Adam Scott Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Scott was one of the many golfers who had one awful round at the Northern Trust that really ended up hurting his finishing position. He shot a 75 on Saturday when everyone else was shooting well under par. He bounced back on Sunday with a round of three-under par to finish T58. His underlying statistics were encouraging, as he gained 2.9 strokes ball striking and lost 3.4 strokes with his short game. As we know, it’s much easier for the short game to turn around, especially for a world class golfer like Scott. This is his third event since the restart, so he should be close to shaking off all the rust at this point. He loves poa and bentgrass greens, he loves long golf courses, and he tends to play well in the playoffs. According to the FedEx Cup scenarios, he’ll likely need to finish T7 or better to make it back to East Lake.

Scott didn’t play a professional event in nearly five months, but was just fine coming off the long layoff. At the PGA Championship, he finished in a tie for 22nd. It’s worth noting that his best ball striking round of the four days came on Sunday, so perhaps the rust will be fully off coming into this week’s event. He’s currently 36th in the FedEx Cup standings, so he has some work to do over the next two events if he wants to make it back to the Tour Championship. He’s a good driver of the ball, he’s terrific with his long irons (there will be plenty of those hit this week), and he plays his best in strong fields. It’s hard to find a negative here, especially at this price point.

This is one of those picks that could easily backfire given the fact that we haven’t seen Scott since before the break. I saw a 10 second clip of him practicing at TPC Harding Park last week, but that doesn’t mean much of anything. I’ll definitely look for quotes from him throughout the week, but expect to be over-weight on him as long as I don’t hear anything too negative. He’s currently the seventh ranked golfer in my model for the week and he’s only $7,800 on DraftKings. In the last three PGA Championships and U.S. Opens, he hasn’t finished worse than T8. He’s elite tee to green and can actually putt well on poa annua grass every now and then.

Scott had some strange issues off the tee for a few tournaments at the start of the swing season, but those seem fixed at this point. That was to be expected, as he's long been known as one of the best drivers of the ball on tour. His iron game has been as good as anyone's over the last six months and that's evident in his statistics above -- second in strokes gained approach and third in greens in regulation. He gets a lot of heat for his putting, but he makes a ton of long putts. Many might be surprised to see that he's ranked 11th in this field in strokes gained putting over the last 50 rounds. There wasn't anything spectacular about his T33 finish last week, but he did finish in a tie for third in greens in regulation. He should be able to keep that going this week on a course where he has four top 20s in his last seven appearances.

Scott is starting the tournament at three-under par, which means he’s only two shots out of a top five finish. Many will treat this event like a Sunday showdown contest, but keep in mind that the finishing points are for the entire tournament, not just the first round. The mid-range is loaded with stud golfers that are underpriced solely due to the fact that they are starting six or seven shots back. Scott missed the cut at the Open and backed it up with a mediocre T40 finish, but has otherwise been in tremendous form. He has five top 10s in his last eight events and he has plenty of experience at East Lake. He’s posted back-to-back top 10 finishes here. He’s solid in all aspects of his game outside of the putter, but that’s an area that he’s improved this season.

This all sets up perfectly for Adam Scott. I like him more on courses that require a little more thought, and Portrush fits exactly that moldH. Scott is also riding an extended run of great form, with five straight top 20 finishes on his resume, all of which came in strong field events (three majors plus the Memorial and the PLAYERS). That’s pretty incredible stuff. His putter is working much better these days, and the tee to green ability has never been in question. He has reportedly already been at Portrush for a week, and his links track record is better than you might think. Statistically speaking, he ranks inside the top 55 on Tour in all the key statistical measures I am looking at for this event, and that includes a sparkling rank of 4th in strokes gained around the green. His short game is light years ahead of where it was last year at this time. His DFS price tag is borderline shocking, and I think Scott is perhaps the top point per dollar play on the board this week. Hop aboard.

There is a popular trend getting throw around the industry this week that the winner of the Open Championship over the last many moons has always played at least one tournament in between the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. We haven't seen Scott since the U.S. Open, so that means he can't win, right? Of course not, trends are only trends until they are broken. Scott has played a light schedule this season, but it is really working for him. All parts of his game have been solid and he's posted five straight top 18 finishes and three straight top eight finishes. He's a great links player, as highlighted by four top 22 finishes in the last five editions of the Open Championship.

Everything is lining up for Scott and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him win this week. I have him as an outright bet and will be loading up on him in DFS. In his last event on tour (the Memorial), he gained 12 strokes on his approaches and finished second behind Patrick Cantlay. I saw a statistic that said with Scott’s performance, he would have won that tournament 86% of the time. The 12 strokes on approaches is impressive, but even more-so is the fact that he has gained strokes putting in eight straight events. He doesn’t have a great track record at Pebble Beach, but this course will play much different for the U.S. Open than it will for the AT&T Pebble Beach.