Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel Picks – The 2019 John Deere Classic
Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel PGA – Mid Tier Picks ($10,000-$11,000)
Zach Johnson -$10,300 – (Cash)
Truthfully, I wanted to just write-up Sungjae Im and Joaquin Niemann once again this week, but I suppose I will change it up a bit, and try to convince you that a guy who has not cracked the top-ten once in 2019 is a solid cash play. Johnson’s game is going the wrong way, and you have to think at this point with how far he has dropped in the OWGR, and just how far he has fallen from relevance, something has to click for him soon or his days will be numbered. My thought on this one is that is getting close to now or never for Johnson, and there is no better venue for him to have success as he has displayed throughout his career.
I fully believe that recent form trumps course history, but in a situation like this where we have no superstars in the game in the field, both have to be considered equally. I am fighting to find a good play this week, as even finding golfers with consistent recent form is tough, but on this one, I ultimately decided that what Johnson has done in his career at TPC Deere Run is at least convincing enough that we will get four rounds from him this week.
Johnson won the John Deere Classic in 2012, and was the runner-up in 2009, 2013 and 2014. He added additional top-fives in 2011, 2015, and 2017, and he T-16 last year. All in all, he has seven top-five finishes in the last ten years, and that is the kind of dominance I am looking for, and not going to be able to ignore this week, regardless of how bad he has been as of late.
Sam Burns – $10,100 – (GPP)
I missed this play last week, and Burns ended up T-7 at the 3M Open. I feel like this price is a bit high, but again, we can say that about pretty much everyone this week. Burns has made the cut in 12 of his last 14 events, but did fall victim to a couple of MDF’s as well. Prior to last week, his best finish was his solo ninth place at the RBC Heritage, and his best finish in between was his T-29 at the PGA Championship.
This will be the 22-year-old’s first John Deere Classic, and he comes in having shot 10 of his last 12 rounds under par, highlighted by his 7-under 64 he fired just last Sunday at the 3M Open. The consistency isn’t quite there for me to consider him cash game safe this week, but he is yet another young up-and-comer who looks poised to have a solid PGA career. It feels like other rookies are closer to that big first victory, but we said the same about Matthew Wolff last week.