The Winning Element PGA DFS Picks, Player Pool & Allocations for the Charles Schwab Challenge

A week after a major can always feel like a bit of a letdown in terms of overall interest and PGA DFS, but with Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka adding drama to the sport not seen in a long time, the interest in the game is continuing to rise. Now, the Charles Schwab Challenge has gone through a bit of a lull in years past, but with a lot of the world’s best teeing it up last year here due to COVID-19, many have chosen to come back. That should set up for an interesting week of fantasy golf and PGA DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel contests.

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For more of our free PGA DFS picks, be sure to check out our DraftKings and FanDuel cheat sheets that use Awesemo’s lineup optimizer to find the best value plays and top-end studs for the week. If you’re looking to get more PGA action down this week, see all of the Awesemo expert PGA betting picks before making your bets.

I am primarily a GPP PGA DFS player and enjoy making up to 450 different lineups. As such, these allocations are likely not exact, but they are targets for the mass-entry GPPs. If this is your first time reading it, let’s go over what you can find in it.

Article Index

• Key/Legend
• Last week recap
• TV schedule and weather update
• My entire player pool
• Notes on the chalkiest players

Key/Legend

The following sections define who will play and what recommended allocation you should play them at:

• Core: We will start with these golfers in every lineup. At least two from my core will be in every one of the lineups.
• PFs: We all have our guys, and these are mine. They will be in the player pool at a minimum of 20%. I have seven, and they are quite common: Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Brian Harman, Collin Morikawa, Brian Stuard and, at times, DeChambeau.
• Chalk Zone: These golfers are expected to be the most popular golfers of the week. They are supposed to be widely owned, and so, in a massive GPP, a winning lineup likely won’t have more than one of the guys listed in this area.
• Alternates: On the PGA Tour, alternates are lucky to get in the field each week. However, it happens all the time due to injuries. In this section, we’ll identify a few lineup alternates that can help fill a lineup and still provide some decent upside.
• Recommended Allocation: The percentage of time said golfer should be in your lineups, or at least what we are advocating.
• Projected Ownership: The percentage that the field will have said golfer in their lineups.
• Variance: The difference between Recommended Allocation and Projected Ownership. A favorable variance gives you leverage.

Last Week’s Recap

Sam Burns was back at it again last week, as 40% of my millionaire maker lineups were gone before the back nine on Friday. My week and rooting interest were at least kept thanks to my $555 FanDuel lineup, which did get six of six through the cut and had a big move on Sunday. It finished in 14th in the event, just about getting me back to breakeven on the whole and more than doubling my money on FanDuel.

Expected Weather

Wind is always a factor around these parts, although that could be said about every venue. Thursday will see similar conditions to what the golfers saw last week, but it should die off after the expected rainstorm on Friday morning.

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Charles Schwab Challenge PGA DFS Picks

The Favorites

It is not often that the two best players in the field this week, outside of Justin Thomas, are the clear-cut favorites. Sure, Daniel Berger is there as well, but Collin Morikawa and Jordan Spieth are certainly ahead of the pack this week. Neither of them will get over 15% ownership as well. Both are worth being overweight on in GPPs. Even on FanDuel where the ownership is expected to creep into the mid-20s, getting to around 50% would be prudent.

Picks for DraftKings & FanDuel

• Total expected player pool: 53
• Expected number of lineups created: 300

Tee Times:

• Round 1: 8:25 a.m.
• Round 2: 1:50 p.m.

Will Zalatoris ($9,900 DraftKings/$11,200 FanDuel)

Zalatoris had yet another top-10 at a major last week, and he is now 3-for-3 in coming inside the top 10 at the world’s biggest events. But he’s still not a PGA Tour member; he’ll need to win for that to happen before the end of the year. What better place to get a first than in front of a home crowd?

Scottie Scheffler ($9,500 DraftKings/$11,100 FanDuel)

Speaking of golfers that have performed well in majors, Scheffler got his second straight top-10 at the PGA Championship to open up his career in the major and continues his run of good form. Like with Zalatoris, everyone is waiting for the big breakthrough, and a course that rewards a strong off-tee game should be an ideal fit for Scheffler.

Corey Conners ($9,400 DraftKings/$11,000 FanDuel)

Conners has been on a run that includes at least a hole in one a week. Now, he finally failed to accomplish that feat at the U.S. Open, but he came close a couple of times, and it seems like a win is on the horizon. Conners has had good success here at Colonial and in Texas, and he should set up well this week.

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Matt Wallace ($8,200 DraftKings/$9,800 FanDuel)

The made-cut streak at majors continues for Wallace, who has now made it 8-for-8. Granted, there isn’t a single top-10 in any of those eight; Wallace can’t seem to put it together for all four rounds at a major in recent years. The same goes for last week, where he really struggled on Saturday in conditions that should suit him well. He wound up shooting a 6-over 77, pushing him all the way down the leaderboard. Wallace has not missed a cut since the Honda, and he also hasn’t played back-to-back weeks since the RBC Heritage, so he should be rested and ready to go.

Joel Dahmen ($7,400 DraftKings/$9,000 FanDuel)

The last time Dahmen was a quality play in this price range, he ended up winning. Things are absolutely trending in the right direction for Dahmen. The problem with him sometimes is he’s a bit of a head case on the course, and that can creep into his putting. There was no better instance of that than when he lost over five strokes on Sunday. He does not do that often, however, and it likely will not happen again this week.

Fringe Golfers Below $7,500

There aren’t necessarily standouts here , at least none that will be getting enough GPP ownership to be worth mention as part of the core, but a few players are necessary to fill in lineups with golfers above. The top 10 GPP exposures of golfers under $7,400 will go here instead.

1. Harold Varner III
2. Cameron Davis
3. Branden Grace
4. Talor Gooch
5. Peter Uihlein
6. Russell Knox
7. Carlos Ortiz
8. Doc Redman
9. Vincent Whaley

Chalk Zone (Golfers Projected for At Least 10% Ownership)

1. Patrick Reed (E to O)
2. Daniel Berger (E to U)
3. Abraham Ancer (E)
4. Joaquin Niemann (U)
5. Justin Rose (E to U)
6. Charley Hoffman (E to U)
7. Emiliano Grillo (E)
8. Brian Harman (U)
9. Chris Kirk (U)
10. Matt Kuchar (U)
11. Si Woo Kim (U)
12. Brendon Todd (U)

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Fringe PGA DFS Picks (10-15% of Lineups)

1. Justin Thomas
2. Tony Finau
3. Jason Kokrak
4. Billy Horschel
5. Gary Woodland
6. Sungjae Im
7. Harry Higgs
8. Richy Werenski
9. Keith Mitchell
10. Brandt Snedeker
11. Patton Kizzire

Alternates (5-10% of Lineups)

1. Ryan Palmer
2. J.T. Poston
3. Luke List
4. Maverick McNealy
5. Sahith Theegala
6. Ian Poulter
7. Matthew NeSmith
8. Adam Hadwin

Holes in One (1-5% of Lineups)

1. Nick Taylor
2. Denny McCarthy
3. Byeong Hun An
4. Will Gordon
5. Jimmy Walker
6. Adam Long
7. Austin Cook
8. Cameron Tringale
9. Cameron Champ
10. Wyndham Clark

Be sure to tune in for PGA DFS Live Before Lock, which airs at 8 p.m. ET!

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