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Welcome back RotoBallers! While most of America was watching nail-biting finishes in the AFC and NFC Championship games, Adam Long was firing a 7-under 65 leaping Phil Mickelson to capture the Desert Classic.
In this article, I will be providing you with my Farmers Insurance Open PGA DFS lineup picks for DraftKings. My goal as always is to help put together your optimal daily fantasy golf lineups. If anyone has lineup questions before the start of the tournament Thursday morning, feel free to contact me via Twitter @SethFinkTV.
Editor's Note: Our friends at Fantasy National have built some incredible DFS Golf lineup tools including a Lineup Optimizer, Stat Engine, Ownership Projections and Course Breakdowns. They are by far the best daily fantasy Golf tools in the industry. Seriously. You can read all about them here and see screenshots.
Farmers Insurance Open
The PGA Tour heads down the coast to picturesque Torrey Pines in beautiful La Jolla, San Diego, CA. This will be a very good field featuring the likes of defending champ Jason Day, Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and Rickie Fowler.
The tournament will be played on both the North and South courses. Players will get a round on both courses on Thursday and Friday, and then the weekend will be played exclusively on the South. Both are Par 72's. The South course has small Poa Annua greens while the North has average size bentgrass greens.
The South is the course that has hosted U.S. Open's and is therefore immensely difficult. It's a mammoth of a course with a length of more than 7,600 yards. Hitting the green in regulation, scrambling, and driving accuracy will all be extremely difficult on the South Course. Players who tee off Thursday on the North Course will get off to the better start and build more confidence for the second round.
Let's take a look at the stats of the South Course.
| Stat | South Course | Tour Average |
| Driving Distance | 286 | 283 |
| Driving Accuracy | 51% | 61% |
| GIR Percentage | 62% | 65% |
| Scrambling Percentage | 52% | 58% |
| Three-Putt Percentage | 75% | 56% |
Past winners have been Jason Day, Jon Rahm, Brandt Snedeker, Day, Scott Stallings, Tiger Woods, Snedeker, Bubba Watson, and Ben Crane.
The average cut line the last seven years has been -1.85.
The past five tournaments, J.B. Holmes has the most strokes gained with 42.91, Charles Howell III, 40.96, Jason Day, 31.93, Harris English, 31.05, and Marc Leishman, 31.03.
In Vegas, as of Tuesday on sportsbook.ag, Jon Rahm is the favorite at 10-1 followed by Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy at 12-1. Rounding out the top five favorite are Jason Day and Tiger Woods, both at 14-1.
I will not be using my custom stat model for a little while until there are more recent stats to use. However, I will be basing picks this week around players who've been strong in fairways gained, SG:Putting, and three-putt avoidance. I don't want to use stats from last year for players like Fowler and Woods.
Fantasy Golf Lineup Picks for DraftKings (PGA DFS)
High-Priced DFS Players
There are five players this week priced above $10,000; Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods, and Jason Day.
Rahm ($11,400) - The fiery Spaniard finished sixth last week and won this event in 2017. His putting recently has not been good. Through the last eight rounds, he's ranked 46th in three-putt avoidance and 106th in strokes gained putting. He's 56th in fairways gained. While he has the skills to win any week, those stats scare me.
McIlroy ($11,000) - This will be his first event of 2019 and first time playing the Farmers Insurance Open. He's scarred me enough last year that I need to see him play well before paying up for him.
Rose ($10,800) - Rosey recorded a T-34 last week, which is solid for his first tournament of 2019. After missing the cut in 2015 and 2016, he's finished T-4 and T-8 the past two. He was outside the top-100 in fairways gained last week, but 12th last week. Through the last 50 rounds on Poa Annua greens, he's 77th. I do love that he's the third-best players on California courses since 2014.
Woods ($10,500) - This will be Tiger's first event of 2019. He finished T-23 last year which was spectacular after not playing too much. I think this price is a little steep and you also have to pay the Tiger tax so I'll wait a week or two until I watch him play and see how he looks.
Day ($10,100) - I love Day this week. Not only is he the defending champion, but he also won in 2015. He's a phenomenal putter who avoids three-putts. On top of that, he's fourth-best on California courses since 2014. Despite this being his first tournament of 2019, I'm going with him as my anchor.
Middle-Priced DFS Players
Xander Schauffele ($9,400) - This is the 25-year-old's hometown (he was born in La Jolla). With that said, I don't understand how he's missed three consecutive cuts at this event. This too is his first tournament of 2019, but I have to think that trend ends this week.
Charles Howell III ($8,800) - He's been playing some golf of late with finishes of T-14, T-8, and T-34 being the most recent. In that time he's 20th in three-putt avoidance. He's had three runner-ups here and eight top-10's. Additionally, he has the second-most strokes gained at this event the last five years.
Keegan Bradley ($8,300) - He took last week off, but was T-27 two weeks ago at the Sony Open. He's had back-to back top-five's here and is 19th in performance on California courses since 2019. Through last four rounds he's first in good drives gained.
Emiliani Grillo ($8,100) - He made his 2019 debut at the Sony Open where he finished T-22. He was T-33 last year and T-22.
J.B. Holmes ($7,900) - While he may be one of the slowest players on tour, he does have the most strokes gained here the last five years. This is his first event of 2019, but he's had three top-10's the last four tries here including a runner-up.
Ryan Palmer ($7,600) - While he was cut last week, he was runner-up here last year. He's so hit or miss but he is a strong performer on California courses (25th).
Low-Priced DFS Players
Harris English ($7,300) - He's fourth in most strokes gained the last five years at this tournament. He was T-22 at the Sony Open and T-53 last week. He's made four consecutive cuts at this tourney, with a runner-up in 2015 and a T-8 last year.
Charley Hoffman ($7,000) - The San Diego native has made three consecutive cuts here. He was cut last week, but should rebound on a course he's accustomed to.
Adam Long ($6,800) - Although he has no history here, he did win last week. I'll take a hot golfer at this price.
Best of luck RotoBallers and be sure to look out for my column previewing the Phoenix Open!
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