At long last, the final major of the 2025 season. This week, we head over to Royal Portrush Golf Club in Portrush, United Kingdom for the 153rd Open Championship. With a loaded field, a tough links venue, and $17,000,000 up for grabs, let's not waste any time.

Let’s dive in!

 

The Open Championship 2025: Daily Fantasy Golf Picks & Projections

The Open Championship, often referred to as the British Open or simply The Open, is entering it's 153rd iteration of the event. Established in 1860, this has long been considered one of the largest and most prestigious events in the world. While the Open is always played on a coastal, links style golf course, Royal Portrush is hosting for just it's 3rd time, and is the 17th different venue that has been used. Most casual fans will recognize courses such as St. Andrews, Muirfield, or Carnoustie as venues that are known to host this event, and might not have even heard of this venue before. Given the relatively new status of this venue, let's take a look into the course itself. 

 

Royal Portrush: Course Breakdown This Week

Royal Portrush gets it’s 3rd chance to host The Open. Having last hosted The Open in 2019, we’re lucky in that we get a fresh look at the course and how it plays in major conditions. Shane Lowry took home the title that year with a final score of -16, and during round 3 he set the post-renovation course record firing off a 63. Funny enough, his friend Rory McIlroy holds the all-time course record, having carded a 61 at just 16 years old. Playing at Par 71 and just shy of 7,400 yards, we’re looking at a bit of a different view of links golf. That said, this course can clearly be scored on, though weather will certainly play a factor as it will on any coastal links course.

As is expected with The Open, Royal Portrush features a modern links style layout. We will see a higher need for strategically placed shots, bunker avoidance, and extremely small greens that are often elevated over the green causing many blind approaches. The Open has consistently been one of the hardest events to use data on, given the lack of strokes gained and shotlink data, as well as just the beast that coastal links golf tends to be. That said, we’re going to focus on more of our traditional scoring, and bogey avoidance level stats, with an extra emphasis on play on and around the green. 

Given the lack of general historical data, let’s take a look at the little data we do have: the 2019 Open Championship. A good amount of this field has played there, and in-fact, we have 9 of the top 10 finishers from that field teeing it up this week in Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau, Lee Westwood, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton, Rickie Fowler, Robert MacIntyre, and Patrick Reed. On top of the lack of historical data, Royal Portrush flips your traditional links style on it’s head, making it hard to come up with comparative courses. In fact, some of the best comps aren’t even links style courses, such as Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass, and Innisbook Resort. That said, comp courses will get a much lower ranking for me this week than they do on some more comparative courses. 

Looking at the layout of Royal Portrush, we get a course composition of four par 3’s playing between 175 and 240 yards, eleven par 4s playing between 370 and 502 yards, and just three par 5s playing between 530 and 610 yards. Long iron play will clearly come into play again this week, given the distance of the par 3s and length on the longer end of the course. Given the need for driving accuracy as well this week (which will receive priority to distance in the model), good drives gained will be my preferred off-the-tee stat this week given it’s factoring of the following approach shot. Additionally, we have had 12 straight Open Championship winners that have fallen inside the top 40 in the OWGR. These players will get an additional “skill” boost this week in my model.

Leaders in some key stats: 

Driving Accuracy: Aaron Rai, Collin Morikawa, Sungjae Im, Kristoffer Reitan, Corey Conners, John Catlin, Henrik Stenson, Zach Johnson, Takumi Kanaya, and Daniel Berger

SG: Approach: Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa, Daniel Berger, Lucas Glover, Tom Hoge, Patrick Cantlay, and Akshay Bhatia.

 

The Open 2025 Field: Golf DFS

As expected with major championships, this is an extremely loaded field in terms of talent. Each champion from 2013 to 2024 will be in the field, and every winner from 2007-2011 as well, with Ernie Els being the only winner during that span who will not tee it up this week. Billy Horschel is still recovering from injury, and as a result is the only player in the OWGR top 50 who will not be in the field this week. Scottie Scheffler is unsurprisingly the betting favorite in the field, currently sitting at +450 to win this week, with Rory McIlroy being the only other player who would pay out less than 10 to 1 for a win. While Xander Schauffele is the defending champion of this event, many would consider Shane Lowry to hold that title given his win here in 2019. 

 

 

This Week’s PGA DFS Optimizer & Lineup Generator

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GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: Top Tier

Jon Rahm ($10,400 DraftKings/$11,600 FanDuel)

It’s going to be really hard to not pay up for Rory or Scottie this week, but Rahm gives us plenty of reasons to pass on them. Rahm has missed just a single professional cut in the last calendar year, and is playing some amazing golf of late. He’s finished outside the top 10 of LIV events just twice this season, and has top 15 finishes in all 3 majors thus far in 2025. He’s also consistently played well in this event as he’s finished top 10 in 3 of his last 4 Open Championships, and came in 11th at this very venue in 2019. He’s in great overall form and should be a staple pay up in lineups this week. 

Tommy Fleetwood ($9,500 DraftKings/$11,500 FanDuel)

While Fleetwood has earned a distinction as a bit of a perpetual loser on the PGA Tour, that shouldn’t be considered this week. He has 10 professional wins, 7 of which came on the European Tour, and finished 2nd here in 2019. He has top 12 finishes in 4 of his last 6 Open’s, and his statistical profile helps us understand why. He’s almost always played well on links courses, and though he had a poor showing at the Scottish Open, this event lines up much better for him. 

Tyrrell Hatton ($8,900 DraftKings/$11,200 FanDuel)

I didn’t mean to have all of my favorites at the top be European born players, but sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles with links golf, a staple of the region. Hatton has dominated links style play in his career, finished T6th here in 2019, and 8 of his 10 wins as a professional have been outside of the US, with his only victory here being the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational which played very links-like that week due to the weather. He also elevates his play against stiff competition, with top 15 finishes in both the U.S. Open and Masters this year. He’s going to be a crowd favorite and should be a DFS favorite as well.

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: MID-TIER

Corey Conners ($7,200 DraftKings/$9,500 FanDuel)

I’m going to be well over market on Conners this week. In his first event in a month at the Genesis Scottish Open, he showed decent form though he did struggle on approach. He remained accurate off the tee, and deadly with the flat-stick, both of which line up well for this event. While he missed the cut here in 2019, he is not the same golfer he was 6 years ago. He’s made the cut at the last 4 Open starts he’s made, recording top 25 finishes in two of those starts, including in 2024. 

Matt Fitzpatrick ($7,800 DraftKings/$9,900 FanDuel)

Yet another local finds his way into play here. Fitz has been playing great golf of late, with 3 straight top 20 finishes since the U.S. Open, including a T4th finish last week in Scotland. He’s made the cut at his last 5 Open starts, including a T20th finish here in 2019. He’s an accurate driver, with strong iron play, and great game both around and on the green. It should be no surprise given that he grew up here, but links style golf just fits his game so well. 

Russell Henley ($7,900 DraftKings/$10,200 FanDuel)

Henley is the exact type of player that we should be targeting this week from a game play perspective. He’s extremely accurate off the tee, can have elite ball-striking any given week, has been spectacular with the wedges, and rarely loses himself a round with the putter. He struggled on links courses to start his career, but is coming off a solid 5th place finish last season in The Open. He’s playing great golf of late overall, with 2 top 5 finishes and a T10th finish in his last 3 starts, with that T10th coming at the U.S. Open where he was one of just 17 players to shoot a 71 or better in round 4, which featured weather very similar to what we can expect this weekend. Henley is an absolute steal at this price. 

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: VALUE TIER

Dean Burmester ($6,600 DraftKings/$8,500 FanDuel)

You’re probably asking yourself “who is Dean Burmester?”. Well let me tell you. Burmester was a staple on the European Tour, which is where 4 of his 13 professional wins came prior to joining LIV in 2023. Burmester has qualified for 3 Open Championships in the last 5 years, and is one of only 10 players to have 3 made cuts and no missed cuts during that span. Additionally, he’s played this event well, with T11 and T19th finishes in his last two starts. His recent play on LIV has left a lot to be desired, but he has consistently played extremely well on links courses, and this week should be no different. He’s a great low cost high upside play. 

Harry Hall ($6,400 DraftKings/$9,000 FanDuel)

While he’s playing just his first Open this year, he’s going to be a big play for me this week. He’s on a streak of 7 straight top 25 finishes, has been a deadly putter this year, and remains one of the best scorers on tour thus far in 2025. A debut is scary at a venue like Royal Portrush, but Hall grew up playing links golf in England. He’s a no-brainer for me at this price.

J.J. Spaun ($6,900 DraftKings/$9,200 FanDuel)

As the most recent major champion in the field, all eyes will be on him, and given how he won the U.S. Open, they should be. What makes me like him though is the fact that he won the U.S. Open through the same type of play that is a staple of winners on links courses. He kept the ball in-play, putted out of his mind, and the wedges and irons kept him close. If he can bring that style of play to a links venue, he should be in contention yet again to continue to build on his current momentum.

 

 

PGA DFS Picks This Week (Cheat Sheet)

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