Daily Fantasy Golf Tips
The field strength isn’t A+ as previously mentioned, but there are 144 golfers who are competing this week, and the top 65 plus ties will get through the cut line to play on Saturday and Sunday in rounds 3 and 4, respectively. The previous five winners at this tournament include last year’s champion Keith Mitchell, Justin Thomas won in 2018, Rickie Fowler was the best that 2017 saw, Adam Scott hoisted the trophy in 2016, and Padraig Harrington was victorious in 2015. The winning score is usually in the single digits with the odd top score touching -12 or -13, so it’s evident that this is a tough track.
The Honda Classic has been played at the same venue since 2007 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, at the PGA National Golf Course – Champion Course. This track is 7,125 yards in length, is a par 70, and the greens are Bermuda grass. Some of the key player stats to research this week are Strokes Gained: Approach, Scrambling Gained, Strokes Gained: Par 4s, and Strokes Gained: Putting (on Bermuda). Improve your odds to win more DFS contests with powerful research and optimization tools.
Let’s get to my favorite selections for this week – the 15 consist of my top 10 players to pay heavily for and 5 value picks (all 15 players are in no particular order), plus I include player salaries for DraftKings and FanDuel. I provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their past 5 years of results at this event (when available), and add in some interesting tidbits of information as well.
10 Players to Pay Up for This Week
Brooks Koepka (Salary: DraftKings – $9,000, FanDuel – $12,000) – We are still waiting for Koepka to come alive this season with his best finish coming on the European Tour where he finished 17th at the Saudi International. Perhaps it won’t come until The Masters as he usually steps his game way up for majors, or maybe it will come this week since he did finish runner up here last year and has elite skill. He was also 26th in 2016 and 51st in 2015.
Tommy Fleetwood (Salary: DraftKings – $9,400, FanDuel – $11,800) – Fleetwood is playing some sound golf this season so far with five top 22’s in 6 starts across both the PGA and European Tour. He was 18th last week in Mexico, and when he last played here in 2018 he finished 4th in his tournament debut. I expect another top 5 finish this week with a decent chance of winning it all.
Rickie Fowler (Salary: DraftKings – $11,500, FanDuel – $11,700) – Much like Koepka last year, Fowler was also runner up here, he won in 2017, was 6th in 2016, and 41st in 2015. He started his season off with three straight top 10’s before missing a cut and finished 37th in his last start at the Phoenix Open.
Justin Rose (Salary: DraftKings – $10,800, FanDuel – $11,400) – Rose is off to a slow start to his season, at least by his standards, as he has just one top 10 in four starts and that came at the Hero World Challenge in a greatly reduced field. He last competed at this event in 2015 when he missed the cut, so one might think that he doesn’t look poised for success this week but with Rose and his deep winning experience, he can break out of a slump at any time.
Gary Woodland (Salary: DraftKings – $10,600, FanDuel – $11,300) – Woodland has five top 12’s over his past 7 events and four of those were top 7’s. He was 49th here in 2018, runner up in 2017, and 61st in 2016. He is coming off a 12th last week and I expect a great finish much like he had in 2017.
Billy Horschel (Salary: DraftKings – $9,200, FanDuel – $10,900) – Horschel has started to come on strong once again with back to back 9ths coming into this week. He was 16th here last year, 4th in 2017, 8th in 2016, and does have two missed cuts which came in 2018 and in 2015. With his strong play as of late and a good track record at this event, I’m looking for a top 10 finish for Billy-Ho this week.
Sungjae Im (Salary: DraftKings – $11,000, FanDuel – $10,700) – Im was 51st here last year but that was coming off two straight missed cuts, and that was in his rookie debut at this tournament. He has only missed one cut this season out of 12 starts, has 3 top 10’s, and is very consistent from week to week.
Daniel Berger (Salary: DraftKings – $10,000, FanDuel – $10,600) – Berger has seen his results improve each of his past four starts going 38th, 29th, 9th, and 5th during that stretch. He has only missed one cut so far this season in 8 starts, and when making the cut his worst finish is 38th. He finished 36th here last year when in much worst shape than he is at the moment now, was 29th in 2018, was runner up in 2015, and did miss the cut in 2016 and 2017. I’m looking for a top 20 finish from Berger this week and could see his 3rd straight top 10.
Louis Oosthuizen (Salary: DraftKings – $9,700, FanDuel – $11,200) – Oosthuizen went on a huge stretch going 3rd, 2nd, and 5th between November to January. He was 24th here in 2018 and 21st in 2017 over the last five years, so you can expect a top 30 finish with upside.
Byeong Hun An (Salary: DraftKings – $8,800, FanDuel – $10,500) – An has four top 10’s this season in 11 starts, and finished 29th last week thanks to his impressive 65 in round 4 on Sunday. He was 36th here last year and 5th in 2018, and I really like him this week compared to many others at higher salary numbers.
5 Solid Value Picks ($7,500 or less on DraftKings)
Maverick McNealy (Salary: DraftKings – $7,500, FanDuel – $8,700) – McNealy has only two missed cuts so far this season and those were the first two events of his season so he’s 10 for 10 since. He was 5th two starts ago at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and has 7 other top 37’s in his past 9 events. The only negative for him this week is that he’s making his Honda Classic debut, but that sure shouldn’t stop you from taking him.
Brian Harman (Salary: DraftKings – $7,300, FanDuel – $8,800) – Harman only has one missed cut this season in 10 starts and is consistent from event to event. He was 33rd in 2018, 48th in 2017, and 11th in 2015. He also holds the course record of 61 that came in 2012 in round 2.
Talor Gooch (Salary: DraftKings – $7,200, FanDuel – $8,600) – Gooch was 20th here last year after coming off four missed cuts in his previous 6 starts. He has made 10 straight cuts and has two top 10’s this season so far including two weeks ago at The Genesis Invitational in a strong field.
Denny McCarthy (Salary: DraftKings – $7,100, FanDuel – $8,400) – McCarthy has yet to miss a paycheck this season in 11 starts, three of those were top 9’s and is coming off a 37th at The Genesis Invitational. He has played this tournament and missed the cut both times but that streak will come to an end this year and see him make his 12th straight cut this season.
Tom Hoge (Salary: DraftKings – $6,900, FanDuel – $8,400) – Hoge has made five straight cuts and three of those were top 12’s. He may have missed the cut here in the last two years but did have a 37th in 2016 and I foresee another decent finish this season as well.
Build, research, edit and repeat until you are happy with each one of your lineups for this week, and all the best of luck for successful contest results come Sunday!
Recapping my 15 pick’s finishes from last week’s WGC-Mexico Championship
My High-Priced Picks
- Bryson DeChambeau – 2nd
- Xander Schauffele – T14th
- Tommy Fleetwood – T18th
- Dustin Johnson – T48th
- Webb Simpson – T61st
- Justin Thomas – T6th
- Rory McIlroy – 5th
- Hideki Matsuyama – T6th
- Jon Rahm – T3rd
- Adam Scott – T26th
My Value Picks
- Tyrrell Hatton – T6th
- Carlos Ortiz – T16th
- Scottie Scheffler – T26th
- Kevin Kisner – T18th
- Lanto Griffin – T29th
