DFS Golf Picks
Digest intel from this article to improve your fantasy golf picks for the 2020 CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK, and check out FantasyData’s PGA Optimizer to bring new hope to your daily fantasy lineups. Best of luck this week!
Recap from last week: Last week at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open saw Martin Laird win the tournament in a playoff against Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook thanks to a brilliant, long birdie putt on playoff hole number two. It was his first PGA Tour win in 7 years and he was understandably emotional right after in his post-victory interview – huge congrats to Laird on his 4th career PGA Tour win!
Preview for this week: This week we will see an even more solid field than last week as the player talent each week keeps rising as the fairly new season plays out, and as we near The Masters tournament next month. The PGA Tour stays in Las Vegas this week – it was supposed to head to South Korea as it has over the past three years, but due to the pandemic, this event will remain on U.S. soil. The only winners at this tournament over the last three seasons include last year’s champ and two-time winner of The CJ CUP Justin Thomas, 2018 had Brooks Koepka in the top spot, and Justin Thomas was, of course, victorious in 2017.
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Tournament purse: The purse for this year’s event sits at a lofty $9.75M, the winner takes home $1.75M in prize money and earns himself 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: The tournament for this year will be played at the picturesque Shadow Creek Golf Course, it’s a par 72, is fairly lengthy at 7,560 yards, and the greens are bentgrass. The massive $9M Tiger vs Mickelson match was played here in November 2018 where Phil outdid Tiger in four playoff holes to score the big prize. Some of the key stats you should take into account this week are Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, Strokes Gained: Approach, Strokes Gained: Putting (on Bentgrass), Strokes Gained: Par 5s, and Birdies or Better Gained.
The field: This week is a no cut event so all 78 golfers will play 72 holes barring a withdrawal or a disqualification of some sort. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be an A – it’s pretty much a major-caliber field without the depth of a larger field size.
Notable storylines: The biggest story with the event this year is that it had to be moved from South Korea to the U.S. due to the global pandemic. Brooks Koepka is returning from injury after being on the shelf for the past two months, so it will be interesting to see how he fares in an event he won two years ago. Justin Thomas will look to win this tournament again for the third time in just four years.
Some bold predictions:
- Thomas wins this event for the 3rd time and names his firstborn child (should he have one) CJ.
- Koepka will come back rusty and fail to finish in the top 40.
- McIlroy will finish T8, his 3rd tournament in a row to do so.
Betting strategy this week: The field quality is very strong this week and with no cuts to be made you have full freedom to build lineups any which way you want. You may want to take on more risk than you normally would and try to win yourself a big GPP tournament.
All the best for earning some contest wins this week – here are my 15 DFS golf picks which feature my top 3 players from each tier 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 add in some helpful pieces of information as well.
The $10K+ Range
Justin Thomas (Salary: DraftKings – $10.8K) – Thomas won in the first year of the CJ CUP in 2017 and is the defending champion from last year. He was runner up at the Tour Championship, came in T8 at the U.S. Open in his most recent start, and looks poised to win again soon. He won three times last season and the wins this season will start flowing again shortly – quite possibly starting this week. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2019: Won the tournament, 2018: T36, and 2017: Won the tournament.
Jon Rahm (Salary: DraftKings – $11.3K) – Rahm is a consistent high-end performer – case in point, he has two wins, a T4, and a T6 over his past 7 starts, and just one finish during those starts was worse than a T23. More than half of his starts last season were top 10’s and I suspect that he will lock down a top 10 this week. Rahm is making his first CJ CUP start, but he’s not at a disadvantage since no players have official PGA Tour experience playing on this track.
The $9K Range
Tyrrell Hatton (Salary: DraftKings – $9.6K) – Hatton is coming off the win last week on the European Tour at the BMW PGA Championship. 6 of his 11 starts last season were top 10’s including his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The only knock against him this week is that he’s coming back from England, so there may be some jet lag and fatigue to deal with, especially if he consumed a few bottles of champagne to celebrate his win. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2019: T6 and 2018: T14.
Tony Finau (Salary: DraftKings – $9.4K) – Finau keeps knocking on the door for his next win, something of which he hasn’t done since 2016 when he won the Puerto Rico Open – a low-tier event. He has 5 top 8’s in his past 8 starts and is coming off a T8 at the U.S. Open in his most recent start. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2017: T26.
Viktor Hovland (Salary: DraftKings – $9.0K) – Hovland is money in the bank from week to week, in fact, he has made 13 straight cuts and 8 of those were top 23’s. He’s coming off a T13 at the U.S. Open and I believe we will see the Norwegian breakthrough for his first big win on the PGA Tour at some point this season – he did win the Puerto Rico Open last season. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2019: T31.
The $8K Range
Sungjae Im (Salary: DraftKings – $8.7K) – Im has started to put back together his strong golf game again with four straight top 28’s and is coming off a T13 last week thanks to his 63 in round two. He had 7 top 10’s last season in 26 starts and won The Honda Classic – a tournament considered to be among the top 3 hardest tournaments played last season. He may be a bit upset that he can’t return to his homeland in South Korea to play in THE CJ CUP this year, but his results are less than average there, so a change of scenery may be beneficial. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2019: T39 and 2018: T41.
Louis Oosthuizen (Salary: DraftKings – $8.5K) – Oosthuizen keeps playing solid golf as all of his past 6 starts have gone for top 33’s and one was a third place finish at the U.S. Open two starts ago. The South African is a cut making machine – that doesn’t matter this week, of course, but he’s a gamer and competes his best when the fields are at their highest level, like this week, for example. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2018: T29.
Scottie Scheffler (Salary: DraftKings – $8.8K) – Scheffler burned me on my most expensive lineup last week as he missed the cut on the number, but I’ll forgive him since he was so solid prior to his positive COVID-19 diagnosis. He had 6 straight top 22’s last season through the Tour Championship, two of those were T4’s, and he had a solo 5th at the season’s final tournament in Atlanta. He comes in as a CJ CUP rookie this week.
The $7K Range
Brian Harman (Salary: DraftKings – $7.2K) – Harman took at run at winning the Shriners last week as he was T3 after round 3 but shot a 72 in his final round to settle for a T13. He has 6 straight top 38’s and three of those ranged from T11 to T13. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2018: T36 and 2017: T5.
Sebastian Munoz (Salary: DraftKings – $7.0K) – Munoz really shined throughout the three playoff events last season as he went T18-T8-T8 and proved that he has big time talent to compete with the big boys of the golfing world. He won the Sanderson Farms Championship last season and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him add another win this season. This is his first year playing at the CJ CUP event, but should do well in his debut.
Alex Noren (Salary: DraftKings – $7.4K) – Noren has top 40’s in his past 6 starts and three of those were top 9’s including his T3 at the 3M Open. His strokes gained: total, around the green, and putting stats are all solid, and I think he will enjoy a decent finish this week to more than pay off his salary number. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2018: T18.
The $6K Range
MacKenzie Hughes (Salary: DraftKings – $6.8K) – I’ve really enjoyed seeing Canadian MacKenzie Hughes develop into a good PGA Tour pro. In four of his past five starts he has top 14 finishes and is coming off a T3 at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship late last month. He’s getting his first taste of action at the CJ CUP this week, and I think he will turn in a fine performance.
Cameron Smith (Salary: DraftKings – $6.8K) – Smith has been very consistent over his past six starts with finishes ranging from T18 to T43 and he did win last season at the Sony Open in Hawaii, so he has some win equity to his name plus he has been outstanding at this event since its inception in 2017. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2019: T3, 2018: T7, 2017: 3rd.
Ryan Palmer (Salary: DraftKings – $6.7K) – Palmer had 5 top 10’s in 19 starts last season, his best coming at the Memorial Tournament where he finished runner up. I think he makes for a good value pick this week should you decide to put together some stars and scrubs lineups, which I recommend doing. CJ CUP finishes over the last three years – 2019: T12 and 2018: T3.
Recapping my 15 pick’s finishes from last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
The $10K+ Range
- Bryson DeChambeau – T8
- Webb Simpson – T13
- Patrick Cantlay – T8
The $9K Range
- Harris English – Missed the cut
- Scottie Scheffler – Missed the cut
- Hideki Matsuyama – Missed the cut
The $8K Range
- Cameron Davis – T52
- Louis Oosthuizen – T19
- Kevin Na – T43
The $7K Range
- Charley Hoffman – Missed the cut
- Kristoffer Ventura – Missed the cut
- Sebastian Munoz – T27
The $6K Range
- Adam Schenk – T27
- Matthys Daffue – Missed the cut
- Tom Hoge – T24
