PGA DFS Core Plays: Cognizant Classic
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!
I don’t know about you, but I was not expecting Brian Campbell to win the Mexico Open.
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t even know who Brian Campbell was before last week, and I spend 20 hours a week researching golfers on the PGA TOUR. While I didn’t have a great week of DFS (both of my core plays missed the cut), it was still an exciting finish. We had one of the shortest hitters squaring off against one of the longest hitters. It’s pretty wild that Campbell was able to win any PGA TOUR event, let alone on a bomber-friendly course.
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Core Plays for the Cognizant Classic
We now turn our attention to the Florida swing. It’s a stretch of golf where the only thing that outnumbers the water hazards is the number of curse words DFS players say while sweating their lineups. Variance is the name of the game in Florida, which is why you’ll see such unpredictable course history. The Cognizant Classic (formerly known as the Honda Classic) is held at PGA National, which is a Par 71 that measures nearly 7,200 yards.
After complaints from players, the PGA TOUR decided to make this course easier last year. They turned one of the par fours into a short par five and made the rough a bit more playable. The course went from being one of the 10 hardest courses on TOUR to being 20th in the difficulty rankings. I’m not sure how I feel about the changes, but the course should still provide a tough test for this week’s field of 144 golfers.
Noto’s PGA Model Download & Video for the Cognizant Classic
The fairways at PGA National are wide (33 yards), but this is a fairly short course, and many of the holes require less than driver off the tee. The average driving distance last year was 280 yards, which is well below TOUR average. While you would think this would benefit the accurate drivers of the ball, driving distance is actually a bigger factor than driving accuracy according to DataGolf. We’ve seen several bombers perform well over the years.
The greens are large (7,000 square feet) and fairly easy to hit on average. I’d rather lean toward ball strikers than short-game specialists this week. If looking at other splits, strokes gained on Florida courses is high on my list, as is strokes gained on short and difficult courses. If you like to look at putting splits, the greens here (and everywhere else during the Florida swing) have bermudagrass. Let’s manifest a big week for the RG golf community!
Editor’s Note: RotoGrinders has partnered with Betsperts Golf and the Rabbit Hole!
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Cognizant Classic Field Size
- 144 golfers
Cognizant Classic Cut Rule
- Top 65 and ties
Weather Tools to Help with the Cognizant Classic PGA DFS Picks
- PGA weather report from Chief Meteorologist, Kevin Roth
- Windfinder
- Accuweather
PGA National for the Cognizant Classic
- Location: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
- Par & Length: Par 71, 7,165 yards
- Recent winners: Austin Eckroat -17, Chris Kirk -14, Sepp Straka -10, Matt Jones -12, Sungjae Im -6
- Difficulty: 2024 (20th), 2023 (13th), 2022 (7th), 2021 (6th), 2020 (3rd)
- Green Type: Bermuda
- Green Size: 7,000 Square Feet
- Fairway width: 33 yards
- Missed fairway penalty: average
- Holes with water hazards: 15
- 2024 tournament averages:
- - Driving Accuracy: 65% (TOUR average: 59%)
- - Driving Distance: 280 yards (TOUR average: 293)
- - Greens in Regulation: 70% (TOUR average: 66%)
- 2024 approach shot distributions:
- - 50-75 yards: 1%
- - 75-100 yards: 4%
- - 100-125 yards: 10%
- - 125-150 yards: 18%
- - 150-175 yards: 21%
- - 175-200 yards: 24%
- - 200-225 yards: 8%
- - 225+ yards: 14%
Tournament and Course Notes for the Cognizant Classic
- We have officially made it to the Florida swing
- With complaints from the players and a new sponsor, they decided the make the course a little easier last year. It certainly showed in the scoring, as this was only the 20th-most difficult course on TOUR
- Even though driving distance has more of an impact than driving accuracy here, this isn’t exactly a driver-heavy course. Water lurks everywhere. The average distance here last year was only 280 yards
- The fairways are average in width (33 yards)
- The greens are large (7,000 square feet) but difficult to hit on average (less so last year)
- Ability to play well on short and difficult courses will come in handy
- Experience in Florida is a big positive
- If you are looking at putting, I would filter them with bermuda splits
What to Look For
- Strokes Gained: Approach
- Total Driving
- Bogey Avoidance
- Strokes Gained: Around the Green
- Strokes Gained: Florida
- Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermuda)
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Core Plays
Russell Henley
DraftKings: $10,700 / pOWN%: 29%
FanDuel: $11,500 / pOWN%: 31%
Strokes Gained Off the Tee: 31
Strokes Gained Approach: 3
Strokes Gained Around the Green: 2
Strokes Gained Putting: 21
Birdie or Better %: 60
Bogey Avoidance: 7
Even though my model has Henley, Lowry, and Im all projected within 1 percentage point, Henley is my favorite of the group. He’s only missed 1 cut since the start of 2024 and has 7 top-5 finishes during that stretch. He hits fairways, he might be the best iron player in the field, he’s an elite scrambler, and he’s 4th in this field in strokes gained putting on bermuda greens. He won here in 2014 and has a couple of top-10 finishes in his last 3 starts at this event. He checks all of the boxes this week.
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