The season's third major is upon us. After an inspiring win by Bud Cauley last week, we head to the hardest test in professional golf with the 2026 U.S. Open. After J.J. Spaun's incredible win in 2025, who can take home the U.S. Open trophy and the largest purse in professional golf?

Don't forget, when looking to build your lineups, make sure to take advantage of our PGA DFS Projections, PGA DFS Ownership, and PGA DFS Lineup Optimizer to get every advantage you can. 

Let’s dive in!

 

U.S. Open 2026: Daily Fantasy Golf Picks & Projections

Established in 1895, the U.S. Open is the annual national open for the United States of America. While originally a 36 hole competition, it has been played as 72 holes of stroke play since 1898. Often played at courses that are set up for difficult scoring, the struggles for the players can pay off, as this major holds the largest purse of all 4 major championships at a total of $21,500,000 as of 2024. J.J. Spaun was the most surprising champion in recent history, and will look to defend his title in one of the strongest and deepest fields in professional golf.

 

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club: Course Breakdown This Week

Shinnecock Hills is one of the most storied venues, especially as it relates to the U.S. Open. This is the only U.S. Open venue to have hosted the event in 3 different centuries, having hosted in 1896, 1986, 1995, 2004, and 2018. Notably however, this will be the first U.S. Open to have no changes to the layout which was implemented in 1931 by William Flynn. The more recent events have been marred in a bit of controversy due to the changes made, with the USGA relenting this season and essentially admitting the course is hard enough without any additional tinkering. 

Shinnecock plays different than many U.S. Open venues. It's a Par 70 that plays just over 7,400 yards, which while similar to Oakmont last year, will be very different in terms of what matters. While it features the same long rough and fescue seen at many of the host sites, that is usually coupled with more narrow fairways than we will see this week. The average fairway this week is roughly 46 yards wide (with some approaching 60 yards wide). With these wide fairways, it's often better to miss the fairway into the fescue rather than the long rough. Approach shots will be coming into 8,500 sq ft greens that will play especially firm and fast, making them tougher to hold. With the greens playing in such a manner, we will see play around-the-green matter at arguably the highest level of importance we will see this season. Once on the greens, putting does play a factor, but approach putting (aka Lag Putting) is much more of a factor due to the ability to keep yourself in scoring situations.

Shinnecock has historically been a hard venue to score at. The low winning score at this event was Retief Goosen's -4 in 2004. In our most recent experience, Brooks won with a score of +1. That said, scoring is possible here, as evident by Tommy Fleetwood's score of -7 on Sunday in 2018, but this was one of just 35 under par rounds in the entire event, and one of only 15 that was lower than -1. As a result, our model will be rounded out with Bogey Avoidance on Difficult Scoring Courses as well as Birdies or Better Gained with the same conditions. The ideal player this week will be both Long and Accurate off the tee (though accuracy plays much more importance), strong on approach and around-the-green, and able to have a solid week with the flat-stick.

Key Stat Leaders:

Total Driving: Mason Howell, Alex Fitzpatrick, Ben James, Michael Brennan, Neal Shipley, Ludvig Aberg, Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, Jackson Koivun, and Scottie Scheffler

SG: Around-The-Green: Matt Fitzpatrick, Andrew Putnam, Scottie Scheffler, Taylor Montgomery, Wyndham Clark, Jason Day, Maverick McNealy, Cameron Smith, and Adrien Dumont de Chassart

Approach Putting: Alejandro Tosti, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Tommy Fleetwood, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Zac Blair, Keegan Bradley, Padraig Harrington, Johnny Keefer

 

U.S. Open 2026 Field: Golf DFS

To no one's surprise, this is argaubly the strongest and most diverse field of the year. 2025 winner J.J. Spaun is attempting to defend his title, as other previous winners such as Wyndham Clark, Bryson DeChambeau Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm, Gary Woodland, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, and Graeme McDowell will attempt to secure another major title. Additionally, the top 46 players in the Official World Golf Rankins are in attendance. As always, a large number of players qualified for this event through the Open Qualifiers. Some notable names from these venues include Billy Horschel, Tom Kim, Peter Uihlein, Kaito Onishi, Jackson Suber, Nick Hardy, Neal Shipley, Zac Blair, Emiliano Grillo, Alejandro Tosti, Davis Thompson, Keith Mitchell, Brandon Wu, Cole Hammer, Taylor Montgomery, James Nicholas, Miles Russell, and Kevin Roy. 

 

 

This Week’s PGA DFS Optimizer & Lineup Generator

To enhance your daily fantasy golf selections and secure optimal PGA DFS values, it's advisable to utilize our PGA DFS optimizer and lineup generator. This optimizer serves as a valuable resource for daily fantasy golf enthusiasts aiming to develop effective lineups!

It provides projections, updates on player injuries, and a range of analytical insights to facilitate the lineup-building process. Essentially, it functions as a strategic advantage for participants in daily fantasy golf and makes their own PGA DFS picks!

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: Top Tier

Scottie Scheffler ($14,900 DraftKings/$13,800 FanDuel)

Scottie bouncing back from his “struggles” to win a major championship feels like it just might happen this week. Scottie has still been an incredible player this year, and this is a venue that theoretically lines up with his strengths. He's 12th in the field in Total Driving, 5th around-the-green, 3rd in Ball-Striking, and leads the field in 4 of our key metrics. Yes, he's pricey, but this is an event where the cream usually rises to the top. I'm willing to pay the price for this upside.

Cameron Young ($10,500 DraftKings/$11,400 FanDuel)

Cam Young is playing the best golf of his career. He's a player who had finished in the top 5 in all 4 Major Championships, and you'll struggle to find someone who doesn't think he can win multiple majors in his career. He ranks above field average in every single metric this week, and is top 10 in Driving, Ball-Striking, and is top 20 around and on the greens. That's a profile that makes a ton of sense if not paying the price for Scottie or Rory.

Matt Fitzpatrick ($8,900 DraftKings/$11,200 FanDuel)

You can't convince me that it can't be a Fitzpatrick week. He's turned himself into an incredible driver of the golf ball, who leads the field in SG: Around-The-Green, is top 10 in ball-striking and top 50 in putting. Perhaps most importantly, he's a previous U.S. Open winner who can avoid big numbers. That's exactly the profile we're looking for this week and I can't think of a single reason that he can't claim his 2nd U.S. Open title. 

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: MID-TIER

Russell Henley ($8,000 DraftKings/$10,600 FanDuel)

Henley's profile lacks a bit of distance off the tee, but the remainder of the profile is so strong that I can't ignore it. He's 28th around the green, 16th in Ball-Striking, 10th in Putting, 12th in Bogey Avoidance, and 5th on Approach. He's not been the best player at Majors throughout his career, but he's got a T3 this year at Augusta and won the Charles Schwab Challenge just a few weeks ago. That's a recipe for success.

Tommy Fleetwood ($9,700 DraftKings/$11,000 FanDuel)

Fleetwood showed what a player like him can do here back in 2018 when he went -7 on Sunday to finish as the solo runner up in the event. He's also a far better player now. He's another player with no glaring holes in the game, who ranks above field average across the board in all of the major statistics. Fleetwood is a player who needs to just stay consistent, as a bad round can hold him back but he's also one of the favorites this week for a reason.

Sam Burns ($7,700 DraftKings/$10,400 FanDuel)

If there is a player in the field where a single part of their game can carry them this week, it's Burns. Luckily for us, there isn't just one part of his game that's been elite this year. He's the best putter in this field, but he's top 10 in long-iron approach as well, and even the “bad” parts of his game rank above field average. If I woke up Sunday after 3 straight days of sleep and saw Sam Burns near the top of the leaderboard, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: VALUE TIER

Wyndham Clark ($7,800 DraftKings/$9,900 FanDuel)

Wyndham Clark is on a heater. You know what they say about leaving during a heater right?! He's a former U.S. Open champion, who won on arguably the closest venue to Shinnecock in the last 5 years, and has finished 1st, 3rd, and 11th in his last 3 starts. His putter will need to improve, specifically his lag putting which ranks 70th in this field. That said, if he's at least fine with the flatstick this week, I struggle to see him finish outside the top 30 at worst. 

J.J. Spaun ($7,500 DraftKings/$9,800 FanDuel)

Before Brooks won back-to-back U.S. Open's in 2017/8, the last back-to-back U.S. Open winner was Curtis Strange back in 1988/89. Can J.J. do it? His profile suggests is possible. He's 2nd in this field in SG: Ball-striking and SG: Approach, 20th Around-the-Green, and top 40 off-the-tee. Much like Wyndham, the putter needs to be better, but we saw what it was capable of last year at Oakmont. If J.J. can find that groove again, sky is the limit.

Jake Knapp ($6,800 DraftKings/$9,000 FanDuel)

This entire paragraph is with the caveat that Knapp is healthy, but he's been taking time off to make sure he could play here and I believe he will. We haven't seen Knapp since April at the RBC Heritage, but the Knapp we got before that was legitimately a top 10 player on the planet. He's finished outside the top 12 just twice this season, and he was consistently one of the best putters and drivers on the planet at the time. His irons were strong, and while his play around the green probably held him back a bit, he showed that it could be a strength at times as well. It's probably unlikely he wins, but I don't see a reason that a healthy Knapp can't compete. 

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