on the 1st playoff hole versus DJ. He has huge momentum heading into this week and now has two wins in his last 5 starts – his previous victory came at the Memorial Tournament. He finished T12 at the Tour Championship a year ago, T11 in 2018, and in 2017 he ended up T7.
Webb Simpson (Salary: DraftKings – $11.0K, FanDuel – $11,300) – Simpson elected to take off last week to be fully rested and ready to go at the Tour Championship this week, so I’m expecting a big finish for Webb. Simpson has two wins on the season and 8 top 10’s in 13 starts. He finished T16 here in 2019, he secured a T4 result in 2018, and 2017 had him in the T13 position,
The $9K Range
Daniel Berger (Salary: DraftKings – $9.1K, FanDuel – $10.3K) – Berger has a win on the season and 7 top 9’s in his last 10 starts. I think he will be disappointed by his T25 finish last week and will be hungry to rebound strongly this week in the final event of the season. He last appeared at this event in 2017 when he finished 15th and also had the same result in 2016 as well, and he was T12 in 2015.
Hideki Matsuyama (Salary: DraftKings – $9.3K, FanDuel – $10.0K) – Matsuyama has 6 top 29’s in his last 7 starts, and his best one came last week when he finished T3, so he’s warm and ready to go this week in the ATL. He was T9 here a year ago, T4 in 2018, in 2017 he placed T26, he earned a 5th in 2016, and five years ago he was T12.
Rory McIlroy (Salary: DraftKings – $9.7K, FanDuel – $10.2K) – McIlroy showed some signs of life last week as he was near the top of the leaderboard until the weekend when he went 73-71 to settle for a T12. That was his best finish though in five starts so he comes with some promise this week at the Tour Championship where he won the event last year and took home the FedEx Cup. He also won here in 2016, was T7 in 2018, and T16 in 2015. He also has other top 10’s at this tournament as well and should have a sound performance this week with nothing to lose.
The $8K Range
Tony Finau (Salary: DraftKings – $8.2K, FanDuel – $9.0K) – Finau has 4 top 8’s in his last 6 starts and is coming off a 5th last week at the BMW Championship. He finished 7th here last year, T15 in 2018, and in 2017 he landed on T7. I’m expecting his best finish yet at the Tour Championship to get inside the top 5.
Xander Schauffele (Salary: DraftKings – $8.9K, FanDuel – $9.5K) – Schauffele has 7 straight top 25’s and two of those were top 10’s. He was the runner up golfer here a year ago, he earned a T7 in 2018, and he won the tournament in 2017 in his rookie debut. He’s starting in the 14th ranked position this week so the stress is off of him and I’m expecting another top 10 finish for Xander.
Harris English (Salary: DraftKings – $8.7K, FanDuel – $9.8K) – English finished T40 last week, which was his worst finish in his past 7 events. The week prior he took home runner up honors at the first playoff event and I’m expecting him to finish the season strong this week. He has only played in the Tour Championship once, that came in 2015 where he finished T22.
The $7K Range
Scottie Scheffler (Salary: DraftKings – $7.9K, FanDuel – $8.6K) – Scheffler now has 5 straight top 22’s and two of those were T4’s which came in his previous two starts before last week at the PGA Championship and THE NORTHERN TRUST. He’s making his debut start at the Tour Championship and I think he will finish in the top half.
Brendon Todd (Salary: DraftKings – $7.6K, FanDuel – $8.9K) – What a season it has been for Todd as he had back to back wins in November and came through with a T8 last week. He has only played in the Tour Championship tournament once, that was 6 years ago when he finished T17. I expect him to relish the opportunity this week and finish with a nice result.
Tyrrell Hatton (Salary: DraftKings – $7.0K, FanDuel – $8.2K) – Hatton has a win on the season and 5 top 10’s in just 10 starts made. He has never competed at the Tour Championship, but he’s a solid player and should have a respectable finish this week.
The $6K (and below) Range
Kevin Kisner (Salary: DraftKings – $6.8K, FanDuel -$7.1K) – Kisner has 5 straight top 25 finishes, one of which was a T3 and another was a T4 – those two came three and two weeks ago, respectively. Last year he earned a T9 finish, he was T3 in 2017, 26th in 2016, and 28th in 2015.
MacKenzie Hughes (Salary: DraftKings – $5.2K, FanDuel – $7.0K) – Hughes fought hard last week to earn a top 10 finish and get inside the top 30 to play the Tour Championship for the first time in his career. The Canadian was also T13 two weeks ago at THE NORTHERN TRUST. He has 4 top 13’s in his last 7 starts and could lock up another this week.
Joaquin Niemann (Salary: DraftKings – $6.3K, FanDuel – $8.4K) – Niemann hasn’t played that well since June but did come through big time last week with a T3 thanks to his strong weekend where he went 68-67. That impressive finish helped to propel him from the 31st position in the FedEx Cup standings to 18th and now he gets the opportunity to play the Tour Championship for the first time.
Recapping my 15 pick’s finishes from last week’s BMW Championship
The $10K+ Range
- Dustin Johnson – Runner up
- Webb Simpson – Withdrew prior to the event to rest up for the Tour Championship
- Bryson DeChambeau – 50th
The $9K Range
- Daniel Berger – T25
- Scottie Scheffler – T20
- Collin Morikawa – T20
The $8K Range
- Harris English – T40
- Matthew Wolff – T16
- Louis Oosthuizen – T25
The $7K Range
- Ryan Palmer – T40
- Jason Kokrak – T6
- Alex Noren – T40
The $6K Range
- Brian Harman – T12
- Brendan Steele – T33
- Dylan Frittelli – T33
