Sunday at the Players may have been the strangest day of professional golf I’ve seen in a long time.  You saw so many big names fall apart on Sunday and a young man sneak in and steal the title from an impressive field.  Martin Kaymer was a huge disappointment, while he made it nine for nine in cuts made at the Players, the man did absolutely nothing over the weekend but fall down the leaderboard.  The best part of playing Daily Fantasy Golf is there’s always next week to make it all back.  Let’s take a look at the Byron Nelson. 

The first thing you should notice when doing your research is that the course had a redesign back in 2007, which means everything prior to that year can be thrown out the window.  Since the redesign, the experts have fought over whether this course benefits the long hitters or the accurate players.  When you look at the winners since the redesign: Scott Verplank, Adam Scott, Rory Sabbatini, Jason Day, Keegan Bradley, Jason Dufner, Sang Moon Bae, Brendan Todd, Steven Bowditch, and Sergio Garcia, it’s an even split of long hitters and accurate players.  It looks the same when you dive into the past top 10s.  The fact that most seem to forget is that there are more 300 hitters than ever before on the PGA Tour and last years’ top 15 was full of bombers like Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Robert Garrigus, Charles Howell III, Bud Cauley, Tony Finau, Charley Hoffman, Dustin Johnson, and Gary Woodland.  I think you can tell which side of the argument that I’m on.  BOMBS AWAY!  When you see BIG BOMBER in my playbook, that means the player sits within the Top 50 in Driving Distance on Tour.

If you are going to roster a shorter hitter, make sure they can keep the ball in the fairway.  That’s why you’ll see names like Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar, Danny Lee, Brandt Snedeker, and John Huh still in my playbook despite not being long off the tee.  These players have good records on this track.   

TPC Four Season Resort is not known as one of the better courses on the tour schedule, in fact it is consistently voted as one of the worst by the players.  The course is relatively short for a pro course but the fairways are narrow and has a lot of bunkers.  You’ll notice in my playbook, there are players listed because of their sand save percentages.  When you look through players that have finished top 10 on this course, most all of them have been -6 or better on the Par 5’s for the week and this course has only two being a par 70.  The average winning score has been around -12 which means that Par 5 scoring will make up half your score, I’d say that’s a pretty important stat to target.  We’re also looking for players who hit greens on a regular basis and you can never forget putting, even though these greens are not known to be very difficult.

Reminder, I’ll be on with Howard Bender on the Fantasy Alarm Show on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210 & XM 87) at 5:30pm ET talking about this week’s event.  You can also comment below or tweet me @Drew_Phelps83.

GOOD LUCK!

UPDATED OPTIMAL LINEUPS FOR POST-CUT GAME ON DRAFT KINGS

#1
Dustin Johnson $10,100
Brooks Koepka $9,600
Gary Woodland $7,700
Jhonattan Vegas $7,400
Jamie Lovemark $7,400
J.J. Henry $7,200

#2
Jason Day $9500
Patrick Reed $9400
Tony Finau $8700
Willy Wilcox $7500
Kyle Reifers $7400
Jamie Lovemark $7400

PRE-CUT DFS PGA PLAYBOOK:

PLAYERDRAFT KINGSFANDUELBREAKDOWN
Dustin Johnson$12,500$11,800BIG BOMBER - T12 at the Players (Personal Best). 7/7 Cuts Made Here with 4 Top 10s & Another 2 Top 20s. Best Player in the World
Jordan Spieth $10,800$10,500CONTRARIAN PLAY after last week's missed cut at the Players. He was in the Final Pairing here last year finished T18. 6/6 Cuts Made Here. 
Brooks Koepka$10,200$9,500BIG BOMBER is really locked in right now, hasn't finished below T16 in last 3 Starts (2nd at Valero).  Lost in a Playoff Here Last Year & T16 in 2015. 
Louis Oosthuizen$9,700$9,000Finished Tied for 2nd at the Players.  As long as he stays healthy, he man is locked in right now.  T11 finish here in 2014.
Tony Finau$9,200$7,700BIG BOMBER is 2/2 Cuts Made Here with a T10 in 2015 & T12 in 2016.  Scoring average of 67. He might go under owned after back to back missed cuts.
Jason Dufner$8,800$8,000Won here in 2012 with another 2 T8s as well.  He finished T60 at Sawgrass but before that 7 straight T25s in Stroke Play Non-Majors.
Ryan Palmer$8,700$7,200BIG BOMBER just loves playing in Texas.  4 Top 25s during 5 Year Stretch Here since 2011.  2 Top 11s in last 3 Starts.
Charley Hoffman$8,500$7,900T8 in 2013, T2 in 2015, & T12 in 2016 in his last 3 Trips to TPC Four Seasons.  34th in SG:Tee-To-Green. TEXAS NATIVE.
Russell Henley$8,300$7,500BIG BOMBER has 7 Top 20s in 12 Cuts Made. T35 at the Players. 1/2 at TPC Four Seasons finished T22 in 2015. Scoring Average 68.1.
Byeong-Hun An$8,000$7,500BIG BOMBER & Aggressive. T8 in his last start at Eagle Point. He's a leader in SG: Off-the-Tee & SG: Tee-To-Green (21st in both)
J.B. Holmes$7,900$8,800BIG BOMBER Lead the field at the Players before a BLOW UP on Sunday. Let that scare others away but not you. Only Missed 1 Cut in 12 Starts.
Bud Cauley$7,800$6,400BIG BOMBER has finished T9, T10, & T5 in his last 3 starts. He finished 4th here last year & sits 44th in SG:TG right now.
Marc Leishman$7,800$7,300BIG BOMBER finished T3 Twice & Another 2 Top 12s in 8 Trips into those Texas Winds. Scoring Average in last 16 Rounds is 68.5 with 2 Missed Cuts.
Kevin Tway$7,700$6,300BIG BOMBER has finished T3, 3rd & T5 in his last 3 Starts.  Ranks 23rd in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee. Ride the Hot Hand.
Seung-Yul Noh$7,600$6,300BIG BOMBER has a Good Short Game is an Advantage & He's an Artist (4 Trips Here). T22 at the Players & T5 at the Wells Fargo (Finished 2nd in Scrambling)
Danny Lee$7,100$6,5004/5 Cuts Made with 3 Top 20s & a Scoring Average of 68.6 at the Byron Nelson. 33rd in Birdie or Better Percentage. Good Value Here  
Robert Garrigus$7,100$5,300BIG BOMBER is not playing well this season just 8/16 in Cuts Made BUT 4 Top 20s in 8 Trips Here (T4 in 2016). Scoring Average of 67.8.
Brandon Hagy$7,000$5,300BIG BOMBER finished T18 at the Wells Fargo where he was 5th in Ball Striking. 10/14 Cuts this season with 3 Top 25s.
J.J. Henry$6,600$5,2008/10 Cuts Made since 2007 (High Finish of 3rd).  Made 5 of his last 6 Cuts with a T8 in Puerto Rico.  GPP Only
John Huh$6,500$5,8003/5 Cuts Made Here (8th & 16th place finishes). Before being Cut at the Players, had made 4 of his last 5 with a Top 10 at the Valspar
Chad Campbell$6,200$4,90012/16 with 2 Top 25s (T12 last year).  This native Texan is still a good ball striker and scrambler. Like him for value

DRAFT KINGS OPTIMALS:

DRAFT KINGS CASHPRICE
Tony Finau$9,200
Charley Hoffman$8,500
Russell Henley$8,300
Ryan Palmer$8,200
J.B. Holmes$7,900
Marc Leishman$7,800
  
DRAFT KINGS GPPPRICE
Dustin Johnson$12,500
Tony Finau$9,200
Kevin Tway$7,700
Danny Lee$7,100
Brandon Hagy$7,000
Chad Campbell$6,200

FANDUEL OPTIMALS:

FANDUEL CASHROUNDSPRICE
Danny Lee1 & 2$6,500
Bud Cauley1 & 2$6,400
Seung-yul Noh1 & 2$6,300
Robert Garrigus1 & 2$5,300
Dustin Johnson3 & 4$11,800
Charley Hoffman3 & 4$7,900
Tony Finau3 & 4$7,700
Ryan Palmer3 & 4$7,200
   
FANDUEL GPPROUNDSPRICE
Brooks Koepka1 & 2$9,500
J.B. Holmes1 & 2$8,800
Kevin Tway1 & 2$6,300
Chad Campbell1 & 2$4,900
Jordan Spieth3 & 4$10,500
Byeong-Hun An3 & 4$7,500
Seung-yul Noh3 & 4$6,300
John Huh3 & 4$5,800

ONE & DONE PLAY:

ONE AND DONE PLAYFINISH
SBS - Jimmy WalkerT9
Sony - Charles Howell IIIT8
Career - Bill HaasT17
Farmers - Brandt SnedekerT9
Waste - Brendan SteeleT16
Pebble - Phil Mickelson65th
Genesis - J.B HolmesT34
Honda - Graeme McDowellT14
Mexico - Alexander NorenT55
Valspar - Ryan MooreT18
Palmer - Zach JohnsonT66
Match - Sergio GarciaOut of Sweet 16
Puerto - David HearnT17
Shell - Lee WestwoodMC
Masters - Justin Rose2nd
RBC - Kevin KisnerT11
Valero - Charley HoffmanT40
Wells Fargo - Adam ScottT36
Players - Martin KaymerT69
Nelson - Dustin Johnson???