PGA DFS Picks: Showdown Spotlight Round 2 l Corales Championship

This column is a quick-hitter article to give you the stats you need to make informed PGA DFS picks for your DraftKings + FanDuel daily fantasy lineups and give you a couple of recommendations for the second round of the Corales Puntacana Championship On a typical Showdown contest, DraftKings will offer upwards of $50,000 to first for rounds 2 and 3 showdown 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 for most weekends. Lastly, FanDuel has also tried to get into the weekend-long and final-round contests, offering $10,000 and $5,000 to first.

Previous Round Recap

The day started with a “bang” of sorts. No shot tracker, no featured groups and on top of that, they were reporting scores wrong. Jonathan Byrd had the lead at 8 under, but upon finishing, it got corrected to a 4-under 66. Chris Kirk was worse, going from a 7-under 65 to a 1-under 71. It was some kind of day. No shot tracker means no strokes gained, so all we have are the old age statistics like greens in regulation, putts per green in regulation, fairways hit and a couple of other ones. So please bear with me.

Outside of the tilt, Sepp Straka did in fact shoot 65 and held the lead for much of the day. Then the later wave came on and had not one, not two, but three golfers get to that 7-under mark. Xinjun Zhang continued his hot play with a 66 in round 1. A few other names like Brian Stuard, Patrick Rodgers and Kyle Stanley are all continuing their fine play after posting 67s on day 1. Tournament favorite Will Zalatoris jumped out to -3 but ultimately dropped a shot on his inward nine, finishing at -2 for the day. The first stud on the board, Mackenzie Hughes, shot 68 on day 1.

Stat Review

Birdie or Better Leaders Through Round 1

Hudson Swafford, Xinjun Zhang, Adam Schenk (8)
Jamie Lovemark, Brian Stuard, Patrick Rodgers, Scott Harrington, Tyler McCumber, Justin Suh (7)

Driving Accuracy

Since we don’t have any strokes gained information, I thought I’d touch on the leaders in each category.

Scott Harrington and Richard S. Johnson (100%)

Greens In Regulation

David Hearn, Mackenzie Hughes, Matthias Schwab (94.4%)
Tyler McCumber, Ricky Barnes, Matthew NeSmith, Corey Conners, Wes Roach, Kevin Chappell, John Rollins (88.9%)

Putts per Green in Regulation

Scott Harrington (1.417)
Justin Suh (1.417)
Rhein Gibson (1.444)
George McNeil (1.455)
Hiram Silfa (1.455)
Ben Taylor (1.455)
Xinjun Zhang, Patrick Rodgers, Anirban Lahiri (1.462)

Click here to view the full stats from round 1

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6:50 a.m. EST

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Top 10 Breakdown and PGA DFS Picks

We definitely have a few new or forgotten names at the top after round 1, with Hudson Swafford, Scott Harrington, Tyler McCumber and Sepp Straka leading the way. Zhang, is joined by Joseph Bramlett at 66 and sits just 1 back. A couple of more surprises like Rick Barnes, Sean O’Hair, Jamie Lovemark, David Hearn and Ryan Brehm all had one of their best days in some time. Stanley, Rodgers and Stuard will all look to leap the board early tomorrow morning.

Joseph Bramlett ($6,800)

A day after hitting a ton of greens, ranking 11th in the field, Bramlett struggled on the putting green with an average of 1.667 putts per green in regulation. He also seemed to struggle off the tee a bit, hitting only 64% of his fairways in round 1, so that must mean his irons are really on point. Again, we are surmising this from the information given, but I think it’s reasonable to believe this case. He shouldn’t be all that highly owned, with plenty of other options in that area, so I think we fire up the Bramlett wagon for round 2 and ride that hot iron play.

Stud or Value Pick Outside of Top 10

Mackenzie Hughes ($10,000)

I had first written Thomas Detry here, but Hughes led the field in greens in regulation in round 1. He’s also been putting incredibly these last few weeks, so let’s match up hot iron play with one of the hottest putters in the world. He sits just 3 back and is at roughly the same odds to win as he was to start the tourney (14-1), so I like him pretty much everywhere at this point. The putter wasn’t as hot as its been, averaging 1.7 putts per green in regulation, but I have a feeling that’ll turn quickly once he sees one or two of them go in.

Sneaky Pick Outside of Top 10

Akshay Bhatia ($7,100)

Bhatia had only four birdies in round 1, but that included a birdie streak. So for DFS purposes, it was basically five birdies. That’s even with having one of the worst putts per green in regulation in the field, so either his irons aren’t clicking or he hasn’t quite figured out how to putt on these greens. If it is the latter, I definitely like to bet on that changing, as he prides himself on being very good on and around the green. I think he’s a good bet to make at least four to five birdies around as well as some bogeys, and he should almost be a cash game candidate at this point.

Lineup Fill-Ins

Thomas Detry ($9,300)

Luke List ($8,500)

Matthew NeSmith ($7,300)

Kelly Kraft ($6,600)

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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].