PGA DFS Core Plays - DraftKings & FanDuel: The Honda Classic
Top-ranked DFS player, Notorious, breaks down his favorite PGA DFS plays at various salary ranges for the coming week’s golf tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
The Honda Classic
If you have loved the last two weeks on the PGA Tour with the huge crowds and major-like fields, then buckle up for the Honda Classic. It’s going to be a bumpy ride compared to the last two events, as the field strength has completely dropped off. We’ve seen this happen the last few years and it’s likely a combination of factors — the place in the schedule, the difficult of the golf course, and the fact that most golfers want to avoid the Florida stretch as much as possible.
While we don’t have a strong field, there are certainly some positives. Jon Rahm can’t win or finish second this week since he’s not playing, the odds are much more appealing from a betting standpoint, and we get to roster golfers that we usually never consider when it comes to DFS. This is certainly a week where you want to take the glass half-full approach because your bets and lineups aren’t going to feel like winners come Thursday morning.
This is also the first event of the year on Eastern Standard Time, which means we get to sweat our lineups from the very moment we wake up. Now that I’ve tried to dress up the event as much as possible, let’s talk about the course. PGA National is a Par 70 that measures 7,125 yards. It only features two par fives, which takes away a couple of birdie chances. The winning score is often in single digits under par and this has been in the top seven in difficulty each of the last five years.
Off the tee, golfers will see narrow fairways with a lot of water hazards throughout the course. In fact, water is in play on 15 of the 18 holes. Given the fact that the fairways are tough to hit and the fact that we are going to see some lush bermuda rough, many golfers will opt to his less than driver on some of the holes. Driving accuracy will be important this week, but it’s not a statistic that we can count on in our models since the bigger hitters will be clubbing down often.
The greens here are fairly large (7,000 square feet on average), but still tough to hit on average. To make matters worse, missing greens here can be costly. Not only are there water hazards lurking everywhere, but the scrambling success rate here is one of the lowest on the PGA Tour. To sum it up, the fairways are tough to hit, the greens are tough to hit, and it’s extremely difficult to get up and down. This course is going to test all aspects of the game.
This is one of those weeks where I’m looking less at statistics and more at how golfers have performed in Florida, how they have performed on difficult courses, how they have performed in the wind, and how they have putted on bermuda greens. I’ll certainly be looking at total driving, strokes gained approach, proximity from 125-200 yards, and strokes gained around the green, but statistics aren’t the be-all and end-all for me this week.
As always, if you have a question, drop it in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Model Video & Download Link for the The Honda Classic
Tournament Info
Field Size:
- 144 golfers
Cut Rule:
- Top 65 and ties move on after the first two rounds
Weather Forecasts
Golf Course
- PGA National
- Palm Beach Gardens in Florida
- Par 70 — 7,125 yards
Core Plays
Sungjae Im
DK: $10,700 — FD: $11,900
SG: OTT — 9
SG: APP — 12
SG: Difficult Courses — 2
SG: In Florida — 1
SG: Putting (Bermuda) — 11
Noto’s Rating — 96.8