PGA DFS Expert Survey: WM Phoenix Open
Our panel of experts is here to give you their PGA DFS picks for this week’s contests by answering a handful of questions to help you make crucial lineup-building decisions. Want to know who Noto has as the top three finishers? Or who is STLCards’ top overall golfer? Find out below!
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Expert Survey for the WM Phoenix Open
Which useful trend or statistic stuck out most during your research?
Notorious: I’m not saying a first-timer can’t win the WM Phoenix, but there are a lot of reasons why experience here helps. For starters, the atmosphere is different than any other on the PGA Tour. Fans are essentially encouraged to drink, yell, and be a distraction. Think of the fans that Happy Gilmore brought to the tour. Additionally, the course has a lot of risk/reward holes. There are two par fives with hazards and a driveable par four with water in play. The greens are lightning fast, and scrambling takes some getting used to here. As far as the type of golfer I’m looking for, I like the strong tee to green types. We’ve seen a number of bad and mediocre putters win here in the past.
STLCardinals84: Over the last nine editions of this event, here are the golfers that have finishes as winner or runner-up: Hideki Matsuyama (x3), Rickie Fowler (x2), Webb Simpson (x2), Brooks Koepka (x2), Scottie Scheffler, (x2), Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay, Gary Woodland, Chez Reavie, K.H. Lee, Nick Taylor, and Branden Grace. Those are some really strong golfers in that mix, and Fowler, Simpson, Reavie, Grace, and Woodland were all playing better golf when they had their top finishes here. Expect the cream to rise to the top as usual at this tournament on a course where ball strikers almost always prevail. Of course, we can kind of debate who the “cream of the crop” is on the PGA TOUR these days… but that’s a discussion for another day.
hondizzle: Early in the week, I am looking at this event through two different viewpoints. First and foremost I want to try and get a handle at what golfers typically thrive at this event. Great ball strikers and players who excel via strokes gained via approach are a top priority for me in all formats. When you look back at the past winners of this event, there can be a strong correlation to be made between talent and stature on tour and the first place finish. This leads me to my second angle to think about for the week. This PGA Tour season has been very crazy in terms of unexpected and or new names emerging on tour. While this space is too limited to really dive into what might be the reason for some new players having success, I do think there is merit into expanding your player pool to account for some players you might not normally look at on a week where established players tend to thrive.
Who is your top contrarian golfer (when considering price, key stats, projected ownership, etc.) on the board and why?
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