PGA DFS Picks: Showdown Spotlight Round 2 l Wyndham Championship

This column is a quick-hitter article to give you the stats you need to make informed PGA DFS picks for your DraftKings + FanDuel daily fantasy lineups and give you a couple of recommendations for the Wyndham Championship. On a typical showdown contest, DraftKings will offer upwards of $50,000 to first for rounds 2 and 3 showdown and sometimes up to $100,000 for the final-round contests. They also provide weekend-long contests that have been offering $25,000 to first for most weekends. Lastly, FanDuel has also tried to get into the weekend-long and final round contests, offering $10,000 and $5,000 to first.

Previous Round Commentary

For an event that gets a -20 or so winner every year, the scoring seemed like it was starting slow. The first couple of holes on each side of the nines are rather tricky, which probably played into it, but then Harold Varner III stepped onto the course. Out in the morning, Varner played a superb round, bogey-free 62, and was leading the way for quite a while. That until Tom Hoge & Roger Sloan, two names we haven’t heard in a while, matched Varner’s 62. The scoring average wasn’t’ quite a full stroke under par, somewhere in the .75 range, but that’s also with plenty of golfers still to finish their first round

I guess maybe I should have opened with that, letting you know that the first round is yet to be completed and won’t be until tomorrow morning. Kind of a bad break for those playing in the afternoon, as conditions seemed to improve as the day went out. A couple of guys still out there that could shake up the top of the leaderboard are Talor Gooch, Hank Lebioda, & Ryan Brehm.

The Expected Weather for Tomorrow’s PGA DFS Slate

High humidity and high temps are likely to bring thundershowers, and that’s the problem we ran into today. Likely, that happens again tomorrow. Can’t plan for that type of mother nature.

Previous Round Stat Review

The scoring average, as noted, was around 69.25, with nine holes playing under par. The 5th hole gave up 82 birdies, more than half of the field, and five eagles! The 15th hole, the other par five, played a bit harder, with only 64 birdies and four eagles. The 8th and 13th were the third and fourth easiest. On the day, the 10th and 18th holes were the two toughest.

Bogey Free rounds in Round 1:

Patrick Reed
Doc Redman
Harold Varner III
Matthias Schwab *thru 14
Kyle Stanley *thru 17
Troy Merritt
Sebastian Munoz
Bo Hoag *thru 14
Sebastian Cappelen *thru 14
Michael Gellerman *thru 14

BOB Leaders Through Round 1

Roger Sloan (9)
Harold Varner, Si Woo Kim, Tom Hoge (8)
Harris English, Talor Gooch, Hank Lebioda, Ryan Brehm, Denny McCarthy (7)

For the full list of stats, click here!

Strokes Gained Ball Striking vs. Putting

Zach Johnson’s putter has gone ice cold now since the first round of the PGA Championship last week, losing almost three stories on the day. He gained three with his ball-striking, for a six-stroke differential. Jhonattan Vegas, on the other hand, lost SIX strokes, putting on day one and dropped almost a stroke ball striking, for a five-stroke differential, but the first time we’ve seen it where a golfer has had both categories be negative and still show up in the top 5. Luke List, Bill Haas, & Josh Teater round out the top five in the category.

PGA DFS Slate Preview

Lock Time

Sometime after round 1 is completed, probably around 8:30 AM EST.

PGA DFS Contest Preview

DraftKings:

DraftKings is offering $25,000 to first with $125,000 GTD.

FanDuel:

Make sure to follow us on Twitter for giveaways and promos!

Top 10 Breakdown and PGA DFS Pick(s)

A chalky Harris English is the first stud on the leaderboard, sitting alone in fourth, one ahead of the other ‘stud’ in the top 10 Patrick Reed. Harold Varner has been close a few times in a PGA Tour event this year, and has himself a first-round lead, and will look to use his local connections to fuel his fire the rest of the week. However, if Tom Hoge hits his irons the way he did today, or Roger Sloan makes almost 200 feet of putts per day, neither of them will be easy to beat. Don’t count out former winner here at Sedgefield Si Woo Kim either who started his tournament off with a solid 65 today.

Si Woo Kim ($8,500)

He’s been hot for a few weeks now, showing form in almost every facet of his game. The only thing that held him back today a little was his around the green work .losing over as stroke there today. But, his putting more than made up for it, gaining over two and a quarter for the day, to go along with his solid ball striking. I don’t see that stopping anytime soon, and hopefully, ownership remains low, as it was below 10% for the week long.

Stud or Value Pick Outside of Top 10

Chris Kirk ($7,100)

Kirk is there again, after another solid start to a tournament, Kirks four under 66 has him just four back of the lead. He had another solid day ball striking, gaining over 3.5 strokes on the day, but couldn’t find his putter lost about .75. I’d like to bet on the putting getting better, and the ball striking remaining the same for round two as Kirk looks to get a win on the PGA Tour to match his win on the Korn Ferry Tour from a few weeks ago.

Sneaky PGA DFS Pick Outside of Top 10

Anirban Lahiri ($6,000)

Ok, this one is a bit off the wall, not going to lie. This is Lahiri’s first start since the return, as he’s decided to sit out the last eight or nine weeks. But, the rust was only seen today with his putter, where he lost two strokes. His ball-striking however, looked really good, gaining over a stroke with his irons and just shy of a stroke off the tee. That’s pretty good sings for a guy just coming back, and at the flat minimum, I’m willing to take a shot in round two. I also like Danny Lee & Matthew NeSmith.