PGA DFS Picks: Showdown Spotlight Round 4 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

We have one more day of torture, hoping to see a score correction or a birdie posted. Next week Shot Tracker returns, and we won’t have to deal with this. It seemed like such an excellent start to the day for bag holders of Emiliano Grillo, who had the outright lead after leaving the 12th green at -13. But that ended just about as quick as a blink of an eye, with an instant bogey on 13. That derailed him, and he finished at 10 under. Instead of setting a number, he paved the way for the final groups to advance the leaderboard, and Adam Long did just that.

Overnight leader Hudson Swafford shot his third straight score in the 60s, but it wasn’t nearly good enough to catch Long, he sits 2 back. Another tourney favorite, Mackenzie Hughes, has a shot at the title, just 3 back heading into Sunday. Anirban Lahiri made our buddy Ben Rasa proud on Saturday, tieing with Long for the low score of the day at 64. Sam Burns’ run ended, as the wind was knocked right out of his sails after a double on the eighth hole. He finished the day with a 78. In effect, he played himself right out of the tournament.

Stat Review

Birdie or Better Leaders Through Round 3

Xinjun Zhang (20)
Adam Long, Anirban Lahiri (19)
Hudson Swafford (18)
Nate Lashley, Mackenzie Hughes, Patrick Rodgers, Tyler McCumber, Luke List (17)

Driving Accuracy

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

Denny McCarthy (90.5)
Sean O’Hair, David Hearn (88.1)
James Hahn, Sam Burns, Rob Oppenheim, Kramer Hickok, Joo-hyung Kim (85.7%)

Greens In Regulation

James Hahn (83.3%)
David Hearn (81.5%)
Tyler McCumber, Mark Anderson (79.6%)

Putts per Green in Regulation

Anirban Lahiri
Rhein Gibson
Geroge McNeil
Adam Long
Patton Kizzire

Click here to view the full stats from round 3

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Lock Time

7:50 a.m. EST

Contest Preview

DraftKings

DraftKings is offering $20,000 to first and $60,000 guaranteed for round 4 showdown contests.

FanDuel

FanDuel is offering a $1,000 to first with $5,000 guaranteed for the round 4 contest

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Lineup Review from Round 3

My continued fade of Adam Long is not working out. He was the lead scorer in today’s round and nowhere to be seen on either of my two lineups. This was the better of my two, using Zhang and Hughes, but going a little to against the grain with Lovemark and Smalley cost me a cash. This would have cashed in most 50/50 contests.

General Strategy & Top 10 Breakdown

Long has looked very good over the last 36 holes and seems poised to win another PGA Tour title. He was hot earlier in the year at the 3M Open before falling short, so maybe he can use that to draw on. Hudson Swafford needs to maintain his position to secure his spot back on the PGA Tour, and he has struck the ball well enough to make a run at Long tomorrow. Hughes and Zhang are playing in the penultimate group, and I think the winner will come out of this pairing. Zhang leads the field in birdies, and Hughes is arguably the best putter in golf right now, something you don’t want to bet against when he’s hitting over 75% of his greens.

I think it’s evident that a lot of attention in terms of ownership will go to these four golfers, Nate Lashley and Sean O’Hair. You can make a roster quite easily with five of those golfers I just mentioned, which I’m sure many people will do. In terms of differentiating lineups, I like to look at golfers starting to the day around the top 25, as the ownership really starts to thin out there. Getting the golfer that goes from top 25 to the top 10, or maybe even five, paired up with the right chalk is the winning recipe for Final Round Showdown contests. But first, my pick from the top 10.

PGA DFS Top 10 Pick

Luke List ($8,800)

I’ve been pretty clear about my Justin Suh intentions and how high I am on him this week, so I thought I’d give you another play instead. List and Grillo would be my top two best ball strikers in this field, or at least of those left in the field, and that seems to be the case again this week. Of course, we don’t have shot tracker, but with the fact that he’s averaging the highest putts per green in regulation but ranks 13th in greens in regulation, one can assume that he’s hitting it close and missing.

I think on this course he has a floor of five birdies. If he can make a few 10-footers, I think he has another 65 in him as he shot on Friday, which is definitely going to be good enough to get inside the top five, maybe top three. That likely will not win, but that should be the goal going into tomorrow’s round.

My Top 10 Outside of the Top 20

*Anyone who sits 10 or more back from the leader

Joo-hyung Kim – I’m sure the lunch didn’t taste as good as it could have with a finishing bogey, but Kim showed some pretty good pop in round 3 and has a chance at a top 10.
Patton Kizzire – Going against what we’ve been looking for, greens in regulation, Kizzire is a putting wizard this week, and I’m hoping that will translate into some confidence for tomorrow’s final round.
Beau Hossler
Thomas Detry
Denny McCarthy
Alex Smalley – He has a lot to play for and some talent, a good combination if he gets a couple of early birdies.
David Hearn
J.J. Spaun
Will Zalatoris – He’s come this far. Why not take it deep tomorrow and continue that top 20 streak?
Chase Seiffert

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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].