Fantasy Golf: Undervalued and Sleeper Draftkings Selections for 2020 PGA Championship

Last week Brendon Todd made my fantasy golf selections look strong. Leading after Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Todd was looking like a fantastic pick until his rough Sunday saw him fall out of contention quickly. But like I said, I didn’t see him as a guy who could win, but if you had him rostered, your team was probably in a good spot.

This week, golf fans will see the first major championship in over a year with the PGA Championship. As always with majors, expect a lot of random players in your Draftkings contests. Therefore, finding undervalued selections this week will be key.

As always, check out Hans Geevers’ full lineup picks that he posts each and every week. You will find one of his selections here on my undervalued list. Hans’ article is also great for reading about the course, and how he believes it will play.

And as always in my articles, I am only looking at players under the average Draftkings salary of $8,333. In doing so, I am trying to bring you value players who can make the cut, and hopefully win you some money.

Along with the key stats Hans pointed out, I will be looking at par-4 scoring, rough tendency, and fairways hit percentage. This week I will be all about staying in the fairway, and out of the rough. Here are my selections:

Matthew Fitzpatrick- $8,100

Coming in just under the average salary, I like Fitzpatick. It is very rare to get a guy coming off back-to-back top-10 performances for under the average, but that’s what you get with Matt.

Fitzpatrick finished 3rd at the Memorial and 6th at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude last week, so his game is obviously in good shape. Along with being in good form, Fitzpatrick stays out of the rough.

Matthew is 24th on tour in rough tendency, only finding himself in the rough 24% of the time. To compare, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, and Sergio Garcia are all over 30% in that category.

Matthew is also 26th in hit fairway percentage with 67.07%. With rough that is reportedly ankle deep, I like Fitzpatrick because his ability to stay in the fairway, and it would be tough to find a hotter golfer than Matt.

Chez Reavie- $7,400

A member of Hans’ list, I also like Reavie this week. Reavie is coming off three straight top 25’s. His best finish in that run with 6th last week in the WGC event. So once again, the recent success is there.

However, a main reason I like Reavie is he sits 3rd in rough tendency, only reaching the rough 20.79% of the time. And that is over his 67 rounds played, significantly more than anyone else in the top five of the stat.

Obviously, with Chez having such a low rough percentage, his hit fairway percentage is also top five on tour. He sits 4th with a 70.71%. Chez also sits 36th in bogey avoidance on tour, as well as 38th in strokes gained on approach.

Paired with his recent success, I think Chez is a solid selection for a made cut this week.

Harris English- $7,200

One very nice thing about the field this week is that you can get very solid players, like Harris, at over $1,000 cheaper than average salary. And as I mentioned, you will have lots of Drafkings players this week who don’t know golf as well as regular fantasy players, which is why I think English is a solid play.

Harris has made 13/15 cuts this season, and has five top 10’s in that time. Since the return to golf Harris missed his first cut, but has made his last three, finishing no worse than 18th in those events.

Out of all my selections, English is the one with the highest rough tendency percentage. He sits 63rd on tour with a 26.76% rough tendency. However, I think he can make up for it in other categories.

English is my only selection with over 300 yards of average driving distance, which is a big stat because of how long the course is. Harris also comes in 31st in strokes gained on approach, 12th in par four efficiency 450-500 yards, and he leads the PGA Tour in bogey avoidance with only 113 bogeys made in 1,008 holes.

Kevin Streelman- $7,100

Streelman has been a guy I have been looking at for multiple weeks now, but I couldn’t pull the trigger. However, this week I will.

Streelman had back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Travelers, where he finished second, and the Workday last month. He played well enough to make the cut the the Memorial, and finished 35th last week.

However, I think his game sets up nicely here. He sits 20th on tour in rough tendency with 24.08%. He matches that number in hit fairway percentage sitting 20th on tour with 67.62%. He sits middle of the pack in strokes gained on approach and par four efficiency 450-500 yards, so I believe it should be a made cut for Kevin this week, but don’t expect contention on Sunday.

Ryan Palmer- $6,900

Rostered on my team this week, Ryan Palmer is priced incredibly low. Coming off back-to-back top 15’s at the Memorial and the WGC-FedEx St. Jude, Palmer is priced lower than guys like Bubba Watson, Erik Van Rooyen, and Cameron Champ, who all haven’t contended in a while.

Palmer sits 31st in rough tendency with 24.92%, a higher number than most of my selections, but I can live with it. Palmer is 40th on tour in strokes gained on approach, 64th in bogey avoidance, and 64th in fairways hit percentage with 64.03%.

However, Palmer does struggle with the putter. 178th on tour in strokes gained putting isn’t ideal. But I am going to overlook that due to his recent play, and his ability to get hot.

He got hot at the Memorial, which got him into the final pairing with Jon Rahm on that Sunday. Although he finished second, the Memorial was incredibly tough on most of the big name players, and Palmer didn’t have an issue.

Jim Furyk- $6,600

I’ve been talking about it all article, so you know I had to do it. Jim Furyk leads the PGA Tour in rough tendency with an incredible 16.78%. He obviously matches that with leading the PGA Tour in hit fairways percentage with 75.84%.

Now, from there he sits 6th from last in driving distance, 173rd in Par four efficiency 450-500 yards, and 127th in strokes gained putting. This is a long course, so the distance and efficiency is concerning.

However, Furyk is 15th in strokes gained on approach, and 49th in bogey avoidance.

So there is no doubt this is a risky play, but when we are only looking for made cuts, this might be your best option under $7,000.

Oh, and for those who didn’t know, Furyk made his PGA Tour Champions debut last week, and won the event. So he comes into the PGA Championship off a win.

And no, I don’t think Furyk has a chance of winning, but I think if you are trying to play Brooks Koepka and another top-notch player, I think playing Jim Furyk Is a better option than others in his price range.

Well they there are, my sleepers and undervalued selections of the week. Hopefully some of these players will make their way into your lineups, and win you some money!