This piece focuses on five golfers projected to have less than five percent ownership in large-field guaranteed prize pools on DraftKings and FanDuel. Be sure to check out our DFS Ownership Dashboard shortly after contests lock to track ownership rates across all buy-in levels.
Five Under Five
Last week’s results: Three of five players made the cut and averaged 54.67 DraftKings points.
- Branden Grace: MC, 14.5 DraftKings points, 5.69 percent average ownership
- Steve Stricker: 54th, 50.0 DraftKings points, 3.35 percent avg ownership
- Thorbjorn Olesen: 44th, 55.5 DraftKings points, 1.07 percent avg ownership
- Chez Reavie: 22nd, 58.5 DraftKings points, 0.87 percent avg ownership
- Danny Lee: MC, 17.5 DraftKings points, 4.54 percent avg ownership
Only Grace was owned at a percentage (slightly) higher than five percent, but both he and Lee were brutal plays, accumulating less than 20 points each. On the other hand, Olesen was your first-round leader, and while he faded as the tournament went on, he was able to post a respectable 55.5 DraftKings points. Reavie was the best play of the bunch: He was owned at less than one percent and produced 58.5 DraftKings points with his 22nd-place finish.
Don’t Sweat The Euro Technique
As always, the first way we can use FantasyLabs to find potentially low-owned yet talented golfers in our Models is to leverage our Long-Term Adjusted Round Score (LT Adj Rd Score) metric. If you sort the field by LT Adj Rd Score, you are looking at a list of players who have been the best golfers over the past 75 weeks. Among these golfers, those who have low salaries could also have low ownership.
This week, it’s Soren Kjeldsen who catches my eye: He is tied for 15th in the field with his 69.7 LT Adj Rd Score. Plus, he has the added bonus of being a Euro Tour player, which historically suppresses ownership percentages. Per our PGA Ownership Dashboard, in the last three PGA Tour events Kjeldsen has played, he has never been owned more than 3.18 percent and was twice owned at less than one percent. More importantly, Kjeldsen’s eighth-ranked 68.0 DA percentage should help him navigate Sedgefield CC quite well in his debut here.
Go Euro or Go Home
While his 70.4 LT Adj Rd Score is not something to write home about and his 71.1 Recent Adj Rd Score is even worse, Jonas Blixt does have course history on his side. In fact, Blixt’s 69.6 Course Adj Rd Score ranks sixth among golfers who have made more than two starts at this track. Blixt may not be playing well recently, but he did win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans back in April, and in a weak field like this anything can happen.
Be sure to check and see if anyone other than Hump rosters Blixt with our new PGA Contests Dashboard shortly after contests lock.
Double J
J.J. Spaun is another dude who hasn’t played well recently but did flash earlier this season when he put together three top-10 finishes at more prestigious events like the Farmers Insurance Open (T9) and Waste Management Phoenix Open (T4). Plus, he played very well at a similar course when he posted a T6 behind three sub-70 rounds at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina. Moreover, Spaun fits the profile of someone who should play well here: His 70.0 LT Greens In Regulation (GIR) percentage ranks third in the field, and he is tied for 21st overall with his 66.1 LT Driving Accuracy (DA) percentage.
Do You Speak English?
Harris English enters this tournament in decent form — he has four top-30 finishes in his last seven starts, including a 10th-place finish at the St. Jude Classic. He is tied for 18th in the field with his 70.9 Recent GIR percentage, tied for 31st with his 69.9 Recent Adj Rd Score, and 28th with his 14.0 Recent Adjusted Birdies Per Tournament (Adj Bird Avg). English has played well here at Sedgefield: His 69.3 Course Adj Rd Score is fourth-best among golfers with at least three starts. Plus, he’s one of the better golfers in this weak field: He is tied for 26th overall with his 70.0 LT Adj Rd Score.
Frying Pan
Speaking of Recent Adj Bird Avg, Cheng-Tsung (C.T.) Pan is tied for 10th in the field among golfers who have made more than one start in the past six weeks with his 16.0 Recent Adj Bird Avg. Pan also has the 16th-best Recent GIR percentage (71.5) in the field, and he’s been accurate off the tee (67.0 Recent DA percentage). Pan has two top-15s and one missed cut in his last four starts; he is tied for 22nd in the field with his 69.7 Recent Adj Rd Score.
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Good luck, and be sure to do your own PGA research with the FantasyLabs Tools and watch our PGA videos on our Premium Content Portal.
