Corey Conners Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

If this tournament does turn into a putting contest, that worries me to some degree with Conners. In fact, I rarely roster him in DFS. However, I do like the possibility of “zigging when everyone zags” here. Conners missed the cut at both the U.S. Open and last week’s Corales Championship (as a chalky option), and these events are going to have everyone running away with Conners carrying a hefty price tag. Conners is one of the best ball strikers on Tour, and he ranked 12th in strokes gained on approach in the 2019-2020 season. He also finished second here two years ago and has played in each of the last three editions of the event. Fire him up as an elite tournament option in this spot.

For my GPP plays, I am looking at two ball strikers that tend to struggle on and around the greens. The thought process here is that if the approach is on and they are hitting greens, they have a chance at a high-upside finish. The downside is if they end up missing greens on Thursday/Friday, they come with a good chance of missing the cut. Conners fits this mold more than anyone in the field, as he ranks 16th off the tee, 15th on approach, 107th around the greens, and 95th in putting. That said, since the restart he has been relatively neutral on and around the greens, while consistently gaining strokes ball-striking as we have come to expect. I expect Conners to come in at very low ownership, and while he is not the safest play on the board, I like his chances if he can hit greens and keep things reasonable with the putter.

Conners seemingly came out of nowhere to post solid ball striking weeks quite often in the 2018-2019 season, and this is where he first got things going with rounds of 68-64-68 over his last three to finish in solo second. He hit 70% of fairways (well above field average here) and 80% of greens on his way to that solid performance. He backed that up with more solid finishes throughout the year, and it’s time to start thinking of Conners as an above average golfer on the PGA Tour. He also finished the previous season with four straight top 30 finishes in order to reach the Tour Championship. Though he struggled there, the fact that he made it to the final event is a testament to his potential. Conners is one of the better golfers in this field and should be treated as a top tier option.

Look to the value golfers in order to differentiate your lineups this week. Conners is one of my favorites of the bunch in terms of a contrarian option. He’s playing with house money after parlaying a Monday qualifier into the Sony Open into a tie for third place and an invite to this week’s event. Guys like this are dangerous with three courses in the rotation this week. In an event that’s notoriously wide open and unpredictable, don’t be surprised if Conners makes a run. This guy is a good golfer with “go low” potential, and that has me taking notice on this layout of courses. He gained SEVEN strokes on approach last weekend and should be able to give himself plenty of birdie looks, especially on his rounds at LaQuinta and the Nicklaus Course. Ball striking is golden on these layouts, and Conners appears to be locked in right now.