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Welcome back RotoBallers! Phil Mickelson (-19) captured his fifth AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by three strokes over Paul Casey. Mickelson opened up the tourney with a 65 and closed out with a 65. With the U.S. Open be played at Pebble, it'll be interesting to see if he can finally capture that one elusive championship and complete the grand slam.
In this article, I will be providing you with my DraftKings PGA DFS lineup picks for the Genesis Open. My goal as always is to help put together your optimal daily fantasy golf lineups. You can also track my selections against every other fantasy golf expert on dailyoverlay.com
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.
Genesis Open - PGA DFS Overview
The West Coast swing continues with the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. The course (finally just one course) is a par 71 that plays between 7,200 and 7,400 yards. The course is on the more difficult end with hard fairways to hit. Getting from the fairway to the small green is tough. And once you're on the green, the Poa annua fast surface will cause you headaches. There are four par-3's, 11 par-4's, and three par-5's. Six of the 11 par-4's are between 450-500 yards.
Let's take a look at the stats.
| Stat | Riviera CC | Tour Average |
| Driving Distance | 282.97 | 283.12 |
| Driving Accuracy | 53% | 61% |
| GIR Percentage | 57% | 66% |
| Scrambling Percentage | 60% | 57% |
| Three-Putt Percentage | 63% | 55% |
| Player | Strokes Gained Total (last five years) |
| Dustin Johnson | 60.72 |
| Bubba Watson | 52.31 |
| Jordan Spieth | 29.24 |
| K.J. Choi | 27.70 |
| Adam Hadwin | 26.37 |
Past winners have been Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Watson again, James Hahn, Watson a third time, John Merrick, Bill Haas, Aaron Baddeley, and Steve Stricker.
The average cut line the last seven years has been +2.5.
In Vegas, as of Tuesday on sportsbook.ag, Dustin Johnson is the 8-1 favorite. Behind him is Justin Thomas, 12-1, Rory McIlroy, 14-1, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, 15-1.
It's time to break out my custom stat model. It'll will be focusing on the last 12 rounds of SG: T2G (25%), Par-4 scoring 450-500 yards (25%), three-putt avoidance (20%), fairways gained (15%), and GIRs gained (15%). Four of the five most difficult holes are par-4's ranging between 450-500 yards. As you can see the stats above, players struggle with fairways gained and GIRs gained. You can find all the stats with the players I wrote about below.
Fantasy Golf Lineup Picks for DraftKings (PGA DFS)
High-Priced DFS Players
There are four players this week priced above $10,000;
Dustin Johnson ($11,400) - DJ had a disappointing Pebble Beach Pro-Am finishing T-45. He not only has the most strokes gained here but he also is a past winner and two-time runner-up. Additionally, he has the most strokes gained on California courses since 2014. His price is a premium though so I'll pass.
Justin Thomas ($11,000) - JT is off to a great 2019 with a third, T-16, and third. He usually starts the season slow, so him starting off hot could make this year a big one. Anyway, he recorded a T-9 here last year. I just don't have a good feeling about him.
Rory McIlroy ($10,700) - He's taken the last two weeks off after a T-5 at the Farmers. His two times here, 2016 and 2018, resulted in T-20's. I need to see more from him before he's my anchor.
Jon Rahm ($10,400) - This is my player this week. He's number one in my custom rankings with not one flawed stat in the five I'm looking at. I love that he took last week off after three consecutive top-10 finishes. Rahm is also second in strokes gained on California courses since 2014.
Bryson DeChambeau ($10,200) - I don't understand this price. Yes, he won the Dubai Desert three weeks ago and finished T-6 at the Saudi International two weeks ago, but those are spacious courses. This is a much more compact one with small greens. Considering he was T-41 last year, I'm not touching him.
Middle-Priced DFS Players
Bubba Watson ($9,700) - I'm shocked he isn't in the high-priced category. He's won this tournament in 2014, '16, and '18. Considering this is one of the three or four courses he likes to play on and actually fares well, you gotta go with him.
Tiger Woods ($9,500) - Tiger seems to be going easier on his body this year having not played since the Farmers three weeks ago, T-20. Last year he was cut, but he was just getting rid of his rust then. He'll be ready to go this time around.
Matt Kuchar ($8,500) - You won't find a more reliable and consistent player than Kooch. He's finished T-4 and T-22 the last two events and has three consecutive cuts made here, all within the top-30. Second on my custom rankings.
Chez Reavie ($8,300) - A good California player (25th since 2014), is 4/4 in cuts made in 2019 with two top-5's. While he's struggled here the last two times (T-73, cut) he did finish seventh in 2016. There aren't many more weeks where you can use him because he's much better out west than on the East Coast, so I'll use him while I can.
Brandon Grace ($8,100) - The South African isn't gonna get you a top-10 but he won't bust your lineup. For example, he finished T-22 and T-37 the last two years and more recently, a runner-up at the Phoenix Open and a T-28 last week.
Adam Hawin ($7,800) - The Canadian is 4/4 in cuts made this year including a runner-up and T-18 at Pebble. He's made all four cuts at Riviera with three top-25's including a T-6 last year. He's also seventh in strokes gained on California courses the last five years.
Jason Kokrak ($7,600) - All three tournaments this season he's placed within the top-20. He's also seventh in strokes gained total the past five years at this tournament. He comes in 12th in my custom rankings and 21st in performing on California courses since 2014.
Charley Hoffman ($7,100) - It's surprising the California native isn't having a better California swing being that he was cut at the Desert Classic and Farmers. He made the cut this past week, but only finished T-60. He's made five consecutive cuts here including one top-5. He won't be highly-owned so he's a boom-or-bust type play.
Low-Priced DFS Players
Jim Furyk ($6,900) - Furyk debuted at Pebble and did not disappoint with a T-14. Besides for being cut last year at this event, he did make his previous three cuts including two top-25's.
Chris Stroud ($6,800) - It's only a matter of time before his price jumps after back-to-back top-10's. He's made two of three cuts here.
K.J. Choi ($6,200) - I'm only taking a shot with him because he's fourth in strokes gained total the last five years at this tournament.
Custom Rankings
Premium DFS Golf Tools and Lineup Optimizer
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