PGA DFS Picks: ZOZO Championship

PGA DFS Picks: ZOZO Championship

Maverick McNealy

• DraftKings
  • • Salary $8.4
    • Projected Points 73.9
• FanDuel
  • • Salary $9.4
    • Projected Points 80.5

If you’ve followed my work at all, I’m a big fan of Mav. The projected fantasy points, while among the highest, still seem low to me. That’s a good thing. I could see him easily outperforming the projection. In my weighted model, Mav ranks 26th. I’m ok with that. He’s not been playing great, with the exception of his last event, where he placed 10th. Prior to that, he’s had a missed cut and several finishes in the 30s. Mediocre at best. Here’s the bright spot… Rostership is low so far (around 5%) and in a field this small, I predict that he’s going to do well. The course is also well-suited for his game. He has a long drive and is hitting greens in regulation 71% of the time. That’s going to be key this week. 

Mito Pereira

• DraftKings
  • • Salary $8.3
    • Projected Points 71.9
• FanDuel
  • • Salary $9.7
    • Projected Points 80.5

After just calling Mav’s recent performance “mediocre”, Mito’s is even worse. But we’re not going to focus on that. We’re going to look at the data and also the fact that this is a smaller field, which allows talent to really rise to the top. He finished 4th in his last performance, so let’s also celebrate that for a moment. In my weighted model, Mito shakes out in 2nd. That’s more like it, right?! The dark side of this is that other people are seeing this too and his rostership is creeping up ( around 8% at the time of publication). I’d take that into consideration, but maybe get creative with the rest of my roster to have him. He’s a bomber off the tee, a master at landing the greens in regulation (86%), and all categories of strokes gained are on the rise! Mito is your best Value on DraftKings this week. The FanDuel projection + salary seem a bit out there. 

Mark Hubbard

• DraftKings
  • • Salary $7.7
    • Projected Points 70.8
• FanDuel
  • • Salary $9.0
    • Projected Points 76.8

Averaging 290 yards off the tee and hitting 70% of GIR, Old Mother Hubbard isn’t looking too shabby. All but one category within Strokes Gained are on the up and up and his last 3 performances have been memorable (21st, 5th, 28th). In my own weighted model, which focuses on landing the green, he’s ranking 20th. Mark seems like a solid choice as one of your PGA DFS picks. Especially on DraftKings, where he has a fairly reasonable salary and fairly high fantasy points projection and his rostership is currently sitting around 5%.  

Stephan Jaeger

• DraftKings
  • • Salary $7.1
    • Projected Points 64.1
• FanDuel
  • • Salary $8.7
    • Projected Points 70.2

I can’t recall ever playing Stephan Jaeger before, but I am considering it this week. His salary is manageable on DraftKings and he has a fairly decent fantasy points projection. FanDuel seems to be overblown just a little bit, but that gives me more faith in my decision to list him as one of my PGA DFS picks in this article. He ranks 22nd in my personal model, likely because he hits a fairly long ball at 298 yards and hits the GIR 71% of the time. Strokes gained and his approach stats paint a sad picture, however. Those things are causing me some apprehension. On the bright side, he’s a strong finisher, averaging a 4th round score of 69 and he’s made the cut on his last 6 outings. Rostership is around 6% at the time of this publication.

Other Players to Consider

Tom Kim (DK $9.7 FD $11.1) and Sungjae Im (DK $10.0 FD $11.7) are both very pricey, they both are also on fire (at least on paper). I may be really considering paying up for one of these guys. The data is just too compelling not to – even though they’re not considered “values” this week. In my model, I’ve weighted GIR, T2G, Bogey Avoidance, and 4th Rd Scoring Avg and these two are ranking 3rd and 1st, respectively.