Some may call it the best time of the year, and others may forget about golf entirely with NFL starting. However, this week, the PGA Tour starts their 2021-22 season in Napa Valley. With the start of a new season, there is a batch of fresh new faces graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour. Interested in a statistical profile of each golfer? Check out the Korn Ferry Tour Preview by clicking here.
In case you are just out PGA DFS for the first time, here is what you can expect to see in this article:
- Tournament and Format
- Course Commentary
- Course Facts and Figures
- PGA DFS Course Summary and Statistical Comparison
- PGA DFS Preview, including sweat sheet
- Player Preview
The Fortinet Championship PGA DFS Preview and Picks
While it has changed sponsors quite a bit over the years, Fortinet signed a six-year deal with the PGA Tour. The event itself dates back to 2007 and moved to the current location, Silverado Golf Resort, and Spa, back in 2014, and it has served as the PGA Tour’s opening event of the season since then.
Silverado Golf Resort and Spa Preview
The North Course at Silverado Resort & Spa is the actual venue for the week. It is a par 72 measuring just shy of 7,200 yards and was not all that much of a test for the golfers last year, with a scoring average of 70.21. That was good for 1.8 under par, ranking it eighth easiest on the PGA Tour.
Par and Yardage
- Par 72: 7,200 yards
Course Difficulty
- 43/51
Hole Dispersion
- Four Par 3’s: 240 212, 182, 189
- 10 Par 4’s: 436, 424, 407, 417, 360, 422, 458, 412, 375
- Four Par 5’s: 538, 557, 571, 575
Grass Types and Hazards
- Grass Type: Bentgrass greens, Bermuda grass fairways and rough.
- Average Green Size: N/A
- Water Hazards: N/A
- Bunkers: N/A
Designer
- Johnny Miller
Statistical Comparison for Picks
- Off the Tee: If a golfer is struggling to hit fairways, then Silverado is the place to play. The field only hits about 53% of the fairways, ranking it one of the lowest percentages at any PGA Tour stop. One of the reasons that accuracy is so low is that driving distance happens to be one of the highest. With a ton of holes that allow for bombers to take out the big stick, the course yields to bigger hitters year in and year out.
- Approach to the Green: Even with all those missed fairways, the course is on the shorter side, especially for a par 72, which leads to about 70% of the greens being hit in regulation.
- Around the Green: When a golfer missed the green, they were able to get it up and down for par about 60% of the time. That is a bit harder than the average tour course.
- On the Green: Green difficulty is about the same as scrambling, ranking middle of the road in terms of overall putting difficulty last year.
PGA DFS Sweat Sheet and Slate Preview
Slate Preview
DraftKings has put out a different offering this week, with a higher-dollar GPP buy-in at $25 per lineup and a top prize of $200,000. There are plenty of other offerings out there as well.
Sweat Sheet (One Round Sample)
The four par 5’s at the North Course boast about 40% of the scoring, all of which are reachable. There is likely to be at least one eagle per par 5 per round. That will lead to pretty high DFS scoring this week; the average points by a golfer that made the cut last year was 87.5, with the lowest output being 63 points.
The Fortinet Championship PGA DFS Player Preview
The swing season typically brings weaker fields, as many of the top pros take the time to enjoy the offseason. But Jon Rahm, the world’s best player, will highlight the field as he tunes up for the Ryder Cup next week. Twenty-two other top-100 golfers are also teeing up, including Hideki Matsuyama, Webb Simpson, Kevin Na, Will Zalatoris and Phil Mickelson.
The Fortinet Championship Strokes Gained Review
Twelve golfers scoring over 100 points shows how easy this course played last year. Three golfers priced over $9,000 found their way into the top five in DFS scoring, which should showcase the predictability of the event to some degree. But on the flip side, 15 golfers priced under $7,000 made the above list as well. New names and faces to start the season can lead to inefficient pricing.
Stewart Cink used a through-the-bag approach to get his win, gaining strokes in all four measured categories, with an emphasis on putting and approach. In high-scoring events, typically rough is not penal, and those with strong approach and on-green games excel. Not one golfer finishing top 15 at the event lost strokes off the tee for the week.
Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!
[PGAPAGE]
