FanDuel Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions – AT&T Byron Nelson

AT&T Byron Nelson FanDuel Fantasy Preview

The PGA TOUR season continues this week in Irving, Texas with the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship; an event which began back in 1944 and has featured some great champions.  It will be difficult to match the excitement surrounding THE PLAYERS last week where 21-year-old Si Woo Kim posted a bogey-free, three-under final round en route to becoming the youngest victor at TPC Sawgrass.

The Four Seasons Resort and Club will be the host venue for this week’s outing and will bring a par-70 layout over about 7,166 yards of play.  While this tournament certainly won’t get the draw that THE PLAYERS did, there is plenty to get excited about with a very strong field and a track record of big time scoring.

The strongest group of players on the year was in play last week, but plenty of those top names will make the trip to Dallas in an attempt to steal the glory from 2016 champion; Sergio Garcia.  He is among four golfers out of the top-six in the Official World Golf Rankings; the other three being world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, No. 4 Jason Day, and No. 6 Jordan Spieth.

Another five players from within the top-20 will join the talented quartet with No. 15 Patrick Reed, No. 17 Charl Schwartzel, No. 18 Louis Oosthuizen, No. 19 Brooks Koepka, and No. 20 Matt Kuchar all taking aim at the trophy and a big check when all is said and done.  A host of other household names will also be in attendance as the likes of Charley Hoffman, Russell Henley, Tony Finau, Brandt Snedeker, Jason Dufner, Ryan Moore, and Ryan Palmer are all getting better than 50/1 odds out of Vegas.

With last year’s victory, Garcia became the first player since Bruce Lietzke (1981, 1988) to win this event for a second time, and was the first to do so on this course.  Three other big names in Jack Nicklaus (1970, 1971), Sam Snead (1945, 1957, 1958), and Tom Watson (1975, 1978, 1979, 1980) have won multiple times in this tournament as well.

Garcia managed his second win here thanks to a come-from-behind Sunday where he made up three shots on Brooks Koepka and pushed the event past its 72 holes to a playoff.  A mistake by Koepka off the tee on the first extra hole allowed for Garcia to walk away with a win behind his mark of 15 strokes under par.  The matchup went into a playoff for the first time since 2011 and more than 72 holes have been needed a mere four times over the last 15 years.  Garcia was the sixth player from outside of the United States to win in the past decade and his winning score was only bettered by Steven Bowditch (-18) in 2015 and Rory Sabbatini (-19) in 2009 over that stretch.

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.  That said, here is a sample lineup we believe could perform well in the upcoming event.

AT&T Byron Nelson FanDuel Picks – Rounds 1 & 2

Fabrizio Zanotti – $5,500 – Zanotti has played only eight times on the PGA TOUR in his career, putting up most of his time overseas where he has been able to earn two European Tour victories; including one this year at the Maybank Championship when he shot a Sunday 63 and managed a score of 19-under-par.  He has never been considered elite by any means, but has raised his average finish over each of the past three seasons and is currently sitting at a career-best mark of 45.86.

His play has come his stroke average of 70 (16^th on European Tour), driving accuracy (70.6%, 20^th on Tour), and ability to get sand saves (73.9%, 16^th on Tour).  In his WGC event earlier this season, Zanotti played well with a tie for 12^th as he shot under 70 in three of the days among a tough field in Mexico.  The 33-year-old will be a nice money saver this week as many people won’t really know who he is, allowing you to plug in some high-end names later in your roster.

Nick Taylor – $5,700 – Taylor has yet to make a start in this event, but the Canadian has really stepped up his game in 2017 and shows no signs of slowing down.  He is certainly not putting up any earth shattering numbers, but after finishing 129^th in the FedExCup standings last season; he is currently in 85^th with 13 cuts made over his 18 starts (72%) and has jumped into the top-25 six times.

Taylor has also shown he has the ability to get towards the top of the leaderboard after a tie for 10^th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and tie for eighth at the Wells Fargo Championship.  Just like his results, there is nothing particular about his game that will really impress you, but he also doesn’t have any real gaps and holds a 70.993 scoring average (69^th on Tour).  Without a very deep field, Taylor is set up to be competitive and should see the weekend for the fifth time in his last six outings.

Sung Kang – $6,100 – Kang’s first three seasons (2011-2012, 2016) on the PGA TOUR were not pretty, he was a poor 34-for-79 (43%) in cuts made, but did improve in his return last year with seven top-25s in 29 events played.  It looked like he was reverting back to his poor form at the start of this year, missing the cut in seven of his first 10 events, but really found is stroke of late and has six finishes in the top-30 since the Waste Management Open while nearly earning his first win at the Shell Houston Open.  He was the runner-up there thanks to a 16-under start over the first two days and followed that up with and 11^th at the RBC Heritage and sixth in the Valero Texas Open.

His 27^th-best scoring average (70.424) stems from his 1.031 total strokes gained (30^th on Tour), mainly from his ability to hit greens in regulation (69.06%, 35^th on Tour), and ability to get a birdie or better on par fives (50.51%, 13^th on Tour).  Kang probably isn’t on a ton of radars, but his recent play warrants heavy consideration at this price point.

Bud Cauley – $6,400 – Cauley is a pretty sporadic player, but did well in his last two tournaments, a ninth at the RBC Heritage and a 10^th in the Valero Texas Open, and played very well in this event last year.  When he visited in 2016, he finished in fourth place with a score of 13 shots under par, just two off of Sergio Garcia’s winning mark, behind 1.858 strokes gained putting and 68.06% GIR.

Besides his most recent two top-10s, Cauley has two others this year with his best being a tie for third at the CareerBuilder Challenge after four rounds of sub-70 play.  This course should once again set-up well for the 27-year-old as his strength is his approach to the green where he has gained 0.705 strokes (12^th on Tour) and is ranked 33^rd in going for the green (60.53%).  With his results being all over the place, Cauley may be more of a tournament play, and thanks to his chance at actually winning we think he is a great one.

AT&T Byron Nelson FanDuel Picks – Rounds 3 & 4

Marc Leishman – $7,300 – When Leishman tees it up on Thursday, he will be attempting to become the fourth Australian to win this event over the last decade, the other three being Adam Scott (2008), Jason Day (2010), and most recently Steven Bowditch (2015).  He certainly has the ability to do so as evidenced by his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational to go along with six other top-25s in just 12 events this season.  He makes a habit of playing well and has been in the top-75 of the FedExCup rankings in each of the last five seasons while currently ranking 15^th in the 2017 edition.

Leishman has a long history with this tournament, playing it eight times since 2009 and earning a top-12 five times; including a third-place in both 2012 and 2014.  He is a master with the flat iron (0.667 strokes gained putting, 16^th on Tour) which has led to a 70.062 scoring average (16^th on Tour).  The 33-year-old will have no problems dealing with the undulating greens here and will look to have yet another successful week in Dallas.

Tony Finau – $7,700 – Finau is another player who can finish all over the place in the standings, but we believe he has multiple PGA TOUR victories coming in his future and is going to be making that step soon.  His last 10 starts have seen him net a fourth in the Farmers Insurance Open, fifth in the Valspar Championship, and third at the Valero Texas Open.

His putting is a struggle (-0.417 strokes gained, 178^th on Tour), but he has gained 0.859 strokes off the tee (4^th on Tour) with a monster drive (305.3 yards per, 9^th on Tour) and is on the green in regulation 72.54% of the time (4^th on TOUR).  Any week that he can find his stroke with the putter will be a good one, and he has done that in each of his first two trips to this tournament, placing 10^th and 12^th over the past two years with a combined 21 strokes better than par.  We are a big believer in Finau joining the ranks of the best in the game and this is a spot he will shine.

Brooks Koepka – $9,500 – Despite some fantastic finishes in the FedExCup standings over each of his first two full seasons on the PGA TOUR, one could argue that Koepka has underwhelmed in his young career because of his inability to get more wins.  The talent is certainly there and he did get his fist career professional victory at the 2015 Waste Management Open, but he has been the runner-up four times over the past couple of years, and if things just went in his favor during those events, he would be mentioned along with Spieth, Day, McIlroy, and Johnson.

Koepka had a small hiccup in the middle of this season, missing four cuts over a six tournament stretch in February and March, but has found his stroke once again and has finished in the top-16 at each of his last five starts.  This 26-year-old has a big driver (305.5 yards per, 8^th on Tour) and pairs it with 0.671 strokes gained putting (14^th on Tour) which will hopefully give him just enough to take the next step and win here after losing to Garcia in a playoff last year.

Dustin Johnson – $11,800 – Well if you can afford Johnson, there is no reason not to have him in your lineup each and every week he is in the field.  The world No. 1 golfer has a tremendous track record at this course with an average finish of just better than 10^th in his six starts since 2009, but has yet to break through as his best finish is a fourth.  The beginning of this year was something special for Johnson as he rattled off a trio of consecutive wins (Genesis Open, Mexico Championship, Dell Match Play Championship) sandwiched between a third place at the AT&T Pro-Am and second at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Picking just one stat to highlight for Johnson is nearly an impossible task as he has really elevated to an untouchable level with the longest drive (312.3 yards per), most greens in regulation (74.44%), most total strokes gained (2.771), and does not lose much in putting with 0.522 strokes gained (21^st on Tour).  There is nearly zero downside to having him on your team, and if you are comfortable with the rest of the roster you put together, this anchor will not fail.

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