This piece focuses on five golfers projected to have less than five percent ownership in large-field guaranteed prize pools, such as the Millionaire Maker on DraftKings and $500,000 Golden Eagle on FanDuel.
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Hump took a couple weeks off but had respectable results at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Four of five players made the cut, and three of the five players finished inside the top 50. We also had the winner at 5.58% ownership. Here are the results with finishing position, DraftKings points scored, and ownership in the $350,000 Fore from our Ownership Dashboard.
- Rory McIlroy: First place, 135.0 DraftKings points, 5.58% ownership. Rory came in just a tick above five percent ownership, but he won the tournament, so there’s that.
- Martin Laird: 26th place, 69.0 DraftKings points, 0.96% ownership. Hump will gladly accept a +16.30 Plus/Minus at less than one percent ownership every week.
- Kevin Streelman: 16th place, 69.0 DraftKings points, 5.01% ownership. Streelman was pretty pedestrian at the API, but he still posted a +19.5 Plus/Minus.
- Russell Knox: 73rd, 49.0 DraftKings points, 3.68% ownership. Hump went to the well one too many times with Knox, who made the cut but fizzled out over the weekend with two ugly post-cut rounds.
- Kevin Kisner: Missed cut, 22.5 DraftKings points, 9.87% ownership. Not only did I whiff on Kisner’s owenrship but my man missed the cut. On the bright side, it was likely Hump’s backing that propelled Kisner to a second-place finish at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play the following week.
Onto this week . . .
Darkhorse Flyer
Dylan Fritelli was recently owned at 16.3% at the Houston Open, where he missed the cut, and his name is likely unknown by the casual players who will plop down $20 for a shot at a million bucks, so Hump expects Dylan to come in low-owned this week. The South African finished 11th at the Honda Classic in February, and in December he won the AfrAsia Bank Mauritus Open, where he bested fellow Masters competitor Louis Oosthuizen by five strokes. Fritelli is tied for 31st in the field with his 14.1 Long-Term Adjusted Birdies per Tournament (LT Adj Bird Avg), and he ranks 17th overall with his 307.4-yard LT Driving Distance (DD). Did Hump mention that The Action Network’s Senior Golf Writer, Jason Sobel, ranked Fritelli as the 20th-best option in the Masters field.
Fitzmagic
Sure, Matthew Fitzpatrick has missed two straight cuts and three of his past four, but his only missed cut here at Augusta National came as an amateur in 2014. Since turning pro, Fitzpatrick at the Masters has made two-of-two cuts and shot four of his eight rounds under par. Fitzpatrick has posted four wins on the European Tour, and he finished 15th or better in seven of eight tournaments from October of last year to January. Fitzpatrick’s 68.6 Course Adjusted Round Score ranks 13th among golfers with at least three starts at Augusta.
History Repeats
Despite finishing 52nd his last time out — at a whopping 25.8% ownership — Thomas Pieters has a salary on DraftKings that is now $800 higher. Pieters has finished 37th or worse in three of his past four tournaments, and his current salary puts him in the same range as likely chalk plays Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, and Paul Casey. Last year at Augusta, Pieters finished fourth with the third-highest DraftKings points total (94.0), and he was in the winning Millionaire Maker lineup with less than 5% ownership. He has only one start here, but his 66.3 Course Adj Rd Score is tied atop the field with Jordan Spieth‘s mark.
Mr. Smith Goes to Augusta
With Kevin Chappell likely to be mega-chalky and Bryson DeChambeau, Pat Perez, and Brendan Steele all eating up their fair shares of ownership at $6,900, one golfer likely to find himself under-owned is young Cameron Smith. He is coming off a missed cut in his last start, but prior to that he was rolling with seven top-20 finishes in nine starts, including a win and two additional top-five performance dating back to the season-opening CIMB Classic. Smith’s 69.6 LT Adjusted Round Score (Adj Rd Score) and 13.6 LT Adj Bird Avg both rank inside the top-45 of this field.
Grass-Fed Bacon Berger
Daniel Berger ranks 24th overall with his 14.7 Recent Adj Bird Avg, and he is tied for 21st in the field with his 69.1 LT Adj Rd Score, 18th with his 61.1 LT Scrambling (SC) percentage, and 16th with his 68.7 Recent Adj Rd Score. Berger’s 67.7 Course Adj Rd Score ranks third among golfers with at least two starts at Augusta National, where he has finished 27th and 10th in his two appearances. Berger also has two top-20 finishes in his most recent starts, including a 14th-place performance at the WGC-Mexico Championship. With his combination of recent form and course history, Berger is flying a little too low under the radar.
Good luck, and be sure to check out The Action Network if you’re looking for more Masters coverage!
Pictured above: Daniel Berger
Photo credit: John Glaser-USA TODAY Sports
