Justin Thomas won the PGA Championship (-8), his first major, by two strokes over Francesco Molinari, Patrick Reed, and Louis Oosthuizen. Thomas was 2-over after the first round, but got right back into the thick of things after a 5-under second round. Thomas saved his final round on the very first hole after he went from the left green side bunker to the right green side bunker. He made a tough up and down and sank 14-foot putt to save bogey. He could have easily double-bogeyed or tripled, and that would have surely derailed his round.
I thought Quail Hollow was a great course for a major. There were several holes that players had to absolutely birdie to contend and some holes that par was a good score. I loved the drivable par-4th and of course the green mile was great.
With the majors all done, here are some interesting facts from all four of them. Each player who won a major this year had six letters in their first AND last name. Only 13 players made the cut in all four majors. Brooks Koepka had the best overall score in majors (-21) followed by Hideki Matsuyama (-20) and Matt Kuchar (-20). Rickie Fowler (-16) and Jordan Spieth (-10) were also among those 13 players. The last player on the list was Lee Westwood (+20).
The golf season has FIVE tournaments left. I will be providing you my DraftKings PGA DFS lineup picks for the Wyndham Championship. 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 tournament Thursday morning, feel free to contact me via Twitter @Seth_Fink.
Reviewing Last Week's Pick
Rory McIlroy ($11,800): T-22, 1-over. Rory was the sucker bet of the tournament. Past history on the course looked great, but he was STILL injured. He may be shutting it down for the rest of the season now.
Rickie Fowler ($10,700): T-5, 5-under. Made a late charge, but it was a little too late. If you would've told someone Justin Thomas was going to win his first major before his buddy Fowler did, I'm not sure anyone would have believed you.
Justin Rose ($9,000): Cut. Very disappointing season for Rose after his runer-up at The Masters.
Matt Kuchar ($8,800): T-9, 1-under. Kuchar has become so reliable.
Daniel Berger ($7,700): Cut.
Charley Hoffman ($7,600): T-48, 5-over.
J.B. Holmes ($7,400): T-28, 2-over.
Brendan Steele ($7,300): Cut.
Tony Finau ($7,000): T-44, 4-over.
Kevin Chappell ($7,000): T-33, 3-over.
Lee Westwood ($6,900): T-67, 11-over. Westwood has officially become that player who will make the cut at majors, but no noise. He's made 13 consecutive cuts in majors with only one top-10 finish.
Gary Woodland ($6,700): T-22, 1-over. Shot a first round 68, but couldn't recreate that magic on the weekend.
Wyndham Championship
There is one week until the FedEx Cup Playoffs begin, but this week is vital for some players. You may not think the Wyndham has any significance, but it really does. Golfers are literally playing for their careers. Some players will be relegated to the Web.com Tour and lose their PGA card, while some players will get their PGA Tour card. You can read this great article that goes in-depth explaining the the playoff system and why this week is so important. Many top-name players will not need to play this week, because they want the week off and are locked into the playoffs, but this tournament will surely be exciting.
The PGA Tour will stay in the state of North Carolina this week and head to Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. The course is a par 70 playing to 7,117 yards. There are four par-3's and ONLY two par-5's.
Last year Si Woo Kim with a score of -20. Therefore, I will be looking at birdie or better percentage as well as par 4 scoring because there are 12 par-4's on the course.
Fantasy Golf Lineup Picks for DraftKings (PGA DFS)
High-Cost Players
Bill Haas ($10,200)
Birdie or Better: 129 Par 4 Scoring: T-37
Haas is my top play this week. He's been a regular at the Wyndham since 2008 and is 7-9 in cuts made with four top-10's including a runner-up in 2012. His scoring average since 2012 at this course is 67.05. He hasn't been in the best of form of late, but as golf has shown in the past few weeks, recent form has not been a good correlation of late.
Grayson Murray ($9,100)
Birdie or Better: T-21 Par 4 Scoring: T-113
This will be Murray's tournament debut at the Wyndham. He's riding a nice little streak with a win three weeks ago at the Barbasol Championship and a 22nd last week at the PGA.
Middle-Cost Players
Beyond- Hun An ($8,900)
Birdie or Better: 104 Par 4 Scoring: T-70
Benny An finished T-18 in his only appearance in two years ago. I have a really good gut feeling about him this week. It feels like he's ready to win and is off a T-28 last week at the PGA.
Chez Reavie ($8,100)
Birdie or Better: 54 Par 4 Scoring: T-26
Reavie's history at this course is very up and down. His first two years he finished in the top-10 but was cut his last three times. He has not missed a cut in seven straight tournaments and is off back-to-back t0p-25's.
Ollie Schniederjans ($7,600)
Birdie or Better: T-51 Par 4 Scoring: T-70
Ollie was cut in his only appearance two years ago and has not had a top-10 since April at the RBC Heritage. He will be less than 5% owned so for tournament options, take him as a boom or bust play.
Low-Cost Players
Rory Sabbatini ($7,200)
Birdie or Better: 37 Par 4 Scoring: T-54
Sabbatini played here in 2012 where he was cut and 2013 where he finished T-8. He's made five consecutive cuts and four of those have been in the top-25.
Luke Donald ($7,000)
Birdie or Better: 177 Par 4 Scoring: T-161
A perfect 2-2 here with a T-26 two years ago and runner-up last year. He has not had a top-50 finish since the RBC Heritage in April, but the former world number one can bring it at any tournament.
Cameron Smith ($7,000)
Birdie or Better: 23 Par 4 Scoring: T-141
He was cut last year here and finished T-18 two years ago. He's been cut at his past three tournaments and four of the last five, but that will make him low-owned and he can make a ton of birdies.
Carl Pettersson ($6,700)
Birdie or Better: 166 Par 4 Scoring: 196
He won here in 2008, and has three other top-6's. Yes, he has not had a better than top-70 finish in some time and has miss plenty of cuts, but I'll favor recent history here.
Best of luck!