After a truly dominant performance from our champion, Rory McIlroy, this column moves to continue its storybook season at the second major of the year. McIlroy was by far my most rostered player and even a partial fade of Xander Schauffele couldn’t derail an incredibly profitable week in DFS. We want winners every week. We deserve winners who aren’t necessarily chalking up the joint.
The PGA Championship has circled back to the legendary Valhalla Golf Club yet again. One of the most beloved golf courses in the world, Valhalla is a beguiling brute on the Bourbon Trail in Louisville, Kentucky. The par-71 track is a monstrous 7,609 yards, the third-longest on the PGA Tour this year. The rough is long and lush and the fairways are firm and fast. The bentgrass greens are the fourth-smallest on Tour in surface area. Valhalla is just as much the rugged full-bag test as Quail Hollow was last week, with the added mental toil that comes with any major tournament. Here are our top PGA DFS picks for the 2024 Championship.
PGA DFS Picks: PGA Championship (2024)
(Salary Prices Courtesy of DraftKings)
What kind of golfer will have success at a place like Valhalla? To put it bluntly, good ones. Prowess off the tee is required, with some favor to the longer hitters. Accuracy is still the most important trait so I will lean into strokes gained off the tee. On approach, look again to the 200-plus yards bucket and general strokes gained, but add in opportunities gained. These greens will be very difficult to hit in regulation, so scrambling and bogey avoidance should be looked at with strokes gained around the green. Finally, putting on Bentgrass is part of the equation. That little wrinkle brought some interesting results in my model, most notably Scottie Scheffler dropping from my top 20.
I will not completely fade the best player in the world, but limiting my exposure to his chalk will be fruitful if the result reflects the stats. Let me rest in a charred oak barrel and let’s dig in.
High-Priced ($9,000 & Above)
- Chalk Plays: Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Max Homa
- Chalk Fades: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark
- Leverage Plays: Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Justin Thomas
Mid-Priced ($7,600 to $8,900)
- Chalk Plays: Tyrrell Hatton, Ben An, Si Woo Kim
- Chalk Fades: Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama, Sahith Theegala, Corey Conners, Min Woo Lee
- Leverage Plays: Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Jason Day, Talor Gooch
Value-Priced ($7,500 & Below)
- Chalk Plays: Sepp Straka, Russell Henley, Denny McCarthy
- Chalk Fades: Alex Noren, Akshay Bhatia, Dean Burmester, Keith Mitchell, Taylor Pendrith, Lucas Glover, Mackenzie Hughes, Kurt Kitayama
- Leverage Plays: Nicolai Hojgaard, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tim Widing
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