The Players Championship: Initial Picks

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The Florida swing continues with the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.  This is a 7200 Par 72 which will test your APP more than any other metric.  I’m looking for APP first and then OTT and PUTT.  Tune into our PGA Livestream tonight at 8:00 EST for more on the entire field and stay tuned for more articles and picks from the entire Win Daily team.  For now, let’s get to The Players Championship: Initial Picks.

Jon Rahm (10900) – I really like skipping this elite range all together but I’ll have a few shares of each here and there.  My favorite play is Rahm of the Big Four because his ball striking is simply great and if he can get the putter going, he could definitely win.  I also like the fact that he’s likely to be less owned than both DJ and Rory so it’s a nice way to pick up a little bit of ownership leverage right off the bat.

Webb Simpson (9500) – A great course fit who played well enough, after a long break, to finish 6^th at the WGC-Workday.  Last three years here he’s finished 16^th, 1^st and 16^th.  A very acceptable price for a high floor/high upside golfer.

Collin Morikawa (9400) – Hasn’t played here but certainly has the skill set to take this tournament down for back to back wins.  Morikawa is a star and has too much potential to ignore in this one. He finished in a tie for 7th after Round 1 of The Players last year (before it got cancelled).

Viktor Hovland (9300) – It’s possible that his unimpressive weekend will keep ownership relatively low, especially when you consider all the studs in this range.  I don’t think we need to read too much into his poor Saturday and Sunday at the API.  Hovland also finished in a tie for 7th after last year’s Round 1 of the Players.

Tony Finau (9100) – I tend to ignore Tony, but it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the ball striking and the short game.  Put simply, he rates out really well in every SG category and that makes him a great value at this price.  His track record here isn’t great but he did finish 22^nd here in 2019.

Tommy Fleetwood (7900) – We will talk about the 8k range on the Win Daily PGA Livestream but I’m not a huge fan of it and I’m not going to force a pick there for purposes of this Initial Picks article.  I do think Fleetwood could easily be priced in the low 8k range.  I was impressed with what he did at API and if the irons are back to being consistent, this will be a great pick.  Last two finishes here were 5^th and 7^th.

Will Zalatoris (7600) – The last couple of tournaments have appered underwhelming, but the young gun continues to play well and managed to finish 10^th at the API.  More importantly, he continues to pick up strokes everywhere but with the putter.  If we get the same ball striking and an average putter, WillyZ pays off his price tag easily.

Abraham Ancer (7500) – A good price for a golfer who may have recaptured some form and has proven he can hang around the top of the leaderboard on weekends.  A good ball striker who finished 12^th here in 2019.

Ryan Palmer (7300) – I have to admit, this one feels a bit scary but the common trend in DFS is to underprice Palmer and I’m always looking for value.  He is generally very inconsistent and his track record at The Players establishes that with rotating MCs, but I’ll take the chance here.

Cameron Tringale (7200) – He wilted for most of the tournament at the API, but he’s a consistent golfer who is great on APP and that’s what you are going to need here. 

Emiliano Grillo (6700) – Has made three cuts in a row here and his ball striking is typically pristine.  With that said, he hadn’t been as good on APP until until the API.  If the APP and OTT game are in sync this weekend then he will make the cut and score some points over the weekend.

Richy Werenski (6400) – Closed the API in impressive fashion and ended up with a 4^th place finish. He’s made 5 cuts in a row and he’s doing it with the long and short game.  He has played here twice and finished 47^th and 23^rd.  At this price range you’re not going to find better value.

Secret Weapon (less than 7k/less than 5% owned) – See you in Discord.

See everyone tonight on the Livestream. Don’t forget to subscribe to our Win Daily Sports YouTube page and Apple podcasts. And make sure you check out the Bettor Golf Podcast which will drop Wednesday morning.