Rocket Classic 2026 PGA DFS Perfect Lineup

The Rocket Classic build starts from an unusual place for a PGA DFS perfect lineup: the entire three-golfer core costs $23,900. On the show, Ben Rasa set his three trusted plays for the DraftKings slate, and none of them costs more than $9,100, which leaves a huge $8,700 per spot for the last three roster slots. That cheap, flexible spine is the thesis of this lineup. When your build-arounds do not lock you into one structure, the Stokastic single-lineup simulator can explore every version of the roster around them, and the version it returns first carries a 37%-owned piece of chalk. What you decide to do with that golfer is the whole lineup, and we will get there after the core.

If you want the full projections board through lock, the PGA DFS Picks hub carries it, and how to use the Stokastic PGA Sims covers the tool mechanics this piece assumes.

The Quick Answer

The Rocket Classic PGA DFS perfect lineup builds around Patrick Cantlay ($9,100), Jackson Suber ($7,500) and Ben Kohles ($7,300), a $23,900 core that leaves $8,700 per remaining spot for the Stokastic single-lineup simulator to fill. The full case for each golfer, the simulator's optimal completion with its 17% Sim ROI, and the lower-owned pivot structure are below.

Watch The Video

Ben Rasa sets the three-golfer core and the Stokastic single-lineup simulator completes the build on the show: Watch on YouTube.

The Cornerstone: Patrick Cantlay ($9,100)

Every perfect lineup starts with a golfer you trust, and this one starts with one of the stronger tee-to-green players in this field. Patrick Cantlay at $9,100 is a very reasonable price for that profile. He has not teed it up since The Open Championship, where he finished 28th, and he has been consistently peppering the first couple pages of the leaderboard. The honest knock is real: he still needs to string four rounds together to contend, and he has been a frustrating hold for anyone waiting on the win. But the price bakes that in, and it buys something rarer than upside this week: flexibility. He can be the first man into the build, the second, or honestly the third, and a $9,100 golfer who fits every structure is exactly what a simulator wants to work around.

The Bounce-Back: Jackson Suber ($7,500)

That flexibility at the top is what lets the build shop the mid-range instead of forcing salary, and the mid-range play is a bounce-back. Jackson Suber at $7,500 missed the cut at the 3M Open, and that start earns forgiveness: he lost control of his putter and his game off the tee in the same week, and no golfer survives that. Before it, he had gained strokes putting in four straight events and had been playing really nice golf in 2026, with a sixth-place finish and two fourth-place finishes over the last few months. The ceiling is even bigger than those finishes suggest: two starts ago he opened The Open Championship with a 65 to lead the tournament outright, in his first Open appearance, before the week got away from him. Our 3M Open strategy breakdown covered how quickly that board flipped on putting weeks. Like Cantlay, Suber fits almost any structure: last man in for a balanced build, third or fourth in most others. The read here is an immediate bounce-back at a price that has not caught up to the form before the miss.

The Heater: Ben Kohles ($7,300)

And just a few hundred dollars below Suber sits the golfer whose price has lagged the furthest behind his results. Ben Kohles at $7,300 is playing the strongest golf of his career: ninth last week, third at the John Deere Classic, and 15th at the ISCO Championship in between. He could have won during that stretch with a couple of breaks. Through all of it, the salary really has not moved. The old table rule applies: you do not get up when you are on a heater, and nothing about this week suggests the run changes. At $7,300 he gives the build the same thing the other two do, which is plenty of room to spend anywhere else.

The core in one line: three golfers, $23,900 combined, and every one of them able to bat anywhere in the order. A simulator does its best work when the humans leave it room.

Golfer	DK Salary	The read
Patrick Cantlay	$9,100	Elite tee-to-green, 28th at The Open, fits any roster slot
Jackson Suber	$7,500	Bounce-back after 3M; gained putting in four straight before it
Ben Kohles	$7,300	9th, 3rd (John Deere) and 15th (ISCO) in his last three; price never moved

The row that matters most is the last one. A golfer running ninth, third and 15th over three starts would normally get repriced out of the $7,000s; the board leaving Kohles at $7,300 is the pricing mistake this core is built on.

Now Let The Sim Finish The Build

Here is the payoff on the promise from the top. With Cantlay, Suber and Kohles locked, the Stokastic single-lineup simulator has $8,700 per spot for the final three, and one click of "complete this lineup" returns the optimal trio by projection: Cameron Young, Akshay Bhatia and Jordan Smith. Look at the ownership before you look at the points, because those three land in three completely different tiers. Young comes in at a massive 37% chalk. Bhatia is barely owned at all. Smith sits at about 15%. Run the lineup simulation on that build and it grades out at a 17% Sim ROI, a 2% chance to win and a 28% cash rate, a build with no real problem on the golf side. (One note on those numbers: Sim ROI is the simulator's projected return across thousands of simulated contests for this slate, not realized profit.)

But one grade is not a decision, so the next step is a different flavor of the same core. A second completion kept Bhatia and changed the structure entirely: instead of spending all the way up for the 37% chalk, it slotted a $9,400 golfer at roughly half that ownership and moved the savings down to an $8,300 pivot. Same three anchors, very different lineup. You can also loosen the frame itself and lock only two of the three core golfers for even more flexibility. That is the whole workflow in three steps:

1. Lock the core. Cantlay ($9,100), Suber ($7,500) and Kohles ($7,300) spend $23,900 of the $50,000 cap, leaving $8,700 per remaining spot.
2. Complete and grade. The optimal completion posts a 17% Sim ROI, 2% to win and a 28% cash rate, with its ownership split across a 37% piece, a 15% piece and a near-zero piece.
3. Pivot and save what you like. Re-run the completion at different ownership levels, swap the chalk for the half-owned $9,400 route, and save every build worth entering.

Why the pivot matters is the same lesson from our Sims ROI boost versus raw projection breakdown: the highest-projected completion and the best tournament completion are rarely the same lineup, and ownership is the difference. If you are building for cash instead, the cash-game Sims workflow flips the logic toward the 28% cash-rate side of that grade.

The Flexible Core Is The Edge

Zoom back out and the Rocket Classic lineup resolves to one idea: nothing in this core forces your hand. Cantlay can bat first or third, Suber fits any slot, and the Kohles pricing lag pays for whatever structure the simulator likes best, chalk, pivot, or the half-owned route up top. That is a different shape than the star-anchored builds from The Open Championship edition of this series, and it is a better fit for a week where the fundamentals of GPP structure decide more than raw projection does. Set the three anchors, check the PGA DFS projections and ownership in the DataHub, and let the simulator argue you into the version the field will not have.

Every projection, ownership number and lineup grade in this build comes from Stokastic Sims, and code PGADFS10 takes 10% off your first payment.

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FAQ

Who are the core PGA DFS plays for the Rocket Classic perfect lineup? The three build-around golfers are Patrick Cantlay ($9,100), Jackson Suber ($7,500) and Ben Kohles ($7,300). Cantlay is the tee-to-green cornerstone, Suber is the bounce-back mid-range play, and Kohles is the hottest golfer on the board at a price that never moved.

What did the single-lineup simulator return around that core? The optimal completion by projection added Cameron Young at 37% ownership, a barely-owned Akshay Bhatia and Jordan Smith at about 15%. The build graded out at a 17% Sim ROI, a 2% chance to win and a 28% cash rate.

Why pivot off the optimal completion? Because 37% ownership on one golfer is a lot of chalk for a tournament lineup. The alternate structure kept Bhatia, slotted a $9,400 golfer at roughly half that ownership and moved the savings to an $8,300 pivot, keeping the same core with far less duplication risk.

Where do I build my own Rocket Classic lineup? Run the free single-lineup simulator, lock the golfers you trust, and complete the build at the ownership levels you want before saving the lineups you like.

Credit to Ben Rasa for the three-golfer core; the Stokastic single-lineup simulator finishes the job.