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DraftKings PGA Recommended Plays: Genesis Open

DraftKings PGA Recommended Plays: Genesis Open

There’s one more event to play on the West Coast, as we find ourselves at Riviera Country Club this week for the Genesis Open, formerly known as the Northern Trust Open. A lot of excitement surrounds this weeks event, including a certain type of excitement the Tour has been missing for quite some time. Tiger Woods is in the field this week, his second official event of the year after a T-23 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. Woods is the 10th most expensive player on DraftKings this week, priced at $8,800.

Riviera is a historic country club located in Pacific Palisades, California. It is a par-71, playing 7,322 yards. It is long, and it is tight. Considering this, it is no surprise that the highest-priced player on DraftKings this week is Dustin Johnson. The world number one has absolutely dominated on this track, with four consecutive years of a top-four finish or better. From 2014 to 2016, Bubba Watson was champion here twice, adding to the trend of big-hitting success. This week there are many interesting options on the DraftKings slate, but the following are your best bets, based on the idea of converging trends, which takes into account a player’s current form, as well as their past history on the specific course of the week.

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Top-Tier Recommendations

Dustin Johnson ($11,900)
For all the reasons listed in the introduction, Johnson should be in all lineups this week without hesitation. Of course, he will be almost universally owned, but that is the risk of leaving him out of a lineup. Not only does he own Riviera, but he is coming off a tie for second last week in Pebble Beach. DJ is nearly unstoppable this time of year and has the ideal distance off the tee for this course.

Phil Mickelson ($9,900)
Lefty has been in red-hot form the last two weeks, finishing T-5 two weeks ago at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and then T-2 last week at Pebble Beach. Mickelson has won twice on this course, back-to-back in 2008 and 2009, and also lost in a playoff in 2012. Born in San Diego, look for a pretty large hometown following for Phil this week, a following that has a good chance of seeing their favorite player in contention on Sunday.

Mid-Priced Plays

Marc Leishman ($8,500)
Leishman is the kind of player that you can’t go wrong with. He hasn’t missed a cut yet this year and always seems to be on one of the first two pages of the leaderboard on Sundays. He has past success at Riviera, including two years ago when his four rounds in the 60s propelled him to a T-5 finish. He has three top-10s in his last six tour starts, including a T-8 in late January at the Farmers. Leishman comes with all the safety of a top-tier play but carries a much more palatable price.

Chez Reavie ($8,000)
Similar to Mickelson, Chez Reavie has been sizzling over the last two weeks. After a narrow loss in a playoff two weeks ago in Phoenix, Reavie followed that up with a T-2 in Pebble Beach. He is also no stranger to Riviera Country Club, and like Leishman, had a solid finish in 2016, with a solo seventh, in which he had three rounds in the 60s. Reavie is not the biggest guy, and won’t be able to keep up off the tee with the aforementioned golfers, but his confidence is through the roof right now, which is more than enough reason for him to be deployed in a good amount of lineups.

Sleeper for Cheaper

Jimmy Walker ($7,200)
It isn’t often that a player two years removed from winning a Major Championship can be considered a sleeper, but with his price down near the minimum ($6,600) Walker could be a sneaky play this week. After three consecutive years in the top-10 on the money list, Walker came crashing back down to earth in 2017, only recording one top-10 finish in a tournament. Much of this struggle can be attributed to the news he revealed that year announcing his contraction of Lyme disease. However, Walker looked healthy last week in a T-8 finish at Pebble Beach. If this is a sign of things to come, Walker is well worth a cheap throw-in option, considering his track record at Riviera that includes five top-20s since 2011.

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Nick Swantek is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Nick, check out his archive and follow him @nick_swantek.

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