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.
If you had Vaughn Taylor picking up the W at Pebble Beach, then you don't need this column; you need an infinite bankroll. However, we had you last week with a number of picks, including runner-up Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and others.
If you're a GNN Plus subscriber, you also had some sleepers to love, including Lucas Glover (T-11), Aaron Baddeley and Kevin Streelman.
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 PGA Tour heads to Los Angeles for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club, headlined by Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, as James Hahn defends!
Now, on to the picks!
1. Jordan Spieth -- The world No. 1 backdoored a T-21 at Pebble after making the 54-hole cut on the number. Admitted he was playing cocky golf and this knocked him down a peg. Should be a good lesson. He learns fast.
2. Hideki Matsuyama -- The Phoenix Open winner was T-4 here last year, and should give himself plenty of chances with his impressive GIR numbers.
3. J.B. Holmes -- A pair of T-6s and a T-11 in his last three starts is great momentum. He also has an excellent track record here.
4. Charl Schwartzel -- Making his U.S. debut in 2016, Schwartzel already has two European Tour wins this season, including an eight-shotter last weekend in South Africa. A pair of top fives in 2013 and '14 in this event.
5. Rory McIlroy -- First time at Riv for McIlroy, who played well in his two United Arab Emirates starts but faded just before big flurries at the end. Still class player in the field.
6. Bubba Watson -- The 2014 NTO winner didn't look great at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but he played primarily to team up with Marky Mark. Really. T-14 in his title defense last year.
7. Freddie Jacobson -- The Junkman has three top-five finishes in his last four starts, and his style could line up really well with how to recover at Riviera.
8. Dustin Johnson -- D.J. was a dud at Pebble, but he has back-to-back runner-up finishes in this event the last two years. He pretty much doesn't miss here. Then again, he typically doesn't at Pebble either and did last week.
9. Sergio Garcia -- Garcia has played a light schedule to start the year, but he seems to have the number of Riviera. Had a chance to win last year, is almost always in the top 15.
10. Justin Rose -- Rose could have fit anywhere on here from No. 3 to where he landed here at 10th. T-6 in his Pebble debut is great, and Riviera sets up well for his ballstriking, demonstrated by back-to-back top-15 finishes here in 2011 and '12.
GNN PLUS: JOIN NOW! -- DraftKings salary trends | PGA Tour top-15 finish trends | Northern Trust Open 2011-15 finish trends
My DraftKings team for this week:
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 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
To access this research hidden below and MANY more fantasy golf tools, sign up for GNN Plus to gain access to the analysis!
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