Daily Fantasy Golf FanDuel Picks (PGA DFS) - Shriners Hospitals For Children Open

Joe Nicely breaks down the FanDuel slate for the 2021 Shriners Hospitals For Children Open providing information of not only who will come into the week under-owned but also who should be avoided for your lineups.

Hello RotoBaller PGA crew! It's great to be back with you guys and I appreciate you joining us here at RotoBaller for another Swing Season event. We head to Las Vegas for the Shriners Hospitals Children Open, a tournament that features a strong field of golfers.

In this article, we'll discuss some of the standout PGA DFS plays available on FanDuel for the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open. While it's impossible to hit on every player, we'll touch on some different plays across all price ranges, breaking the groups down into "High", "Mid", and "Low" price options that are worth considering.

Like always, the purpose of this piece is to help you put together your optimal daily fantasy golf lineups for FanDuel, whether that be from a GPP perspective or a cash-game mentality. Be sure to also read all of our other top-notch weekly PGA DFS and betting articles to help you win big!

Shriners Hospitals For Children Open - PGA DFS Overview

TPC Summerlin

7,255 Yards - Par 71 - Greens: Bent - Designers: Bobby Weed with Fuzzy Zoeller

Fairly short by modern standards at just over 7,200 yards, this Las Vegas track has reachable Par-5s and a driveable Par-4 - which allows players to rack up birdies - but is short enough to bring every player in the field into the mix. The fairways are wide and firm with huge Bentgrass green complexes that generally roll on the slow side. Summerlin routinely ranks as one of the easiest courses on the PGA Tour schedule, but we have seen wind and weather occasionally play a factor on this layout that sits at high elevation, as Patrick Cantlay won this event at just nine-under par in outlier conditions four years ago. While this course is on the shorter side, we haven't traditionally seen bombers have a huge advantage here, as the past winners of the Shriners have mostly been sharp ball-strikers or been on fire with the putter...like last year's surprise winner, veteran Martin Laird. I'll be targeting ball striking and Strokes Gained: Approach this week, as well as players that can rack up birdies.

For an in-depth breakdown of this week's course, check out RotoBaller's PGA Premium Course Breakdown by Josh Bennett!

Let's Look At The Stats

Key Stats

• Birdies or Better Gained
• Good Drives Gained
• Total Driving
• SG: Approach
• Overall Proximity

Fantasy Golf Lineup Picks for FanDuel (PGA DFS)

We have tons of great weekly PGA articles, DFS analysis, tools and DFS advice. Be sure to read our other fantastic articles regarding this week's event including DFS lineup picks for DraftKings/FanDuel, betting advice and DFS prop picks.

High-Priced FanDuel DFS Plays 

Abraham Ancer ($11,800)

Abraham Ancer is a player that entered 2021 in search of his first career victory on the PGA Tour and many of us in the PGA DFS community felt that it was just a matter of time for the man from Mexico. Sure enough, he captured a win in a huge event, winning the WGC-FedEx St. Jude in dramatic fashion. It was certainly no fluke, as the 30-year-old was one of golf's most consistent producers in 2021. Over 20 starts in the calendar year, Ancer posted the win in Memphis, as well as seven additional top-10 finishes, while missing only three cuts.

His consistency can be attributed to his razor-sharp accuracy from tee to green. Over the last 50 rounds, Ancer leads this week's Shriners field in Good Drives Gained and ranks fifth in Overall Proximity. In short, when you hit as many fairways and greens as this guy does, good things are going to happen. This week's TPC Summerlin layout - despite being relatively forgiving off the tee - hasn't exactly been a bomber's paradise historically. No, the Vegas track has generally led to tons of success for accurate drivers of the ball and sharp iron players, and Ancer himself has logged a solo fourth and a T4 over his last three Shriners starts.

Sam Burns ($11,700)

Our tendency as PGA DFS players is to shy away from the guy that won the previous week. While I think that strategy is smart in certain situations, I'm really interested in going right back to the well with last week's Sanderson winner, Sam Burns. The LSU product grabbed a breakthrough win at the Valspar earlier this year. How did he follow up his first PGA Tour victory? By nearly winning the AT&T Byron Nelson in his very next start. So, this is a player that can handle success and run with good form. Speaking of form, Burns was a revelation from T2G last week in Mississippi, gaining a massive 8.3 strokes on Approach and 6.1 OTT. He captured the Sanderson despite losing two strokes putting...another sign that we can feel comfortable firing him right back up this week.

Webb Simpson ($11,500)

Despite an underwhelming 2021, during which he fought a nagging neck injury, Webb Simpson did battle back down the stretch to post top-20 results in three of his last five 2020-21 starts before recording a mediocre T30 in this season’s opener, the Fortinet Championship. What Webb heads to this week is perhaps the ultimate “get right” spot, as he’s been tremendous throughout his career in the Shriners. He won the event in 2013 and hasn’t finished outside the top-20 in his last four starts at TPC Summerlin. The vet also leads the field in SG: Total for this event over the last five years.

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Mid-Priced FanDuel DFS Plays

Joaquin Niemann ($10,000)

It feels like an underwhelming stretch run in the FedEx Cup Playoffs has Joaquin Niemann off the radar a bit this week, but I’m very interested in rostering the Chilean at his reasonable $10k price tag. The closest Niemann came to a win in 2021 was a playoff loss at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July, but we shouldn’t let the lack of wins distract us from what was an otherwise rock-solid year for the youngster. Once one of the most volatile players on the PGA Tour, the 22-year-old produced his most consistent season as a pro in 2021, making the cut in a staggering 26 of 27 starts over the ‘20-21 season. His history at TPC Summerlin is just as strong, as he’s recorded two top-13 finishes in three career Shriners starts.

Matthew Wolff ($9,900)

If you are going into any PGA DFS slate “relying” on Matthew Wolff, you’re doing it wrong. However, if you are strictly looking for upside, Wolff’s DFS ceiling is basically as high as anyone’s in this field. If you follow the game closely, you are likely aware that Wolff stepped away from golf for nearly four months earlier this year. He returned to post an oh-yeah-this-kid-can-still-play T15 in the U.S. Open before closing out the season with a run of uneven play. The 22-year-old teed it up for the first time in over a month last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship, making the cut on the number and promptly going 65-68 over the weekend. He now brings that positive momentum to a TPC Summerlin layout on which he’s thrived in two career appearances.

Mito Pereira ($9,800)

The PGA Tour rookie turned in a good-not-great result as chalk last week at the Sanderson, recording a T31. I'm hoping that the middling result knocks Pereira down a bit in the eyes of casual PGA DFS players because I'm more than willing to bet on a bounce back from the rising star. When we dig into his stats from last week, we find that the Chilean actually played beautifully from T2G, gaining 5.6 strokes on Approach and just over two OTT. He trails only Abraham Ancer in Good Drives Gained and sits 15th in Birdies or Better Gained. Last week, Pereira was simply kept in check by a putter that didn't cooperate, as he lost a massive 4.7 strokes on the greens in what was the worst performance of his career to this point. We know that putting can be volatile from one week to the next and I look for his output to work its way back up to the mean on TPC Summerlin's Bentgrass surfaces.

Low-Priced FanDuel DFS Players

Maverick McNealy ($9,600)

A player that made several appearances in this article down the stretch last season, Maverick McNealy popped up to log a second-place result in the 2021-22 season opener a couple of weeks ago in Silverado. After a highly decorated collegiate career, McNealy stumbled out of the gates as a pro, but the Stanford alum is coming off his best year on the PGA Tour. His past Shriners results are surprisingly underwhelming because he actually lives and practices in Las Vegas, but it is fair to say that McNealy enters this year's edition as a different - improved - player. He checks a lot of statistical boxes for us this week, grading out 24th in Good Drives Gained and 21st in Birdies or Better Gained over the last 24 rounds.

Luke List ($8,700)

It always feels like you're gambling when you click Luke List's name and - since we're in Vegas this week - we might as well roll the dice on him. The Vandy product is one of the better tee-to-green players on the Tour, but there's the small matter of putting that always gives him trouble. To give you an idea how much trouble...List has lost strokes putting in six consecutive starts. Ouch. Despite that inability with the flat stick, I'm still interested this week as he's been able to put together a really nice resume at TPC Summerlin, with top-20 finishes in three of his last four Shriners starts. He grades out THIRD in this week's field in SG: T2G, which makes me feel as though we have to give him a look in GPPs at this $8.7k price.

Alex Smalley ($7,700)

Alex Smalley is something of a pet player of mine, so I'm really happy to see him both in the field and underpriced. Smalley posted a T31 in last week's Sanderson, which might not look like much on the surface until you realize that he played the final three rounds in an eye-opening 17-under par after an opening-round 76. The Duke alum is only in this Shriners field thanks to a Monday qualifying round of 63, which indicates to me that he's still firing on all cylinders. Love the upside here in large-field tournaments.

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Our very own Joe Nicely took down a big DraftKings DFS tournament for the Travelers Championship. And as an encore, RotoBaller subscriber @tenndolly2 won $100K on FanDuel with the help of Joe and the rest of our Premium PGA team:

If you read my articles @RotoBaller or listen to @TheTurnGolfPod I’ve been telling y’all it was #WinningSeason when golf came back! Shoutout to the entire @RotoBallerPGA squad and all you guys that support my work for all the ❤️ pic.twitter.com/07a4ynvbSU

— Joe Nicely (@JoeNicely) June 28, 2020

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