Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel Top Picks – The 2019 PGA Championship

Welcome to this Daily Fantasy Golf piece from FantasyCPR.com. Here you will find players to target on FanDuel, for this weeks PGA Championship, which takes place at Bethpage Black, in Farmingdale, NY.

In this article, I will present to you some picks to consider from each price tier for Daily Fantasy Golf on FanDuel. Some plays will be geared toward cash games, and some for GPP tournaments. Some of course will also technically qualify as both. As we break each play down, I will be sure to specify which type of contests I am targeting that player in.

I will give two players to target from $11K up to the top salary, two targets from the $10K-$11K range, and two from the $9-10K range. After that will come my top value plays from the $8-9K range, along with a couple of GPP flyers to consider for tournament play. Last but certainly not least, I will end the article the ever popular sample lineup we like to do here at FantasyCPR.

I used to give a quick recap here from the previous week, but with MLB in full go, I am forced to scrap that portion of this article in an attempt to shorten things up. If you are ever curious as to how things worked out, my picks along with the other top experts in the field are tracked at Daily Overlay.

FanDuel PGA: Top Tier Picks: ($11,000+)

Tiger Woods – $11,700 – (Cash)

It feels weird to think about it in 2019, but Woods is my actual pick to win the PGA Championship this week at The Black Course at Bethpage Black. Shortly after his Masters win a month ago, Woods was en route to Long Island via his yacht to get an immediate head start on the competition for this week. Little nuggets like that, and that fact that although he is playing is shorter, he is playing smarter, and is still among the elite with his irons, keep him the favorite here this week.

I am going to pull the trifecta fade this week. I cannot remember a major or a huge event in which I faded both McIlroy and DJ, but there is a first for everything. Johnson is still a great a pick this week, in fact I cannot argue against Rory here either, but you can’t play everyone.

We know McIlroy has had a tough time closing in last few years at majors, and DJ still just has the one major championship victory. Not only does Tiger have the huge “been there done that” factor in his favor this week, I think he really has figured out what it takes to make his game work for him now after all he has been through. Now that he has broke through and won the 2019 Masters, it is really hard to think he can’t do it again. Those that have been around long enough to remember know what I mean.

Brooks Koepka – $11,800 – (GPP)

So I am fading the two guys over $12K this week, and my favorite tournament play here is shaping up to be Koepka. I watched a ton of him at the AT&T Byron Nelson over the weekend, and he seems to be past the whole weight loss photo shoot era, and looks to be back in shape.

He was crushing off the tee, and solid in every aspect of the game. Koepka finished 4th at Trinity Forest at 20-under par, and he keeps trending in the right direction as we head into our second major of the season.

On top of the fourth place finish last week, Koepka added another solid finish at Augusta, as he was in the group that finished T-2. That gives him back-to-back top fives, and makes him as hot as any coming in. I give Brooks as good of a chance to win as any here, and he makes a perfect GPP pivot for this price range, especially since Justin Rose is cheaper.

***Also Consider: Francesco Molinari $11,400 – Rickie Fowler $11,100***

FanDuel PGA: Mid Tier Picks: ($10,000 – $11,000)

Xander Schauffele – $10,900 – (Cash)

My favorite play for the price this week in this range, is 25-year-old Xander Schauffele. He comes into Bethpage seeking his first major championship, after coming close once again at the Masters. Nobody was able to catch Tiger as we know, but Schauffele was in that group that T-2. It was already his second runner-up finish in a major championship, as he did the same at the 147th Open Championship last year. Along with the two runners-up, Schauffele also has a T-6 and a T-5 in U.S. Opens, which came in 2017 and 2018.

In looking up and down the top-tier this week, it was hard to believe Schauffele was not at least up over $11K. Granted, $10,900 is as close as it gets, but this still seems too cheap. With his ability to constantly be in contention in the majority of majors over the last couple of years, I fully expect Schauffele to be right in the mix once again. He has the length and the short game, and I fully trust him to anchor my cash lineup with Tiger Woods this week.

Patrick Cantlay – $10,100 – (GPP)

I am going to mix up my play a little this week, and I am really looking hard at pivots with price points close to those who I think will be rather chalky. Cantlay is sandwiched nicely between two potential chalk bombs in Matt Kuchar and Paul Casey, and although this is his first crack at Bethpage, he definitely has what it takes to make some noise here.

Cantlay has missed a couple of cuts this season, so there is some risk here, but he has seven top-tens this FedEx Cup season, dating back to the Safeway Open, and comes into the 101st PGA Championship off of back-to-back top-tens. He had his best career finish in a major at the Masters with a T-9 last month, and followed that up with a T-3 at RBC Heritage. Cantlay T-27 at the PGA Championship at Bellerive last year.

***Also Consider: Tommy Fleetwood $10,800 – Adam Scott $10,200***

FanDuel PGA: Low Tier Picks: ($9,000 – $10,000)

Bubba Watson – $9,700 – (Cash)

This range is fairly loaded for cash games this week, as we have a wide range of great golfers less than $10K this week, most of which could excel here at Bethpage for various reasons. With Webb Simpson and Kevin Kisner similar in salary here, and Sergio Garcia as well, I think picking at least one, if not two or even three golfers in this price range will be a very popular strategy for cash games this week.

I want to go balanced with all of this talent, as we all know the strength of this field is as good as it gets. For GPP’s I love some younger talent who could get overlooked, but for cash games I like these veterans who all seem a tad under priced. Bubba can still hit the long ball, and he is playing great in 2019.

I like the fact that he played well at the Barclays here at Bethpage in 2012 and 2016 with top-20 finishes. Watson has struggled in majors other than ones at Augusta for a couple of years, but I think that trend changes at a course he has played well at in the past, albeit years ago.

Sergio Garcia – $9,700 – (Cash)

Joining Watson in this range for me this week, will be another veteran in Sergio Garcia. I think Garcia will end up the chalkiest of the bunch in this range, but ownership should be spread out enough here where it will not matter.

I try not to pay any attention to ownership for cash games, as I just want to make sure I have six guys make the cut. Although Garcia can carry some risk, he has the game, tools, and experience to make a solid run this weekend.

Garcia is really playing solid golf over the last year or so, and the vast majority of it went unnoticed on the European Tour in 2018. He won his hosted event the Valderrama Masters, which was the second top-ten in a run of eight straight.

That run was derailed at the Saudi International when he was disqualified for having a meltdown in a bunker. More recently, Garcia missed the cut at the Masters, and has not made a cut at a major since the 2017 Open Championship. but followed it up by bouncing back at Quail Hollow with a T-4.

He has not made a cut at a major since the 2017 Open Championship, and while that it is a bit of a worry, his past history at Bethpage still makes him appealing. Garcia T-10 at the 2009 U.S. Open, and T-3 at the 2012 Barclays.

***Also Consider: Lucas Glover – $9,100***

FanDuel PGA: Top Value Picks: (Below $9,000)

Jason Kokrak – $8,900 – (Cash)

Not even a 78 on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Championship will curb the expected chalk that is Jason Kokrak. He made another cut, shot a 74 on Saturday, and the weekend demise left him alone in 69th place. I get it, and I am fully on board don’t get me wrong. It is very hard to not have interest in a guy under $9K that has not missed a cut since the Open Championship last year.

Kokrak T-19 at the 100th PGA Championship last year, and prior to Quail Hollow, he was on a run of three straight top-20’s, highlighted by his T-2 at the Valspar Championship. Kokrak has a total of eight top-20’s now in eleven total events in 2019, and he has made one appearance here at Bethpage as well. That was at the 2016 Barclays, where he T-7 at 6-under par. A cheap accurate bomber like Kokrak who is playing well all around as of late just seems like a cash lock here.

Emiliano Grillo – $8,600 – (GPP)

There are so many options in this price range this week, I literally had a group of nine that I had to narrow down to four, and it was truly my hardest set of decisions I have had to make this PGA DFS season. Matt Wallace will likely be popular after his T-2 at the British Masters last weekend, and other primarily European Tour players in Eddie Pepperell, Thomas Pieters, and Justin Harding also have some appeal in this range. However, the one guy I think that could go less than 5% owned and make some noise here at Bethpage is Emiliano Grillo.

Grillo was last hot on the fall swing. He T-2 at the CIMB Classic, and notched a couple more top-20’s at the WGC-HSBC Championship and the Mayakoba Golf Classic, and while he has been consistently making cuts since then, his best finish since January was a T-26 at the Players Championship. One last reason I am leaning towards Grillo in this range, was the fact that he just missed a victory in his only visit to Bethpage. He T-2 at the 2016 Barclays, and losing to Patrick Reed by a stroke, finishing 8-under par.

***Also Consider: Matt Wallace $8,400 – Keith Mitchell $8,200***

***Bonus GPP Flyer: Jorge Campillo – $7,100***

FanDuel PGA: The 2019 PGA Championship – Sample Cash Lineup:

The line-up below is meant to be illustrative only to further back-up the logic laid out in previous slides. It is not an optimal line-up. It is in fact, just a “Sample Lineup.”  

G – Tiger Woods – $11,700
G – Xander Schauffele – $10,900
G – Bubba Watson – $9,700
G – Sergio Garcia – $9,700
G – Lucas Glover – $9,100
G – Jason Kokrak – $8,900

That is all for this weeks Daily Fantasy Golf FanDuel Picks for the 2019 PGA Championship. If you have any questions, give me a follow on Twitter with the link at the top of the article.

You can also leave a question right here in the comments, and I will do my best to respond before lock Thursday morning. Thank you for reading this weeks FanDuel PGA preview. Time to go make some lineups, and may your golf tilt be minimal this weekend!