It’s officially Open Season, as the not-so-distant calendar is dominated by the two biggest of the year — the US Open & The Open Championship. Played within a month of each other, it affords the opportunity for a golfer to get hot and win both in short succession. It also gives us two tournaments that will feature PGA DFS Millionaire Makers, with DraftKings offering a $10 buy-in for this week’s US Open. Likely, given how early the tournament locks in Europe, that will be changed to the $20 or even $33 buy-in for small dollar buy-in for the Open Championship in a few months. The First Cut is the first DFS golf advice article of the week, and will feature a preview of the tournament, the course and some PGA DFS picks for daily fantasy contests on DraftKings and FanDuel.
One of the more intriguing storylines of the week will undoubtedly be Jon Rahm. Forced to withdraw after returning a positive test a few weeks ago at The Memorial Tournament after having a six-shot lead. Will he be able to return two negative tests and be able to tee it up as the odds-on favorite?
If it is your first time joining us, here’s a brief synopsis of what you can find in this article most weeks.
- Tournament and Format
- Course Commentary
- Course Facts and Figures
- PGA DFS Course Summary and Statistical Comparison
- PGA DFS Preview, including sweat sheet
- Player Preview
Be sure to check out all of our US Open DFS golf strategy shows on our YouTube Channel, and it all starts with the First Look Show Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET.
The US Open at Torrey Pines PGA DFS Preview & Picks
Course Commentary: Torrey Pines South Course
Torrey Pines State Reserve is arguably the best piece of land any town or city owns in the entire country. Spanning 2,000 miles of virtually untouched coastline, there may be no better place to see the Pacific Ocean and all the Golden Coast has to offer. Not only does it offer a variety of outdoor activities, but it also boasts one, if not two, of the best 18-hole municipally-owned golf courses in the world. The South Course, the main course used by the professionals, was established back in 1957 and designed by William Bell. Its beautiful coastal layout features small fairways, long rough and sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. This will be the first time since Tiger Woods’ miraculous win on one leg that the US Open will be played at Torrey Pines.
Par and Yardage
- Par 72: 7,700
Course Difficulty
- 3/38 2021 at +1.35 over par.
Hole Dispersion
- Four Par 3’s — 200, 175 ,221, 223
- Ten Par 4’s — 450, 390, 490, 460, 460, 420, 440, 480, 450, 504
- Four Par 5’s — 560, 614, 614, 570
Designer
- William Bell
Latest PGA DFS Content
- RBC Heritage Preview: Course Breakdown, PGA DFS Model Plays & Much More
- 2024 RBC Heritage DFS Core Plays: Finding Course Fits for Harbour Town, Including Xander Schauffele
- RBC Heritage First Round Leader Picks, Bets & More (2024)
- PGA DFS Picks: Top Values for the RBC Heritage (2024)
- DraftKings Golf Cheat Sheet: Best PGA DFS Sims Picks for the RBC Heritage | Scottie Scheffler
- Stokastic DFS on Youtube
Facts and Figures
- Off the Tee: As always, we expect the course to play harder for a US Open setup than it did for the Farmers Insurance back in January. Then, just 51% of the golfers hit the fairway on average.
- Approach to the Green: The rough is incredibly penal here at Torrey Pines and should be worse this week, so I’d expect the number to be worse than 64% for greens in regulation this week.
- Around the Green: When the ball does miss the green, a golfer will have about a 60% chance to get it up and down.
- On the Green: The greens ranked 21st on tour last year. Not overly difficult.
PGA DFS Sweat Sheet for The US Open at Torrey Pines
With Par 4’s that will stretch north of 500 yards — and only one under 420 — it’s no surprise that you have to score on the Par 5’s to compete here. In addition, the front nine is also statistically much easier than the back nine, with 59% of the scoring done on the first nine holes.
The US Open at Torrey Pines Player Preview
The best of the best are here at Torrey Pines this week, obviously, in golf’s biggest stage. In fact, you’d have to go all the way to No. 70 in the world, Jason Day, to find someone not teeing it up here this week. However, there are also a ton of golfers competing this week that are likely not so familiar. We’ll learn about a few of them in the next section.
Notable Non-PGA Tour Qualifiers
With just about half the field having to qualify for the event through local qualifying tournaments, there are plenty of names making their major championship debut. In all, over 40 golfers not currently on the PGA Tour will be teeing it up. None of them are priced above $7,300 on DraftKings this week, nor have odds better than 100/1. I’ve broken them into two categories.
- Value Tier: Golfers that could provide salary flexibility and/or good value on the betting side and should be in consideration for your PGA DFS lineups
- Deep Shots: Golfers that are likely not on anyone’s radar
Value Tier:
All bets found on BetMGM.com
- Garrick Higgo (Outright Odds 100/1, DraftKings Salary $7,300): A young, talented player, he has been over in the states for a little while, having qualified for the PGA Championship. He teed it up in both events in the last month in South Carolina, making the cut in his first major championship, the PGA Championship, and again last week at the Palmetto Championship. He hails from South Africa and has taken the next step in his golf game within the last two months, with two wins and four top-10s on the European Tour. His iron play is the strongest part of his game.
- Wilco Nienaber (Outright Odds 350/1, DraftKings Salary $6,900): The other head of two-headed South African monster, one that is young and improving each week, Nienaber got his first start on the PGA Tour last week at the Palmetto Championship, and blasted his way into contention. Known for his long ball off the tee — one that is very comparable to Bryson DeChambeau — Wilco will be interesting to watch over the next few days.
- Cameron Young (Outright Odds 250/1, DraftKings Salary $6,800): The 24-year-old from Scarborough, N.Y., turned pro after attending Wake Forest for four years in 2019. He struggled to find playing status in his first six months being a professional, then COVID hit. So he’d have to wait another four months to get his career going, but he’d find instant status on the Korn Ferry TOUR after finishing 11th at the Pinnacle Bank Championship. He parlayed that into three more made cuts in a row, finishing with a second-place finish at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. Those four starts gave him status for this year’s tour, where he had a real struggle in eight starts, missing the cut five times. But a T13 at the Huntsville Championship was a good break in the form, and two weeks later, he’d win one of two events in a row at the AdventHealth Championship. He went wire-to-wire in that event, and also the following event, the Evans Scholars Invitational, all but securing promotion to the PGA Tour next year.
- Taylor Pendrith (Outright Odds 400/1, DraftKings Salary $6,500): One of the most consistent performers on the Korn Ferry TOUR this year, Pendrith is all but assured of his PGA Tour card for next season. The 30-year-old will join a bunch of Canadians on the PGA Tour as the best from the country continue to move up the world rankings. Consistency is the name of Pendrith’s game, making 11-of-12 cuts on the Korth Ferry TOUR this year.
- Guido Migliozzi (Outright Odds 250/1, DraftKings Salary $6,800) A young, talented Italian, Migliozzi has popped up on the first page of the leaderboard of the European Tour over the last few years. But he hasn’t really found much consistency, holding back his growth a bit. But, a bridesmaid three times this year on the European Tour, including his last two events, got him into the event here in San Diego this week. Certainly a step up from the “Made In Himmer Land” tournament, Migliozzi will try to take advantage of a rare start on the biggest stage in golf.
Deep Shots:
- Sahith Theegala (Outright Odds 500/1, DraftKings Salary $6,400) A young man who attended Pepperdine, just about two hours north of here, should be at least familiar with west Coast golf. He graduated last year, winning many of college golf’s top honors, but doing so in the worst year he could have. That’s when golf was just starting to come back online from the COVID break, and everyone was ready to play again. Since turning pro, he’s been able to compete 13 times on either the Korn Ferry TOUR or the PGA Tour. He missed his first three cuts, but he has only missed two cuts in his last 10 starts since then. His best finish was a tie for 10th at the MGM Resorts Championship on the Korn Ferry TOUR, while his best finish on the PGA Tour was a tie for 14th at the Safeway Open. Theegala qualified via the Springfield Country Club in the last qualifying spot.
- Akshay Bhatia (Outright Odds 500/1, DraftKings Salary $6,400) The youngest participant in the 121st US Open Championship, the 19-year-old is doing it a different way. Having turned pro right out of high school, Bhatia’s game is unquestionably talented. While he has gotten 17 starts, a few of them while still an amateur, he’s missed the cut 12 times, including eight of his first nine. So, he’s played a little better recently, making four of his last eight cuts. He has no playing status on any tour right now, but, with the three made cuts on the PGA Tour, including a tie for ninth at the Safeway Open, he should have enough points to qualify for the Korn Ferry TOUR finals at the end of the year. A made cut in this event would go a very long way to helping secure that.
- Justin Suh (Outright Odds 500/1, DraftKings Salary $6,400) Suh is a talented golfer that was supposed to be a PGA Tour player by now. But, when he got out of college, the same time Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff did, results didn’t come so quickly. Then COVID hit, which gave him time to find his game again. He did just that. Since then, he’s made 12-of-14 cuts on multiple tours. He had one sponsor invite left and decided to use it at the Wells Fargo Championship. Sadly, his around-the-green work that week could have used a lesson from me. He wasn’t even close to the cut and will have to earn his way onto the PGA Tour through Monday qualifying. However, because he’s made five cuts, including a tie for eighth at the Shriners, Suh, like Bhatia, will likely qualify for the Korn Ferry TOUR Finals. Another made cut this week should help secure that. Suh went to college at USC, which should help him feel close to home this week.
- Pierceson Coody (Outright Odds 500/1, DraftKings Salary n/a) As of right now, the No. 2 amateur in the world is not listed on the DraftKings player pool, but his brother, Parker Coody, is. They’ll fix that up before the tourney starts on Thursday, but likely not at the same price. Coody qualified in the hardest site, filled with PGA Tour players, including his playing partner Rickie Fowler who missed the cut by one stroke. Coody got his first taste of the PGA Tour at the Byron Nelson a few weeks back, but missed the cut.
- Dylan Meyer (Outright Odds 1000/1 DraftKings Salary $6,100) A former standout in college, who won six times at the University of Illinois, really struggled since turning pro back in 2019. He battled injuries for some time, but a recent interview suggested that he’s now healthy and feels go about his game. His best-ever finish in a professional event was this event back in 2018, where he finished in a tie for 20th.
Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!
[PGAPAGE]
