PGA DFS GPP Breakdown: Arnold Palmer Invitational
Long-time grinder, STLCardinals84, breaks down his top PGA DFS picks in various price ranges for this week’s tournament. Which golfers should you be targeting to try and take down the big DFS tournaments? Find out below!
Welcome to another GPP breakdown for this week’s golf tournament!
We are coming off an interesting week at the Cognizant Classic, where Austin Eckroat became what seems like the 105th consecutive long shot to win a PGA TOUR event. When will the madness end? Eckroat survived the nerves and a Monday finish to get the job done.
This week, we head to Bay Hill for another edition of the Arnold Palmer Invitational — and we have a very strong field assembled for this one given its status as an elevated event. Bay Hill is another challenging course that rarely sees a lot of golfers get into the double digits under par for the week. As for the course, Bay Hill is a par 72 layout that has plenty of trouble lurking to punish poor shots. Most of the scoring will be done on the par fives, and we do have four of them at this course. All of those measure under 600 yards, and they are generally the four easiest holes on the course. Limiting damage will be the key on the remaining holes, though some of the other holes did play a bit easier a year ago. In any case, this course is usually a matter of “hanging on” with the other holes and scoring as much as possible on the par fives. It’s rare to see a par 72 layout play so difficult, but that’s the case with Bay Hill.
As is usually the case with challenging courses, this is a traditional ball striker’s layout. Elite tee to green game will be very important, particularly if winds pick up like they often do in this part of the country. Bogey avoidance and par five scoring will be the other metrics I look at closely, especially when we also consider that weather may be a factor. We must also note that given its status as an elevated event, this tournament has a limited field of 69 golfers, and the cut will be the top 50 and ties (plus any golfer within ten strokes of the lead) after Round 2. I might take a few more chances in GPP builds with the limited cut.
With the housekeeping out of the way, let’s move on to some of my favorite GPP options!
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel GPP Breakdown for the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Rory McIlroy
DraftKings: $10,600
FanDuel: $12,100
Yahoo: $45
It’s hard to argue against Scottie Scheffler at the top, as he is posting prime Tiger Woods type of numbers from tee to green over the past year and a half. The issue with Scheffler is that he is nowhere near the putter that Tiger was in his prime. That’s the only flaw in his game. The soft pricing this week is going to cause significant ownership on Scheffler, so I’ll pivot down to McIlroy at a more affordable price and lower ownership. Rory is one of the few golfers that can compete with Scheffler’s tee to green skill set, and McIlroy was one subpar round away from being in contention last week. Rory also has three straight top-15 finishes at this event, and he has gained nearly 45 strokes over the field average in those starts. I’ll take that course history and hope he can out-duel Scheffler this week.
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