The Players Championship
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THE PLAYERS Championship | Fantasy Golf Rankings

Posted By: Ed Skorupa

The PGA Tour’s unofficial fifth major takes place this week as the field of competes at TPC Sawgrass for THE PLAYERS Championship. Below are this week’s fantasy golf rankings, along with three One and Done fantasy league options and a few betting odds I just may dabble into.

Wells Fargo Championship finishes

Last Sunday, southpaw Brian Harman sank a clutch 28-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for the one-shot victory over Dustin Johnson and Pat Perez. The win was Harman’s first since 2014 and second of his career.

16 out of our top 24 rankings finished in 52nd place or better at Wells Fargo. Although we didn’t get the winner, 5 out of our top 12 finished in 12th place or better.

Here are those 5 finishes from the Wells Fargo Championship:

Rank      Player                                   Finish

1              D. Johnson                          T2

2             J. Rahm                                 4

4             P. Casey                                T12

12           P. Perez                                T2

13           D.A. Points                           T12

THE PLAYERS Championship | Breakdown

Home of THE PLAYERS, TPC Sawgrass (Stadium Course) is well-known for its iconic par 3 17th island green. The Tiger Woods “better than most” birdie putt at the 2001 PLAYERS still gives me chills. Unless you grew up solely on laserdisc like Sargent Drake Sabitch, you should’ve at least seen the replay at some point in your life. If not, here is the clip of Tiger’s putt on 17.

Jason Day looks to defend his PLAYERS title at Pete Dye’s Stadium Course, which no one has ever done. Changes have been made to a few hole designs and a new type of grass was planted on the greens within the past year. The 12th hole will now be a drivable par 4 with danger lurking. The greens have been replaced with TifEagle Bermuda grass as opposed to MiniVerde ultra-dwarf Bermuda which was there prior. You know what they always say, “TifEagle is no MiniVerde.” No, I’m joshin’. I don’t even know what the hell that means. But, since both grass types are still Bermuda, it should not have too big of an impact on players’ putting. It’s a change worth noting, however. Also, the course lost over 200 trees from last year’s Hurricane Matthew.

Two key stats I have weighted this week are ball striking and scrambling. Also, course history will be a big factory on which players I decide to insert into my DraftKings and FantasyDraft lineups. The field is stacked and after looking at the finishing PLAYERS’ leaderboards from the last few years, the cream typically rises to the top by Sunday here in Florida.

THE PLAYERS Championship | Fantasy Golf Rankings

Below are THE PLAYERS Championship fantasy golf rankings provided by @Sgrignoli3 – PAS contributor and statistician. The rankings are derived from year-to-date player statistics extracted from PGATour.com. The eight weighted stats for this event can be found at the bottom. Player salaries are based off of DraftKings.com and FantasyDraft.com. The right end column has a variance in salary rank.

**Disclaimer: It should be noted that the following golfers did not have statistical rankings on PGATour.com and, therefore, could not be included in the THE PLAYERS Championship rankings model: Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, Bernd Wiesberger, Ross Fisher, Steve Stricker, Danny Willett, Jerry Kelly, David Toms, Bernhard Langer, Yuta Ikeda, and Fredrik Jacobson

Top 25

The top weighted player statistics for THE PLAYERS include:

  • -Strokes Gained: Approach = 20%
  • -Birdie or Better % = 20%
  • -Ball striking = 10%
  • -Scrambling = 10%
  • -Strokes Gained: Around the Green = 10%
  • -Par 4 Scoring = 10%
  • -Par 5 Scoring = 10%
  • -Bogey Avoidance = 10%

THE PLAYERS Championship | One and Done Picks

 

My top 3 One and Done options for THE PLAYERS:

  1. Justin Thomas
  2. Justin Rose
  3. Sergio Garcia

Already used: Brandt Snedeker, Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Bill Haas, Charles Howell III, Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, Russell Henley, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Kisner, Branden Grace, Daniel Berger, Francesco Molinari

Year-to-Date earnings = $3,690,020

THE PLAYERS Championship | Betting Odds

IF I was a betting man, these are the lines I would consider taking this week.

First Round Leader:

  • Kaymer – 50/1
  • Henley – 66/1
  • Cam Smith – 80/1
  • Steele – 90/1
  • Hoffman – 90/1
  • Hurley – 150/1

*BOMBER FRL BET* Fathauer – 200/1

To Win:

  • *HEAVY* Rose – 25/1
  • Chappell – 50/1
  • Kisner – 50/1
  • Cantley – 80/1
  • Henley – 80/1
  • Leishman – 100/1
  • Fisher – 100/1
  • Stanley – 100/1
  • Bryan – 125/1
  • Steele – 150/1

Top 10 Finish:

  • McIlroy – Even

Hit me up at @Eddie_ThePAS

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