This weekend, the PGA Tour comes to the Riviera Country Club in California for the Northern Trust Open. There are some big names entered in this one, and it promises to be the most exciting tournament of the Tour so far this season. Let’s take a look at the top players entered from a daily fantasy golf point of view, and see what the best way to proceed is.
Jordan Spieth: Spieth is the number one golfer in the world, but he’s only tied for the number one slot going into this tournament. The downside is that he’s tied in the top slot with Rory McIlory, the number two golfer in the world, and the only reason McIlroy fell out of the number one slot was because of an injury. Spieth is still the top contender, though. He finished T21 last week, which isn’t great, and he only put up 72.5 fantasy points, and this leads us to believe that his salary of $13,200 is far too much. He had a number one finish at the Hyundai Tournament back in January, but Spieth doesn’t appear to be in top 10 shape right now. We’re going to pass on him for this one.
Rory McIlroy: That brings up the obvious question about McIlroy. He has the same salary as Spieth for this one at DraftKings at $13,200, but if he isn’t a top 5 contender for this weekend, he’s not worth that. McIlory hasn’t played in a PGA event since November, so it’s really hard to tell where he is right now, but if you are going to choose between McIlroy and Spieth, McIlroy seems like the better choice, just because he’s taken time off, has allowed himself to get the rest and rehab work that he’s needed, and wouldn’t start his season unless he was 100 percent ready to. It’s a coin flip here, but McIlroy is likely to perform better in our book for these reasons.
Bubba Watson: Of the non-Spieth, non-McIlroy golfers, Watson has positioned himself as the top choice when it comes to fantasy value. He’s averaging 93.3 fantasy points per tournament this season, has a salary of just $10,400, and he’s one of the top ranked golfers in the world. He did poorly last weekend, but this just gives more strength to his previous performances. His 93.3 fantasy points per round is dragged down heavily because of the 54.5 that he posted last weekend. He still made the cut then, and that gives good implications for what we should expect from him in a worst case scenario. He might be your number two or three pick for this one, but he’ll be one of your higher value golfers.
Jimmy Walker: Walker is another top consideration for this one. He’s priced at $10,600 for this tourney, and he’s averaging 90.9 points per tournament, which is pretty good. He’s made 6 of 6 cuts, and has made the top 10 on three of those occasions so far this year. Last week wasn’t one of those, but he still put up 87.5 fantasy points. In this field, he has top five potential, but he will need to play at his best to get there. Still, he’s likely to make the cut and he’s cheap enough that it won’t be a stretch to put him on your roster.
Dustin Johnson: Johnson is ranked number three for this tournament with a price tag of $11,300. That’s a decent value, now we need to make sure that he will produce. He’s averaging 88.8 fantasy points per tournament, has made 5 of 5 cuts, but his stroke count per round is a bit high at 70.3. He’s made the top 10 twice this, but both of these were against weaker competition than what he’s seeing this weekend. Johnson is a good golfer, but it’s still too early in the year to spend this much on him. Unfortunately, we need to pass on him this week in favor of a better top tier golfer, like McIlroy.
Golf photo credit.
