PGA DFS Core Plays: THE PLAYERS Championship
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!
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Core Plays for THE PLAYERS Championship
Believe it or not, THE PLAYERS Championship is already upon us. Before we know it, we will be heading to Augusta National for the Masters. Historically, this has been a very difficult event to handicap. Golf is already a volatile sport, and TPC Sawgrass features water hazards on 17 of the 18 holes.
TPC Sawgrass is a Pete Dye design located just outside Jacksonville, Florida. It’s a par 72 that measures 7,352 yards. It’s one of the most iconic courses in the world, in large part thanks to the 17th hole, which is the par 3 with the island green. When there is pressure on Sunday, when the wind is howling, or when the greens are firm, it’s one of the most difficult wedge shots golfers will have to hit all year. I’ve played the hole, and it took me 3 shots to get it on the green.
This course isn’t as difficult as Bay Hill (last week’s course), but it certainly has some teeth. It’s a course where you can go low if you are striking the ball well and a course that can eat you alive if you aren’t. Over the last 4 years, the course has ranged in difficulty from 12th to 16th on the PGA TOUR. You are going to see a huge range of scores, especially over the first 2 days when there isn’t a ton of wind.
Like most Dye designs, this isn’t a course that can be overpowered off the tee. You can be aggressive here, but that’s more on the approach side than off the tee. The fairways are narrow (31 yards on average), and the greens are small (5,500 square feet). Since moving the tournament to March, the greens are now bermudagrass overseeded with poa trivialis. Around the green does come into play here, but ball strikers tend to rule at TPC Sawgrass.
I am looking for good total drivers of the ball and elite iron players. Experience in Florida and in strong fields will certainly come in handy this week.
Editor’s Note: For more tournament and course notes for THE PLAYERS Championship, 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.
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Core Plays
Collin Morikawa
DraftKings: $10,500 / pOWN%: 25%
FanDuel: $11,100 / pOWN%: 22%
Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee: 10
Strokes Gained: Approach: 7
Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green: 13
Strokes Gained: Putting: 52
Birdie or Better %: 9
Bogey Avoidance: 19
I plan to have a lot of Scottie Scheffler this week, but Morikawa is my favorite spend on the board given the discount. He’s coming off yet another runner-up finish, which has to be frustrating for one of the best iron players in the world. The way I see it, being in contention is always a positive, even if that golfer doesn’t end up winning. On paper, this is a perfect course for Morikawa—he’s accurate off the tee, he’s one of the best approach players on TOUR, and he’s made huge improvements with his short game over the last 2 years. If he’s in the mix again this week, hopefully he can steady his nerves on Sunday.
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