The PGA Championship kicks off on Thursday, bringing with it one of the most competitive fields of the PGA Tour. It’s going to be one of the biggest golf tournaments of the year, and you can bet that it will be popular with daily fantasy golf fans. Before you put your roster together, be sure to look over my mock roster below.
Before you draft a team at FanDuel, be sure that you know how their scoring is different from other DFS sites. FanDuel’s scoring system is a bit different from other places, and in their tournaments, they value golfers that make the cut. I’ve put together a roster, breaking down some of the bigger factors in the section below. It 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: $9,500
- Hideki Matsuyama: $8,800
- Justin Rose: $8,200
- Branden Grace: $7,300
- Marc Leishman: $6,700
- J.B. Holmes: $6,600
- Steve Stricker: $6,500
- Jason Dufner: $6,400
Remaining Salary: $0
Reasoning
Like many of the last several tournaments, there are a lot of great golfers in this field. It would be very easy to draft Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy and just hope for the best, but unfortunately, because these two golfers are so expensive, a strategy like this is actually going to hurt the rest of your roster. That’s why when looking at a golfer’s likelihood of making the cut, I’m also looking at the value they provide.
With that said, the top two choices on the roster are Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama. Fowler has the third highest average fantasy score in all of the field, behind Spieth and Matsuyama, and he’s much cheaper than Spieth. His rate of making the cut is strong at 13 out of 16, putting his average just a tiny bit behind Spieth. Thanks to the lower price, he’s a stronger pick. Matsuyama seems like a steal for the second weekend in a row. He won last week’s tournament, and he is still underpriced this week. He is a top five contender, and that alone is enough to include him on your roster at the price he’s been given by FanDuel.
Two of the tougher picks on this roster are Steve Stricker and Jason Dufner. Stricker finished T37 at the British Open a few weeks ago, showing that he’s capable of competing against the best golfers in the world. With a price as low as his, we should be focusing on making the cut, and Stricker has been very consistent with that this year, separating himself from those with similar salaries. He’s made 10 of 11 cuts, which is well above the 75 percent threshold that we would normally be aiming for. Dufner has also been consistently making the cut. He’s made 14 of 17 cuts and finished higher than Stricker at the Open—and he’s at a lower salary. Although his rate isn’t quite as consistent, he’s also played more golf than Stricker this year and has a higher average fantasy score.
With $0 in remaining salary, this roster doesn’t give the same wiggle room that I would like to have if things change, but this should still act as a strong starting point, either for you to use yourself, or to make a few small adjustments of your own.
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.
