2018 Masters daily fantasy golf cash and GPP plays
Fantasy Golf & Golf Betting Masters RotoQL

2018 Masters daily fantasy golf cash and GPP plays

A photo of an Augusta National Golf Club green jacket
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Earlier, I broke down some of the challenges that golfers will face at Augusta National and some of the angles to look at when selecting what players to roster on your daily fantasy lineups. Today, I give you the main guys who I’m considering for my cash game lineup, as well as some pivots that I’ll be looking to go overweight on in tournaments.

As always, I utilize the RotoQL PGA Lineup Optimizer (which you can try free for 3 days!) to make sure that my player exposures are exactly how I want them to be, and use the Trending Player tool to get a read on what players the public is interested in.

Cash Game Plays

Justin Rose - $9,200

For cash games, there are a few absolute no-brainers and the first of them is last year’s runner-up Justin Rose at $9,200 on DraftKings. Rose has by far the best track record of any player in the field who does not have a green jacket and his game has rounded into form heading into this year’s tournament. In my own cash lineup I’m starting with Rose and then loading up on guys from the $8,000 range as I believe that not only gives you the best chance of getting 6/6 golfers through the cut but also gives you more chances of having the winner in your lineup by loading up on multiple players with solid win equity. Rose will likely be the highest-owned player in the entire field, so fading him or going underweight the field does make some sense in GPPs if he finishes with a say T-20 but for cash he is as close to a lock as you can get.

Paul Casey - $8,800

The other no-brainer for cash games besides Justin Rose is fellow veteran Brit, Paul Casey. Casey is a top-10 machine at Augusta, with five top-10s at Augusta National in his 11 appearances, including three straight since 2015. Casey even shook off some of his final round demons in his come-from-behind victory at the Valspar this year, proving that he can in fact still win on the professional level. Now granted, it took the best putting performance of his entire career on Sunday at Innisbrook to win, but regardless Casey’s elite ball striking offers him an elite floor with top-5 upside. Similar to Rose, he is going to be extremely popular and he does has lower winning upside than others in this range so an underweight position in tournaments is not the worst idea if that’s the angle you want to take.

Adam Hadwin - $7,200 

The final cash game core play was a tough decision between Charley Hoffman and Adam Hadwin, but in the end I’m going to trust Hadwin’s red-hot irons and solid short game. Hadwin’s approach game has been hot-fire since the CareerBuilder Challenge and he has posted three top-10s in that time frame. Hadwin played pretty well in his first and only Masters appearance last season and I back him to improve upon his T-36 finish this season. You’re going to be forced to play at least 1 or 2 guys in this low $7,000 range and Hadwin is likely the safest play for cash games.

Other Cash Game Considerations: Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Matt Kuchar

GPP Pivots 

Justin Thomas - $10,800

I mentioned in my preview article that I like both Justin Thomas and Jordan Speith, but for ownership reasons I give the slight edge to JT in tournaments. Thomas enters as the most in-form player in a field that is loaded with in-form players. JT broke through for his first major win last year at the PGA Championship and I really like his chances this week at Augusta National, which is a course that should fit his tee-to-green game perfectly. Thomas doesn’t have a great Masters history but it’s also not like he’s been missing the cut here (finishes of T-39 and T-22 in his two appearances). I’m project Thomas to be somewhere around 10-12% owned, which is simply too low for a player who, in my opinion, is the best player in the world right now.

Hideki Matsuyama - $8,400

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’ll know that my pick to win the 2018 Masters is Hideki Matsuyama and I will be looking to go extremely overweight the field with him this week in my tournaments lineups. Hideki has played great at Augusta National with finishes of 5th, 7th and T-11 the last 3 years and he is going to fly under the radar after coming off a wrist injury earlier this season. Combine that with the fact that he hasn’t won yet in 2018, and you have a situation where Hideki should come in at an ownership level under 15% which is insane given his recent performance in Majors and his high winning equity. Hideki has won against elite fields multiple times in his career and I’m backing him to break through and become the first Japanese Major winner in golfing history.

Ryan Moore - $7,000

The low $7,000 range is full of intriguing plays with guys like Adam Hadwin, Charley Hoffman, Zach Johnson, Kevin Chappell and Bryson Dechambeau all likely to garner attention. If you want to pivot off of those guys to someone with as much or more upside at lower ownership, I love the idea of going with veteran Ryan Moore. Absolutely nobody is talking about Moore and I can see his ownership coming in under 5%. There is certainly a lot of risk with Moore as he has missed the cut here in 2 of the last 4 years but has finishes of T-12 and T-9 in the other two years so the upside in absolutely there.  He enters in decent form coming off a top-5 finish at Bay Hill and a top-10 at Riviera, which is a course that sees a lot of the same players pop at Augusta.

Other GPP Pivot Considerations: Marc Leishman, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Charley Hoffman

Fantasy golf can be one of the most fun and profitable sports in Daily Fantasy and there's plenty of strategy that goes into putting together a winning DFS lineup, and the best place to start is RotoQL’s DFS tools. Our RotoQL PGA Lineup Optimizer is a massive advantage when you're building lineups, regardless of contest size or site. I'm always there to help, too, so check me out on Twitter (@DFSBenj) for even more NFL, NBA, MLB and PGA daily fantasy content.

About the author

Bennett Bedford

Bennett Bedford writes a pair of weekly daily fantasy golf (DFS) PGA Tour pieces, including a weekly tournament preview and ideal plays for both cash games and DFS tournaments.

Bedford works with RotoQL, and their RotoQL PGA Lineup Optimizer is a massive advantage when you're building lineups, regardless of contest size or site.