The TOUR Championship
Preview for the TOUR Championship: It all comes down to this week to determine who will win the FedEx Cup and go out on top of the 2022-2023 PGA Tour campaign. The best score we have seen at this tournament came from none other than Tiger Woods who shot an incredible -23 in 2007 – the same year that this competition became a playoff event. TOUR Championship winners over the last five years include Rory McIlroy in 2022, Patrick Cantlay in 2021, Dustin Johnson in 2020, Rory McIlroy in 2019, and Tiger Woods in 2018.
Tournament purse: The prize money for this week’s event/FedEx Cup is an incredible $75M, the winner collects an insane $18M and becomes the 2022-2023 FedEx Cup winner.
Course and key stats: East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, GA, is 7,346, is a par 70, and the big greens are bentgrass. The winning score at this event over the last five editions ranges from -10 to -17 excluding starting strokes, so expect something similar again this time around. In order, some key stats to focus on this week are driving accuracy, strokes gained: approach, strokes gained: total, strokes gained: off the tee, and driving distance. Only driving accuracy is a polarizing key stat though with just four other courses being more important than East Lake, so golfers need to keep their balls out of the rough stuff.
The 2023 TOUR Championship: Everything throughout the 2022-2023 campaign has led up to this very event in the ATL to see who will win the highly coveted trophy, the glory, and 18 million dollars in cash. Just 30 players remain in the knockout-style playoff format, and many of the world’s top golfers are here including Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and lots of other elite talent also. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be an A+.
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 TOUR Championship. 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 TOUR Championship this week:
- Which 10 players have gained the most strokes total over their last 24 rounds? Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Brian Harman, Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Kim, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm, and Collin Morikawa.
- Which 10 players does my custom model like the most? Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, and Tom Kim.
- Which 10 players gained the most strokes total (minimum 6 rounds) at this event since 2018? Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Sungjae Im, Rickie Fowler, Tony Finau, and Patrick Cantlay.
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
Rory McIlroy (Salary: DraftKings – $13.0K) – Starting position: -7. Rory has been superb at East Lake with three wins so far including last year’s victory, and he starts just three strokes off the lead this week which is a better starting position than he had this time last year. He has been on fire since mid-May with nine consecutive top 9’s including a win, a 2nd, a T3, and he’s coming off a 4th last week. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – Won, 2021 – T14, 2020 – T8, 2019 – Won, and 2018 – T7.
Scottie Scheffler (Salary: DraftKings – $13.4K) – Starting position: -10. He came a stroke shy of forcing a playoff against McIlroy last year, so I think he will be a man on a mission this week, especially since his lead is at least 2 strokes on the rest of the field. Scheffler gained a very impressive 13.29 strokes ball-striking last week and could have won the BMW Championship, but was a loser with his putter yet again. I believe that Scottie will seal the deal this week, you just got to decide if you want to pay up for him or not. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T2, 2021 – T22, and 2020 – T5.
Viktor Hovland (Salary: DraftKings – $12.5K) – Starting position: – 8. What an impressive win for Hovland last week shooting a -9 in round 4 to take the BMW Championship in style. He now has two wins in his last seven starts including that victory at the Memorial Tournament, and it seems like when his putter is hot he usually comes out on top since he’s a solid ball-striker. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T15, 2021 – T5, and 2020 – T20.
Max Homa (Salary: DraftKings – $10.7K) – Starting position: -4. The surge continued for Homa last week as he finished T5 at the BMW Championship and has gone T21-T12-T10-T6-T5 over his last five tournaments played. He had a pretty good showing here last year finishing in the top 5, and while his price tag is maybe a bit high based on his starting position – if his putter gets blazing hot as it regularly does, then he can certainly surge up the leaderboard. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T5.
Xander Schauffele (Salary: DraftKings – $10.5K) – Starting position: -3. Six starts here for Xander and he has finished no worse than T7 – he won in 2017, has a 2nd, and a T2. His 4th here last year could have been a whole lot better if he didn’t lose 2.03 strokes putting – the good news is he hasn’t lost strokes putting since mid-April and that was a mere -0.09 loss. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – 4th, 2021 – T5, 2020 – T2, 2019 – 2nd, and 2018 – T7.
Lucas Glover (Salary: DraftKings – $9.7K) – Starting position: – 5. Lots of love for the Glove(r) given he has won two out of the last three weeks including the FedEx St.Jude Championship, has five top 6’s over his last seven starts, and has been downright nasty with his ball-striking and putter. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2019 – T29.
Brian Harman (Salary: DraftKings – $9.5K) – Starting position: – 4. Similar to Glover above, Harman has four top 9’s over his last six starts including winning The Open Championship, finishing T2 at the Travelers Championship, and is coming off a T5 last week where he gained 10.28 strokes with his short game. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T21.
Sungjae Im (Salary: DraftKings – $8.5K) – Starting position: -2. Im doesn’t do any one thing very well but he’s balanced throughout his bag, has two top 7’s over the first two playoff events and had a T14 in the start before that at the Wyndham Championship. He finished one stroke behind McIlroy last year to tie Scheffler for 2nd, and gained 6.93 strokes ball-striking. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T2, 2021 – T20, 2020 – T11, and 2019 – T19.
Russell Henley (Salary: DraftKings – $8.3K) – Starting position: -3. He’s on a three-tournament tear going T2 at the Wyndham Championship, T6 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and T8 last week. He hasn’t played here since 2017 but finished T3 thanks to solid approach play and putting. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: none.
Tom Kim (Salary: DraftKings – $7.9K) – Starting position: -2. Kim has three top 10’s in his last four starts including a T2 at The Open Championship, a T6 at the Scottish Open, and a T10 last week. He’s a rookie here this week, but he should be up for the challenge with no pressure on him whatsoever – so he can play loose. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: none.
Corey Conners (Salary: DraftKings – $7.9K) – Starting position: – 2. The Canadian keeps on performing with three top 10’s in his last five starts and he also had a T19 at the Scottish Open during this stretch. His results here haven’t been too good, but he has gained at least 2.64 strokes ball-striking in the three appearances that he has made – he just needs to figure out these greens as he has collectively lost more than 15 strokes with the flat stick. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T26, 2021 – T22, and 2019 – T26.
Tommy Fleetwood (Salary: DraftKings – $8.8K) – Starting position: -3. Fleetwood has been spectacular this year and has five top 10’s over his last seven starts including a runner-up at the Canadian Open, a T3 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, a T6 at the Scottish Open, and a T10 at The Open Championship. Here’s to hoping that Tommy can finish off his best PGA Tour season to date hot. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2019 – T16 and 2018 – T11.
Sam Burns (Salary: DraftKings – $6.1K) – Starting position: Even par. I don’t mind Burns as a low-cost option since he has three top 19’s over his last five starts and he won the WGC Dell Match Play tournament in late March. He has putted well at this venue but hasn’t been so good ball-striking just yet. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T24 and 2021 – T18.
Jordan Spieth (Salary: DraftKings – $6.7K) – Starting position: Even par. Spieth has two top 6’s over his last six starts including a T5 at the Memorial Tournament and a T6 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He won here back in 2015, so he does have some good vibes around East Lake. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T13 and 2021 – T20.
Sepp Straka (Salary: DraftKings – $5.4K) – Starting position: Even par. He played quite well here last year to earn a T7, his only loss in the major stat categories was off the tee where he lost 1.90 strokes. He won five starts ago at the John Deere Classic and followed that up with a T2 at The Open Championship. He’s cheap and worth rostering in some of your stars and scrubs lineups. TOUR Championship finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T7.
