Welcome back to Golf News Net's weekly fantasy golf picks. Each week of the PGA Tour season, we'll present our top picks for that week's tournament and make recommendations for DraftKings' one-week fantasy leagues.
Have you ever played one-week fantasy leagues? Give them a try with a free entry this week with your first deposit. (Be aware of the risks in playing daily fantasy sports tournaments.) You could take down our expert picks and win some big bucks.
It took until Monday, but we got a winner at the Farmers Insurance Open. Brandt Snedeker's incredible 3-under 69 in the final round he completed on Sunday stood up to beat K.J. Choi, as well others.
If you're a GNN Plus subscriber, you're not only happy we tipped you to Snedeker, Choi, Jimmy Walker and others who did well at Torrey Pines.
For GNN Plus subscribers, you can access our top-15 finish chart and season-long trends on DraftKings valuations. They'll be available at your disposal as part of a growing set of tools to help in your research. Going forward, GNN Plus subscribers will also get access to the last five years of leaderboards for an event, namely the top 15 and ties from 2011-2015, the data that we use to define our horses for courses each week.
This week, the Waste Management Phoenix Open picks up the party and turns it up to 11 at TPC Scottsdale. Brooks Koepka is defending champion, but Brandt Snedeker remains the hottest hand on the PGA Tour.
Now, on to the picks!
1. Brandt Snedeker -- 3, 2, 1. That's how Sneds has started the year, winning with an incredible final round at Torrey. Snedeker is good in Phoenix, too. He has three top-10 finishes here in the last five years.
2. Bubba Watson -- Watson is a horse-for-course pick this week. He's been in the top 15 each of the last four years, including back-to-back runner-up finishes.
3. Jason Dufner -- Duff Daddy is a winner again, taking the title at the CareerBuilder. He has a runner-up here in 2011 and a T-8 the next year. Nada since.
4. Kevin Kisner -- Kisner has a win, a second and all top-10s in his last four starts. Nothing special here, but, after a short rest, we expect him to continue the hot play.
5. Brooks Koepka -- The defending champion is tailor-made for this course, which is why he won last year. He finished T-3 at Kapalua and has been off since.
6. Rickie Fowler -- Fowler missed the cut at Torrey Pines, but he wasn't the only big-name player to get the long weekend and Monday off. He was T-13 here in 2011.
7. Ryan Palmer -- Palmer should probably be ranked higher because he's been in the top 20 in his last three starts and has a pair of top-five finishes in the last three years here. But who could he leapfrog?
8. Hideki Matsuyama -- Matsuyama is T-4 and T-2 in two career WMPO starts. He's got a penchant for the course. Ignore the Torrey MC.
9. Webb Simpson -- No one seems to be noticing Simpson is playing well, with back-to-back top-20 finishes in 2016. Great record here with three top-15s in the last five years.
10. Ryan Moore -- Moore took an EXTENDED leave to recharge the batteries. Here's a good place to come back, where he has a pair of top-six finishes in the last three years.
GNN PLUS: JOIN NOW! -- DraftKings salary trends | PGA Tour top-15 finish trends | Waste Management Phoenix Open 2011-15 finish trends
My DraftKings team for this week:
1. Bubba Watson -- $12,100
2. Ryan Palmer -- $9,900
3. Graham DeLaet -- $7,700
4. Paul Dunne -- $7,000
5. Anirban Lahiri -- $6,700
6. Harold Varner III -- $6,600
If you want to win at DraftKings daily fantasy golf, you have to figure out a way to find six golfers that play all 72 holes and earn roughly 85 points each.
You likely have to identify a couple of players in the top five, at least the top seven, and you'd ideally not have a player finish outside the top 20.
Doing that takes research, looking at a variety of factors, including:
- Finish trends, both in recent weeks on the PGA Tour and at that week's event,
- Salary trends, deciphering which players are showing value based on their performance, and
- Statistical trends, identifying the common threads among winners in that week's event
That's what Golf News Net will deliver each week to GNN Plus members in this space, offering a complete research package which dives into these three areas to find the players that should be in your lineup for this week's Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
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