This Thursday is the Northern Trust Championship. Although this isn’t the biggest tournament of the PGA Tour, it does boast of a strong field. It’s likely going to be a big tournament for daily fantasy golf fans. So, before you put your roster together, be sure to look over my draft below. You don’t need to copy it exactly, but I hope that it will help you to create a starting point for your own roster as you take a look at some of the ideas that led to its creation.
FanDuel’s scoring system is a bit different from other sites. They value golfers that make the cut more highly than some other DFS sites. The roster that I’ve put together places a large emphasis on making the cut and each golfer’s likelihood of doing so. The dollar amount included is the golfer’s salary on FanDuel only, so if you are drafting a team on another site, this lineup will not be as helpful to you. Hopefully, this will help you draft a stronger team than the competition, giving you an edge even in a tough fantasy field.
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Recommendations
- Rickie Fowler: $9,400
- Brooks Koepka: $9,200
- Paul Casey: $9,000
- Phil Mickelson: $7,200
- Webb Simpson: $6,700
- Ian Poulter: $6,300
- Brendan Steele: $6,200
- Russell Henley: $5,900
Remaining Salary: $100
Reasoning
One of the things that I like about this roster is that even though there are several golfers included that are well under the average price at FanDuel, there’s not much quality lost when it comes to projected fantasy points. In this case, I’m going to do things a bit backward and start the analysis from the bottom of the list.
Russell Henley has averaged 65.4 fantasy points per tournament at FanDuel. The major reason for this number being so low is that he’s scored less than 50 in each of his last three tournaments. I’d really like to see a better string of recent performances, but at the price he’s offered at, there’s no competition among other golfers. If he makes the cut in this field—which he has done in 18 of 23 tournaments this season—he will be well worth the gamble.
Ian Poulter and Brendan Steele look pretty similar on paper. Poulter has made 13 of 17 cuts and is averaging 63.3 fantasy points per tournament. Steele has made 17 of 21 cuts and is averaging a return of 67.5 fantasy points. Looking at the golfers priced close to them, they are standouts in both of these respects.
Phil Mickelson is a long-time fan favorite on the PGA Tour, but that doesn’t mean he’s an automatic choice on a fantasy roster. Still, Mickelson’s numbers are strong this season. He’s only missed two cuts this year, and they were two of his last three tournaments. If you can set this aside, Mickelson is actually a really undervalued pick here. He’s averaging 68.8 points per tournament, but if he makes the cut he will likely score much higher than this.
At the top of my roster, I put Rickie Fowler. Fowler is expensive, but not the most expensive in the field. If you look at those priced higher than him, you will find Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, and Rory McIlroy. Johnson and Spieth have both been a bit inconsistent. Either they are recording big wins or they are sub par. Matsuyama is a debatable pick here, and if he were a little cheaper, I would have gone with him. And McIlroy, although a great golfer, doesn’t seem to have the stamina that he should at this point in the season. That leaves Fowler who has made 14 of 17 cuts. He also has a higher fantasy point average than two of the four golfers ranked above him. His value is apparent if you can get over the price tag.
Matthew Young is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Matthew, check out his archive and his blog at www.windailyfantasy.com and follow him at @AuthorMGYoung.
