PGA DFS Core Plays - DraftKings & FanDuel: The Masters
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 Masters
We don’t need to waste any time recapping the Valero Texas Open because the best week of the year is upon us. The lead up to The Masters is amazing and I didn’t think it could get any better. However, Tiger Woods is on the grounds at Augusta National and all the reports are that he looks great. He’s calling himself a game-time decision, but I’d be shocked if he didn’t tee it up on Thursday. While Tiger is getting all of the headlines, we have no shortage of storylines with this stacked field — a new number one in Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy going for the career grand slam, Jordan Spieth back at Augusta, Jon Rahm looking to pick up his second major, and on and on.
At this point, we should all be very familiar with Augusta National Golf Club. However, there are a few changes that we should note. Holes 11 and 15 have both been lengthened, which now brings the total on the scorecard to 7,510 yards. The course is a Par 72 that has four reachable par fives and a fairly drivable par four. Golfers will have to take advantage of the birdie opportunities on these five holes and then hope to hold on for dear life on the rest of the holes. Augusta is a bit unique in that the fairways are mowed from the green to the tee boxes, which limits the roll out on drives. There has been a lot of rain in the area this year and could be rain early in the week.
The other notable change this year is the removal of the first cut of rough on some of the holes. The thought process is that errant drives shouldn’t get bailed out by landing in the first cut of rough. We will now see more drives tumble into the trees and the pine straw. This doesn’t change anything from a handicapping point of view, but it’s worth noting. Distance has always been a premium at Augusta and there’s nothing that leads me to think that will change this year. Many will also point to the fact that most winners here rate out well in the distance to apex stat. For this week, I am putting a sizable weight on strokes gained off the tee and small weights on distance and distance to apex.
Approach play is critical each and every week, but this isn’t what I would call target golf. There are so many slopes and contours on the course that golfers aren’t going to be firing straight at pins. Almost all of the best highlights from The Masters show the creativity of golfers in how to use the slopes on the greens to get the ball close to the hole. I should also note that many approach shots will be hit from uneven lies in the fairway. All of this is to point out that course knowledge is just as important as raw talent with irons. You have to be creative, you have to work the ball both ways, and you have to know where to miss. In this week’s model, I looked at greens in regulation from different approach ranges.
The greens themselves are average in size, they feature bentgrass, and they are lightning fast. Lag putting is incredibly important, as the three-putt percentage here is high each and every year. We’ve seen a lot of defensive putters (Bubba Watson) have success here because they don’t leave themselves with testers after their first putts. The greens have shaved off areas and there is plenty of wind in the forecast. This will lead to a lot of missed greens. Scrambling here is a lot like approach play, as it requires a lot of creativity.
Noto’s Downloadable and Customizable Model for The Masters
Tournament Info
Field Size:
- 91 golfers
Cut Rule:
- Top 50 and ties
Key Statistics for the Week
- Strokes Gained Approach
- Strokes Gained Off the Tee
- Birdie or Better %
- Driving Distance
- Proximity w/Long Irons
- Strokes Gained Around the Green
- Distance to Apex
Weather Forecasts
Hole Yardage Specialists (based on holes at Augusta National)
- Jon Rahm
- Collin Morikawa
- Patrick Cantlay
- Jordan Spieth
- Scottie Scheffler