Welcome to the Fantasy Six Pack! If this is your first time joining us, we highlight six golfers to use in two popular fantasy golf platforms, DraftKings and FanDuel. On each, you must select six golfers for your lineup under a specific salary cap. (DraftKings $50,000, FanDuel $60,000.)
A little about me: I’m a golf nut with a trending upwards 4 handicap (since having my son James, it’s skyrocketed) and a nose for analytics. According to Rotogrinders, I’m one of the top daily fantasy golf players and ranked inside the top 5 of all players. Come check out all of my analysis at Awesemo.com where last week I had a huge week profiting over $50,000 dollars!
Recap of last week: One of the best week’s of the year for our article, as we even highlighted Michael Thompson as someone you may not want to play, and ended up missing the cut. Rory McIlroy and Sungjae Im both nabbed top-5s for us, while Sam Saunders and Ian Poulter both created value!
The Tournament: The Players Championship
The courses: TPC Sawgrass
Average Winning Score: -15
Average Cut: Even
Yardage: 7,250
Par: 72
Last year’s top finishers
Webb Simpson
Xander Schauffele
Jimmy Walker
Charl Schwartzel
Jason Day
Jason Dufner
Skills emphasized: TPC Sawgrass is known for its ability to test every single facet of one’s golfing prowess and mental fortitude. One little lapse in judgement can bring triple bogey into play, not to mention bogey or double bogey. Thus, you see a decent disparity in Strokes Gained from the winners here, highlighted by the Strokes Gained: Around the Green category having its most important showing of the year.
The Favorite(s):
Dustin Johnson (12/1 DraftKings-$11,400; FanDuel-$12,300): DJ seems to be amid one of those “runs” where he’s just a force each week he tees it up. This week though he’ll try to conquer TPC Sawgrass, which is something he hasn’t done for quite a while. Although his results have drastically improved from earlier in this decade over the last two years, notably after a big renovation was done to the course. He dominated in Mexico on a tight, tactical golf course, and I don’t see any reason why that changes this week.
Going Streaking: Players entering this week in great form
Tommy Fleetwood (25/1 DraftKings-$8,800; FanDuel-$10,600), Francesco Molinari (Molinari 20/1 DraftKings-$8,600; FanDuel-$10,100): “Moliwood” had an incredible showing last week, but Francesco made three more putts than Tommy on Sunday. Still, Fleetwood’s ball-striking was superb. He just ran into a very difficult golf course late in the day on Saturday, as did Rory and Matthew Fitzpatrick on Sunday afternoon. If the 28-year-old Englishman with the best hair on Tour doesn’t win over the next two weeks, I’d be surprised.
Rafa Cabrera Bello (50/1 DraftKings-$7,400; FanDuel-$9,800): After coming out to a blistering 65 on Thursday, Rafa didn’t get back to seven under until late on the day on Sunday. He got as low as 10-under before putting one in the drink on 18. Still, his game is perfectly suited for this type of strategic golf and is obviously in form. If the putter cooperates, the price for him is just a little too low on DraftKings, as he’ll return value quite easily at that price.
“Looks good off the tee” segment: This section focuses on a golfer that is coming into this week in great form, but may be set for a bad week, or some “regression” off his recent results.
Jason Kokrak (120/1 DraftKings $6,700; FanDuel-$9,000): Jason has been on absolute fire this year. And when we look at his statistics, we see why. He’s gaining almost two strokes per round ball-striking (off the tee + approaches), an increase of 1.4 per round over his 2018 numbers. That’s almost five shots per tournament! He’s ranked inside the top 10 in that category this season, compared to in the mid-60’s in 2018. I’m not saying this regression will be instantaneous, but it’s likely to come at some point.
“Out of Bounds” play of the week: This section is going to focus on a golfer that may not be well known in the golfing world yet. It should provide some “positive variance” for your Daily Fantasy Contests this week!
Byeong Hun-An (100/1 DraftKings-$6,800; FanDuel-$8,700): Speaking of golfers that are in form in the SG ball-striking stat, it’s Byeong Hun-An. However, contrary to Kokrak, Hun-An was ranked inside the top 20 in both SG ball-striking and from tee to green. So these stats aren’t that uncommon for him; he’s just not a good putter. However, when he matches or gains strokes via his putting, he’s got a shot to win. Take last week for example; for the tournament, he lost two strokes putting and came in 10th. Those two strokes get him into a tie for second place.
Mulligans: A player who has struggled but expects to play better
Jordan Spieth (55/1 DraftKings-$8,900; FanDuel-$10,800): I’m afraid the slope is getting very slippery at this point for Jordan. Granted he had his dad on the bag in Mexico. Michael Greller is back on the bag this week, which should comfort Spieth to a degree, but I don’t know how much that will help. He’s struggling off the tee and his putter is just not working right now. That’s going to be a big problem at TPC Sawgrass and at other courses where length matters. Sure, his irons still look and can be great. But at some point, Spieth is going to need to add some length off the tee to compete each week.
Lastly, a check on the GOAT
Tiger Woods (18/1 DraftKings-$10,500; FanDuel-$11,100): When he’s decided to tee it up, Tiger has looked good and the long irons have looked great. In this new era of Tiger Woods, these tight tactical courses are exactly where he excels. Since the course is also overseeded, it should help him around the greens. Not that he really needs it. But I see no reason why Tiger can’t compete this week if he’s fully healthy.
Where to play Fantasy Golf this week: Tiger is the theme this week as the biggest contests of the year are posted.
DraftKings:
1. $10 buy-in called “Golf’s 5th Major” with a top prize of $250,000 and a guaranteed prize pool of $600,000.
2. $444 buy-in called “Pressure Putt” with a top prize of $100,000, and a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000.
3. $2,120 buy-in called “ProShop” with a top prize of $100,000 and a guaranteed prize pool of $400,000.
FanDuel:
1. $3 buy-in called “Stinger,” with a top prize of $5,00 and a guaranteed prize pool of $20,000
2. $9.99 buy-in called “Eagle,” with a top prize of $50,000 and a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000.
3. $555 buy-in called “Monster,” with a top prize of $25,000 and a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000.
That’s it for this week, folks! As always, check my bio below if you’d like to get in touch.
Jason Rouslin is the lead golf analyst for Awesemo.com. He has been playing golf for the last 20 years, betting on golf for the last five and writing about golf for the last two. Connect with him on Twitter @dfsgolfer23 or check him out on the @rotogrinders live golf show on Tuesday’s @ 8 PM and on the live @Awesemo_Com golf show at 9 PM Wednesdays
