The Fortinet Championship
Preview for the Fortinet Championship: It’s the beginning of a new PGA Tour season with the 2023-2024 campaign getting underway this week in Napa, California. This event has been played since 2007 when Mike Weir won the inaugural edition by a single stroke, and Stewart Cink owns the tournament record with a score of -21 which he shot in 2020. Fortinet Championship winners over the last five years include Max Homa in 2022, Max Homa in 2021, Stewart Cink in 2020, Cameron Champ in 2019, and Kevin Tway in 2018.
Tournament purse: The prize money for this week’s event is $8.4M, the winner collects $1.512M and also earns 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: Silverado Resort and Spa (North Course) is 7,126 yards in length, is a par 72, and the greens are a mix of bentgrass and poa. The winning score at this event over the last five years ranges from -14 to -21, and you can expect a score that falls in this range again this week. In order, some key stats to focus on this week are driving distance, driving accuracy percentage, strokes gained: tee to green, strokes gained: off the tee, and strokes gained: putting. None of these stats are very polarizing though just so you know.
The 2023 Fortinet Championship: We have a field size of 156 players, and the top 65 players plus ties after round 2 will play rounds 3 and 4 on the weekend. We don’t have very many good players competing this week, but some notable names are Max Homa, Justin Thomas, Chez Reavie, and Cameron Davis. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be a D.
DFS PGA Tour Golf Picks
Make the most of this article’s data, predictions, and insights to help with your fantasy golf picks for the Fortinet Championship. Plus check out our PGA Projections and Optimizer tools to make more informed player selections for your DFS DraftKings lineups. Best of luck this week!
Three questions that are relevant to the Fortinet Championship this week:
- Which 10 players have gained the most strokes total over their last 24 rounds? Max Homa, Sahith Theegala, Brendon Todd, Stephan Jaeger, Cameron Davis, Austin Eckroat, Lucas Herbert, Chez Reavie, Alex Noren, and Andrew Putnam.
- Which 10 players does my custom model like the most? Max Homa, Stephan Jaeger, Cameron Davis, Chez Reavie, Matti Schmid, Martin Laird, Beau Hossler, Doug Ghim, Chad Ramey, and Alex Noren.
- Which 10 players gained the most strokes total (minimum 6 rounds) at this event since 2018? Stewart Cink, Zac Blair, Max Homa, Sahith Theegala, Chez Reavie, Mark Hubbard, Matt Kuchar, Cameron Percy, Kevin Streelman, and Brendon Todd.
All the best in your journey to win or at least be in the money in some contests this week – here are (in no particular order) 15 DFS golf picks on DraftKings (DK), plus I also include player salaries for DK. I consistently provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their performances at the event over the last five years, and add in some valuable data.
15 Players Who Are Either High-Potential or Solid-Value Plays This Week – Get Them Into Your DFS Lineups
Max Homa (Salary: DraftKings – $11.0K) – Homa is clearly the man to beat this week as he has won the last two tournaments here and has five straight top 12’s and has gone T21-T12-T10-T6-T5-T9 over his last six starts. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – Won, 2021 – Won, 2019 – T62, and 2018 – T60.
Cameron Davis (Salary: DraftKings – $10.1K) – Davis has three top 10’s over his last four starts and as long as his putter is decent this week, he should contend despite his lackluster record at this event. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut, 2020 – T36, and 2019 – cut.
Sahith Theegala (Salary: DraftKings – $9.8K) – He went T13-T15 in his only two playoff events last season and narrowly missed out on finishing top 5 here last year, so he’s one to watch this week. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T6, 2021 – T47, and 2020 – T14.
Eric Cole (Salary: DraftKings – $9.5K) – Cole is a cut-making machine and has four straight top 31’s including a T14 at the Wyndham Championship. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut.
Beau Hossler (Salary: DraftKings – $9.3K) – He has four top 26’s in his last five starts including a T6 at the 3M Open where he was great on approach and with his putter, and also has three straight top 25’s at this tournament. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T25, 2021 – T16, 2020 – T23, 2019 – cut, and 2018 – cut.
Andrew Putnam (Salary: DraftKings – $9.1K) – Putnam has made nine consecutive cut lines, is coming off a T10 at the BMW Championship, had a T5 at the Memorial, and has played fairly well here, as well. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T43, 2021 – T30, and 2020 – T36.
Alex Noren (Salary: DraftKings – $9.0K) – He has three top 23’s over his last five starts including a T9 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and showed well here last year. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T36.
Matthias Schmid (Salary: DraftKings – $7.0K) – In his last two PGA starts he has two top 22’s, and is a consistent gainer with his ball-striking – not a bad value play here. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T59.
Russell Knox (Salary: DraftKings – $6.8K) – I think that Knox is priced too low this week, so take advantage. He has been good here, and has played weekend golf in six out of his last seven events played. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T25, 2021 – T58, 2020 – T9, and 2018 – cut.
Nick Watney (Salary: DraftKings – $6.0K) – Watney has been horrible lately but his record here is fairly solid with four straight cut lines made, he had a top 10 four years ago, and is min priced on DK at just $6K. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T70, 2021 – T30, 2020 – T46, 2019 – T10, and 2018 – cut.
JJ Spaun (Salary: DraftKings – $9.2K) – He has five straight top 38’s including a T10 at the Barracuda Championship, plus he had a top 10 here three years ago. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T59, 2021 – cut, 2020 – T9, 2019 – cut, and 2018 – T41.
Nick Hardy (Salary: DraftKings – $8.2K) – Hardy has only missed one cut line over his last eight starts, had a T13 three starts ago, and has been fine here. He also won with his partner at the Zurich Classic in April. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T67 and 2021 – T36.
Doug Ghim (Salary: DraftKings – $8.0K) – He had a pretty good run from early May to early August with seven top 33’s in nine starts including a T12 at the Canadian Open in June. He also had a top 15 here three years ago. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T72, 2021 – cut, and 2020 – T14.
Garrick Higgo (Salary: DraftKings – $7.7K) – Higgo has four top 33’s in his last five starts including a T19 at the Scottish Open, and has only lost strokes one time in his last fourteen starts in the off the tee stat category. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut.
Stewart Cink (Salary: DraftKings – $7.3K) – The aforementioned Cink holds the tournament record here with his win in 2020, and he finished T23 at The Open Championship three starts ago – not a bad scrubs player for this week. Fortinet Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut and 2020 – Won.
