Top DraftKings PGA DFS Plays for The Open Championship 2022
Top DraftKings PGA DFS Plays for The Open Championship 2022
Golf is art. It is poetry. Golf is a game with a romantic dichotomy between earth, wind, and the fire burning within every person who punches a tee in the ground. The game is therapy and a maddening muse.
Golf was born at St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland in the 15th century. This was long before the game was considered exclusive, stuffy, and pretentious. The Old Course is still a public grounds, held in trust by the British Parliament. These hallowed grounds are just as much the birthplace of golf as they are a place to walk your dog on a Sunday afternoon.
The Open Championship rota swung around in harmonious perfection to land the 150th version of the most global major championship in professional golf right where it belongs. The Old Course is not the same daunting track it once was to the world’s best, to be certain. The pressure, mystique, and elements tend to sort out matters in pure and just fashion anyway.
The two greatest golfers of all time, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, each hoisted the Claret Jug twice at St. Andrews. Woods famously wrapped up the career grand slam here in 2000, vaporizing the field in a master class of golf the sacred links had never seen before.
The spirits of Old and Young Tom Morris live on here; from the Royal & Ancient Golf club adjacent to the first tee to the Old Station Road that runs parallel to the infamously-perilous 17th hole. Golf’s greatest champion will be decided here on Sunday afternoon. It is the plight of every golf DFS player to put the pieces together.
The Old Course is a links course: it graces the firm, grassy dunes along the east coast of Scotland. Completely exposed to the North Sea and its unruly weather patterns, the 7,300-yard par-72 will offer plenty of birdie opportunities and pitfalls alike. The golfers who play to good form will score here with ease. The ones who falter will shove their scorecards into their back pockets in exasperation, still inhaling the unforgettable moment.
St. Andrews has vast double fairways and greens, as firm and fast as a parking lot. The fescue rough is plenty wayward, penalizing only the most errant shots. Deep pot bunkers pock the links haphazardly, coming into play with unimaginable frequency.
Key stats considered for my player pool were Strokes Gained Around the Green (SG: ATG), three-putt avoidance, and birdie-or-better percentage (BOB%). There will also be attention paid to projected roster percentage to leverage DFS tournament fields. All of these can be sorted and compared at the Team Rise or Fall PGA Study Hub.
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Past champions have gathered at the R&A this week to commemorate 150 years of Open Championship golf and a few are in the field to compete that have won at the Old Course, including Tiger and Louis Oosthuizen. The weather is forecasted to be tame, but a summer squall can formulate rapidly this time of year and render a forecast useless. With a hickory-shafted niblick and argyle socks pulled up to my knickers, let’s tee off.
Stick It Close: Studs to Target
Cameron Smith (DK: $9,500; FD: $10,900; Y!: $43)
The real ones know why Tiger dominated here twice. It wasn’t his massive drives or approach play, but instead his meticulous touch on and around the greens. He saved par when necessary and poured in birdies from all over.
There is no player in the world I trust more with a wedge and putter than Smith. He is both more affordable and projected lower rostership than the outright betting favorites above him that offer no leverage in DFS.
Patrick Cantlay (DK: $9,400; FD: $10,700; Y!: $43)
Along the same lines as Smith, Cantlay’s short game is exemplary. He is also a cool, collected competitor who can close the deal under pressure when he’s rolling the ball well. I would much prefer to roster these two with more exposure in my pool than get swallowed in a hailstorm of chalk and needing to roster a bunch of dart throws under $7k.
Tyrrell Hatton (DK: $8,700; FD: $10,200; Y!: $32)
The fiery Englishman is one of the most entertaining golfers in the world under a hot microphone. He is also the top golfer in this illustrious field when combining SG: ATG and three-putt avoidance. Hatton’s recent form has been very strong, finishing 24th last week across the Blackness Bay at the Scottish Open.
Other Studs in My Pool: Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Shane Lowry, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood, Louis Oosthuizen
No Gimme: Tap-In Values
Webb Simpson (DK: $7,600; FD: $8,800; Y!: $26)
The pattern here is certain golfers who really popped in my modeling aren’t necessarily popular picks this week. This is giving me a lot of confidence that a big payday could be on the horizon. Simpson is a strong player both on and around the green and is only projecting 3% rostership this week on DraftKings. He is also having a strong season under the radar, which checks all the boxes for my criteria at his salary point.
Seamus Power (DK: $7,400; FD: $9,200; Y!: $31)
The Irishman has been scuffling of late, but the fact remains that he is a very good all-around golfer who annihilates par-4s. There are 14 such holes on the Old Course to exploit. Power is a wonderful putter and tends to keep the ball in play well enough to go on prodigious birdie streaks. He is a value play with winning upside this week.
Talor Gooch (DK: $7,300; FD: $8,500; Y!: $30)
The only golfer in this field with a better figure for three-putt avoidance than LIV defector Talor Gooch was Hatton. Gooch is also one of the best in the world in SG: ATG. Although not remarkable off the tee, Gooch makes a good number of birdies with a BOB% of 23.77%. His salary across all three sites is much too low and his affiliation with the Saudi-backed windfall tour is keeping his projected rostership around 5%.
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