No Tournament History this week
Fantistics Fantasy Football Packages
Favorite Plays by Tier
PGA Championship
TPC Harding Park: San Francisco, CA Par 70, 7,521 Yards
WEDNESDAY UPDATE
Weather
No rain is in the forecast and for the first two days, it doesn't look like temperatures will reach 65 degrees. Which leaves us with the wind as a possible concern. Thursday morning has very minimal winds, while late Thursday afternoon looks to be the highest winds of the first two days, with 15 mph winds and potential gusts up to 30-35 mph according to Windfinder (National Weather service has gusts around 15-20 mph for this time period). Friday looks to have winds around 10 mph. You may want to check a forecast again late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning to see if things have become clearer. As of 4:30 pm EST on Wednesday, these are the forecasts and I see a potential advantage to the Thursday AM/Friday PM wave. It feels like it may be more of a deeper tiebreaker than something you need to go and make lineup changes on. But, could be a factor you may want to consider with everything else.
Ownership
The same names appear at the top highest projected owned players on both FanShare Sports and Fantasy National. Past major experience, mispriced players, and players with great form since the restart two months ago make up this list of names. Players who may approach or exceed 20% ownership are as follows (in no particular order): Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Daniel Berger, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm, and Patrick Cantlay.
Other Notes
- James Adams' Betting Card
- I have not finalized my one lineup on DraftKings or on FanDuel yet. I'm pretty sure that my favorite play in the 9k tier will end up being Dustin Johnson. Webb Simpson will still probably end up on one of the lineups, but I think DJ may end up on both. The reason is his driving distance and when I factor in colder temperatures (ball will not travel as far as in warmer weather) and possible marine layers to cut down on distance, I start emphasizing driving distance a bit more than accuracy. Accuracy will still be important on these narrow fairways, but distance is starting to pop up as being more important than I originally thought.
- There is some confusion what the cut rules are. I have not found anything definitive other than the PGA Championship Media Guide, that says Top 70 and ties. Other places have reported it will be Top 65 and ties. I don't think it will alter your player selection, but just know that we may not know for sure until Friday what the cut line will be due to the confusion around the cut rule.
- Players who rank in the Top 50 in both Driving Distance and Fairways Gained on Fantasy National (Accuracy) over the past 50 rounds: Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Paul Casey, Viktor Hovland, and Justin Rose. Outside of Rahm, none of the other four really are getting much buzz. Hovland and Casey struggled last week, and Rose has struggled over his past couple of tournaments. If you like longer term form, these are some pivots that should fit the course and will be low-owned.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Opening Thoughts
It's weird to think that the first major of the year is happening in August. But welcome to 2020! This is also a first time venue for the PGA Championship and outside of a Match Play event in 2015, there is no other recent history about how TPC Harding Park will play. Even if you want to look at that 2015 Match Play event that Rory McIlroy one, the course has been lengthened and will play different. It sounds like they have narrowed the fairways and grew up the rough quite a bit in preparation for this major. Factoring in the length and the rough, I will be looking at Ball Striking with an emphasis on Total Driving (Distance and Accuracy). There are 6 Par 4s in the 450-500 yard range, one Par 4 over 500 yards, and two Par 3s at 200+ yards (including a 250 yard Par 3). I think proximity with long irons is something else I will be looking at. Finally, one slight change to what we have been used to this year: For the PGA Championship, it will be Top 70 and ties that will play the weekend, not Top 65. There will be no secondary cut either.
