The Honda Classic: 15 DFS Golf Picks
The Honda Classic
Preview for The Honda Classic: The last two weeks on the PGA Tour were amazing with loaded fields at the WM Phoenix Open and The Genesis Invitational, both with $20M purses. This week things come back down to earth with a mediocre field in a less-than-average event, but a bit of a breather is fine. The event goes back to 1972 when it was first called the Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Classic with Tom Weiskopf edging out Jack Nicklaus by a stroke, and this course in Palm Beach Gardens has hosted the tournament since 2007. The record at this event on this particular track is held by Camilo Villegas who shot a -13 in 2010 - so it's a tricky place to play with lots of water to contend with. Winners of The Honda Classic over the past five years include Sepp Straka in 2022, Matt Jones in 2021, Sungjae Im in 2020, Keith Mitchell in 2019, and Justin Thomas in 2018.
Tournament purse: The prize money for this week's event is $8.4M, the winner collects 1.512M and also earns himself 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: PGA National Resort and Spa (Champion Course) is 7,125 yards in length, is a par 70, and the big greens are Bermudagrass. The winning score here over the past decade ranges from -6 to -12, so will see a tough test of golf this week. Some core key stats to factor in this week, in order, include strokes gained: putting, driving distance, strokes gained: around the green, strokes gained: tee to green, strokes gained: approach, and strokes gained: off the tee.
The field: We have 144 players in action this week, and the top 65 players plus ties after round 2 will advance to play round 3 on Saturday and round 4 on Sunday. We will see Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry, defending champ, Sepp Straka, and other good players teeing it up. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be a C.
DFS PGA Tour Golf Picks
Make the most of the data, predictions, and insights from this article to help with your fantasy golf picks for The Honda Classic. And 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 Honda Classic this week:
- Which 10 players have gained the most strokes total over their last 24 rounds? Sungjae Im, Alex Noren, Patrick Rodgers, Hayden Buckley, Joseph Bramlett, Ben Griffin, Aaron Baddeley, Aaron Wise, Eric Cole, and Matt Kuchar.
- Which 10 players does my custom model like the most? Sungjae Im, Matt Kuchar, Chris Kirk, Alex Noren, Jhonattan Vegas, Shane Lowry, Billy Horschel, J.T. Poston, Aaron Wise, and Dylan Frittelli.
- Which 10 players gained the most strokes total (minimum 8 rounds) at this event since 2018? Webb Simpson (8 rounds), Byeong Hun An (14 rounds), Sepp Straka (14 rounds), Sungjae Im (14 rounds), Shane Lowry (16 rounds), Alex Noren (14 rounds), Harris English (12 rounds), Mark Hubbard (12 rounds), Sam Ryder (12 rounds), and Cameron Davis (12 rounds).
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 tasty data.
15 Players Who Are Either High-Potential or Solid-Value Plays This Week - Get Them Into Your DFS Lineups
Sungjae Im (Salary: DraftKings - $10.7K) - He had a tough weekend at the Genesis last week but prior to that he had two straight top 6's and five top 18's in six starts. He won here three years ago and I can see him wanting to avenge his missed cut last year since his putter was ice cold and his approach play wasn't too good either. He's #1 in my custom model this week by a decent margin over Kuchar, Kirk, and all others. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 - cut, 2021 - T8, 2020 - won, and 2019 - T51.
Chris Kirk (Salary: DraftKings - $9.9K) - Kirk missed the cut in his most recent start two weeks ago at the Phoenix Open but had a T3 and a 3rd in the starts before and pretty much gained strokes across the board in both tournaments. He finished top 10 here a year ago and seems to really have his around the green game and putting figured out on this track which are two key stats to keep an eye on. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 - T7, 2021 - T25, 2020 - cut, 2019 - cut, and 2018 - T33.
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Jeremy Campbell
Jeremy has been playing fantasy sports for over 20 successful years, and actively plays golf, hockey, baseball, and table tennis. He has over three years of fantasy sports writing experience - including writing a daily fantasy sports strategies and tools eBook in 2016. He is an active member of DraftKings - specializing in NHL and PGA contests over the past 5 years. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveling to hot places in the frigid Canadian Winters, binge-watching on Netflix, and starting and managing digital businesses.