The Palmetto Championship is underway, and now we’re getting to the good stuff as PGA DFS Showdown contests take center stage on DraftKings and FanDuel. Dustin Johnson brings some much-needed rooting interest for our DFS golf lineups, and it seems like he’s rounding into shape for The US Open next week. He had been on a long stretch of bad golf, so this start will surely be a boost to his confidence.
It’s Chesson Hadley leading at the halfway mark. He is someone that nobody owned in week-long PGA DFS contests, coming in at less than 1% ownership. Let’s take a look at some other good performers from the first two rounds of the Palmetto Championship. Also, play hasn’t quite finished for Round 2, but it won’t affect anything in this article.
Be sure to check out Palmetto Championship Round 3 Awesemo’s expert PGA DFS Showdown projections and ownership.
PGA DFS Showdown Picks: Palmetto Championship Round 3
Previous Round Recap
Morning Wave
Hadley was able to turn right around and put up a good score today, but that didn’t come without adversity. He would start the day a couple strokes over par through his first few holes. However, Hadley would eventually get things on track and post a second straight score in the mid-60s to lead by two strokes. Harris English, Chez Reavie and Erik Van Rooyen beat out his next closest competitors by five strokes from the same wave. A couple of other notables from this wave include Garrick Higgo and Tyrrell Hatton, with the former putting up his second straight score in the 60s in his second PGA Tour start.
Afternoon Wave
Play was halted around 7 p.m. EST for a thunderstorm, pushing the cut to Saturday morning. With turnaround time expected to be quick after the round is done, I’ll hypothesize on where the cut is going to end up and who will make it. With four golfers on the golf course at two-over and just three at one-over, it’s pretty clear this cut will end at one-over. Will Gordon is one of those names at one-over right now but is in the middle of the fairway on 18. David Lipsky just tapped in for birdie on 15 to get back to +1, right on the cut-line and will have quite the sweat remaining.
Although, the story of this wave really belongs to Monday qualifier, Tain Lee, who was four-under thru 15 holes on his second round. And that comes right after shooting 67 in Round 1. Although he’s only had two starts this season on the PGA Tour, Lee has made the cut in both of them and will do the same again here this week. Doc Redman had two double-bogeys on his final nine holes to push him all the way down to 10th, after spending most of the day either in second or third. Seamus Power also extends his good play with a five-under 66, which jolted him up to the Top-5, making it the second time he’s been here heading into the weekend in consecutive PGA Tour starts.
Round 2 Stat Recap
With some of the field not yet completing their second round, the data is a bit incomplete but still worthy of sharing anyway. Here’s who performed well in all four categories in round two.
- Chesson Hadley (x2)
- Chez Reavie
- Pat Perez
- Garrick Higgo
- Henrik Norlander
- Tyrrell Hatton
- Ryan Armour
- Brandt Snedeker
- Austin Cook
PGA DFS Showdown Picks: Slate Preview
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- DraftKings is offering $25,000 to first place and $70,000 guaranteed for the third-round slate.
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The Palmetto Championship PGA DFS Picks
With Johnson playing so well, good luck trying to fade him, especially when they aren’t pricing him at nosebleed levels. Pairing DJ up with the right combination will likely be the winning strategy all week.
PGA DFS Picks for Round 3 The Palmetto Championship
- Tyrrell Hatton ($10,100):Â It’s been an odd stretch in the schedule over these last few months for Hatton, who, among getting COVID and married over it, has only teed it up four times. Clearly, there’s a bit of rust in his game because of that, but today he put together a good day on the greens and shot 68 to get himself back in the tournament. That was probably the worst he could have shot as well, playing all day consistently. I suspect he’ll make a run over the weekend and end up being one of the top daily fantasy PGA picks.
- Kevin Chappell ($7,600)Â I try and make these recommendations irrespective of price cause it shouldn’t matter, I’m not sure it does either here, but Chappell is certainly getting a lot of love for the third round slate. He’s coming off a day where he gained over 3.5 strokes tee to green, but his putter was icy cold in the second round. I’ll be hoping that changes for Round 3.
- Wilco Nienaber ($6,900)Â Since I used Higgo here last night, I’ll go to his countrymate Nienaber there. A bomber of the ball, with a few holes still left to play, has himself in position to finish nicely in his first PGA Tour start. After shooting an opening-round 69 where his driver did most of the talking, it was the driver and his work around the green that is keeping him afloat this time around.
Sneaky Pick for the Round 3 Showdown
- Hudson Swafford ($6,700): The brethren of Sea Island residents got at least a few golfers through to the weekend, including Swafford, English and Davis Thompson. For Thompson, in just his first PGA Tour start, he has to be feeling extremely confident after playing his first six holes at five-over. Swafford’s ball-striking and, more specifically, iron play looks to be in peak form. He played well last week at The Memorial and continued that success to compete here this week.
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