Daily Fantasy Golf Tips
Two tournaments down for the 2019-2020 season, and thankfully many more still to come. Sebastián Muñoz won last week for his first PGA Tour win – the second consecutive week for new champions with Joaquin Niemann breaking through two weeks ago. We are still early into the season when fields aren’t overly stacked with top names, but we will take what we can get until the bigger tournaments emerge and this week does see Justin Thomas, Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, and other decent-sized names making their season debuts. We are fortunate as golf fans and fantasy users that almost every week there’s a golf tournament or two to pay attention to, unlike the other major sports that are off for at three or four months.
This week sees the PGA Tour headed to the Safeway Open, and Kevin Tway will look to defend his championship from last season after beating Ryan Moore and Brandt Snedeker in a playoff. Brendan Steele won the two seasons prior, Emiliano Grillo won in 2015, and Sang-Moon Bae was the 2014 champ to round out the last five years of champions at this tournament. The good aspect about these early-season tournaments is that most of the fields are full player ones, which is more challenging to get players through the cut line but oh so rewarding when you have at least one 6-player lineup playing all four rounds and working hard to place high for you in contests.
The Safeway Open returns to the Silverado Resort – North course for the fourth straight year, it’s a track that’s 7,166 yards in length, it’s a par 72 so it’s a fairly short course by PGA Tour standards, and the greens are Poa. We will see around 142 golfers tee it up this week, and once again in case you forgot, the top 65 players plus ties after round 2 on Friday get to play all four rounds, as there’s no such thing as a secondary cut (MDF) anymore. Some of the key stats to look at this week are strokes gained approach, proximity to the hole, and birdie or better percentage.
Onto the good stuff – my picks this week include my 10 favorite players for the Safeway Open and 5 value picks (in no particular order), plus I include player salaries for both DraftKings and FanDuel as well.
10 Players Who Are Poised To Finish Strong This Week
Justin Thomas (Salaries: DraftKings – $11,600, FanDuel – $12,200) – JT had a huge opportunity to win the FedEx Cup and the $15M prize a very short time ago if you recall but didn’t come up big when needed, and I think he will be hungry to produce this week. Had a win and a 3rd in his two last playoff events last season, and was 3rd here in 2015 and 8th in 2016. Here’s a sure bet for a top-10 finish this week with the best chance of winning.
Adam Scott (Salaries: DraftKings – $10,700, FanDuel – $11,700) – Had a huge playoff run with a 5th, 9th, and 6th, and should be considered a major threat to contend on Sunday. The only knock against him is that he’s a first-timer at Silverado but don’t let that stop you from spending high to own him this week.
Brandt Snedeker (Salaries: DraftKings – $9,600, FanDuel – $10,700) – Sneds was runner up here last season and had a 17th in 2015, plus he loves him some Poa greens. Had a big playoff run until The Tour Championship where he finished 24th, but in the first two playoff events, he had a 6th and a 5th.
Brendan Steele (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,400, FanDuel – $9,100) – Got to really like his pricing on DK and FD this week as he won here in 2017 and 2016, he was 17th in 2015, and 53rd last year. Has only missed one cut in his last 8 events – lots to like about Steele this week.
Patrick Cantlay (Salaries: DraftKings – $11,200, FanDuel – $11,900) – Had a runner up finish in the second last tournament of the playoffs last season, and had many top 10’s in what was a very strong season for Cantlay. Was 17th here last year in his Safeway Open tournament debut.
Sungjae Im (Salaries: DraftKings – $10,100, FanDuel – $11,000) – Has five top 19th place finishes in his last six events and was runner up last week. Had a 4th at this tourney last year and the reigning rookie of the year is poised to win on the PGA Tour soon – perhaps this week he seals the deal unless he runs out of gas from playing in too many events.
Hideki Matsuyama (Salaries: DraftKings – $10,500, FanDuel – $11,500) – Had a 3rd and a 9th to close out the playoffs last season, and it looks like Matsuyama is getting back on track again after a couple missed cuts towards the end of the regular season. Was 17th here in 2015 and 3rd in 2014.
Ryan Moore (Salaries: DraftKings – $9,100, FanDuel – $7,000) – Never quite made it to The Tour Championship last season but he did have an 18th and a 37th in the opening playoff events. Has a stellar record at this course with a runner up finish last season, a 17th in 2017, and a 10th in 2015.
Chez Reavie (Salaries: DraftKings – $9,200, FanDuel – $10,400) – Finished strong last season with an 8th in The Tour Championship. Has a nice, narrow range of finishes at this tournament since 2015 finishing anywhere from 13th to 33rd.
Scott Piercy (Salaries: DraftKings – $8,600, FanDuel – $8,300) – Piercy is consistent from week to week thanks to his solid all-around game and had a 19th two weeks ago at The GreenBrier. Was 3rd here in 2016 and 17th in 2017.
5 Value Pick Players
Robby Shelton (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,100, FanDuel – $8,800) – The Korn Ferry Tour standout is about ready to make some noise on the PGA Tour as he had a 28th last week and a 7th at The Greenbrier. He’s top-rated in a few categories including birdie or better, tee to green, and total driving, but the sample size is small. Still a great value pick this week in my opinion.
Kevin Tway (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,700, FanDuel – $9,400) – The defending champ had an 11th at the BMW Championship and a 24th in the first playoff event at the Northern Trust. Also had a 52nd in 2017 and a 62nd in 2016 so at the very least he should be playing all four rounds this week with good upside to boot.
Tom Hoge (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,100, FanDuel – $8,700) – Opened the new season with a runner up finish and was 39th last week. Had a 17th here last year and earned a 37th in 2017. Has only missed one cut in his last 10 events as well so he does exactly what you want from a value pick – he makes the cut and has decent upside.
Cameron Tringale (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,200, FanDuel – $8,800) – Has gone 36th-16th to start the 2019-2020 campaign off and was darn good in his last seven events of the regular season with five top 23rd finishes. Has finished in the ’40s over the past two years here.
Doc Redman (Salaries: DraftKings – $7,200, FanDuel – $8,200) – What up Doc? Has finishes ranging from 2nd to 52nd in six of his last eight events, where the other two went for missed cuts. Has some nice stat-lines to his name.
Just because the field isn’t “major strong” doesn’t mean your lineups need to be major bad! Look for skill and value, build strong 6-player lineups and all the best with your finishes this week.
Recapping my 15 pick’s finishes from last week
My Top Picks
- Scottie Scheffler – T16th
- Joaquin Niemann – T54th
- Sungjae Im – 2nd
- Brian Harman – T14th
- Lucas Glover – Cut
- Corey Conners – Cut
- Vaughn Taylor – Cut
- Sebastián Muñoz – Win
- Byeong Hun An – 3rd
- Wyndham Clark – Cut
- My Value Picks
- D.J. Trahan – Cut
- Shawn Stefani – T28th
- Johnson Wagner – Cut
- Cameron Tringale – T16th
- Roberto Castro – T52nd
