PGA DFS Core Plays: Farmers Insurance Open
Top-ranked grinder, Notorious, breaks down his favorite daily fantasy golf plays at various salary ranges for the coming week’s golf tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
Farmers Insurance Open
I’m not going to lie, it was quite the week for the core plays and bets at the American Express. Si Woo Kim (conviction play) took down the event, while Tony Finau finished T4 and Brian Harman finished T8. I was only able to get four of six through the cut on my main DraftKings lineup, but it cashed with ease thanks to those three golfers. As for the bets, we’ll cover the big week in the section at the bottom of the page. This week we head to Torrey Pines for the American Express. Similar to last week, there are two courses in the rotation this week with the cut being after the second round.
The host course is the South Course, which is one of the most difficult courses on the PGA Tour each and every season. It is a Par 72 that measures over 7,700 yards, which is pretty massive even in this day and age. The fairways and rough are Kikuyugrass, while the greens are your standard poa annua that we often see on the West Coast. In terms of difficulty, this course has been eighth or tougher on the PGA Tour in five of the last seven years. With such length on the scorecard, you’ll likely need some distance in order to contend. The course also features very small greens, which makes scrambling critical if and when you miss greens.
Each player will play one round on the North Course, which is a much shorter Par 72. It measures around 7,300 yards and typically ends up being ranked in the bottom third in terms of difficulty. It has played a little tougher since the redesign in 2017, but will almost certainly be the easier of the two courses this week. The greens on the North Course are actually made of pure bentgrass, but I would still lean toward poa putting splits. The South Course will end up being played on three of the four rounds, so I’m looking at strokes gained off the tee, driving distance, strokes gained on approach, bogey avoidance, strokes gained around the green, and strokes gained putting on poa.