PGA DFS Picks: The Fit & Form Guide for the Safeway Open

During the 10-week hiatus, we worked on our content to deliver you the best possible info out there. One of those changes was combining the course history and recent form articles to showcase two of the most essential elements when building out PGA DFS lineups each week. Since we were on a 10-week hiatus, we’ll use form from this year and course history back to 2015. Let’s get into the Fit & Form guide to make your PGA DFS picks for your daily fantasy lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel for Safeway Open.

Recent Form Since the Return of Play (Charles Schwab)

This week is a full-field event with a lot of golfers playing on the secondary and mini-tours over the last few weeks. That may distort the averages a bit, so I’ll try and point those out when I come across it. Eight golfers are making their first appearance in the last 11 weeks.

Positive

Top 10s

Having struggled to get status this year, Bryson Nimmer has made the most out of the “LocaliQ” series, put on for golfers that would have been part of the third circuit of PGA tours, PGA Tour Latin America, PGA Tour China and the Mackenzie tour. He’s had a couple of wins, another top five and two other top 25s. Sure, those were against much lesser talent, but nonetheless, he’s been very good. Phil Mickelson took second place at the FedEx St. Jude six weeks ago and also won in his Champions Tour debut two weeks ago. He joins Scott Stallings, Kevin Streelman, Ben Martin, Sahith Theegala, Troy Merritt, Emiliano Grillo, Maverick McNealy and Ryan Armour with multiple top 10s over the last 11 weeks of golf. Theegala and Martin have done it on secondary tours, however. Harold Varner III is also one of only a few golfers with a top 10 in the last few weeks.

Top 25s

Nimmer and Martin on those secondary tours have added four top 25s to their card. They are joined by Kristoffer Ventura, Doc Redman, Joel Dahmen and Talor Gooch as the only golfers with at least four top 25s in the last week 11 weeks. Another 12 golfers have three, including Erik van Rooyen, Brendan Steele, Sam Burns and Sepp Straka.

Cuts

Six golfers have made all their cuts in the last 10 weeks, including Steele, Wesley Bryan and Mark Hubbard. That’s if you give Hubbard a pass for his withdraw nine weeks ago.

Negative

Top 10s

One hundred eleven golfers have yet to record a top 10 in the last 11 weeks. A few names here are Burns, Jordan Spieth, Wyndham Clark, Carlos Oritz, Rafa Cabrera Belo and Brandt Snedeker.

Top 25s

The number shrinks to 74 golfers in search of their first top 25. Some of the more surprising names you may find on this list are Nate Lashley, Keegan Bradley, Branden Grace and Andrew Putnam.

Cuts

Sebastian Cappelen, Martin Trainer and Nelson Ledesma are struggling right now, missing seven cuts in the last 11 weeks. Others that are struggling include a past champion of the event, Kevin Tway.

Course History at Silverado Resort & Spa North Course

Eighteen golfers don’t have an appearance here in the last five years, including Spieth, Shane Lowry and Sergio Garcia.

Positive

Top 10s

Only two golfers in the field of 156 have multiple top 10s here in the last five years, and both playing pretty good golf right now: Steele and Mickelson.

Top 25s

Three other golfers join Mickelson and Steele with three top 25s here in the last five years: Snedeker, Varner and Chez Reavie.

Cuts

Four golfers have played here all five times in the last five years and made the cut in each of them: Steele, Varner, Reavie and Fabian Gomez. Bud Cauley is 4-for-4

Negative:

Top 10s

122 players will be in search of their first top 10 here at the Silverado North Course. Of those golfers, Streelman, Lucas Glover and Peter Malnati have all played it five times. Each of them, however, do have a top 25 here, so all isn’t bad.

Top 25s

Cuts

All isn’t pretty in Napa for Jon Huh, who has missed four cuts in the last five tries. Robert Streb is yet to earn a paycheck here either, going 0-for-4.

Fit & Form for PGA DFS

Now that we’ve covered both course history and recent form let’s see if we can find any crossovers.

Steele has had a bit of a resurgent year starting all the way back at the Sony Open, where he ultimately lost to Cameron Smith in a playoff. He comes back to Napa as a two-time champion of the event.
Mickelson has had spurts of great golf, and for a 50-year-old, that’s going to happen. Included in his spurts have been a second place at the FedEx St. Jude and a first at his first Champions Tour event. Judge that however you want to, but it’s at least good golf along with multiple top 10s here.
Varner is the only other golfer mentioned on both positive sides of the coin with a top 10 in the last three weeks and three top 25s here.

The Recent Form Guide

Google Sheet Link

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Course History at East Lake since 2015

Google Sheet Link

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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].