PGA DFS Picks: Euro Tour Preview for the UK Championship

PGA DFS UK Championship Primer

Almost two months into the return of the European PGA Tour, the competition has certainly picked up as the season has gone on. This week, a strong field has assembled for the UK Championship. One of the main reasons why I decided to get back into the game this week is because the PGA Tour schedule slows down for the next weeks, and the Euro Tour contests weren’t all that bad. What I mean by slow down is coverage won’t start until noon each day, giving plenty of time for morning golf. Either DraftKings sees this opportunity as well or the Euro Tour product is improving a bit, but they’ve put out a $5,000 to first contest for this week. That is not bad for a secondary tour.

Course & Tournament Preview

If you follow Matt Wallace (@mattsjwallace) on Twitter, then you’ve seen a bit about the course and a couple of pictures/videos. The Belfry, located in Warwickshire, England, is a par 72 measuring around 7,300 yards. The resort itself features three courses and has hosted four Ryder Cups — 2002, 1993, 1989, 1895 — and plenty of other European Tour tournaments. The last was in 2008, then called the Quinn Insurance British Masters, won by Gonzalo Fernandez–Castano. In 2007 it hosted the same tournament, and that was won by Lee Westwood, one of the favorites this week. He, along with 131 others, will compete this week (at least that’s how many are in the DraftKings player pool).

Recent Form Analysis

Not counting the major and the WGC, the European Tour has competed seven times since coming back from the long hiatus, nine total counting those PGA Tour events. Here are a couple of notes from those results to help build out some PGA DFS lineups this week:

Top 10s: Odds favorite Rasmus Hojgaard has been on fire since coming back, earning four top 10s. He’s one of only three golfers to have more than three. The other two are John Catlin and Oscar Lengden. Andy Sullivan and Laurie Canter are the only other two golfers with multiple top 10s in the last nine weeks.
Top 25s: Lengden has six top 25s in the last nine weeks, but not all of them were on the European Tour. Ryan Fox and Scott Vincent have four, as does Hogaard. Another 21 golfers have found the top 25 at least twice in the last nine weeks.
Cuts: One more note on Lengden: He’s competed eight times and made the cut in each of them. Hojgaard, Fox and Sullivan are all 100% in making the cut in their starts and join another eight golfers that have made a paycheck in each of their starts. Others that have done so are Romain Langasque (last week winner), Aaron Rai, Robert Rock, Marcel Siem, Lee Westwood, Pablo Larrazabal and Matt Southgate.

Strokes Gained Analysis

While I don’t keep up with these stats on a week-to-week basis, the European Tour makes it easy enough to find the yearly stats, always helpful for our PGA DFS lineups. I’ll cover the top names competing this week in a few of the strokes gained category:

Strokes Gained Total

Gavin Green ($9,400) +1.78
Martin Kaymer ($9,200) +1.65
Andy Sullivan ($9,600)) +1.57
Ryan Fox ($8,900) +1.45
Rasmus Hojgaard ($11,000) +1.3

Strokes Gained Off the Tee

Will Besseling ($7,400) +1.08
Wilco Nienaber ($7,500) +0.95
Rasmus Hojgaard ($11,000) +0.93
Jake McLeod ($6,700) +0.92
Laurie Canter ($7,200) +0.89

Strokes Gained on the Approach

Martin Kaymer ($9,200) +1.73
Andy Sullivan ($9,600) +1.44
Joel Sjoholm ($6,400) +1.19
Benjamin Hebert ($7,900) +0.8
Ryan Fox ($8,900) +0.77

Strokes Gained Putting:

Dean Burmester ($7,800) +1.69
Dave Coupland ($6,700) +1.18
Gavin Green ($9,400) +1.08
Scott Vincent ($7,200) +0.88
Marcus Kinhult ($8,700) +0.86

PGA DFS Picks & Bets

Matthias Schwab ($10,500)

One of my few Euro favorites, Schwab comes in as one of the odds favorite to win, after a rather successful endeavor on the PGA Tour. It included a top five at the Barracuda, where he had a chance to win on 18 and squandered it. I’ll play him in a few lineups this week.

Haotong Li: ($10,100)

Sure, he didn’t end up winning, but Li at least got himself a bunch of camera time at the PGA Championship. After returning from that, he finished in eighth last week, continuing the solid form. His play his erratic, or has been at times, but the talent level is most certainly there. At just $10,100, he’s pretty easy to fit into a lineup.

Gavin Green ($9,400)

Coming off of back-to-back good starts, where he finished eighth and 11th, Green looks like he’s finding his stride. As you can see from the list above, he gets it done with the flat stick to the tune of almost one stroke per round, but he also adds another 0.6 strokes elsewhere, leading the measured category in total strokes gained.

Calum Hill ($7,400)

The young Scotsmen earned a couple of starts on the PGA Tour this year during the fall swing as an up-and-comer to keep an eye on. He’s now finally found a stride here after struggling out of the gates of the restart, making his last two cuts, including a top 10 last week. His price tag is reasonable for a third golfer in the lineup.

Lineup Fill-Ins

Marcus Kinhult ($8,700)

Laurie Canter ($7,200)

Scott Vincent ($7,200)

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].