Gary Woodland Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Woodland was one of the top point-per-dollar plays in my model last week, but I was hesitant to write him up as a core play. He had lost strokes (and a lot of them) off the tee in each of his previous three events. He took the new driver out of his bag and went back to the one he used when he won the U.S. Open. It paid immediate dividends, as he gained 3.4 strokes off the tee. He almost always gains strokes with his irons and his putter has been red-hot since the restart. That can always flip any given week, but he’s gotta have confidence on the greens after gaining 15.6 strokes putting in his last four events. If you include last week, he’s made five straight cuts at Muirfield Village with two top five finishes during that stretch.

I'm always a sucker for Woodland, and that is not going to change at Muirfield Village. Woodland has seemingly been the top ranked ball striker on Tour for what seems like two years now, and he remains at the top of that metric. He also ranks 10th on Tour in par five scoring. In other words, he checks all the boxes for success around this place. He has made the cut in six of the last seven events that have been played here, and he has four career top 25's at Muirfield Village. He will be one of the first players in my lineups this week, no matter the format. There's a nice blend of safety and upside here. There is at least a small cause for concern with his lagging statistics over his last few events, but I'm willing to attribute some of that to rust after the COVID-induced layoff. We can hope that serves to keep his ownership in check, as that's priced in to his relatively affordable tag.

Woodland had a disappointing finish last week at the RBC Heritage, but he made a quadruple bogey on a par three on Saturday and a double bogey on a par five on Sunday. I'm willing to overlook that, especially since he's gained 11.5 strokes on approach in the first two events back from the break. His off the tee game has really held him back, but historically he's a great driver of the golf ball. This week sets up really well for him, as TPC River Highlands is more open than Colonial or Harbour Town and similar to those courses, it rewards accurate ball strikers. If Woodland can find the fairway, I expect him to be in the mix on Sunday.

Woodland will surely be popular this week, as he comes into the event in as good of form as anyone. During the swing season, he has racked up finishes of third, fifth, and seventh. If not for a poor start to his final round at the Hero World Challenge, he would have won the event. We know he’s a golfer whose form comes and goes, so we should take advantage when he’s playing well. He’s one of the best total drivers on tour, he’s great with his woods and the stinger he can hit off the tee, and his short game has drastically improved. He nearly won this event last season before Xander Schauffele caught fire in the final round. It was an epic Sunday that came down to the final hole. He’s clearly a good fit for the course, he has the form, and his price is more than reasonable.

The final core play of the week is another golfer that's been in poor form recently, but is far too cheap across the industry. After winning the U.S. Open, Woodland has unsurprisingly struggled to stay motivated. Perhaps brand new twins and $15 million at stake can help get him going. In an interview, he likened Liberty National to Pebble Beach (where he won the U.S. Open) and said that he practices here all the time when he's in New York. In better form, he would be $1,500 more expensive on each of the respective DFS sites. We know he's going to make a lot of birdies, so he just needs to beat out 45 golfers or so to make the weekend and he should easily pay off this salary.

This is the biggest wild card of the week. To put it simply, Gary Woodland is far too cheap at $7,800 on DK and $9,700 on FD. There’s no reason for him to be priced below the average salary we have to spend per golfer. Sure, the recent form has lagged a bit, but it was no surprise to see him struggle after posting top tens in each of the last two majors, including a win at the U.S. Open. There’s a natural let-down factor there, plus his wife was impending labor with twins. Certainly, Woodland had a lot on his mind over the past few months. Now that the twins have been successfully born and he has had a week off from golf, Woodland should be ready to roll in the playoffs. Now, we can question how much sleep he has been able to get with newborn twins, but I am not going to pretend like I know what’s going on there. Woodland is a top tier ball striker who ranks eighth in that department this year, and he should be able to thrive on this layout. He loves the course and finished second here in 2013. At this far too cheap salary, I’m buying.

A stomach bug knocked him out early at the Wells Fargo Championship, but Woodland book-ended that tournament with cuts made at The Masters (32nd) and the PGA Championship (8th). That PGA Championship finish was punctuated with a Sunday two-under par 68 on a day where the course averaged around three shots over par. His statistics jump off the page for this course, as he ranks 4th on the PGA Tour in par five scoring and first in ball striking. That is after he finished 2nd on the Tour in ball striking a year ago. The price tag is a fair bit lower than I would have expected this week, and Woodland is one of my favorite point per dollar plays on the board.

Woodland hasn’t been in the best of form recently, but he’s a perfect fit for this course. He’s ranked second in this field in strokes gained off the tee and first in birdie or better percentage. That’s a lethal combination, especially when you are very good with your irons. His price is reasonable across the industry and like Finau, he fits the balanced build that I was talking about. Woodland has made the cut here in four of the last five years, posting top 25 finishes every time that he’s made the cut. While he’s not a good putter, he’s above-average around the green. At a course where short putts are hard for everyone, it may actually help the poor putters.