PGA DFS Core Plays: PGA Championship
Top-ranked DFS player, Notorious, breaks down his favorite PGA DFS picks at various price ranges on DraftKings and FanDuel for the PGA Championship. Whom should you be building your lineups around? Find out below!
While I am ecstatic that the year’s second major is here, I’m honestly just as excited for the fact that this is a full-field event with a cut. The Signature Events continue to get less and less Signature-like. The PGA Championship will feature 156 golfers in the field, with the top 70 and ties making the cut. There are always going to be chalky golfers who miss the cut, but there’s a chance for a higher 6-of-6 percentage this week thanks to the extra handful of golfers making the cut.
DraftKings has brought back the $5,000 pricing floor for their contests this week. This does two things — it makes the stars and scrubs roster construction a lot easier than usual, and it makes the pricing softer across the board. Your lineups are going to look a lot better on paper than they do most weeks. It’s important to be strategic with your roster construction, especially if you are playing in large-field tournaments. You want to avoid chalky combinations like Scottie Scheffler and Nicolai Hojgaard.
Editor’s Note: For more tournament notes, recent form, and course notes for the PGA Championship, check out this week’s PGA DFS First Look.
The PGA Championship changes venues each year and will be held at the Aronimink Golf Club this year. This is a unique PGA Championship course in that it’s more of a strategic course than a pure bomber’s course. The course was designed by Donald Ross, who likes to make courses that test all facets of a golfer’s game. On the scorecard, Aronimink is a par 70 that measures 7,394 yards. The fairways are narrow (30 yards wide on average), and the greens are massive (8,200 square feet). Water is only in play on 3 of the 18 holes. One of the main defenses of the course is the bunkering. There are 180 bunkers on the course. Avoiding them off the tee and getting up and down from the greenside bunkers will be key.
The last time we saw this course on the PGA TOUR was in 2018 at the BMW Championship. While the course is mostly the same (it’s a bit longer now), it’s going to play much tougher than it did in 2018. The course was soft that week, and the rough is much thicker this time around. Distance is always beneficial on a long course, but hitting the fairways is just as important this week. The greens here are large and contoured, so hitting the right sections of them will be important. That’s much easier to do from the fairway than the rough. With the size of these greens, we are going to see a lot of 3-putts, so good lag putters will have an advantage on the greens.
There are only two par 5s on the scorecard this week, but there are a total of 8 holes that measure at least 450 yards. Good drivers of the ball (not necessarily the bombers) will have a big advantage this week. Approach play is always important, especially with the size of these greens. Stout around-the-green play will be needed, as this is a major that is expected to play tough (especially if the wind picks up). And last but not least, golfers will have to make putts on these fast bentgrass greens to contend. I’m focusing mostly on strong tee-to-green golfers who have a good track record in majors and/or on long and difficult golf courses.
Top PGA DFS Picks on DraftKings & FanDuel for the PGA Championship
Core Plays
Ludvig Aberg
Noto Rating: 5 / Cash Rating: 4 / GPP Rating: 6
DraftKings: $9,800 / pOWN%: 13%
FanDuel: $10,900 / pOWN%: 17%
Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee: 11
Strokes Gained: Approach: 5
Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green: 9
Strokes Gained: Putting: 37
I plan to have plenty of exposure to Scottie Scheffler with the softer pricing, but Aberg is my favorite starting point for balanced builds. You can also use him as the second golfer in your lineups if you feel comfortable with the $5,000-$6,000 range on DraftKings. Aberg is one of the best in the world from tee to green. In 2026, he’s in the top 11 in this field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, Strokes Gained: Approach, and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. And it’s not like he’s a bad putter, as he’s been positive in that category in any time frame that you want to look at. He’s contended in majors, he’s won on TOUR, and he’s won a Ryder Cup. It’s only a matter of time before he breaks through and wins his first major. He comes into the week in tremendous form, posting top-10 finishes in 5 of his last 6 events.
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