Welcome back RotoBallers! Bubba Watson captured his third Travelers Championship behind a final-round 63.
This week I will be providing you with my DraftKings lineup picks for the Quicken Loans National. My goal as always is to help put together your optimal daily fantasy golf lineups. If anyone has lineup questions before the start of the championship Thursday morning, feel free to contact me via Twitter @SethFinkTV.
Editor's Note: Our friends at Fantasy National have built some incredible DFS Golf lineup tools including a Lineup Optimizer, Stat Engine, Ownership Projections and Course Breakdowns. They are by far the best daily fantasy Golf tools in the industry. Seriously. You can read all about them here and see screenshots.
Quicken Loans National
The PGA Tour stays on the East Coast heading south to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Potomac, MD.
The par-70 course plays to around 7,100 yards, very short. It has four par-3's, 12 par-4's, and two par-5's. The greens are Bentgrass.
Last year scoring was difficult, greens were firm and fast, splitting fairways was difficult, and the rough length was medium. The tough conditions could have been due to the moderate windy conditions.
Let's take a look at the stats.
Stat | TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm | Tour Average |
Driving Distance | 285 | 283 |
Driving Accuracy | 57% | 61% |
GIR Percentage | 60% | 65% |
Scrambling Percentage | 52% | 58% |
Three Putt Percentage | 43% | 56% |
Past winners are Kyle Stanley, Billy Hurley III (both won at TPC Potomac), Troy Merritt, Justin Rose, Bill Haas, Tiger Woods, Nick Watney, and Rose again (none of those tournamnets were played at TPC Potomac.)
Bill Haas has the most strokes gained at this event over the past five years with 49. Rickie Fowler is next with 28, followed by Jason Korak, 25, and Hurley, 22. Ben Martin rounds out the top five with 20.
This is such a weak field. Fowler is the only player ranked inside the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings. Francesco Molinari and Marc Leishman are ranked 17th and 18th, and that's it for the top-30.
In Vegas, as of Tuesday on sportsbook.ag, Fowler is the favorite at 6.5-1, which is absurd. Woods is next at 10.5-1, followed up Leishman at 19-1, then Molinari at 19-1.
Stats I'm looking at
With the results, I keyed on the following.
Fantasy Golf Lineup Picks for DraftKings (PGA DFS)
High-Priced Players
There are six players this week priced above $10,000; Rickie Fowler, Marc Leishman, Tiger Woods, Francesco Molinari, Kyle Stanley, and J.B. Holmes
Fowler ($11,700) - While it may seem Fowler has had a underwhelming year with no win, but he's been very consistent. Bar for a out-of-wack third round 84 at the U.S. Open where the course was nearly impossible, he was very good the other three rounds. He was the highest-priced player last year and without winning it, more-or-less paid off finishing T-3 (something I didn't believe he'd do). Over the last 36 rounds, he's seventh in SG:P on Bentgrass greens that are fast/lightning. Put him on a Par-70's measuring less than 7,200 yards and he's first in SG:Total over the last 36 and 50 rounds.
Leishman ($11,200) - He was cut last week at the Travelers. He's had two top-20's since April yet is priced this high, which shows how bad this field is. He was T-5 last year here. His stats are fine, but at this price, I can't get too excited about him.
Woods ($11,00) - Tiger is number one in SG:T on Par-70's less than 7,200 over the last eight and 24 rounds. He is also second in the last 36 rounds. This is Tiger's tournament and it's nice to see him at the course and playing whereas last year, he didn't even show up when he wasn't playing due to injury.
Molinari ($10,600) - The Italian has had a nice string of golf lately winning the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour, second at the Italian Open, and T-25 at the U.S. Open. I'm a tad nervous about his putting with many birdie opportunities expected.
Stanley ($10,200) - The defending champion is off a T-15 last week. He has solid numbers, but his putting is eh.
Holmes ($10,000) - One of the slowest golfers is off back-to-back top-5's (St. Jude Classic and Travelers). He finished T-68 last year and is 66th in my custom rankings so I'll be fading him.
Middle-Priced Players
Jimmy Walker ($9,600) - He brings a streak of making nine consecutive cuts to Potomac. He was cut here last year, but his stats are too good for that to happen again. If you go with Fowler, Walker would be a nice complement.
David Lingmerth ($8,200) - The Swede blew a final round lead last year at this event finishing T-5. He was competitive through three rounds and I think he plays four solid rounds this week. Lingmerth also had a nice outing last week shooting three rounds in the 60's for a T-19.
Adam Hadwin ($7,300) - Despite not having a top-20 since the Wells Fargo the first week of May, I'm taking a shot with the Canadian. He missed the cut last year, but I like his stats. He's top-20 SG:TOT, SG:T2G, SG:BS, and SG:APP.
Low-Priced Players
Brandon Harkins ($6,700) - I've honestly never heard of him, but he appeared as 16th in my custom rankings. I dug a little deeper and found he's made eight of 10 cuts in 2018. He's never competed here. If you're going with Fowler, all you can ask for is Harkins to make the cut to help complement Fowler's price.
Tyler Duncan ($6,700) - Duncan too has not competed here. He's made six consecutive cuts here making yet another player to throw in your lineup if going with Fowler.
Best of luck RotoBallers and be sure to look out for another article coming next week for the Greenbrier Classic!
Golf DFS News and Player Outlooks
Custom Stat Model - DFS Golf Advanced Tools
Here are the players I wrote about and their correlating stats with my custom stat model:
Premium DFS Golf Tools and Lineup Optimizer
Our friends at Fantasy National have created some game-changing DFS Golf tools, and you can read all about them here. They are hands-down the best daily fantasy Golf tools in the industry.