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.
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The Zurich Classic was a weird tournament. Obviously the rain messed with what we hoped to do in terms of finding a winner, but Brian Stuard was amazing, going bogey-free for 54 holes with a steady brand of golf. Jason Day did well for us, and so did several other players. However, if you had Brian Stuard on your team this week, you're either incredibly lucky or you need a bigger bankroll because you can see the future.
We move to the Wells Fargo Championship this week. Charlotte's Quail Hollow Club will be torn up after this week to renovate the course ahead of hosting the 2017 PGA Championship. A strong field, including Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler, assemble for this week's event.
For GNN Plus subscribers, you can access our NEW searchable database of PGA Tour results from 2011-present, 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.
Now, on to the picks!
1. Rory McIlroy -- Quail Hollow is to Rory what Bay Hill is to Tiger. It's the place he knows he can jumpstart his season. Defending champion from his runaway last year. A two-time winner.
2. Phil Mickelson -- Phil Mickelson loves himself some Quail Hollow. He's never won this event, but he's made the cut all 12 times he's played. He's got six top-5 finishes here.
3. Rickie Fowler -- Fowler finished T-20 in the weather-shortened NOLA event. He's a past winner here. He's scoring well on most any course he plays.
4. J.B. Holmes -- Holmes is both playing well of late and has been a winner here, back in 2014.
5. Henrik Stenson -- Stenson is a bomber with a great track record on par-5 scoring. It's hard not to like him at a place where his distance isn't neutralized.
6. Adam Scott -- Scott's played brilliant golf through most of the season, and he should be considered because he's in the top class of the field. Not a great record at Quail Hollow.
7. Patrick Reed -- Reed is motivated, PO'd that he can't seem to finish off tournaments, including a runner-up at the Valero Texas Open. Not a spectacular record here, but he's 3-for-3 on cuts made.
8. Kevin Chappell -- Chappell is this year's Kevin That HAS to Win Sooner Than Later, supplanting the somewhat elusive Kisner for that title. He continues to play well and get close. He's not closing, but he's scoring big bucks. An 11th and 16th here in his last two starts.
9. Patton Kizzire -- Kizzire is going to win sometime this year, and he's trending in that direction. He's been in the top 15 in the last two weeks, and his length should be a huge edge here.
10. Webb Simpson -- Simpson isn't playing all that great, but the guy lives off the 7th hole. We have to respect that this is Simpson's home club.
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My DraftKings team for this week:
1. Rory McIlroy - $12,800
2. Kevin Chappell - $7,900
3. Patton Kizzire - $7,700
4. Ryan Moore - $7,500
5. Ben Martin - $7,000
6. Harold Varner III - $6,900
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.
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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