The Ryder Cup is one of the most exhilarating weeks of the entire golf year. Since it is only played every two years, it draws a ton of attention as one of the few recognized team events in which PGA and European Tour golfers compete. The Ryder Cup presents a tremendous change to typical PGA DFS picks. This new format will make for more interesting DFS golf advice, so be sure to soak up all of the data in this preview and check out Awesemo’s DraftKings and FanDuel cheat sheets this week.
In this article I will provide a projection for all 24 golfers competing, look at the very brief one-year history of Cup formats, and break down the events, formats and how golfers accumulate daily fantasy points.
PGA DFS: Ryder Cup Introduction, Format and Scoring
The first official competition was held in the early 1920s at Worcester Country Club. The competition has grown over the years to one of the biggest spectacles for the game of golf. Played as a three-day event since the early 1960s, the formats have changed quite a bit over the years. Since 1979 each team has 12 players, totaling 24 golfers.
Format
Since the expansion to 12 golfers on each team in 1979, the format has been:
- Foursomes — Another name for alternate shot, where a team of two golfers rotates who hits each shot and plays against the other team of two in a match-play format.
- Fourball — Another name for best ball, where a team of two golfers plays their own ball and the lowest score from the two is matched up against the other team. The lowest score wins the hole, again played in a match-play format.
- Singles — Another name for match play where one golfer goes up against one golfer from the other team in a match-play format.
Day 1
- 4 foursome matches
- 4 fourball matches
Day 2
- 4 foursome matches
- 4 fourball matches
Day 3
- 12 single matches
PGA DFS Scoring
Match play is unique in the sense that golfers are playing against the other team rather than a score to par, so DFS scoring has to adjust. Additionally, with only 24 golfers in the field, both DraftKings and FanDuel have added a Captain spot to increase the maximum number of lineups possible. Here are the scoring attributes for each site:
DraftKings
FanDuel
PGA DFS Picks and Preview
With only one tournament in the history of PGA DFS like this (2019 Presidents Cup), the sample size is tiny. But there is a lot to learn from it and how to project the scoring for this week. The format is almost identical, except the Presidents Cup only played 18 holes each day and is played over five days. A total of five matches can be played per player.
Here are some of the most notable stats from that event, the snapshot of the individual DFS leaderboard and the winning lineup from the big DraftKings GPP:
- Eight of the 24 golfers competed in all five matches.
- Only two golfers that did not play in all five matches outscored ones that did.
- The average points per match was around 20.
- Justin Thomas was the highest owned at both regular and Captain spots.
- The top scorer, Abraham Ancer, had a record of 3-1-1. His one loss was the famous match against Tiger Woods.
- Only six golfers competed fewer than four times, with Woods and C.T. Pan performing the best of the bunch. Hao Tong Li and Bryson DeChambeau were only put in two matches; Li lost both, whole DeChambeau lost one and tied one. Neither scored over 30 points.
PGA DFS Leaderboard From 2019 Presidents Cup
Winning Lineup
PGA DFS Picks
The most pertinent information before tee-off on Friday morning will be Day 1 pairings. Those will be released during or after the opening ceremonies in a blind draw. The captains will select their teams, and a blind draw will determine who plays against who. While anything leading up to this is pure speculation, there is enough evidence to suggest who will be paired up this week. As such, in the section below, the players will be grouped in categories of how many matches each projects to play, using an adjustment of the 2019 Presidents Cup. These will be updated after pairings are released tomorrow.
2021 Ryder Cup Projected Leaderboard and Ownership
Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!
[PGAPAGE]
