Fantasy golf is a challenge for several reasons, but the biggest one is that the season is long and that each player has a different focus throughout the season. Jordan Spieth might be targeting the U.S. Open, while Bubba Watson has turned his attention to the World Golf Championship. A lower profile golfer like Jimmy Walker or Charley Hoffman might be looking toward a less competitive competition like the Valero Texas Open.

That’s why a season long fantasy golf league can be so trying. Drafting a top player will only return you limited results. However, in a daily fantasy golf league, the objective is very different. Here, you want to select just the golfers that will return the best results over the course of a single tournament. You don’t have to think about the Masters if that’s still five weeks away. Just focus on the weekend at hand, and that’s it.

Where to Play

The top two sites that offer daily fantasy golf right now are DraftKings and Fan Duel. These are both highly trusted sites, legal in the vast majority of the U.S., and easy to sign up for and play at. We highly recommend both.

How to Play

In a one day golf league, you are attempting to draft the golfers that will give you the highest point total. You have a salary cap to stay under, and that means that you can’t just draft the top 6 golfers and hope they do what you think they’ll do. You need a strategy if you’re going to be successful.

One strategy that many analysis sites recommend is to break the available golfers down into 3 tiers and then choose two golfers from each tier level to flesh out your roster. This works, and it can be quite effective, but it’s not necessarily the best strategy week to week. If you’ve never played daily fantasy golf, this is a good place to start. You should select 2 top level, 2 mid-level, and then 2 bottom level golfers. This gives you 6 golfers, and keeps you well under the cap when done right. Depending upon the level that you’re playing at, you can win a lot of money this way.

Winning Daily Fantasy Golf

Once you master the basics of this strategy, you need to fine tune things if you want to be successful week after week. That’s where we step in. Creating an advanced strategy isn’t easy, but we can help you to get started in the right direction. Here’s our 5 step guide to winning daily fantasy golf.

#1: Look at the available golfers It’d be great if you could choose a Jordan Spieth or a Rory McIlroy each week. That’s not an option though. Look at who’s competing, and start thinking about who will do well on the particular course. It’s no secret that some golfers do better than others at Augusta, for example. Little things like this should influence your top picks.

#2: Look at the average score needed to win If you’re playing in a tournament where the average fantasy score needed to win is 300 points, that’s now your target. There are a lot of resources out there that will help you to determine what kind of numbers you can expect from your roster, but most sites will give you an average number that each golfer has accumulated for that number. This is just a start, but it’s a helpful start.

#3: Look for value Value is the buzzword in the fantasy sports world right now, and for good reason. Value is the term used to describe how many points you can squeeze out of each salary dollar you spend. If you spend $10,000 on a player that is projected to return you 75 points, but can get the same projected point return on $9,500, then the cheaper golfer has more value to you. Plus, that’s $500 you can spend on better talent somewhere else.

#2: Remember that value doesn’t win money Value is great, but it’s just a tool. It doesn’t win you anything. It’s the points you rack up that wins. So, yes, saving $500 in the above example is great and all, but it doesn’t do anything for you unless two things happen. One, you need to ensure that the value you are getting is legitimate and not wishful thinking. And two, you need to make sure that any money saved is also being used correctly. Saving $500 is awesome, but unless you use that to upgrade your talent on another pick, you will still lose. There’s no point in maxing out your salary to come in last place if you can have $5,000 left over and win the top prize.

#1: Research What separates the best daily fantasy golf players from the rest is that they research the golfers, the courses, and know what to expect. Research the game itself, and research how you play it. Playing in a tournament is fun, but winning substantial amounts of money as a result is even better. Put in the time and you will see results. This will help you to become better at spotting inefficiencies in player pricing and get more points out of your roster. Keep track of what you do so that you can refer to past mistakes and successes so that you can keep improving.

What to Expect

Daily fantasy golf is a lot more competitive than other daily fantasy sports because different audiences are attracted. Those that do play are usually more devoted fans than you will find in sports like football, baseball, and basketball. That’s fine; it makes winning money here all the sweeter.

But don’t expect to have it easy when you start playing. Enter a few of the cheaper tournaments and build up your experience before tackling the big ones. Because fewer sites offer daily fantasy golf, the talent at the lower levels will be weaker. This will help you to fine tune things and learn the little secrets that can only be figured out through doing them yourself.

Expect to have fun! Daily fantasy golf is a lot of excitement. It makes watching golf on the television much more entertaining because you now have a vested interest in it.