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Joe Nicely digs into his PGA DFS Core Four for The American Express, an article that provides DraftKings daily fantasy golf lineup selections.
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Hello RotoBallers and thanks for joining me for The American Express! In this article you will find my four favorite overall DraftKings DFS lineup plays for this week's PGA tournament.
The 'Core Four' will usually be spread across different DraftKings price points, but every week in PGA DFS is different and this article will reflect that by trying to give you an overall outlook of how the slate is shaping up.
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The American Express Notes
The most obvious factor that jumps out at me from a DFS perspective this week is this tournament's format. Players will play three different courses over the first three rounds before a 54-hole cut determines who will tee it up on the PGA West course for the final round. This event is also a pro-am, which might not sound like a big deal, but is something that some of the pros struggle to deal with. All told, this event's format lends itself to an aggressive, 'Stars & Scrubs'-type strategy. The downside is there's not a lot to love in the 'Stars' at the top of the salary scale this week (outside of one player, which we'll get to in just a second), which has sent me in the direction a more 'balanced' build this week.
You can also find out who the smart money is on by checking out Spencer Aguiar's PGA DFS: Vegas Report every week.
Sungjae Im - DraftKings: $11,000
There is one player that I'll be spending up for this week and that's Sungjae Im. Even at $11k, Im is projected to be the most popular player on this slate - which does make him a legitimate fade candidate in large-field GPPs - but despite his high ownership, I will still have Im in basically all of my single-entry DraftKings lineups. The 21-year-old was dominant on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2018 and earned Rookie of the Year honors on the PGA Tour last season. A win or multiple wins seems like the natural progression for him in 2020 and the time may very well be this week. Im has some experience with this event - logging a T12 in his debut last year - and he's an explosive enough scorer (Led the PGA Tour in Total Birdies last season) to rack up the low scores needed to win this week at what is basically a glorified hit & giggle.
Brian Harman - DraftKings: $8,600
Do you ever watch a football game and wonder why a team doesn't continue running a play that's successful? You see this all the time, except for the New England Patriots, who will run the same play half a dozen times if a team doesn't adapt to stopping it. That's kinda how I feel about PGA DFS...if I'm successful with a player and feel like he's a great fit for the next tournament or tournaments, I won't hesitate at all to continue riding him. Apologies for the long-winded speech, but I say all that to say that I'll once again have Brian Harman in the majority of my lineups this week, even though I wrote him up for the Sony Open.
Harman's result in Hawaii was a ho-hum T32, but I'm willing to chalk that up to an ugly third-round 74 in nasty conditions - he shot 68 or lower in each of his other three rounds - and he should find much smoother sailing in California this week. Harman missed the cut in this event last year while mired in a slump, but had went T20-T3-T11 in his three previous starts in the AmEx. He had a strong fall and is on track for another great outing here.
Russell Knox - DraftKings: $8,100
I have a longstanding "love/hate relationship" with Russell Knox. We're on good terms right now, so I'm firing him up this week. Knox is often held back by his lack of distance off the tee, so he always pops on my radar on shorter layouts like he'll face this week. He's handled this trio of courses well over the last couple of years, logging a T18 and a T29 in his last two AmEx starts. Knox gained 5.9 strokes on approach last week at the Sony - the third-best mark in the field - but finished just T32 due to losing strokes both off the tee and putting. He should be fine off the tee this week in pristine conditions, so we're hoping that he can find his putting stroke in California, as he's averaged gaining a massive 5.5 strokes total over his last five tournaments.
Harris English - DraftKings: $7,700
Remember this dude? Harris English was a legit money-printing machine during the fall season, posting a ridiculous four top-six finishes in just six starts, after clinging to his PGA Tour status via the Korn Ferry Finals. He's been on the shelf since November thanks to that shaky priority status, but will be back in action this week at the AmEx, a tournament in which he logged a T11 in 2018. English has gained a ridiculous average of 4.8 strokes T2G over his last five starts, and while I do wish he had some more recent action under his belt, we are grabbing a ton of upside at just $7.7k.
