After Stewart Cink notched a dominant win at Harbour Town last week, the PGA Tour now hosts the team-play styled Zurich Classic at TPC Louisiana (par 72, 7.425 yards). For the first time ever, the DFS industry has a full slate of high-end GPP plays available for this team-formatted tournament. Below, you will find some of my favorite PGA DFS picks for both DraftKings and FanDuel while using Awesemo’s Top Golfers Tool.
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PGA DFS Picks: Zurich Classic
In 2017, the PGA converted the Zurich Classic to a team-styled event. Teams consist of two golfers and 80 squads will be competing in Louisiana this week. The tournament is split into two different formats, with the first and third rounds being best ball, and the second and fourth rounds being alternate-shot stroke play. After the first 36 holes, there will be a Top-35 and ties cut line taking place. Since this is a team effort, each golfer will score the same amount of DFS points as their teammate. On DraftKings, even though every golfer is listed individually, there is no difference in rostering either player from a team. Hence, the reason why teammates are priced in DFS according to their team – not individually.
As expected, team play has resulted in some very low numbers at TPC Louisiana. For the three-team oriented Zurich Classics that have been held here, the average winning score has been 25 strokes under-par. This Par-72 was designed by the late Pete Dye, and just like at all of his venues, you need to be a strong ball-striker. It also wouldn’t hurt being quite efficient on the Par 4s. Being long off the tee isn’t necessary, as TPC Louisiana can certainly be classified as a second-shot course.
Pat Perez/Jason Kokrak
Awesemo PGA DFS Leverage Scores: DraftKings: 7.5%, FanDuel: 16.6%
After both having success at this event in the past, Kokrak and Perez will be joining forces for this year’s edition of the Zurich Classic. With Christ Stroud, Korak finished 22nd here in 2019. In the year prior, Perez and Jason Dufner were the runners-up to Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy. Individually, Kokrak is in peak form, making the cut at his last nine standard stroke-play tournaments, with three Top-1os in his most recent four. Over his past 12 rounds, Kokrak’s ball-striking has been outstanding, ranking fourth in strokes gained tee-to-green. A little mix of this, along with Perez’s elite putting on Bermuda greens, should be a match made in heaven at TPC Louisiana.
Awesemo’s Top Golfers Tool absolutely loves this pairing this week, giving the squad a 9% chance of finishing inside the Top-6. Combine this with sub-1% projected ownership levels for both DraftKings and FanDuel, and the Perez-Kokrak duo presents the highest leverage score of the week for both sites.
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Billy Horschel/Sam Burns
Awesemo PGA DFS Leverage Scores: DraftKings: 4.6%, FanDuel: 12.8%
Per Awesemo’s Top Golfers Tool, Horschel and Burns are expected to go essentially unowned this week, making the team an optimal target for GPPs. Horschel has advanced to the weekend in six of his past seven starts, and the Florida product has been a stud at TPC Louisiana. Since team play was introduced, Horschel has a victory at this event in 2018 and then a 13th place in 2019 – both of which came with Piercy as his teammate. In addition, Horschel won the 2013 Zurich Classic alone, when this event was still a regular-styled PGA stop.
It’s safe to say the 34-year-old loves this venue, and Horschel’s and Burns’ strong histories at Pete Dye creations should help them contend this weekend. When we analyze every golfer in this field’s last 100 rounds at Dye designs, Horschel and Burns rank fifth and 20th in total strokes gained, respectively.
Danny Willett/Tyrell Hatton
Awesemo PGA DFS Leverage Scores: DraftKings: 5.4%, FanDuel: 14.8%
Neither of these two have competed at TPC Louisiana before in their careers, which is expected to result in little ownership for the English tandem, via Awesemo’s Top Golfers Tool. Hatton and Willett’s games should mesh well, and we need to capitalize on most DFS players ignoring them in GPPs. Just this past weekend, Willett recorded an 18th-place finish at Harbour Town Golf Links, which is also one of Dye’s famous layouts. At this event, Hatton carded a 39th-place finish, which marked his ninth made cut in his past 10 starts. During this run, the 29-year-old has finished inside the Top-25 on eight occasions.
Hatton is a very strong putter on Bermuda grass, and if Willett can manage to contribute a solid week with his irons, this twosome should be in the hunt come Sunday afternoon.
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