PGA DFS Core Plays: PGA Championship

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.

PGA Championship Preview

It’s been a tough stretch of DFS golf since the restart, but the year’s first major is here! It’s time to wipe the slate clean and get back on track. This year’s PGA Championship will be held at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. The course will play as a Par 70 that is listed at 7,250 yards on the scorecard. It sounds like course officials will adjust the yardage each day and that it could play as long as 7,400 yards. For a course that only features two par fives, it’s extremely long. Additionally, there are two par fours that measure less than 350 yards.

We’ll have to pay attention to player quotes throughout the week, but it sounds like the rough is going to be extremely difficult to play out of. Reports from practice rounds say the rough is extremely long, so we’ll pay close attention to whether or not they decide to cut it before the tournament starts. The fairways will be very narrow and the greens are fairly average in size. The greens feature a mix of bentgrass and poa annua grass, which is very common for courses in California.

While the 2015 WGC Match Play event was played here, I’m not sure how much we can gleam from that event. For one, there is a ton of variance in match play and two, it was a different course setup. Given the length of the course, hitting it far and straight will be a huge advantage this week. While that’s the case almost every week on tour, golfers will be hitting a lot of drivers and they’ll need to play their approach shots from the fairway. There is nothing wrong with targeting driving accuracy, but the shorter hitters better be good with their long irons.

As with most majors, I’m looking to target strong all-around golfers with a good pedigree in strong fields and at big events. I’m willing to overlook a flash of good or bad form in order to target a golfer that I think is much better in the long run. Strokes gained approach will be the biggest stat weight in my model this week, but strokes gained around the green is a close second. We don’t exactly know how the course is going to play, but the greens should be difficult to hit on average. I’m looking more at bogey avoidance than birdies or better because majors just play differently than most courses we see on tour.

I’m writing this as of Monday (and will post an update on Wednesday) and the current forecast calls for temps in the low 60s with double-digit winds all four days. While I’m not sure how actionable this is when it comes to our player selection process, it does make me worried about Tiger Woods. He’s talked over and over again about how tight his back can get, especially in cold weather. He’s one player that we want to closely monitor what he says at his presser.

Windfinder Forecast

About the Author

Notorious
Derek Farnsworth (Notorious)

Derek Farnsworth (aka Notorious) is a lead RotoGrinders Expert and one of the most recognizable names and faces in all of DFS. Before joining the RotoGrinders team, Derek received a Master’s Degree from the University of Utah. When he’s not busy providing content, he’s dominating the DFS industry as evidenced by his consistent top rankings in several sports and multiple Live Final appearances. Noto provides expert NBA, NFL, MLB, and PGA analysis for RotoGrinders Premium members on a daily basis and has also been nominated for five different Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association (FSWA) awards. Follow Noto on Twitter – @RG_Notorious