Steve Stricker Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

The final play of the week is one of the safest. Stricker hasn’t played this event (or any other PGA Tour event) much over the last few years, but it sounds like there is a Champions Tour event in Hawaii next week, so he’ll tee it up at Waialae. If we just look at his course history over the last five years, it’s not much — he has one 64th place finish and nothing else. However, he did finish eighth here in 2011 and third here in 2010. Stricker is always viable on shorter courses that require precision with your irons and good putting. While I’m not sure he provides winning type of upside, I would be shocked if he’s not around for the weekend.

The 51 year-old Stricker is still capable of delivering the goods on the PGA Tour. At this stage, the veteran doesn’t play in a ton of Tour events any more, but he picks his spots. Usually, those spots are courses that suit his game, and Waialae is no exception. He is always a threat on courses where distance isn’t a requirement. Course history proponents might also ignore him this week, since he has only played here once over the last five years. However, he does have plenty of career success at Waialae with just one missed cut in more than ten trips to the venue to go along with two third place finishes and a fourth place finish. Stricker will pepper the fairways and greens and give himself a lot of chances to score. Despite his plodding nature, he’s one of my favorite GPP options of the week.

Stricker is too cheap this week on DraftKings. He could easily be priced in the $9,000 range and still be a strong play. In fact, I have him ranked as my ninth best golfer of the week (which you will see in the video). He needs a strong week in order to qualify for the playoffs, as he currently sits in 141st in the FedEx Cup rankings. When we think of courses where accuracy off the tee is at a premium and where the scoring will come down to iron play and putting, how do we not like Stricker here? Especially a motivated one. Even though he’s getting up there in age, he can still score with these young bucks. He’s ranked 17th in the field in birdie or better percentage and 12th in DraftKings scoring.

While Zach Johnson is the #1A play at this event, don’t sleep on the wily veteran Steve Stricker as the #1B option. In fact, Stricker is actually the all-time earnings leader at this event. He made the cut last year on the number, barely squeezing into the weekend, but yet he somehow walked away with a T-5 finish after a 65/64 weekend. While Stricker is playing more often on the Champions Tour these days, that’s not to say that he can’t compete at the PGA Tour level still. In fact, he posted top 20 finishes in his last two starts at the U.S. Open and the St. Jude Classic. As another Midwest native, Stricker is also clearly motivated to play well at this event, and there’s little reason to expect him to struggle at an event where he generally plays very well.

This is one of the few courses on the PGA Tour where Stricker can still compete. He’s one of the most accurate drivers of the ball and his lack of length doesn’t hurt on such a short track. He’s always been a good iron player and he’s one of the best putters that we’ve seen on tour in the last ten years. He spends most of his time on the Champions Tour these days, but he’s basically the Tiger Woods of that tour. In his few events on the PGA Tour, he has played well, including his last start at TPC Sawgrass. He has a good track record at this event and is priced fairly across the board.