Welcome back RotoBallers! Brandt Snedeker (-21) went wire-to-wire to win the Wyndham Championship by three strokes. This was the ninth consecutive tournament the winner has won by at least two strokes dating back to the Travelers Championship.
This week I will be providing you with my DraftKings lineup picks for the The Northern Trust. 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.
Also check out Joe Nicely's horse for the course column, and Spencer Aguilar's Vegas report.
The Northern Trust
The FedEx Cup Playoffs kick off this week at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ. This tournament rotates several courses. The Northern Trust has been at this course in 2014, 2010 and 2008.
The course is a par-71 that plays to around 7,400 yards. It has four par-3's, 11 par-4's, and three par-5's. The greens are bent grass with average sizes.
Let's take a look at the stats.
Stat | Ridgewood CC | Tour Average |
Driving Distance | 288 | 283 |
Driving Accuracy | 66% | 61% |
GIR Percentage | 65% | 65% |
Scrambling Percentage | 56% | 57% |
Three Putts/Round | 0.90 | 0.56 |
Past winners are Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Jason Day, Hunter Mahan (Ridgewood), Adam Scott, Nick Watney, Johnson, and Matt Kucher (Ridgewood).
Only the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup Standings advance to the Dell Technologies Championship next week.
In Vegas, as of Tuesday on sportsbook.ag, Dustin Johnson is the favorite at 9-1 followed by Justin Thomas, 11-1. Brooks Koepka and Jason Day are next at 12-1 followed by Tiger Woods at 14-1.
Stats I'm looking at
As much as I like to look at stats, it is the playoffs and I value players needing a good tournament to continue on in the playoffs.
With the results, I keyed on the following.
Fantasy Golf Lineup Picks for DraftKings (PGA DFS)
High-Priced Players
There are five players this week priced above $10,000: Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Brooks Koepka, and Tiger Woods.
Johnson ($11,500) - DJ comes in after yet another disappointing major performance. He has a propensity to dominate these kind of tournaments; not so popular, but still a good tournament to win. Maybe because there's no pressure. Either way, he's going to show up.
Thomas ($11,200) - This time of the year is when JT plays his best golf and it shows in his results at this tournament. He's finished T-16, T-10, and T-6 last year. He's going to shine this week.
Day ($10,700) - The Aussie is off a strong PGA Championship after a T-19. He hasn't finished outside the top-20 in his past four tournaments. He's one of the best at this tournament. Check out his last four years: T-2, won, T-4, and T-6. That's why he's priced above guys like Koepka and Woods.
Koepka ($10,500) - Koepka is the best golfer in the world, but will he bring his A-game this week? He's won four PGA tournaments in his life and three of them are majors. He steps up on the grandest of stages, but doesn't on lesser-events like this. I'm gonna have to pass until he shows he wants to compete at a tournament that's not a major.
Woods ($10,100) - The New Jersey/New York crowd will be all-in on Tiger this weekend. He will have the biggest crowd rooting for him. He's played tremendously this summer and I have no doubt he continues where he left off two weeks at the PGA.
Middle-Priced Players
Jon Rahm ($9,700) - He's a top-25 machine who's off a T-4 at the PGA Championship. He was T-3 last year at this tournament. As long as he stays out of his own head, he's a threat to win.
Paul Casey ($8,300) - I've been on Casey's bandwagon for much of the year and he's disappointed time and time again from his T-51 at the British open to him being cut at the PGA Championship. This is the final time I choose him unless he plays well this week. His stats are good and he did finish T-22 at this course in 2014.
Tyrrell Hatton ($8,100) - He comes in 92nd in the FedEx Cup standings and needs a solid performance to get to the next round. He should have no problem having a good tournament considering his last six events: T-6 at U.S. Open, T-16 at French Open, T-9 at Scottish Open, T-51 at British Open, T-28 at WGC-Bridgestone, and T-10 at PGA Championship. This is his first time competing at this tournament, but given his strong play on American soil, he'll be just fine.
Rafa Cabrera Bello ($7,900) - I went with him last week and he played terrific golf shooting all four rounds in the 60s finishing T-11. That was his third straight tournament finishing in the top 20.
Low-priced Players
Charl Schwartzel ($7,200) - I'm going with him because he's just above the cut line for the next event ranking 96th. He's a veteran player who's made 16 of 21 cuts on the year.
Emiliano Grillo ($7,000) - He's a phenomenal putter and that'll do him well this weekend. He was T-2 and T-29 the past two years.
Best of luck RotoBallers and be sure to look out for another article coming next week for the Dell Technologies Championship!
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.