PGA DFS Picks: Round two of the Safeway Open play for 10k l DraftKings

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. 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 Commentary and Lineup

Brendan Steele was out early as part of the featured group coverage and found his groove in Napa yet again. A 7-under 65 puts him just two back of Russell Knox, who finally flashed some form after a difficult couple of months. Knox and Steele were the other only ones from the morning wave to shoot 7 under or better. The afternoon wave, however, had a couple of 8 unders — Sam Burns and Cameron Percy — and a couple of 65s — Pat Perez and Bo Hoag.

One other note from day 1, which wasn’t quite done when writing this: The scoring average for the first round was 70.66, good for -1.4 under par. That should bring us around -3 or -4 for tomorrow’s cut line.

Previous Round Stat Review

Today’s round featured 17 bogey-free rounds. That’s by far the most we’ve had in a very long time. Among them were Steele, Luke List and Denny McCarthy.

Birdie or Better Leaders Through Round 1

Cameron Percy, Bo Hoag, Akshay Bhatia, Rusell Knox, Sam Burns (8)
Brendan Steele, Pat Perez, Tom Hoge, Tim Wilkinson, Carlos Oritz, Sean O’Hair, Scott Harrington (7)

Strokes Gained Ball Striking vs. Putting

Andy Zhang who spent much of last year on the Korn Ferry Tour, but did not have a good year. He’s been playing in the localIQ series and hasn’t had many great finishes there. So, how does he go from that to gaining over five strokes ball striking in a PGA Tour event? It’s golf, that’s how.

Sergio Garcia, Austin Cook and Ryan Blaum all gained at least five more strokes ball striking than with the putter in round 1.

Click here to view the full stats from round 1.

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10 a.m. EST

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DraftKings

DraftKings is offering $10,000 to first and $40,000 guaranteed for round 4 showdown contests.

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Top 10 Breakdown and Picks

Two 18-year-old phenoms have themselves in a position to earn another start on the PGA Tour and a nice paycheck. Joohyung Kim and Akshay Bhatia are the two biggest surprises here aside from Zhang, who we just talked about. Tom Hoge continues to play good golf as well.

Akshay Bhatia ($6,400)

I tweeted late last night that I felt like this might be Bhatia’s best chance at making a cut, and he didn’t prove me wrong in round 1. Eight birdies on the round, including a hot putter, and good ball striking is a combo we love to see. Even if he has a bad round, he’s going to make a lot of birdies, perfect for Showdown.

Stud or Value Pick Outside of Top 10

Harold Varner III ($9,300)

It was a solid day at the office for Varner in round 1 through most of his bag, including the putter. He was just struggling a little bit around the green. His putter looked good, though, as did his ball striking, gaining a combined four strokes. I think he’ll be highly owned, but sometimes in Showdown formats, you have to eat the chalk, and this isn’t a bad place to do it.

Sneaky Pick Outside of Top 10

Doug Ghim ($6,600)

I didn’t want to believe the small sample size I mentioned in my strokes gained article this week, but Ghim popped up in it a couple of times. He had a very solid round 1, gaining strokes everywhere except his putter. If he gets that going, and the irons kick up a notch, he could have the start he was hoping for last year.

Lineup Fill-Ins

Joohyung Kim ($6,300)

Brendan Steele ($10,500)

Brian Stuard ($7,000)

Patrick Rodgers ($7,600)

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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].