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 and suggest daily fantasy golf lineups.
The PGA Tour comes back to the United States for the first of its last three events of the year, going to Las Vegas for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin. This is go-low-or-go-home tournament, with Smylie Kaufman defending the title he locked up with a final-round 61 last year.
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2016 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open top 10 picks
1. Brooks Kopeka -- I know he has been mediocre of late in regular ole events, but Koepka seems a perfect fit here and was a beast at the Ryder Cup. It's going to translate at some point. But I admit this is a big risk.
2. Ryan Moore -- Home game for the UNLV product and 2012 champion. Great in the playoffs and the Ryder Cup. Solid pick.
3. Chris Kirk -- Kirk almost got it done at the Sanderson Farms for a fifth-career PGA Tour win.
4. Jimmy Walker -- The PGA champion has a strong TPC Summerlin record, with three top-15 finishes in the last five years. There's a reason MGM sponsors the guy; he shows up in Vegas.
5. Kevin Na -- Na made this event part of his run that was tantalizingly close to a win at the start of last season. He won here in 2011, and he is almost a top-25 lock.
6. Jon Rahm -- This course fits Rahm so well, and he's making his debut in the tournament. T-15 to kick off the season at the Safeway.
7. Brendan Steele -- Honestly, if you asked me which event Brendan Steele would win in the 2016 portion of the season, I'd say Vegas. He has an excellent scoring average here.
8. Scott Piercy -- Piercy is also playing a home game this week, and he's got a good record, as you might imagine, in his hometown event. Pair of top-10s to start the season.
9. Webb Simpson -- Simpson doesn't really seem like a fit with Vegas, but he is, as a former champion of this event.
10. Tony Finau -- Finau has been in the top 16 in two starts at TPC Summerlin, and his length should be a huge asset here.
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My DraftKings team for this week:
1. Scott Piercy - $9,700
2. Jimmy Walker - $9,600
3. Patton Kizzire - $8,500
4. Webb Simpson - $7,800
5. Nick Watney - $7,500
6. David Hearn - $6,700
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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.
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