PGA DFS Core Plays: Masters
Top-ranked DFS player, Notorious, breaks down his favorite PGA DFS picks at various price ranges on DraftKings and FanDuel for the Masters. Whom should you be building your lineups around? Find out below!
For golf fans, this is the best event of the year. I’m going to have as many livestreams up as possible while I sweat my lineups this week. This is the most wide-open Masters that we’ve had in quite some time, as the two favorites have big question marks at the moment. Rory McIlroy withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational and has only played in one event since. He also has the added pressure of hosting the Champions Dinner and defending his title. Scottie Scheffler has not hit his irons well this year and has finished outside of the top 20 in both of his last 2 starts. There are 15 golfers who could realistically win this week.
Editor’s Note: For more tournament notes, recent form, and course notes for the Masters, check out this week’s PGA DFS First Look. To get access to Noto’s PGA DFS Model Breakdown & Download link, which allows you to create your own projections, click here.
Augusta National Golf Club is a Par 72 that measures 7,565 yards. The length is daunting as is, but they mow the fairways in the opposite direction of the hole. This minimizes roll-out on drives and makes the course play even longer. Many suggest that the course actually plays closer to 7,900 yards. With wide fairways (54 yards on average) and only a second-cut to worry about, it’s easy to see why the course sets up well for bombers. However, you can’t stray too far offline, or you will find trouble.
The greens at Augusta National are average in size (6,400 square feet), but they play a lot smaller than that thanks to the extreme slopes. Golfers will be hitting to very small targets on these greens. If they miss their spots, they will often find themselves much farther away from the pin than they would at most courses. This is why elite iron play and elite scrambling are huge factors at the Masters every year.
The greens feature bentgrass and will run at 13.5 on the stimpmeter. These will likely be the fastest greens that the golfers will see all year. Due to the elevation changes, the uneven lies, the creativity needed around the greens, and the lightning-fast greens themselves, it’s easy to see why experience matters so much at Augusta National. Course history is more predictive here than at any other course on the PGA TOUR, and it’s not even close.
In terms of course fit, a solid all-around game is needed to succeed here. Length off the tee certainly helps, but elite long iron play can make up for it, so I am not shying away from a few of the shorter hitters. This is the week to really go all in on the course history angle, although I suppose some of that is offset by ownership, as most of the field will also be focusing on experience.
My friends, let’s have a week to remember.
Top PGA DFS Picks on DraftKings & FanDuel for the Masters
Core Plays
Jon Rahm
Noto Rating: 2 / Cash Rating: 2 / GPP Rating: 3
DraftKings: $10,000 / pOWN%: 23%
FanDuel: $11,900 / pOWN%: 23%
Course History L5 Years: 14, 45, 1, 27, 5
Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee: 14
Strokes Gained: Approach: 14
Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green: 26
Strokes Gained: Putting: 36
There are question marks at the top of the board for the first Masters in a long time. Rory McIlroy has only played once since withdrawing from the API with a back injury, and Scottie Scheffler has looked very human in his last 3 starts. I prefer the balanced builds this week and like starting lineups with Rahm. We don’t have great statistics from LIV, but Rahm is 1st in Birdie %, 1st in Greens in Regulation, 4th in Scrambling, and 4th in Driving Distance. He’s made 5 starts this year and has yet to have a bad outing. He has a win, 3 runner-ups, and a 5th-place finish. He’s already won 2 majors (the Masters and U.S. Open) and seems motivated to prove that he’s still one of the best in the world.
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