PGA DFS Core Plays: Masters
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!
Masters week is finally here! We have so much content this week that we should have you covered whether you like to play cash games, small-field tournaments, or large-field tournaments. My biggest piece of advice this week is to base your strategy on what type of contest you are in. If you are competing against 100,000 lineups, you will need to think outside the box when it comes to ways of getting contrarian around the chalk. It’s also a good idea to leave $200 or more on the table in order to avoid duplicated lineups. I’ll be in the RotoGrinders Discord all week to answer any questions. You can send me a DM or @ me in the golf channel, and I’m happy to help.
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Core Plays for the Masters
Now let’s talk about the most iconic golf course in the world — Augusta National Golf Club. They continue to change the course and adapt with the times to make this the best test of golf imaginable. The course is a Par 72 that now measures 7,555 yards. In actuality, the course plays even longer than that, as they purposely mow the grass against the grain in order to limit roll-out off the tee. Many think the course plays closer to 7,800 yards than the 7,555 yards on the scorecard.
The course sets up extremely well for golfers who are long off the tee. In addition to the length of the course, the fairways are extremely wide (50+ yards) and there is no rough on the property. There’s a second cut (which is like the fairway at most muni courses) and then the pine straw. This doesn’t mean you can spray the ball wherever and get away with it, but there’s so much more room for error off the tee here. Having distance certainly helps take advantage of the easiest holes, which are the par 5s.
Editor’s Note: For more tournament 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.
The greens at Augusta are large in size but play a lot smaller thanks to undulation and run-offs. Golfers will need to hit their targets, or they will be forced with tricky up-and-downs. While strong around the green play is critical, this is a different scrambling test than any other on the PGA TOUR. Golfers need to use their imagination and the slopes on the greens to get the ball close to the hole. More than actual around the green statistics, experience at Augusta National is what matters.
If there’s one statistic that I’m fine taking a chance on, it’s putting. We’ve seen so many bad putters win and contend at the Masters over the years. This is due to a couple of reasons — the greens are so fast and tricky that it neutralizes the field a bit when it comes to putting, and the course’s difficulty requires more on the tee-to-green front.
So what does it take to play well here? Being long off the tee doesn’t hurt, being solid on approach (especially with long irons) is a huge plus, and knowing the course goes a long way. Being able to differentiate when to be aggressive and when to play it safe is also key.
Let’s have a week my friends.
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Core Plays
Rory McIlroy
DraftKings: $11,100 / pOWN%: 20%
FanDuel: $12,800 / pOWN%: 18%
Strokes Gained Off the Tee: 2
Driving Distance: 5
Strokes Gained Approach: 20
Strokes Gained Around the Green: 12
Strokes Gained Putting: 18
So many people talk themselves into playing McIlroy each year at the Masters, and he always seems to disappoint. I’m not one of those people. I’m usually fine fading him given all the ghosts that haunt him here. However, I love where his game is at the moment, and I love his mental state heading into the year’s first major. He’s already picked up 2 huge wins this year at Pebble Beach and THE PLAYERS. He’s always been an elite driver of the ball, but right now, the rest of his game is firing on all cylinders. He’s been terrific on approach (including his wedges) and has had an elite short game all year. This feels like the year he finally dons the green jacket and gets that career grand slam.
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