This weekend is the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort, the next installment of the PGA Tour. As you start to consider your daily fantasy golf roster we’ve put together a few of our top picks for you. We’ve also looked at a couple highly ranked golfers that we don’t recommend that you draft this weekend.
Jordan Spieth: Spieth is the highest ranked player in the tournament, according to DraftKings. His salary is set at $12,800, making him the most expensive player in the field by over $1,000. Historically speaking, Spieth is the best golfer in this field averaging 94.8 fantasy points per tournament, but he’s just starting to show signs of consistency on the season, and although he’s probably a shoe-in for the top ten in this tournament, his price tag is still probably a bit high. So if you are thinking of drafting him, you need to look at both sides of him. One, he’s a great golfer, and far more talented than anyone else in the field. He probably won’t win this tourney, but he’s likely to finish in the top ten. Two, he’s expensive, and although he’s a top ten pick here, your buying power is diminished tremendously if you choose him.
Justin Thomas: Thomas has played in in 10 tournaments this season, making the cut in 8 of them. He’s averaging a total of 78.5 fantasy points per tournament, which isn’t that high for someone as highly ranked as Thomas. His salary is beginning to show this fact, at $10,000. He is finally getting to a point where drafting him could be a good value pick. We’re holding off on him for now, though. He’s been inconsistent this year, making only three top tens. One of them, a win, was back in October. Last week, he finished T35. For his price, that’s not a risk we’re willing to take just yet, especially when cheaper golfers will likely finish higher.
Henrik Stenson: Stenson is the second most expensive golfer in this field at $11,500. He’s averaging 79.8 fantasy points per tournament, having made 3 of 3 cuts. The problem with Stenson is that his season is still young and it’s hard to make any sort of educated decision about him. On a typical day, deeper in the season, Stenson would be a steal at this price. He’s a coin, one that you should be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with, especially if you’re going to pass on Spieth.
Danny Willett: At $10,800, Willett seems kind of expensive, but he’s having a stupendous start to his season. He is putting up an average 104.3 fantasy points per tournament and has made the top ten in both of the tournaments he’s played in. Last weekend, he finished T3, and his previous tournament of the season, back in November, he also had a T3 finish. His stroke count average of just 68.6 is also quite impressive. Ideally, we’d like him to play in a couple more tourneys before we draft him, but he could fit in well with many rosters this weekend, especially if he carries his momentum forward another week. There’s no reason to believe that he can’t do that, especially since none of the people that placed ahead of him last weekend are included in this tournament.
Patrick Reed: Reed is ranked number five in the field going into this. He is a risky choice though, and we will be staying away from him. His fantasy point average of 84.6 is impressive, but it is inflated because of a T6 back in February. He’s played in four tourneys, only making the cut in two of them. Last week, he made the cut, which helps his case, but he only put up 50.0 points. At $10,400, he’s way too expensive with far too much risk and not a very high point ceiling. He ranks high, but he’s not worth including on your roster, unfortunately.
