PGA DFS: Against the Grain Picks for the Rocket Mortgage Classic

Whether it’s your first time reading or you’re a seasoned vet, this article covers GPP Players Championship picks for PGA DFS. It also breaks the field down into four price categories for FanDuel, DraftKings and Yahoo. The article is meant to be a guiding tool in creating variance in your lineups, which in turn, hopefully, can create an edge against the field.

Winning a GPP of any size is a difficult task, especially ones with 40,000-plus entries. Each of my big wins has come by going against the grain with some players and pairing them with the right chalk.

Millionaire Maker Review From Last Week

First, let’s take a look at the winning lineup PGA DFS Millionaire Maker lineup from last week:

Will Gordon. What a find by ‘bpast002’ who had Gordon in quite a few of his 15 or so lineups. He focused on a three-core of Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau. With total ownership of the three at 50%, he was able to really add in any scrubs he wanted and likely not be duplicated. This is my favorite of the Milly Maker-winning lineups yet, a true stars and scrubs.

Now let’s turn our attention to how we did projecting the PGA DFS ownership percentages last week.

RSQ

Jason’s- 89.323%
Awesemo – 88.73%

Picks Review

Top-end pick: Brooks Koepka (DNP)
Mid-level pick: Jordan Spieth (51), Xander Schauffele (21)
Low-level pick: Louis Oosthuizen (45)

Projected Highest-Owned Golfers for the Rocket Mortgage Classic

For the full list, click here.

Player Focus This Week

This week features 156 players with the top 65 and ties making the cut.

$10,000 and Above

Six Golfers
Total ownership of 120%

Commentary

We get another six golfers to choose from this week.

The field this week has everything to do with how ownership will shake out, as these present the best of the field. Bryson DeChambeau continues to rise in the projected ownership rankings, as he should as the clear-and-away favorite of this event. Webb Simpson comes in second highest at just over 20% while I suspect Tyrell Hatton and Viktor Hovland will get real close to it as well. Patrick Reed’s top five here last year will bring more gamers to him as well, leaving only Hideki Matsuyama to go possibly low-owned off of the missed cut.

Top Against-the-Grain Plays

I think it’s pretty clear that Hideki Matsuyama has the only chance of going low-owned here in this price section.

$8,000-$9,999

16 Golfers
Total ownership of 170%

Commentary

Four names that have stumbled a bit lately actually lead the ownership projections here, as gamers look to go right back to Sungjae Im at $9,800. Tony Finau, coming here off of the bad missed cut last week, looks like he could be a popular second option behind DeChambeau in most lineups. Scottie Scheffler is seeing some attention as well, even after he missed the cut last week as well. They both missed the cut on the number…

Doc Redman is priced over $8,000 for the first time in his young career, and it seems most are OK with paying that premium, projected to be over 10% this week. He, along with a resurgent Jason Day, Adam Hadwin and Rory Sabbatini, will all get somewhere between 10-15%. That leaves us a hand full of names that will be under 10% owned this week. That list includes Kevin Na, Erik van Rooyen and, newly added to the player pool, Kurt Kitayama.

Top Against-the-Grain Plays

With Kitayama getting added to the player pool so late, I expect most to overlook him here. I’ll buy in on him in some GPPs especially.

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$7,000s

25 Golfers
Total ownership of 155%

Commentary

Brandt Snedeker has the triple whammy this week: A cheap price relative to the field, one good year of course history and name recognition. All three of those factors will lead to double-digit ownership, and possibly close to 20% in some contests. Harold Varner III has had a decent restart, missing one cut and making two, and he’s likely to push above 10% this week. Si Woo Kim has come back bursting on the scene after just one good start, as he, Alex Noren and Will Gordon will also all push 10%. Brian Harman, who pushed 20% in some contests last week, may get to 10% again.

Outside of those guys, you should get most of the other golfers in the field at 10% or less, including:

Maverick McNealy
Brian Stuard
Scott Stallings
Brendon Todd
Tyler Duncan

That still leaves plenty of golfers that will definitely be under 5% owned this week, including:

Kyle Stanley
Tom Hoge
Joseph Bramlett
Patrick Rodgers

Top Against-the-Grain Plays

Maverick McNealy has been a very consistent performer in his rookie season, and the course should set up well for his game. I don’t suspect he’ll get over 6 or 7%, so getting two or three times the field shouldn’t be too hard.

$6,000s

100 Golfers
Total ownership of 129%

Commentary

100 golfers await us in this price section, as we should have a few golfers now that touch 10% this week. Lanto Griffin and Aaron Wise, both coming off their best weeks in quite some time, lead that charge, coming in close to 10%. Patton Kizzire, Wes Bryan and previous year’s champ Nate Lashley could all push 5% or more this week. That leaves some 90 or so golfers that should be under 10% owned, including Luke List and Sam Burns.