A surprisingly strong field of players is set to tee it up this week following the first major of 2022. Half of the top 10 in the world are set to play the RBC Heritage from Hilton Head Island. It’ll make for an exciting week on one of my favorite courses to watch at Harbour Town, as the difficulty of this short course aided by potential winds will challenge these elite players.
DraftKings has set up their now traditional $20 entry Pitch + Putt with $250,000 to first, but this week it features a strong $1M prize pool. We will use this tournament as our target for this article as we look to beat the 58,822 other entries in this GPP.
I prefer the Bailey Model to identify the best players for your lineups and all of our articles cover everything from cash games to stat-based GPP plays!
If you missed it, we added two new metrics in our models — Perfect% and SimLeverage. You can find an explainer on those metrics here.
The cliff notes version is that you can use SimLeverage to quickly find leverage plays in tournaments, while Perfect% is great for finding the best price-considered plays for cash games.
And don’t forget about the tools that FantasyLabs has to offer, like our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups, or use our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.
High-Priced PGA DFS Picks
Patrick Cantlay ($10,000)
I really like starting with Cantlay at the bottom of the five-figured players this week in large-field GPPs. I believe he is close to a breakthrough, and it appears not many will be ready to go that direction. The 2021 Player of the Year has had a lackluster start to 2022 as even his good results didn’t have the best-looking Strokes Gained numbers attached to them. He has struggled with his ball-striking and specifically on approach in the first few months, but I am seeing signs of that turning around, specifically from his final round at the Masters.
Many are going to see his T39 finish and assume he still isn’t there, but he gained better than a stroke on the field in both ball-striking categories on Sunday and just couldn’t hole any putts. It was a similar story throughout the week, outside of an abysmal round Saturday in the bad weather. He has three top-seven finishes at this event, and with him trending in low double-digit ownership, he sets up to be a great play for me to start my large-field lineups this week.
Shane Lowry ($9,800)
Starting with Cantlay both on price and ownership allows me to still build with my favorite play, Shane Lowry. He will be chalk, possibly even the most-owned player, but I am OK with that. The strength of the $9,000 range won’t allow anyone’s ownership to get out of hand, and I can comfortably get different elsewhere.
The Irishman is playing arguably his best stretch of golf, which led to his best result at the Masters last week. He fell short of truly contending on Sunday, but his T3 result shows just how well he is playing throughout his entire bag. Lowry will now play the RBC Heritage for his fifth time, with his only missed cut coming in the wonky 2020 summer version.
He has two top-10 finishes, including a ninth last year. He is good chalk for me with his form, course fit, and ability to handle any of the weather that may be in store this weekend.
Mid-Priced PGA DFS Picks
Billy Horschel ($8,700)
One of my favorite chalk pivots and core plays this week is with Billy Horschel. He has been hot to start the year as well but never really seems to be able to put together results at the Masters. I am willing to give him a pass on his finish last week and focus more on the potential to stay hot at Harbour Town.
Horschel will be making his 10th appearance at this tournament, with a couple of those prior trips resulting in top 10s. He has always been a streaky player, and it seems he is still riding a hot game. His adjustment this year to start using more of a cut and try to get back to the swing he had when he won the FedEx Cup has paid off in a big way, and I really like him right at 10% ownership this week as a pivot from the chalky Henley above him.
Kevin Kisner ($8,100)
I’ve beaten the Alex Noren drum enough for everyone to know I am going there, so instead, I’ll give some time to someone else. I was on Kisner at the Masters last week, and unfortunately, his final round implosion cost me quite a bit of money as I was in the running at the top of the secondary $5 GPP. He started well, but a three-putt on the 5th hole derailed him on his way to a 5-over 77. I don’t expect that to carry over to Hilton Head this week as he actually played really well last week and likely just checked out as things went sideways.
Kiz has been outspoken about knowing that there are only a handful of events on TOUR where he can compete to win, and Harbour Town is certainly one of those. He is a South Carolina native and knows this course as well as anyone. I expect he comes in with a big week this week, and while I think ownership may be higher than projected, he seems like a good safe play in the mid-tier with true winning upside.
Value PGA DFS Picks
Kevin Streelman ($7,500)
Kevin Streelman is one of my favorite long-shots picks in the betting market this week, and with him being overlooked in a crowded range for DFS, he is a great play here too. He will be single-digit owned, but there aren’t many that are better suited for taking on this course. He’s shown that with his results where he too only missed the cut during the summer version of 2020 but has three top-seven finishes in his other seven trips to Harbour Town. I like the form and trends he is showing coming into the week, and he’s another guy that can contend this weekend at a fairly cheap price.
Davis Riley ($7,000)
One player that is showing up in my short and long-term models, is Davis Riley. He showed how much talent he had when he took Sam Burns to a playoff at the Valspar just a few weeks back, and that can only affirm for the young player how much he belongs on this stage.
He is the type that we may look back at and wonder how he was in this price range as he ascends up the ladder at this level, and I’ll take a low-owned shot that it starts this week for the former Alabama product.
Sleeper PGA DFS Picks
Beau Hossler ($6,800)
Speaking of young talent that seems on the cusp of a breakthrough; I’ll also look to have some shares of Beau Hossler this week. He has been in contention across a few recent events and is starting to show the talent that made him one of the best collegiate players in the world a few years ago. I also tend to like Hossler better on courses where driver is taken out of his hands, and he is forced to play positionally off the tee. If he can keep the irons headed in the right direction, he is another cheap player with a winning ceiling at Harbour Town.
Nate Lashley ($6,700)
There are always names that pop up for me in a given week where I do a double-take and I have learned to embrace them rather than dismiss them. Lashley is that player for RBC Heritage as he comes in with some hot form. He has four straight top-30 finishes to his name (yes, two of those are alternate field events) and three in the top 20. His most recent T18 at the Valero was his most impressive as he gained better than six shots on that field with his irons. In this bottom tier, we are often looking for just one stat to lean on for plays, and that certainly stands out this week for Nate Lashley.
