Daily Fantasy Golf Tips
Before you read over this article to improve your fantasy golf picks for the 2020 Workday Charity Open, I encourage you to take advantage of FantasyData’s FREE PGA Optimizer to better construct your daily fantasy lineups. All the best this week!
Last week just didn’t set up to be as exciting as the previous weeks before it, but there was still some fantastic golf played in Detroit with many birdies and eagles made. Congrats to Bryson DeChambeau and his very heavy swing for winning last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic by going very low with a -23 to better Matthew Wolff by 3 strokes after being 3 strokes behind him entering the final round on Sunday. This week will see an upgraded field over last week as the next two tournaments set up at the same course in Ohio and a few big names will play them both. 24 out of the world’s top 50 ranked golfers will be teeing it up on Thursday, so the big-name equity is certainly there this week. With the John Deere Classic canceled due to the pandemic, the Workday Charity Open was created to replace it this season but we will see the John Deere Classic return for next season.
There’s “only” $6.2M on the line this week for the Workday Charity Open, the winning golfer will net himself 500 valuable FedEx Cup points and $1.1M in prize money. Better your odds to win more PGA DFS contests with these powerful fantasy sports tools. The field size will again be a full 156 golfers and the top 65 players plus ties will play on Saturday and Sunday for rounds 3 and 4, respectively. This is the first-ever Workday Charity Open and could be it’s last, that has yet to be seen. DraftKings again has a huge $2.5M contest available to enter for $20, with $1M going to the winning lineup’s owner.
This event will be played at the Muirfield Golf Club, in Dublin, Ohio – it’s a par 72, has a relatively long length of 7,456 yards, and the greens consist of bentgrass. The rough won’t be as long as we typically see for Memorial tournaments and overall the course will play a bit easier than next week’s Memorial. Some of the key stats to focus on this week are Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, Strokes Gained: Approach, Strokes Gained: Par 5s, and Birdies or Better Gained.
Betting strategy this week: I’m not too keen on the depth of the field this week so I would recommend going with a more balanced lineup construction strategy for this event. If you take a stars and scrubs approach, I would advise dipping no lower than the $7K range.
Best of luck on nabbing some big contest wins this week, here are my 15 picks which feature my top 3 players from each tier of player salary pricing on DraftKings (DK) in no particular order, plus I include player salaries for DK as well. 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 mix in some insightful bits of intel as well.
The $10K+ Range
Justin Thomas (Salary: DraftKings – $11.1K) – Thomas can be all or nothing at times in tournaments and we saw that nothing show up last week as he missed the cut by a mile. He does have an 8th and a 10th though since the PGA Tour restarted last month, has two wins this season to go along with 8 top 10’s with three missed cuts. JT had a 4th at The Memorial in 2017 and an 8th two years ago but also has three missed cuts over the past five years so he’s a high risk/high reward player this week.
Patrick Cantlay (Salary: DraftKings – $10.6K) – Cantlay is the defending champion at The Memorial, he was also 4th in 2018, and 35th in 2017, so his track record is impressive on this track in even better fields than we will see this week. In his return to golf after being off for four months, he finished 11th at the Travelers Championship, he has 2 top 4ths and is a perfect 8 for 8 this season. He’s my favorite pick for this week to win.
Brooks Koepka (Salary: DraftKings – $10.4K) – Koepka is starting to turn his season around as he had a 7th in his last start – his first top 10 of the season so far. He last appeared at The Memorial in 2017 and finished 31st and he was 52nd in 2015.
The $9K Range
Viktor Hovland (Salary: DraftKings – $9.5K) – Hovland has been very consistent and impressive in his four starts since the PGA Tour rebooted itself by finishing anywhere from 11th to 23rd. He won this season back in February and I see more wins in his future once he starts making more putts. He makes his debut on this track this week, but expect another strong result from the young Norweigan stud.
Justin Rose (Salary: DraftKings – $9.7K) – Rose won The Memorial ten years ago and has also finished runner up twice in his career. He was 13th last year, 6th in 2018, and as you can see, he’s very strong on this track. Rose had a 3rd and a 14th in the PGA’s return to play but missed the cut in his last start two weeks ago – don’t hold that against him, especially this week.
Rickie Fowler (Salary: DraftKings – $9K) – Fowler hasn’t been very good by his standards lately but is coming off a 12th last week so maybe he’s ready to turn his campaign around. He was 14th last year at The Memorial, 8th in 2018, was runner up in 2017, and cut in both 2016 and 2015 to round out his last five years of play at The Memorial. He will be a popular DFS play this week.
The $8K Range
Adam Hadwin (Salary: DraftKings – $8.2K) – I don’t think many of us thought that Hadwin would have a 4th place finish last week but that’s exactly what he did in Detroit, and he will look to stay hot this week. He has 3 top 4’s this season and just one missed cut in 11 tournaments. Last year saw Hadwin finish 52nd, he was 74th the year prior, 2016 he secured an 11th, was 57th in 2015, and missed the cut in 2017 at The Memorial.
Marc Leishman (Salary: DraftKings – $8.7K) – Leishman hasn’t really found his strong form just yet since the PGA Tour returned but I smell a big finish coming very soon. He was 58th two weeks ago but that could have been much higher had he played better on the weekend after going 66-65 in the first two rounds. The Aussie was 5th last year, had a 62nd in 2018, 2017 saw him getting 15th, he was 11th in 2016, and a 5th came to fruition in 2015 – not a bad past five years at The Memorial.
Gary Woodland (Salary: DraftKings – $8.3K) – Woodland was playing some damn good golf before he hit a snag over his last two starts but I expect him to get back into fine form this week. He has 6 top 10’s this season and just two missed cuts in 12 starts. He was 52nd a year ago at The Memorial, was 23rd in 2018 after missing four straight cuts, had a 49th in 2017, 2016 he took home 4th, and he was a cut five years ago.
The $7K Range
Joel Dahmen (Salary: DraftKings – $7.7K) – Dahmen took last week off but has played a lot of golf this season so far and has 4 top 10’s and has only missed playing the weekend in two events out of 16 starts. He was 68th in 2019 in his rookie debut at The Memorial. He has gone 19th, 48th, 20th since the PGA Tour returned last month.
Mark Hubbard (Salary: DraftKings – $7.4K) – Hubbard has been solid over his past four starts, playing in each event since golf returned and going 43rd, 33rd, 37th, and was 12th last week in Michigan. He has only appeared in one Memorial, that came 4 years ago when he missed the cut but he’s a vastly improved player since then and I expect another good result this week.
Maverick McNealy (Salary: DraftKings – $7.5K) – McNealy just keeps making cuts (is 14 for 17 this season) and had his second-best finish of the season last week with an 8th place finish thanks to his 66 in the final round on Sunday. He hasn’t played in The Memorial before but he’s playing lots of new courses this season and is excelling – expect nothing less this week in Ohio.
The $6K Range
Sam Burns (Salary: DraftKings – $6.9K) – Burns has been playing quite well recently with 4 top 36’s over his last 6 starts and has only missed the cut once during that span. He withdrew after round one last year at The Memorial and was 81st in 2018, but I expect another good showing this week to coincide with his strong play of late.
Jason Dufner (Salary: DraftKings – $6.8K) – Dufner won The Memorial three years ago with a score of -13. He has made the cut in 7 of his last 8 starts – his cut came last week but he was much better in round two where he shot a 68 compared to his 74 in round one. He was 7th at The Memorial last year, won in 2017 as previously mentioned, had a 33rd in 2016, and wrapped up a 24th in 2015 – pretty good results over the last five years.
Henrik Norlander (Salary: DraftKings – $6.5K) – Over the past two weeks, Norlander has a 12th and a 41st, has 4 top 25’s this season, and is a decent scrub player for this week even though he has no Muirfield course history to take into account.
Recapping my 15 pick’s finishes from last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic
My High-Priced Picks
- Bryson DeChambeau – Won the tournament
- Webb Simpson – T8th
- Tyrrell Hatton – T4th
- Sungjae Im – T53rd
- Patrick Reed – Missed the cut
- Hideki Matsuyama – T21st
- Viktor Hovland – T12th
- Doc Redman – T21st
- Kevin Na – Withdrew in round 2 due to a nagging sore back
- Harris English – Withdrew just prior to the event starting after testing positive for COVID-19
My Value Picks
- Brain Stuard – T30th
- Harry Higgs – 70th
- Mark Hubbard – T12th
- Lanto Griffin – T21st
- Cameron Tringale – T30th
