PGA DFS Picks
World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play
Absorb the information you need from this article to enhance your fantasy golf picks for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, and check out our PGA Lineup Optimizer to make more informed player selections for your DFS lineups. Best of luck this week!
Recap from last week: It was a weak field last week and it was difficult to predict who would come out on top. I didn’t see Matt Jones winning but it doesn’t come as a huge surprise as he’s had a good season and he was on his A-game last week to win, so congrats to him. The top 7 players from last week were Matt Jones, Brandon Hagy, Russell Henley, Denny McCarthy, Cheng Tsung Pan, Chase Seiffert, and Brendan Steele – reinforcing the weak field. Let’s just say that it’s wonderful having a strong field back again this week, at least at the Texas event, not so much down in the Dominican Republic but that’s another story.
Preview for the WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play: After residing in Florida for the last four weeks, the PGA Tour now moves onto Texas for the next two weeks for this week’s event and for the Valero Texas Open next week. There’s also an alternate event happening this week – the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic for players who don’t qualify for the match play tournament. This week the best golfers are in Austin, Texas, for a unique match play setup where players go head to head in battle until there are just two men competing for the championship on Sunday. Typically we see golf tournaments begin on Thursdays, but for match play, five days are needed to get in all of the matches, so everything starts on Wednesday.
There are two phases of this tournament – phase one includes 16 seeded groups of four players in each bracket from Wednesday to Friday, each player plays his opponents in his group for a total of three matches, the winner from each round-robin group moves forward into phase two to play on Saturday. The top 16 do battle Saturday morning, and the quarterfinals take place on Saturday afternoon. The top 4 play in the semifinals on Sunday morning and the matches for 3rd place and for 2nd and 1st are played on Sunday afternoon. The top 4 players in the tournament will have played seven rounds of golf in just five days.
This WGC match play event dates back to 1999 when it was named the WGC – Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship and Jeff Maggert won it over Andrew Magee. The locally-based company, Dell Technologies, has been behind this tournament since 2016, and the event has been played in Austin, Texas, since that year, but the event was canceled last year due to the pandemic, so this is the fifth installment of its kind. The past five winners of this event include Kevin Kisner in 2019, Bubba Watson in 2018, Dustin Johnson in 2017, Jason Day in 2016, and Rory McIlroy won the WGC – Cadillac Match Play in Harding Park, California, in 2015.
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Tournament purse: The prize money for this year’s event is set at $10.25M, the winner receives $1.82M and also earns himself 550 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: The Austin Country Club is a short but challenging 7,108-yard track, is a par 71, and the greens are again Bermuda. I usually touch on the winning score in this section, but since it’s match play, there is no winning score, just winning players. Some of the key stats you should be looking at for your custom models this week are strokes gained: approach, strokes gained: off-the-tee, birdies or better percentage, strokes gained: around the green, and strokes gained: putting on Bermuda.
The field: We will see most of the world’s 64 best golfers in action this week, with the top 16 advancing to Saturday play, and the top 4 from Saturday advancing to Sunday for semi-finals and the medal rounds. The field includes the top 10 ranked players in the world and many of the planet’s best are also here excluding those who qualified but are currently injured or didn’t commit for whatever reason – Brooks Koepka is among those who are hurt. Twenty-two players are making their WGC match play debut and Jason Day is the only player in the field who has won multiple times, including once in Austin, Texas. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be an A+.
Groupings are below
- Group #1 – Dustin Johnson, Kevin Na, Adam Long, and Robert MacIntyre.
- Group #2 – Justin Thomas, Louis Oosthuizen, Matt Kuchar, and Kevin Kisner.
- Group #3 – Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, Ryan Palmer, and Sebastian Munoz.
- Group #4 – Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, and J.T. Poston.
- Group #5 – Bryson DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood, Si Woo Kim, and Antoine Rozner.
- Group #6 – Xander Schauffele, Jason Day, Scottie Scheffler, and Andy Sullivan.
- Group #7 – Patrick Reed, Joaquin Niemann, Bubba Watson, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
- Group #8 – Tyrrell Hatton, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, and Matt Wallace.
- Group #9 – Webb Simpson, Paul Casey, Talor Gooch, and Mackenzie Hughes.
- Group #10 – Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, Carlos Ortiz, and Brian Harman.
- Group #11 – Rory McIlroy, Cameron Smith, Ian Poulter, and Lanto Griffin.
- Group #12 – Tony Finau, Jason Kokrak, Will Zalatoris, and Dylan Frittelli.
- Group #13 – Viktor Hovland, Abraham Ancer, Kevin Streelman, and Bernd Wiesberger.
- Group #14 – Daniel Berger, Harris English, Brendon Todd, and Erik van Rooyen.
- Group #15 – Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jordan Spieth, Matthew Wolff, and Corey Conners.
- Group #16 – Sungjae Im, Russell Henley, Marc Leishman, and Viktor Perez.
The groups have been announced for @DellMatchPlay!
Time to fill out those brackets. ✍ pic.twitter.com/cYHXt3hOpY
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 22, 2021
Lineup construction strategy this week: Because this is a match play format, be sure to pay attention to which golfers are in which foursome. Pick each of your 16 winners from those groups and build your lineups accordingly – note that you might not be able to afford all of those players from your projected winner list, so you will likely have to take chances on sleeper picks to round out your $50,000 max salary lineups. Look at your elite 8 and final 4 and try to get as many of those golfers as possible into your lineups. The worst thing you can do is pick two or more players from the same phase 1 group as only one golfer from each will advance. Speaking of sleepers, Kevin Kisner was the 48th ranked player in the tournament two years ago, and turned out being the amazing sleeper pick who won the tournament and who you ideally wanted on all of your lineups. Also, DraftKings points are awarded differently in this format – be sure to read how the scoring works so you understand how your players will accumulate fantasy points. All the best with getting as many of your lineup’s players into the weekend as possible – this is one of the most unpredictable weeks in golf, so you may want to scale back on how much money you wager this week or play the Dominican Republic tournament on DraftKings if you want a normal tournament setup.
All the best in your quest to win some contests this week – here are my 16 DFS golf picks which feature my favorite golfer from each tier on DraftKings (DK), 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, and add in some helpful pieces of information, also.
Group #1
Group #2
Louis Oosthuizen (Salary: DraftKings – $8.1K) – (Up against: Justin Thomas, Matt Kuchar, and Kevin Kisner) Oosthuizen loves match play – whether that’s individual or international competition, he shows up and does well seemingly every time. He has two top 11’s in his last three starts, and just look at his tournament finishes here from 2016 to 2019, wow! He’s in tough against Thomas and Kisner, but I think he will find a way to win the group and advance to the sweet sixteen. I won’t blame you if you want nothing to do with this group as I see it being tight between the top 3 with Kisner winning in 2019 and finishing runner-up in 2018, and JT is JT. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 5th, 2018 – 9th, 2017 – 17th, and 2016 – 2nd.
Group #3
Jon Rahm (Salary: DraftKings – $10.7K) – (Up against: Shane Lowry, Ryan Palmer, and Sebastian Munoz) 60% of Rahm’s finishes this season are top 10’s and he’s coming off a T9 at The PLAYERS Championship. He came in 2nd four years ago at this tournament, and there’s no reason why that can’t happen again this year. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 24th, 2018 – 52nd, and 2017 – 2nd.
Group #4
Collin Morikawa (Salary: DraftKings – $10.4K) – (Up against: Max Homa, Billy Horschel, and J.T. Poston) Morikawa won two starts ago at the last WGC event in Florida, and keeps building up his brand for coming up huge in big events. He has three top 7’s in his last six starts, and I can definitely see him making some noise in his first match play tournament this week. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: None.
Group #5
Bryson DeChambeau (Salary: DraftKings – $10.9K) – (Up against: Tommy Fleetwood, Si Woo Kim, and Antoine Rozner) DeChambeau comes into this week in mighty strong form as he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational two starts ago and was 3rd at The PLAYERS Championship just two weeks ago. He has two wins on the season, and has five top 8’s in nine starts overall. He didn’t fare so well here in 2019, but he’s much more talented now and has some course experience to work with this time around. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 40th.
Group #6
Jason Day (Salary: DraftKings – $8.4K) – (Up against: Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, and Andy Sullivan) This was a challenging group to decide on as there are three legit contenders to win it, but I went with Day who won here five years ago, and comes into this week in pretty good form with four straight top 35’s including his T7 at Pebble Beach just over a month ago. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 61st, 2018 – 36th, 2017 – 58th, and 2016 – Won.
Group #7
Patrick Reed (Salary: DraftKings – $9.6K) – (Up against: Joaquin Niemann, Bubba Watson, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout) Reed won five starts ago at the Farmers Insurance Open and two of his last four starts have gone for top 9’s. He’s coming off a T22 at The PLAYERS Championship and has a pretty decent track record at this event, as well. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 24th, 2018 – 9th, 2017 – 51st, and 2016 – 9th.
Group #8
Tyrrell Hatton (Salary: DraftKings – $8.6K) – (Up against: Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, and Matt Wallace) Hatton hasn’t won on the PGA Tour yet this season but did win on the European Tour two months ago in Abu Dhabi, and a third of his finishes this season between the two tours have been top 7’s. He also has a fairly sound record at this tournament by getting into the sweet sixteen the last two times, and narrowly missing four years ago. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 9th, 2018 – 9th, and 2017 – 17th.
Group #9
Paul Casey (Salary: DraftKings – $8.9K) – (Up against: Webb Simpson, Talor Gooch, and Mackenzie Hughes) Casey’s game has got it going on as he has finished no worse than T12 over his last six starts and won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic under two months ago on the European Tour. He also has a respectable record at this event by getting out of the round-robin twice in the last three editions. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 9th, 2018 – 17th, 2017 – 9th, and 2016 – 51st.
Group #10
Patrick Cantlay (Salary: DraftKings – $9.8K) – (Up against: Hideki Matsuyama, Carlos Ortiz, and Brian Harman) Cantlay won last Fall at the ZOZO Championship and 40% of his finishes this season have been top 8’s. He hasn’t found a way to get out of the round-robin here just yet, but I sure like his chances this week given his pedigree and his relatively weak group. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 24th and 2018 – 17th.
Group #11
Rory McIlroy (Salary: DraftKings – $10.2K) – (Up against: Cameron Smith, Ian Poulter, and Lanto Griffin) McIlroy hasn’t quite looked like himself this season but he still has 5 top 10’s in eleven starts between the two tours. He has a decent track record at this event and did win the match play event in 2015 before it shifted to Texas in 2016. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 9th, 2018 – 36th, 2017 – 30th, and 2016 – 4th.
Group #12
Jason Kokrak (Salary: DraftKings – $7.5K) – (Up against: Tony Finau, Will Zalatoris, and Dylan Frittelli) I think that Kokrak is likely the best value play of the week – the only knock against him is that he has Finau and Zalatoris to tangle with. His form recently is spectacular with three straight top 9’s, and he did win The CJ Cup back in October, so he has some win equity as well. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: None.
Group #13
Viktor Hovland (Salary: DraftKings – $9.4K) – (Up against Abraham Ancer, Kevin Streelman, and Bernd Wiesberger) Hovland won the Mayakoba Golf Classic late last year and since then has four top 6’s in his last seven events. He has cooled off a bit over his last two starts with a T49 and a missed cut at The PLAYERS Championship – but lots of elite talent missed the cut there, so don’t fault him too much. If his off-the-tee and approach game show up this week, and I think that they will, then watch out. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: None.
Group #14
Daniel Berger (Salary: DraftKings – $9.0K) – (Up against: Harris English, Brendon Todd, and Erik van Rooyen) Berger won three starts ago at Pebble Beach, is coming off a T9 at The PLAYERS Championship, and has four top 10’s in ten starts this season. As long as his rib injury is doing better now, then he should do well here this week in his round-robin group as he’s the clear-cut favorite to win it in my mind. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2018 – 59th, 2017 – 39th, and 2016 – 61st.
Group #15
Matthew Fitzpatrick (Salary: DraftKings – $8.7K) – (Up against: Jordan Spieth, Matthew Wolff, and Corey Conners) Fitzpatrick is on fire right now with finishes ranging from T5 to T11 over his last four starts including his T9 at The PLAYERS Championship in his most recent PGA Tour appearance. He has some pretty good competition on his hands with Spieth and Conners in his group, but I like his chances of coming out on top. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: 2019 – 61st, 2018 – 36th, 2017 – 17th, and 2016 – 38th.
Group #16
Sungjae Im (Salary: DraftKings – $8.8K) – (Up against Russell Henley, Marc Leishman, and Viktor Perez) Im is one of those golfers that you can buy into long-term and just watch the solid finishes pile up. He has finished no worse than T32 over his last seven starts, he was T8 last week at The Honda Classic, and let’s not forget about his runner-up finish at The Masters last year. WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play finishes over the last four editions: None.
Recapping my 15 pick’s finishes from last week’s Honda Classic
The $10K+ Range
- Sungjae Im – T8
- Daniel Berger – Withdrew
- Lee Westwood – Cut
The $9K Range
- Talor Gooch – T46
- Shane Lowry – T36
- Chris Kirk – T25
The $8K Range
- Brendan Steele – T3
- Byeong Hun An – Cut
- Doug Ghim – Cut
The $7K Range
- Jhonattan Vegas – T30
- Patton Kizzire – Cut
- Ryan Moore – Cut
The $6K Range
- Jim Furyk – Cut
- Cameron Percy – Cut
- Wesley Bryan – Cut
