FanDuel Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions – THE PLAYERS Championship

THE PLAYERS FanDuel Fantasy Preview

One of the deepest fields in all of golf will be in attendance for THE PLAYERS Championship this week as Jason Day attempts to defend his title and begin working his way back to the top of the Official World Golf Rankings.

As usual, the iconic venue, TPC Sawgrass, will be the host for what many consider the “fifth major” and will challenge the best with the always enticing island green at the famous 17^th hole.  The Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida course will feature 7,189 yards of par-72 golf for the 144-man field and does not typically give up much of an advantage to any specific type of golfer.  While this event is not considered a traditional major, they pony up a ton of money with the largest purse on the schedule as the winner comes home with nearly $2 million of the $10.5 million purse.

There is never a lack of firepower as this tournament gears up and each of the top-24 players from the OWGR will be in attendance with the 25^th, Thomas Pieters, being the first on the list not to join.  Of course all eyes will continue to be on world No. 1 Dustin Johnson who came back from his injury suffered at The Masters to a place second finish last week in the Wells Fargo Championship; finishing a stroke behind Brian Harman who took down his second career victory.

Despite this not being a European TOUR sanctioned event, there will be a strong presence from overseas including Tommy Fleetwood, Bernd Wiesberger, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Ross Fisher, Yuta Ikeda, and Lee Westwood from the top-50 in the OWGR.

The names that have been able to take home the trophy in this event over the past decade are extremely impressive with the likes of Day, Fowler, Kaymer, Woods, Kuchar, Stenson, Garcia, and Mickelson all bringing home the biggest of checks during that time.  The winning score in those outings were all pretty similar and it seems the mark to hit is somewhere in the range of 12-to-16 under.

The best showing during that stretch came from South African Time Clark in 2010 when he posted a 16-under en route to defeating Robert Allenby by a single stroke.  While it was a great score, it did not come close to Greg Norman’s tournament record of 24 shots under par back in 1994.

Day’s four stroke margin of victory last season was the largest since Stenson did the same in 2010 and it was the Aussie’s tournament from the start.  He kicked it off with a course record tying 63 on Thursday and never looked back with the closest player getting within only two strokes of his lead.  This was only the fifth time a player had a start-to-finish win at the PLAYERS since its inception back in 1974.

The addition of DFS golf to Fanduel has opened up the game to even more players and will create opportunities for anyone who does their research and understands the format.  Unlike DraftKings, Fanduel has a total of eight golfers needed for your lineups with four in the first two rounds and another four over the weekend.  They will still accumulate any bonus points for their final position no matter if they are chosen to play the first or second half of the event.

Let’s dive into a is a sample FanDuel lineup we believe could perform well in the upcoming event.

THE PLAYERS FanDuel Fantasy Picks Rounds 1 & 2

Ross Fisher – $6,000 – The five-time European TOUR winner looks to improve on what has already been an impressive stint in PGA TOUR events this year.  He has played in three WGC and the Masters thus far, placing in the top-six at each of the WGC tournaments and making the cut with a tie for 41^st in Augusta.  His play has propelled him to sixth in the Race to Dubai as he attempts to stay in the top-20 in the race for the fourth consecutive season.  During his recent stretch he has been able to pinpoint nearly all greens in regulation, ranking 13^th in the category with a mark of 76.7% overseas.  Fisher was unable to make it to the weekend in this three visits here back in 2009, 2010, and 2011, but he has four top-sixes in his last five events and has notched a 69 or better round in five of his past eight rounds, so he is running hot and is at quite a nice price here.

Kevin Chappell – $6,700 – Chappell really had a rough go of things at the start of the 2017 season, failing to do better then a 35^th over his first 11 events.  Things started to click at The Masters where he tied for seventh thanks to an incredible weekend which he followed up with his first career victory at the Valero Texas Open a few weeks later.  He did miss the cut at his latest event, the Zurich Classic, but showed the great play is still there with a Friday 65.  Chappell needs to get his putting in check, but when that part of his game is going well, he has a chance to put up some impressive numbers as most of his other attributes are above average.  What will help him the most this week is his play off the tee where he has gained 0.727 strokes (37^th on TOUR) thanks to a 298.3 yard average drive (35^th on TOUR).  Things are going well for the 30-year-old right now and you should look for them to continue at TPC Sawgrass.

Branden Grace – $7,500 – Grace was able to win his first PGA TOUR event last year at the RBC Heritage, adding to his seven European TOUR and five Sunshine TOUR trophies.  This event may have been a struggle for him in the past, averaging a finish of 49^th in his last three starts, but the big stage shouldn’t make any kind of difference for him after netting four top-fives in his last eight major starts.  Coming into this week, Grace has four top-13 finishes over his past nine starts and should earn a load of chances to score with his all-around solid game.

Francesco Molinari – $7,600 – Molinari is on a tear to start the 2017 campaign and already has nine top-25s over his first 12 events played; besting his previous high of seven in 2014.  His seasonal earnings are also already at a career-high and he matched last season’s top-10s with three.  Molinari’s success comes from ranking in the top-25 in strokes gained off the tee (0.518, 24^th on TOUR), while approaching the green (1.019, 3^rd on TOUR), and from tee-to-green (1.547, 9^th on TOUR).  He has pinpoint accuracy with his driver (72.28% fairways hit, 2^nd on TOUR) and will have no problems adding to his 11 cuts made over 12 tournaments this season.  There is definitely a great opportunity to gain some bonus points for top-25 finish here as Molinari has placed in the top-10 three times at this event since 2010.

THE PLAYERS FanDuel Fantasy Picks Rounds 3 & 4

Russell Henley – $6,800 – After an off season in 2016, Henley is back on track and through 14 events played has 11 visits to the weekend, one which resulted in his third career win at the Shell Houston Open.  He also had one of his best performances in a big tournament as he tied for 11^th at the Masters after a Sunday 69.  It is hard to find many holes in his game coming into the week and it will be fun to watch him throw darts at the green behind his 71.2% GIR (14^th on TOUR) which has led to a tremendous scoring average (69.724, 10^th on TOUR).  Past performances here have been promising as well with a 17^th in 2014 and 24^th in 2015 before missing the cut in his down year last season.  Henley is in his prime and is underpriced, so this is the time to get him before he is too costly to roster.

Charl Schwartzel – $7,100 – The 17^th-ranked player in the world comes in at a discount this week despite owning 12 international victories, two on the PGA TOUR, and is playing well this season.  His start at The Masters brought back nice results, nearly adding to his 2011 green jacket with a third-place after going eight under over the final two days.  Part of the low price may stem from his inability to place high at this tournament, making the cut in each of his last four tries, but doing no better than 26^th.  His stats won’t blow anyone out of the water at this point, but he is 35^th in strokes gained with his approach to the green (0.467), is above average in scrambling (62.75%, 51^st on TOUR), and has done well with overall putting average (1.581, 28^th on TOUR).  Schwartzel is a mere 32-years-old and possesses a massive amount of success and talent which will propel him to another weekend visit and possibly much more.

Paul Casey – $8,800 – Looking across the board, Casey is one of the most talented players that is in the game right now.  His scoring average sits at 70.154 (18^th on TOUR) with greens looking huge (71.5% GIR, 11^th on TOUR).  His proximity to the hole (34’5”, 22^nd on TOUR) has led to plenty of scoring chances and helped in countering his below-average putting while he also excels with his short game around the green (67.37% scrambling, 5^th on TOUR).  Casey opened the season with a third at the Safeway Open and has followed that up with a mere single missed cut over 13 total events. Recently he has put together a string of solid performances with a tie for ninth at the WGC match play, solo sixth at The Masters, and a tie for 12^th last week in the Wells Fargo Championship.  The former Arizona State Sun Devil has earned two top-25s here since 2009, one coming a year ago when he ended the week in 23^rd, and he will be around on Sunday to compete for the trophy.

Rickie Fowler – $9,400 –  Fowler just comes out and performs each and every time he tees up the ball.  Looking back at his last 10 starts, the 28-year-old has seven top-15 finishes, including a win at the Honda Classic, and gets to come back to TPC Sawgrass where he won in 2015.  He has actually missed the cut here in five of his last seven attempts, but in his other weekend visit (2012) managed to be the runner-up to Matt Kuchar.  There is nothing in his game that would have you worried about a struggle this week; he is second in strokes gained (2.609) which have led him to posting the best scoring average (68.992) on the PGA TOUR up to this point.  There are obviously plenty of big names playing here this week, but the savings that you get from Fowler compared to the likes of McIlroy and Johnson allow you to put together a better, more well-rounded roster while still owning a player who is elite across the board.

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