A handful of familiar names will grace us with their presence this week for the Scottsdale Open as they ramp up the for the restart of the PGA Tour in exactly one month from today. That feels so close after going through the last 60 or so days, but yet so far. Still, there is $50,000 to first for just Monday’s Outlaw Tour DFS slate on DraftKings is at least something to get the juices flowing, and gets us prepared for what’s to come in exactly 30 days, The Charles Schwab Challenge.
This week, though, we head back to the desert of Arizona once again to a fantastic course and resort, Talking Stick Golf Club.
Don’t forget to check out Awesemo’s Projections featuring all 162 players (coming soon)
Scottsdale Open: Talking Stick Golf Club O’odham Course
The resort itself has two courses, a casino and a luxury hotel, among other things, but for the Scottsdale Open, the players will be competing on the O’odham Course. Designed by the legendary team of Coore & Crenshaw, the course sets up as a par 70, just shy of 7,100 yards. The tournament is now in its the fourth year, so we have a bit of history to go off of. In fact, this tournament was first held back in 2017, and Joel Dahmen won it. Before Dahmen broke through on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2018, he was playing mini-tour events, and apparently did quite well.
This year’s tournament features 162 players, probably the biggest field we’ve ever covered since even the three-day events on the PGA Tour have 156. It’s played over three days with the top 50 making the cut after the second round of play. But for DraftKing purposes, we only care about the first round for right now. Let’s dig into some numbers and see if we can find some good values for tomorrow’s opening round.
Recent Form
Since we’ve been following the tour for almost a month and a half now, I’ve compiled enough data to put together a few sheets to help us along the way, here is the recent form sheet I put together. Google Sheet Link
Notes
- Jeremy Paul comes into the week with one of the best forms, at least on the Outlaw Tour, with four straight top-10s.
- Dylan Wu has continued his strong play over the last three weeks, also coming in the top 10 in each of those starts.
- Matt Picanso, while we only have one week of data on him, he won last week’s event.
Check us out on TWITTER, where we talk sports, share articles, and have lots of giveaways!
Outlaw Tour Stats/Cheatsheet
A few notes
- Mark Anguiano remains hot and now is averaging almost six birdies per round this year.
- Nick Mason seems to be one of the best scorers on tour as well, averaging over six birdies per round with one of the best par 3 averages as well.
- Patrick Flavin joins Callum Hill and Mason as the only golfers that are in the top-10 of both par 3 scoring and birdies per round. That’s not including Brandon Harkins, who has only played in one tournament.
Scottsdale Open Picks
It’s a bit more than just J.J. Spaun to get excited about it; we have at least five golfers we’ve rostered before in a PGA Tour event. Dahmen is the headliner, having played the tournament and won it, before. At the same time, Kevin Streelman makes another appearance on a mini-tour, years after he grinded the likes of the Hooters Tour before settling in on the big stage. Alex Cejka is back in action this week as well, along with Hill, Nate Lashley, Brandon Harkins, Colt Knost and the aforementioned Spaun. If you are a deep diver like me, maybe you know the names of Andrew Yun and Brady Schnell. Schnell made the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week after firing off a tweet that called Vijay Singh some not-so-kind names. Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s get onto the picks.
Joel Dahmen ($11,000, 7/1)
I hold the course record at all my home courses, except @mesacountryclub. That changed today with some of my good friends along for the ride. That was FUN! @brandonharks @derekbohlen @davidsonhomegroup @ihapp_1 @kschwarb12 #58 pic.twitter.com/e1DKOB0hCf
— Joel Dahmen (@Joel_Dahmen) May 8, 2020
No, it’s not his 58 that he carded last week that has me excited. He also happens to be a perfect player for showdowns, even in PGA. His upside is tremendous with a bunch of top-10s last year. He also mixed in plenty of missed cuts. He is the total boom-or-bust play. Normally we don’t have to spend $11,000 to get him, but normally he isn’t the best player in the field either. If you don’t want to go really deep into the field and are looking for a more balanced build, then start with the next golfer on my list.
Nate Lashley ($9,300, 19/1)
Lashley, a PGA Tour winner last year at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, finds himself back on the mini-tour circuit, at least for this week. While he hasn’t competed in quite a while, I was still slightly shocked to see his price when it came out. He had an up-and-down year on tour before play was suspended, with his best finish coming out in this very same desert, a tied-third at the Waste Management Open. He added another third-place finish down at the Greenbrier as well over the fall circuit, so he isn’t in jeopardy of losing his job any time soon.
Andrew Yun ($7,700, 66/1)
It was just a few weeks ago where Yun’s odds were shorter and his DraftKings price much higher. He’s one of the most experienced players playing out here, which should bode well on a harder setup. He provides nice value in this section for the second guy in the lineup, complementary to Lashley and Dahmen.
Kolton Lapa ($7,200, 121/1)
Part of the featured group’s coverage last week, Lapa likes to fill up the scorecard, ranking eighth in terms of birdie average this week. Once we get down into these levels, we are looking for anything as a reason to roster these guys, and while others like Blake Cannon and Joe Fryer have shorter odds to win the tournament, they could also come with higher ownership.
Matt Gruska ($6,800, 200/1)
Gurska’s albatross on the sixth hole was captured by the periscope feed for the tour. Crazy. He must have gone out celebrating that night because he came back and fired a gosh-awful 78 on day 2. That alone plummeted him down the boards. To me, that signals a perfect time to buy low on this two-time Outlaw Tour winner this season
Lineup Fill-Ins
Patrick Flavin ($7,500)
Blake Cannon ($7,200)
Jonathan Khan ($6,700)
Benjamin Shur ($6,400)
Parting Thoughts
It looks like we should get a couple of periscopes on the course tomorrow, so be sure to check out the Outlaw Tour Twitter page.
