Fantasy Golf: PLAYERS Championship Round 3 Showdown Picks

I will provide a quick summary of the first two rounds of the 2023 PLAYERS Championship before diving into my favorite plays for Round 3 Showdown contests on DraftKings.

Keep in mind that we want to project future success and not rely on previous accomplishments.

The first round started with optimal conditions but the scoring didn’t exactly reflect that for the bulk of the field.

Chad Ramey shot an impressive bogey-free 64 in his PLAYERS Championship debut. He nearly had a hole-in-one on the 17th hole but settled for a tap-in birdie. He followed it up with a great lag putt on the 18th hole from over 50 feet to set up a closing par.

Collin Morikawa was the only other player in round one to shoot a bogey-free round. He shot an opening 65; that was in some ways a disappointment. He had three very makeable birdie attempts that just missed. His irons were on fire as he hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation and gained the most strokes on approach in the first round.

In round 2, scoring proved to be even more difficult. The wind picked up but wasn’t anything compared to what we saw last week at Bay Hill. More golfers shot in the 80s than in the 60s.

Note: As of writing this there’s still almost half of the field that needs to finish their 2nd round.

*All statistics are based on metrics from the first two rounds.

2023 PLAYERS Championship: Round 3 DraftKings Showdown Plays

Scottie Scheffler ($10,600)

Scottie has been striking the ball incredibly well through 2 rounds. He’s 2nd in strokes gained tee to green so far and he’s hit 79% of greens in regulation through 28 holes. If he continues the ball striking and can improve with the putter he’ll be at the top of the leaderboard come Sunday.

Viktor Hovland ($9,400)

Hovland has been on absolute fire with his irons. He gained 3.7 strokes on approach last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and has already gained 4.4 strokes on approach this week. The blowup holes are always a concern as we saw today on the 4th hole, but when Hovland has his irons dialed in paired with how well he’s putting he has a legitimate shot at winning this tournament.

Gary Woodland ($7,400)

Woodland has been great with his irons recently gaining strokes on approach in eight straight tournaments. This week is no different. He’s 5th in strokes gained approach and has hit 80% of greens in regulation.

Adam Hadwin ($7,300)

As of writing this, Hadwin is only eight holes into his 2nd round. He’ll play a lot of golf tomorrow but I like the way he’s been striking the ball. He was 2nd in the field in strokes gained off the tee in round 1. He’s hit 76% of fairways and 77% of greens in regulation to this point of the tournament.

Min Woo Lee ($7,100)

Min Woo has actually played well to this point outside of holes 17 &18. Four of his six bogeys are on those two holes.

He still has three holes left in round two but has been great off the tee to this point. He’s 2nd in strokes gained off the tee and 4th in strokes gained putting this week.