PGA DFS Picks: This column is a quick-hitter article to give you the stats you need to make informed decisions for your PGA DFS lineups and give you a couple of recommendations. Not a member of Awesemo+? Sign up HERE to get access to Awesemo’s premium projections and rankings for DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo and FantasyDraft, as well as Jason Rouslin’s in-tournament models.
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Tournament Update
DraftKings is offering $10,000 to first for the second-round slate with a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool, the biggest we’ve seen all year.
Friday WeatherÂ
It will cool off towards the end of the day, but other than that, we are in for good weather.
PGA DFS Round 1 Recap
The three-course rotation always makes it hard to handicap where everyone sits in the tournament. That said, Nick Taylor‘s 8-under at the Monterey course — the easiest of the three — set the pace. Here are the scoring breakdowns, not accounted for wave strength (i.e. the best players played on Spyglass Hill, and although scores were better than Pebble Beach, it’s likely due to who was playing on each specific course).
- Monterey Peninsula: -0.827 or 70.173
- Spyglass Hill: -0.077Â or 71.923
- Pebble Hill: -0.058 or 71.942
PGA DFS Statistical AnalysisÂ
Taylor had a bogey-free 63 and did it by hitting all but one green. His six birdies and one eagle with no bogeys made him one of seven players who were bogey-free in round 1. A few of the others were Justin Suh, Chase Seiffert, Scott Harrington, John Senden and Lanto Griffin.
Only Pebble Beach has strokes-gained information, so we’ll go through that in this portion. David Lingmerth, seeing his first action in quite some time, struggled mightily with the greens, losing over three strokes while gaining over three ball striking for a difference of 6.38. He leads that category. Scott Stallings wasn’t far behind, gaining 4.69 more, while Tim Wilkinson, Maverick McNealy and Harold Varner III rounded out the top five.
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Turning our attention to the more traditional statistics, Scott Harrington and Beau Hossler hit 17 of 18 greens, while seven other golfers hit 16 of 18, including Jason Day, Chez Reavie, Richy Werenski and D.J. Trahan.Â
For the full list of statistics, click here.
PGA DFS Final-Round PicksÂ
Top-10 Pick
Patrick Cantlay ($10,200)
He had nine birdies in round one. That’s half of his holes and he was on the hardest course. Cantlay has said he loves these courses, but the weather has to be right, and this year it was. He heads to the easy course tomorrow, and yes, I suspect him to be quite popular, so we are going to just have to eat the chalk here. I also like Griffin and Max Homa heading to the easy course.
PGA DFS Stud or Value Pick Outside of Top 10
Kurt Kitayama ($7,500)
Playing with another favorite of mine, Brandon Wu, Kitayama hung in on the difficult Spyglass course. Then he caught fire on the back nine and finished at 3 under. With his driving ability and in-form game, I suspect another good round tomorrow and I don’t feel the masses will be on him quite yet.
Sneaky Pick Outside of Top 10
Brandon Wu ($6,600)
Wu has shown flashes of form a couple of times now over the last couple of weeks, and he had another solid round today. He didn’t hit many greens, which makes me a bit nervous, but at $6,600 and playing the easy course, how can you go wrong?
PGA DFS Lineup Fill-InsÂ
Lanto Griffin ($6,800)
Max Homa ($8,200)
Dustin Johnson ($10,400)
