PGA DFS Picks: Round 3 DraftKings + FanDuel Showdown Sony Open

This column is a quick-hitter article to give you the stats you need to make informed PGA DFS picks for your DraftKings and FanDuel daily fantasy golf lineups. We’re in search of a few recommendations for the third round of the Sony Open. In a typical Showdown GPP, DraftKings will offer upwards of $50,000 to first place for second- and third-round tournaments, and sometimes up to $100,000 for the final-round contests. They also provide weekend-long contests that have been offering $25,000 to first place on average. FanDuel has also tried to get into the weekend-long and final-round contests, offering $10,000 and $5,000 to first place in their PGA DFS Showdown contests.

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Sony Open Round 2 PGA DFS Showdown

Previous Round Recap

Morning Wave

With a few studs leading, or close to it after round one, I fully suspected we’d get a leader somewhere around thirteen or fourteen under, but Joaquin Nieman and the other leaders failed to advance past -9! Webb Simpson has shot back-to-back 65s, which gets him to 1o-under, the best score for this wave. Stewart Cink also joins Webb, as he had the best round of the day shooting a seven-under 63, and has himself in position again!

Lastly, from this wave, a foursome of studs sits at -9, overnight leader Niemann, Collin Morikawa, Marc Leishman and Hideki Matsuyama, who had a blistering finish to his round after opening up three over through four.

Afternoon Wave

Simpson’s lead stood all the way to 10:18 Eastern Standard time, until Nick Taylor took the lead at -11, and birdied the last to get to -12 and leads by two over quite a few golfers. Russell Henley was one of the first golfers out in the afternoon wave, and even though I decided to fade him this week, he doesn’t care. He’s got a newer putter in the bag, which seems to be working for him, and he’s got another chance to win here in Hawaii.

Vaughn Taylor has found some form here over the first few days, as he was able to get to -10 as well. The other overnight leader Peter Malnati had a crazy round, going from five-over at one point in the round, battling all the way back to shoot one-under. However, the round of the day came from this wave and was shot by none other than Keith Mitchell, whose eight-under 62 was the round of the day and ties the low for the week, along with N.Taylor. Chris Kirk also got to that 10-under number very late in the day.

Latest PGA DFS Content

Cut Sweat:

With book-end par 5s at Waialae, it was sure to provide some fireworks. This time it went by way of the chalk as Kevin Kisner was the biggest name to sing a twenty-foot eagle putt to make the weekend. Others weren’t so lucky, like Roger Sloan & Takumi Kanaya missing that same length of putt. That pushed the 6/6 % to nearly 25% for the week! Nice work there.

Check out how your lineups are doing athttps://t.co/eFGb5GfqGD
See your lineups summary athttps://t.co/wqHBUmhNn8 #DFS #PGA pic.twitter.com/jkT5nl5r9x

— Cut Sweats (@CutSweats) January 16, 2021

PGA DFS Showdown Picks: Slate Preview

Lock Time

12:10 p.m. EST

Fantasy Golf Contest Preview

DraftKings

DraftKings is offering $10,000 to first and $50,000 guaranteed for the third-round slate and a 5K to first for the weekend-long slate.

FanDuel

FanDuel is offering $1,000 to first and $5,000 guaranteed for the weekend-long slate.

General Strategy and Sony Open PGA DFS Picks

Iron play is the key this week, as the rough isn’t penal at all, so even if you miss it, the second shot is more important. Although Taylor stretched his lead to two, there’s still a ton of golfers in this tournament. In fact, if you just made the cut this week, you’d only be eight back. If someone at four under goes out tomorrow morning and shoots 62, the low of the week, they’d be able to jump all the way up the board.

Top 10

Brendan Steele ($7,200)

For the second straight year, Steele finds himself in the mix at the Sony Open. While course history is debatable, it certainly seems that if Steele’s iron game is in shape, the course does seem to fit his game. He’s gained thru the bag in the first two rounds, including .89 off the tee and .67 on his approaches.

PGA DFS Picks Outside the Top 10

Collin Morikawa ($10,000): I’m pushing this button again. When we see his irons get into form, it’s rare that they come out of it in the same tournament. He’s also looked decent on the greens while missing a good number inside of ten feet, but his irons are just so good that he’s giving himself quality looks on every hole.
Hudson Swafford ($7,000) Last week out in Maui, Swafford had a couple of round where he got hot with the irons and a few others that he did with the putter. Well, that trend is continuing this week, and likely is going under the radar at this point with how many big names there are up top.

Sneaky Fantasy Golf Pick for Round 3 of the Sony Open

Robby Shelton ($6,500)

Typically I’m not particularly eager to bet on someone needing their irons to get hot, but I’m going to do that here. The reason is pretty simple, he gained over a stroke on his approaches in round one, so it’s not like he’s far off. I wrote him up as a fill-in last night, and today he gets the promotion after a good Friday. Even though he may not make a lot of cuts, when he does, he’s normally finishing in the top 25.

DraftKings and FanDuel Sony Open Lineup Fill-Ins

Hideki Matsuyama ($9,200)
Peter Malnati ($7,800)
Lanto Griffin ($7,700)
Nick Hardy ($6,300)

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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].