PGA DFS Picks & Preview for the PGA Champioship, DraftKings, FanDuel

The return to some normalcy is likely going to be a gradual process rather than a sprint. Being able to sit down and write this article every Sunday sets my entire PGA DFS week. This is the first installment in our weekly PGA content for DraftKings, FanDuel and SuperDraft, breaking down the best PGA DFS picks and everything you need to know for The PGA Championship.

If this is your first time reading the article, or you’ve forgotten all about PGA DFS, then I’ll give you a quick summary of what’s to come:

Tournament Intro
Course Breakdown and DFS Sweatsheet
Player Preview
Statistical Preview

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Tournament & Intro: The 102nd PGA Championship

First being held all the way back in the mid-1910s, the tournament started as a match play championship. Distinguishing itself from other majors, it was a pretty cool idea if you ask me, but we’ll never get that again. The tournament has only been skipped three times since the inaugural tournament back in 1916 all due to World Wars. The Championship features the best players in the world and a few select PGA Golf Professionals from around the world. Owned by the PGA of America and not the PGA Tour, the tournament allows for some of its industry professionals to qualify for the tournament.

What else makes it different from a typical PGA Tour event? I’m glad you asked.

Top 3 Difference Between Major Championships and Typical PGA Tour Events

The Field: For those of you that are golf fans already, this is pretty obvious. But those of you new to the sport, the best of the best always come to play in majors — all of them.
The Conditions: The unique thing about golf is the field in which the competitors play on can and will change every week, even if they are playing the same course. For majors, the conditions are always the hardest. A few things make this the case. First and foremost, typical PGA Tour roughs are anywhere between two and three inches. This week we should get close to four inches and possibly higher in certain spots. This will make the winning score much lower than the average winning score of a typical PGA Tour Event.
The Coverage: Every golf media outlet and subsequent sports media outlet descends upon the golf world for the week. In addition to the number of outlets covering the event, making information vast and easy to get, there is also a variety of viewing options as well.

The first time the Bay Area will host a major championship since 2012, TPC Harding Park will be on full display this week. It last hosted a professional golf event in 2015, the WGC-Match Play Championship, so we have a least some bit of course info. Sadly, there won’t be any fans, but golf has been able to provide a great experience even without them. That will be in full display this week with big-time networks picking up coverage, including prime-time coverage for us out on the East Coast. In addition to that, there will be practice round coverage and so much more on PGAchampionship.com.

Since it is a major, the best of the best are here to compete. Let’s dig into some other statistics about the tournament and course.

Tournament Format

154 golfers have qualified for the event and the top 70 make the cut — a welcomed sight for us every-week PGA DFS players.

Course Commentary: TPC Harding Park

One of the great things about major weeks is anything you want to find out about the golf course you can, even if it’s been five years since a PGA Tour event has been held here. Harding Park is a beautiful complex right on Lake Merced in the northwest part of San Francisco. The city and county still own the course, making it a municipal by definition, similar to Bethpage Black and Torrey Pines. For those of you that are history buffs, the name comes from President Warren G. Harding, who, like so many after him, was a big-time golfer. The course was rejuvenated in the late ’90s by Sandy Tatum, who was instrumental in bringing in the TPC Network. Here’s a flyover of holes 1-9. Want more on the course? Click here to read the course guide.

Since the event in 2015, a few changes have been made. One of the most notable ones is the additional length of 400 yards and the first hole of the match play, a short par 5, will is now the ninth hold and a long par 4. That should make the course significantly harder than first anticipated.

Course Profile

Par and Yardage

Par 70: 7,250 yards

Course Difficulty

13/52 in 2005 at +.935 or 70.935

Hole Dispersion

Four Par 3’s: 185, 251, 200, 171
11 Par 4’s: 393, 466, 436, 340, 472, 515, 494, 472, 470, 401, 336, 463
Two Par 5’s: 562, 607

Grass Types & Hazards

Grass Type: Poa/Bent
Average Green Size: 7,000 sq ft.
Water Hazards: 2
Bunkers: 47

Designer

Willie Watson, Sam Whiting

Facts and Figures* from 2005

Off the Tee: While the course allows for drivers to be hit most everywhere, it ranked as one of the hardest to hit fairways in 2005 at 48% … wow.
Approach to the Green: With fairways hard to hit, its no surprise that GIR was tough as well, at just shy of 60%, one of the top 10 hardest in 2005.
Around the Green: Around the green wasn’t super difficult, ranking right in the middle at 57% up-and-down rate. If you’re outside of 30 yards, it gets harder, one of the top 7 toughest in 2005.
On the Green: Once on the green, however, they aren’t terribly tricky in terms of the undulations. Some of them have a couple of tiers on them, but on the whole are not extremely hard to putt on. It ranked in the top 15 easiest in 2005.

PGA DFS Sweatsheet & Commentary* 2005 numbers:

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Player Preview

The Expected Top 25 Players in the Field by OWGR and Corresponding Odds, Salaries. (Updated Monday p.m. with Odds and Newest OWGR Ranking)

Previous Winners and Cutline for the PGA Championship and 2015 WGC Match Play

2019: Brooks Koepka (-8) & +4
2018: Brooks Koepka (-16) & +1
2017: Justin Thomas (-8) & +6
2016: Jimmy Walker (-14) & +2
2015: Jason Day (-20) & +2
2015 WGC Match Play: Rory McIlroy

Statistical Comparison for Picks

Driving Accuracy vs. Driving Distance: Bombers have certainly had an edge in the PGA Championship over the last five years with Koepka, Thomas and Day all ranked inside the top 30 on Tour in the stat. Then look at the winner of the match play here in 2015, and that further solidifies the need for distance here this week. Obviously, at majors it’s not all about distance but distance plus accuracy. The problem is it’ll be hard for everyone to drive, so I’d rather get a guy that’s hitting it 330 than 290.
Strokes Gained Tee to Green Analysis: All of these golfers, outside of Walker, performed well in all facets of the strokes gained game. Players can’t bomb their way around a major, nor can you putt your way into it. You need all four facets.
Putting; How good do they need to be here?: One has to be among the best putters to win a major, either that week or period, simply putt.

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Author

Jason Rouslin

Jason established his roots in the littlest state that could...Rhode Island. But after 29 years of bitter cold, and only being able to play golf 4 months a year, upended those roots and moved to Florida. Now four years later, Jason is a husband to Sarah and father of two boys, James & Myles. A dog and more specifically Lab lover (Bella), he dedicates his time to serve as the lead of PGA content at Awesemo.com. In the time he is not diving into the PGA stats and covering this week's current tournament, you can find him researching and trading stocks, on the golf course, at Disney World, on a hike, or somewhere in between. Want to chat? Have a question about Golf/Stocks or anything else? Hop on twitter and give him a message @dfsgolfer23. You can also contact Jason by emailing [email protected].