THE CJ CUP in South Carolina PGA DFS Stats Preview: Course Fits, GPP Picks, and Values

The PGA TOUR will head to Congaree Golf Club to play the 2022 CJ CUP. The first three editions of the event were originally played in South Korea at Nine Bridges, but the event moved to Las Vegas for 2020 (Shadow Creek) and 2021 (The Summit Club) after the COVID-19 pandemic. Congaree hosted the inaugural edition of the Palmetto Championship.

Congaree Golf Club is a 7,655-yard par 71 and features Bermudagrass greens.

THE CJ CUP is a no-cut event and will feature 78 players. The field is very strong this week, with 15 of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Rankings making the trip South. Those golfers include Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Max Homa, Sungjae Im, and Tom Kim.

For contests on DraftKings, I will be breaking down the key stats (past 24 rounds) and selecting golfers from different price tiers to provide flexibility for a DFS lineup.

And 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 excellent for finding the best price-considered plays for cash games.

For large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups or use our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

This analysis may reference Strokes Gained, a set of proprietary metrics generated by the PGA TOUR using millions of data points to calculate how many shots, on average, it takes a player to get the ball in the hole from every distance and situation.

Strokes Gained is now available in the FantasyLabs PGA Models.

Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee

Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee will be a major factor this week. While the fairways are wide. missing them could be costly for golfers. With sandy areas lining the fairways on many holes, it will be important to hit the ball straight, with distance being an added benefit.

High-end target: Rory McIlroy— $11,100 (4th Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee)
Mid-range target: Cameron Young— $8,600 (2nd Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee)
Value target: Keith Mitchell— $7,200 (5th Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee)

Strokes Gained: Approach

The green complexes at Congaree Golf Club are going to be quite challenging. I actually expect this event to be pretty difficult once again, and the tricky greens will put an emphasis on precise approach play.

High-end target: Rory McIlroy $11,100 (2nd Strokes Gained: Approach)
Mid-range target: Russell Henley— $7,300 (6th Strokes Gained: Approach)
Value target: Brendan Steele— $6,300 (8th Strokes Gained: Approach)

Strokes Gained Total: Tom Fazio Designs

Tom Fazio designs are fairly unique, and often times we see the same players on the leaderboard at his courses.

High-end target: Justin Thomas— $10,200 (1st Strokes Gained Total: Tom Fazio Designs)
Mid-range target: Russell Henley— $7,300 (8th Strokes Gained Total: Tom Fazio Designs)
Value target: Keith Mitchell— $7,200 (5th Strokes Gained Total: Tom Fazio Designs)

Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green

With little rough around the green locations, the golf course’s best defense will be tightly mowed run-off areas and bunkers. A strong around-the-green game is a must at Congaree.

High-end target: Justin Thomas— $10,200 (1st Strokes Gained: Around the Green)
Mid-range target: Scott Stallings— $7,200 (3rd Strokes Gained: Around the Green)
Value target: Danny Willett— $6,200 (4th Strokes Gained: Around the Green)

Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass) (Fast)

While I don’t think these greens will be as fast in October as they were in June, I still think they’ll be on the fast side.

High-end target: Sam Burns— $9,300 (2nd Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass) (Fast)
Mid-range target: Billy Horschel— $8,000 (16th Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass) (Fast)
Value target: Kevin Kisner— $6,900 (1st Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass) (Fast)

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