Daily Fantasy Golf Tips
Before you take advantage of this article’s insights to improve your fantasy golf picks for the 2020 Wyndham Championship, I invite you to check out FantasyData’s PGA Optimizer to enhance the builds for your daily fantasy lineups. All the best this week!
What an amazing tournament last week – the PGA Championship sure didn’t let anyone down, and what a finish with Collin Morikawa winning his first major championship in just his 2nd career appearance in one, wow! This week marks the last event before the 19-20 playoffs begin next week at THE NORTHERN TRUST. The PGA Tour moves from San Francisco, California, to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the Wyndham Championship where we will surely see a lot more eagles and birdies on this easy track in comparison to last week where pars were good on the challenging TPC Harding Park course. The past five years of winners at this event include last year’s champ J.T. Poston, 2018 saw Brandt Snedeker reign supreme, Henrik Stenson took the cake in 2017, Si-woo Kim was the best that 2016 had to offer, and in 2015 we saw Davis Love III win the tournament for the 3rd time in his incredible career.
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Tournament purse: The purse is set at $6.4M for this year’s tournament with the winner getting $1.152M in prize money and earning himself 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: This event will be played once again at the Sedgefield Country Club for the 13th straight year – the track is 7,127 yards in length, is a par 70, and the greens consist of Bermuda grass. Some of the key stats to focus on this week are Strokes Gained: Approach, Birdies or Better Gained, Strokes Gained: Par 4s 400-450 Yards, and Strokes Gained: Putting.
The field: We have a stronger field than normal at this tournament this year due to the reduced schedule in place since the restart in June, but it’s no major field like we saw last week, that’s for sure. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be a C. The field is set to be full at 156 golfers this week for the annual event, and the top 65 players plus ties will make the cut to play rounds 3 and 4 on the weekend.
Notable storylines: The previous four winners of this event have gone low to score at least -20 or better, so you know that this course is “getable” and we will see lots of excellent scoring opportunities. As previously mentioned, this is the last event before the playoffs start, so the players who find themselves just inside or outside of the top 125 on the FedEx Cup list at the moment will be extra hungry to score well this week to ensure their spot in next week’s first playoff event. Brandt Snedeker set the course record two years ago with a 59 in his first round of play.
Betting strategy this week: This is a weaker field so it’s advised to build balanced lineups instead of using a stars and scrubs approach to improve your chances of getting all 6 golfers per lineup into the weekend. If you have more than 2 lineups then use a bunch of balanced and stars and scrub lineups to hedge your bet.
Best of luck for earning 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. 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
Webb Simpson (Salary: DraftKings – $11.2K) – Simpson absolutely loves this event which is local to him, so much so that he actually named his one daughter Wyndham. He has 7 top 10’s in 12 starts this season, he won this event in 2011 and you know he wants to add victory number two this week – with his strong play this season and his passion for the tournament along with solid results over the years, he has the best chance of winning this week, I believe. He was runner up last year and in 2018, 3rd in 2017, T72 in 2015 and had a T6 five years ago.
Paul Casey (Salary: DraftKings – $10.3K) – Casey was struggling a bit before last week’s PGA Championship when he played to his ball-striking strengths and finished runner up – his first top 10 result this season. He placed T13 a year ago, and that was the only time he’s played this event over the past five years. I think we will see a repeat of Casey from last week and he will earn another top 5 finish this week.
The $9K Range
Justin Rose (Salary: DraftKings – $9.9K) – Rose had missed three straight events before going off for a T9 last week at the PGA Championship. He’s been up and down this season but I expect another up week this week in North Carolina. He hasn’t competed here for the past few years, but his game travels well and he’s a good bet for this week.
Harris English (Salary: DraftKings – $9.3K) – English just keeps playing good, consistent golf. Over his past four events, he has finished anywhere from 13th to 19th, he has 5 top 10’s this season, and I really like him this week. He was T39 last year, T11 in 2018, 2017 he finished T50, T46 was his finish in 2016, and five years ago he had a T31.
Billy Horschel (Salary: DraftKings – $9.1K) – Horschel had two 69’s and two 71’s last week to finish T43. You know what you’re getting in this player, he consistently makes cuts and is a gamer from week to week. He had a T6 here in 2019, T11 in 2018, 2017 was the year he finished T60, 2016 he walked away with a T5, and he was cut in 2015. I really like BillyHo this week.
The $8K Range
Si Woo Kim (Salary: DraftKings – $8.6K) – 2016’s winner has been playing some sound golf as of late as Kim has made 7 straight cuts including last week’s 13th. He was T5 here last year after missing 5 straight cuts.
Brandt Snedeker (Salary: DraftKings – $8.2K) – Snedeker is a two-time winner at this tournament including two years ago when he set the course record by posting a 59. Sneds hasn’t been playing very well as of late but did have a T51 last week which included a 66, so I see signs of life again and I expect a strong finish this week. He was T39 here last year, won in 2018, T3 in 2016, and had a T43 half a decade ago in 2015.
Brendon Todd (Salary: DraftKings – $8.9K) – Todd has five straight cuts coming into this week with four of them ranging from 11th to 22nd including last week’s T17, and oh, did I mention that he has won twice this season too?! His last two finishes at this event in 2016 and 2015 resulted in missed cuts, but he’s a much more polished player now and you should have full confidence in him this week.
The $7K Range
Dylan Frittelli (Salary: DraftKings – $7.9K) – Frittelli wasn’t outstanding last week but did play well enough to earn a T33 finish, and he was T18 and T22 in his two events prior. He was cut here last year in his tournament debut, but don’t expect that to happen again this year with his solid play recently and he now has course knowledge at his disposal.
J.T. Poston (Salary: DraftKings – $7.8K) – Poston is the most recent winner of this event when he won by one stroke over Simpson at -22. He’s also a native of North Carolina and will be motivated to defend his title this week. He has two top 10’s in his last 7 starts and although he finished 75th last week, he did open with a 67 on a tough track. He was cut in 2018 but did finish T50 in 2017.
Scott Stallings (Salary: DraftKings – $7.1K) – Stallings has only missed four cuts in 18 events this season and has 2 top 10’s, his most recent one came two weeks ago when he was T5 at the Barracuda Championship. He has made 7 straight cuts and was T31 here a year ago. I should also mention that he was a cut here from 2016 to 2018 but I believe will have another top 35 this year.
The $6K Range
Pat Perez (Salary: DraftKings – $6.9K) – Perez has been pretty good lately with four straight cuts made and each result has kept getting better with a T45, T39, T23, and he was 18th two weeks ago. He was cut here last year in his only appearance at the event in the past five years, but I expect a top 30 finish out of him this year.
Adam Schenk (Salary: DraftKings – $6.7K) – Schenk has played in the weekend in his last four starts and has finished no worse than T39. He has played in this tournament over the past two years and was a cut both times, but I think the third time is a charm and I fully expect another top 40 finish from Schenk this week – his fifth straight.
Denny McCarthy (Salary: DraftKings – $6.9K) – McCarthy is a safe player to take for made cuts as he’s only missed five this season in a whopping 21 starts, and has made four straight including his T58 last week. He locked up a T22 last year and was T36 in 2018 in his only two starts at this event. I’m looking for a top 30 this year with upside.
Recapping my 15 pick’s finishes from last week’s PGA Championship
The $10K+ Range
- Bryson DeChambeau – T4
- Justin Thomas – T37
- Brooks Koepka – T29
The $9K Range
- Webb Simpson – T37
- Tiger Woods – T37
- Patrick Cantlay – T43
The $8K Range
- Daniel Berger – T13
- Collin Morikawa – Won the tournament
- Jason Day – T4
The $7K Range
- Gary Woodland – T58
- Harris English – T19
- Adam Scott – T22
The $6K Range
- Ryan Palmer – T43
- Lucas Glover – Missed the cut
- Joel Dahmen – T10
