Another great week for PGA DFS! Bubba Watson defeated Paul Casey on the second playoff hole to win the Travelers Championship. On DraftKings, “bourbonpoker” held off “haveyouheardy” by 1.5 points to win the $100,000 prize. Not bad for $3. Let’s take a look at the winning lineup:
Bubba Watson (21.0%) $11800 – 121
Paul Casey (7.5%) $9000 – 112.5
Brian Harman (2.5%) $6800 – 107
Brandt Snedeker (28.1%) $10900 – 88.5
Mark D. Anderson (0.8%) $5300 – 82
Colt Knost (7.2%) $6200 – 75.5
A little bit about “bourbonpoker’s” $100k-winning lineup. He maxed out his available salary and scored 586.5 points. Three of his golfers appeared in our expert consensus list (Watson, Snedeker, Knost) and two others were mentioned more than once (Casey and Harman). He went off the board to select Anderson, who returned excellent value (82 points on $5300) while being less than one percent owned. He did an excellent job of blending highly-owned top-tier talent, popular value plays, and cheap, low-owned golfers that help set him apart from the pack.
Although the winning lineup scored 568.5 points, it still came in 60 points shy of the optimal lineup, which looked like this:
Bubba Watson (21.0%) $11800 – 121
Paul Casey (7.5%) $9000 – 112.5
Graham DeLaet (6.1%) $8500 – 107
Brain Harman (2.5%) $6800 – 97
Mark Wilson (0.4%) $6400 – 96.5
Carl Pettersson (1.8%) $7100 – 94.5
Two things stick out about this lineup. First, it only features one player above 7.5% ownership; and second, it didn’t go super cheap (punt) a roster spot. Mark Wilson at $6400 is cheap, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not like he’s a $5k dart throw.
Moving on to the expert selections and grades…
The experts did a great job identifying players would be successful this week. Let’s revisit the consensus list:
Brandt Snedeker B
Brendan Steele B
Brendon de Jonge F
Brendon Todd B
Bubba Watson A+
Cameron Smith B
Colt Knost B
Francesco Molinari B
Justin Thomas F
Kevin Na F
Russell Knox F (He WD due to illness, but that’s part of the game.)
Sergio Garcia B
Will Wilcox F
Zach Johnson A
Fourteen golfers were mentioned more than the rest. Those selections included the winner Watson, an excellent value in Johnson, seven more golfers who were in contention and returned good value, and five golfers who missed the cut. There are a couple of teams that could have been made from this list that would’ve made money both in GPPs and cash games. The biggest disappointment was probably Justin Thomas, who stood out as extremely underpriced relative to his Vegas odds (depending on where you looked, he was a top-10 Vegas pick with only a top-25 DK salary). He finished -1 and missed the cut by a stroke.
On the whole, the individual experts did a pretty good job. Pat Mayo of rotoexperts.com and Daniel Dobish of dailyroto.com stood out from the rest of the pack. Mayo made 21 selections, and despite not having Bubba, he identified six golfers (29%) who returned “A” value or better, including runner-up Paul Casey and fourth-place finisher Graham DeLaet. That is incredibly strong. Dobish only made four selections, but all four returned “B” value or better. He certainly provided readers with a solid money-making foundation for their rosters. He did mention Gary Woodland as someone to avoid at all costs, and Woodland returned “A” value, but I can forgive that given he went 4/4 on actual selections.
I think I’d give Mayo the top spot for the week. If you pick 21 golfers, you’re going to have a few miss the cut, and he identified more top-end finishers than Dobish, but both did great work this week. Here are the full results:
Pat Mayo – rotoexperts.com
Brandt Snedeker B
Sergio Garcia B
Billy Horschel B
Kevin Na F
Harris English B
Zach Johnson A
Paul Casey A+
Brendan Steele B
Francesco Molinari B
Graham DeLaet A+
Russell Knox F
Will Wilcox F
Justin Thomas F
Morgan Hoffmann C
Brendon Todd B
Steven Bowditch A
Seung-yul Noh A
Cameron Smith B
Colt Knost B
Stewart Cink F
Ken Duke A
Daniel Dobish – dailyroto.com
Francesco Molinari B
Brandt Snedeker B
Brendon Todd B
David Toms A
Chris Durell – dailyfantasysportsrankings.com
Bubba Watson A+
Sergio Garcia B
Louis Oosthuizen F
Patrick Reed F
Brandt Snedeker B
Russell Knox F
Justin Thomas F
Steve Pimental – fantasyalarm.com
Brendon de Jonge F
Bubba Watson A+
Sergio Garcia B
Marc Leishman B
Tony Finau B
Branden Grace F
Kevin Na F
Zach Johnson A
Brendan Steele B
Francesco Molinari B
Justin Thomas F
Matt Jones F
Martin Laird A
Colt Knost B
Seth Finkelstein – rotoballer.com
Patrick Reed F
Sergio Garcia B
Kevin Na F
Francesco Molinari B
Brendon de Jonge F
Ernie Els F
Vijay Singh F
Erik Compton F
Chad Collins B
stlcardinals84 – rotogrinders.com (Daily Fantasy Foursome)
Brandt Snedeker B
Russell Knox F
Will Wilcox F
Cameron Smith B
Chris Garosi – thefantasyfix.com
Bubba Watson A+
Brandt Snedeker B
Sergio Garcia B
Billy Horschel B
Louis Oosthuizen F
Keegan Bradley C
Marc Leishman B
Kevin Streelman F
Tony Finau B
Kevin Na F
Branden Grace F
Harris English B
Zach Johnson A
Paul Casey A+
Brendan Steele B
Francesco Molinari B
Russell Knox F
Nick Watney C
Jason Bohn F
Will Wilcox F
Justin Thomas F
Brendon de Jonge F
Morgan Hoffmann C
Sean O’Hair F
Brendon Todd B
Gary Woodland A
Chris Stroud A
William McGirt C
Brian Harman A+
Vijay Singh F
Cameron Smith B
Martin Laird A
Angel Cabrera F
Scott Langley C
Colt Knost B
Hudson Swafford F
Will MacKenzie C
Stewart Cink F
Troy Merritt F
Michael Riek – rotowire.com
Bubba Watson A+
Brandt Snedeker B
Nick Watney C
Brian Harman A+
Daniel Summerhays F
Stewart Cink F
Sergio Garcia B
Hunter Mahan F
Russell Knox F
Justin Thomas F
Brendon Todd B
Gary Woodland A
thefantasygolf.com
Francesco Molinari B
Paul Casey A+
Russell Knox F
Sergio Garcia B
Jason Bohn F
Brendon Todd B
Jerry Kelly F
Billy Horschel B
Zach Johnson A
Scott Brown B
Colt Knost B
Keegan Bradley C
Ken Duke A
Brandt Snedeker B
Daniel Summerhays F
Justin Thomas F
Will Wilcox F
John Merrick F
Kevin Na F
Bubba Watson A+
Martin Laird A
William McGirt C
Graham DeLaet A+
Branden Grace F
Patrick Rodgers B
Patrick Reed F
Brendan Steele B
Stewart Cink F
Brendon de Jonge F
That about does it. Up next is the Greenbrier Classic and another $3 gpp on DK with $100k to first. I’ll be back on Wednesday with the expert consensus.
