PGA DFS Core Plays: Farmers Insurance Open
Top-ranked DFS player, Notorious, breaks down his favorite PGA DFS picks at various price ranges for this week’s tournament. Who should you be building lineups around? Find out below!
Even though I don’t love the 3-course rotation at The American Express, I loved watching the final round on Sunday. Perhaps because I had a lot of golfers in the mix. I tagged 7 golfers last week, and 3 of them finished in the top 10 (Ben Griffin, Justin Thomas, and Justin Lower). Despite Sungjae Im doing his best to tank my lineups, I had another great week in DFS. Based on the RG Discord, many of you did as well. I’ve said it a few times already, but 2025 is the year for the RG golf community. We are off to a great start. Let’s keep it rolling.
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Core Plays for the Farmers Insurance Open
If you like course rotations in these PGA TOUR events, then you will love this week as well. The Farmers Insurance Open will be played at Torrey Pines South Course (host course) and Torrey Pines North Course. Golfers will play each course once before the cut is made after the 2nd round. The South Course will host the final 2 rounds of play.
These courses are close in proximity but couldn’t be more different in terms of how they play. The South Course is a Par 72 that measures nearly 7,800 yards. It features narrow fairways, thick rough, and small greens. It hosted the U.S. Open a few years back and is routinely one of the most difficult courses on the PGA TOUR.
Noto’s PGA Model Download & Video for the Farmers Insurance Open
The North Course is a Par 72 that measures less than 7,300 yards. It has wider fairways, larger greens, and shorter holes. It routinely plays as one of the top 10 easiest courses on the PGA TOUR. Golfers must take advantage of their lone round played on the North Course.
In terms of course fit, I’m looking at a few different metrics. The first is Driving Distance. The combination of long holes and everyone missing fairways really gives an edge to bombers. I’m also looking at Long Iron Play, Scrambling, Strokes Gained: Difficult Courses, and Strokes Gained: California.
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Weather Tools to Help with Farmers Insurance Open PGA DFS Picks
- PGA weather report from Chief Meteorologist, Kevin Roth
- Windfinder
- Accuweather
Torrey Pines (South Course) for the Farmers Insurance Open
- Location: San Diego, California
- Par & Length: Par 72, 7,765 yards
- Course type: Classical
- Recent winners: Matthieu Pavon -13, Max Homa -13, Luke List -15, Patrick Reed -14, Marc Leishman -15
- Difficulty: 2024 (9th), 2023 (4th), 2022 (15th), 2021 (4th), 2020 (7th)
- Green type: poa annua
- Green size: 5,000 Square Feet
- Fairway width: 28 yards
- Missed fairway penalty: average
- Holes with water hazards: 1
- 2024 tournament averages:
- - Driving Accuracy: 55% (TOUR average: 59%)
- - Driving Distance: 292 yards (TOUR average: 293)
- - Greens in Regulation: 65% (TOUR average: 66%)
- 2024 approach shot distributions:
- - 50-75 yards: 4%
- - 75-100 yards: 6%
- - 100-125 yards: 8%
- - 125-150 yards: 10%
- - 150-175 yards: 20%
- - 175-200 yards: 18%
- - 200-225 yards: 10%
- - 225+ yards: 25%
Tournament and Course Notes for the Farmers Insurance Open
- This event starts on Wednesday in order to avoid competition from the NFL Conference Championship games
- If you like course rotations, this is the time of the season for you
- 2-course rotation this week — Torrey Pines South Course and Torrey Pines North Course
- The South Course is a beast (nearly 7,800 yards) and will host 3 of the 4 rounds
- The fairways are extremely narrow, and the rough is very penal
- The greens are small and difficult to hit on average
- The greens feature bumpy poa annua, which is, let’s say, an acquired taste
- This is routinely one of the most difficult courses on the PGA TOUR
- Course history matters more here than most PGA TOUR venues
- Golfers will need to take advantage of the North Course in their single round there
What to Look For
- Strokes Gained: Approach
- Strokes Gained: Off the Tee
- Strokes Gained: Difficult Courses
- Driving Distance
- Strokes Gained: Long Par 72 Courses
- Strokes Gained: Around the Green
- Strokes Gained: California
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Core Plays
Ludvig Aberg
DraftKings: $10,800 / pOWN%: 27%
FanDuel: $11,900 / pOWN%: 27%
Strokes Gained Off the Tee: 2
Strokes Gained Approach: 11
Strokes Gained Around the Green: 54
Strokes Gained Putting: 19
Birdie or Better %: 7
Bogey Avoidance: 10
I have no issue with Hideki Matsuyama this week, but Aberg is my favorite spend. He’s the best driver of the golf ball in the field and has shown an ability to dominate on difficult courses (look at his track record here and at the majors last year). He’s also an elite iron player and an excellent putter. I was worried about rust after missing time with an injury, but Aberg finished T17 at the RSM Classic, T6 at the Hero, and T5 at The Sentry in his first 3 starts back. It’s safe to assume rust is no longer an issue. I view him as the class of the field and will be overweight in all formats.
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