DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: Waste Management Phoenix Open

Daily fantasy golf requires a new approach for each and every event.

The course and field change week after week, making no two contests alike. That means you need to refine your approach for each PGA Tour event to try to find golfers who are primed to excel for your daily fantasy golf lineups.

Each week, we have a course primer, and our daily fantasy golf projections and lineup builder can help you get started, but these golfers stand out specifically on DraftKings for the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Key Stats

Let's get to the picks. For details on why these stats stand out this week, check out the course primer.

Stats are from Fantasy National Golf Club and are for golfers in the field over the last 50 rounds, unless otherwise noted.

High-Priced Studs

Jon Rahm (DraftKings Price: $11,400 | FanDuel Sportsbook Win Odds: +650) - Rahm came up just short after stumbling early on Sunday, but he still had an eagle opportunity on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with eventual champion Marc Leishman. He attended college at nearby Arizona State and finished T5 as an amateur back in 2015. Since then, Rahm has finished inside the top 16 in all three years he's played TPC Scottsdale. He is 3rd in birdies or better gained, 15th in strokes gained: par 5s, and 28th in strokes gained: approach. Those stats don't include his work in Europe this fall, where he had a runner-up and two wins in four events.

Justin Thomas ($11,200 | +850) - Thomas' missed cut at the Sony Open was just his fourth in almost two and a half years, and he'll most certainly find himself back in the mix this week at TPC Scottsdale. He was 3rd last year, watching his playing partner Rickie Fowler flub his way through the first 12 holes before righting the ship but unable to mount a charge himself. Thomas has been one of the hottest players in the world over the past six months, with three wins in that span and no finishes worse than T17 until the Sony. The stats are of course elite, ranking first in strokes gained: tee to green, opportunities gained, birdies or better gained, par 5s, and proximity gained from 150-175 yards, and fourth in strokes gained: approach. The rules with Thomas are pretty simple -- if he hits his driver well, he will likely win the tournament.

Hideki Matsuyama ($10,100 | +1600) - Aside from a withdraw in 2018, Matsuyama has owned this event. His rock solid T15 last year was a letdown, with back-to-back wins in 2016 and 2017 preceded by a T2 in 2015 and a T4 in 2014. He is 3rd in strokes gained: tee to green, 5th in proximity gained (150-175 yards), 6th in opportunities gained, 10th in birdies or better gained, and 12th in both strokes gained: approach and par 5s. An elite profile all around, Matsuyama should be one of the more popular plays this week but is still tough to fade.

Mid-Priced Options

Collin Morikawa ($9,200 | +2900) - Morikawa has grown into one of the most reliable players on Tour in just a short period of time. He has the second-longest streak of made cuts on Tour at 17. He has not missed the weekend in a single event since turning pro. Morikawa has an elite ballstriking and scoring profile, as he ranks 1st in strokes gained: approach, 3rd in opportunities gained, and 10th in birdies or better gained. There is basically nothing he can't do on a golf course, and at just 22 years old, he is just getting started.

Sungjae Im ($8,800 | +3300) - Im's birdie-making ability will always make him an attractive play on DraftKings, and with his own made-cut streak currently at 13 events, he is consistently paying off his roster spot and never killing your lineup. While he doesn't quite have the top tier play we'd like to see off the tee and with his irons, he has a well-rounded game and over the long term has gains in all four strokes gained metrics. He does pop in a few scoring stats, ranking 2nd in birdies or better gained and 11th on par 5s.

Viktor Hovland ($8,400 | +4200) - Like Morikawa, Hovland is a young star in the mold of some of the very best ballstrikers in the world. His shine wore off a bit after his first trip overseas, failing to crack the top 20 in five European events after eight consecutive such finishes at official PGA events. The lack of marquee success on the Euro circuit will dampen his Ryder Cup hopes, but the season is long, and if he can play his way into all the majors, he'll have put himself in prime position to nab a spot on the team. Our 50-round sample includes only PGA events, and he is 1st in opportunities gained, 5th in strokes gained: approach, 10th on par 5s, and 11th in birdies or better gained.

Chez Reavie ($8,300 | +6000) - Reavie is another Arizona State grad, and he has back-to-back top fives at TPC Scottsdale. He ranks 4th in proximity gained (150-175 yards), 8th in strokes gained: approach, and 10th in opportunities gained. He has been bad on par 5s for a while, but he has nine straight rounds at or under par in Phoenix and something has clicked about this event for him. At a depressed price, he really only needs a top 20 to smash value. Reavie is capable of getting there and won't be overly popular at this price.

Low-Priced Options

Corey Conners ($7,900 | +6500) - Conners rode his irons all the way to the Tour Championship in the 2018-19 season, and after a missed cut in his first event of the fall he has posted six straight top-20 finishes. He is 5th in opportunities gained,13th in strokes gained: tee to green, 14th in strokes gained: approach, and 19th in birdies or better gained. The putting is always a concern, but as Hideki has shown here multiple times, golfers just need to match the field average on the short stick and they can have a shot.

Brian Harman ($7,800 | +6000) - Harman has been putting up decent if not spectacular finishes throughout the fall and started off his 2020 with a T32 at the Sony Open and T21 at the American Express. He is solid in all of our key stats, ranking 19th on par 5s, 22nd in proximity gained (150-175 yards), 24th in approach, 25th in birdies or better gained, and 38th in opportunities gained. Harman's form has been too good not to pop for another top 10 at some point, and he might have in California had he not lost a combined 3.1 strokes putting at the Stadium Course. The signs are pointing to a strong finish for Harman and why not here, where fellow lefties Phil Mickelson (missing Phoenix for the first time) and Bubba Watson ($9,000 | +2600) have always played well.

Byeong-Hun An ($7,600 | +6500) - An started last week on a decent note with a Thursday 67 at the North Course before getting eaten alive by the behemoth South Course. His putting on the poa greens was atrocious -- he lost 7.6 strokes putting just on the three measured rounds. Even for An, that is a ghastly performance with the putter. He's finished inside the top 25 in each of his three cracks at TPC Scottsdale, and even with a putrid putting performance on Sunday last year, he actually has gained in more rounds than he's lost here. An is inside the top 50 in all key stats this week, including a high mark of 7th in proximity gained from 150-175 yards.

Emiliano Grillo ($7,300 | +100) - Grillo has been hitting his irons well for a long time, and in the last 50, he ranks 2nd in strokes gained: approach, 4th in opportunities gained, and 10th in proximity gained (150-175 yards). Like the others, the problem is the short game. He's made the cut in all four trips to the Waste Management Phoenix Open and last year gained a remarkable 8.5 strokes tee to green before giving back 4.5 on these overseeded surfaces.

Russell Henley ($7,000 | +15000) - Henley is 11th in proximity gained (150-175 yards), 15th in strokes gained: approach, and 31st in opportunities gained. He was T15 last year and T16 in 2017, so there is some decent course form. He has missed four straight cuts, but his game comes and goes, and his inconsistency will lead to extremely low ownership. We always want to find low-owned plays, but they really make a difference if they have a shot to contend for the title. Henley fits the bill this week.

Bargain Basement

Cameron Tringale ($6,900 | +19000) - Tringale has made 21 cuts in his last 24 events, a remarkable feat of consistency for a golfer routinely priced in the low $7k or high $6k range. Getting inside the top 65 is all we can ask for many of these low-priced options, and Tringale boasts a strong statistical profile to show that these finishes are not fluky. He is 13th in birdies or better gained, 18th in strokes gained: approach, 35th on par 5s, and 37th in opportunities gained.

Doc Redman ($6,600 | +15000) - Redman pops in the key proximity range of 150-175 yards, where he ranks eighth. But his irons are more than solid across the board, as he ranks 22nd in strokes gained: approach and 30th in opportunities gained. You can do much worse in this range.

Zack Sucher (TBD | TBD) - We can't ignore Sucher, who lobbied DFS players via Twitter to play him at the Farmers Insurance Open for just $6,100 and turned in a respectable T36. That was good enough for most of our lineups but didn't earn him a bid to the Waste Management, so he drove to Scottsdale and shot 6-under in a Monday qualifier to get in. He even stopped to hit the waterpark with his kids before learning he'd played his way into this week's tournament. Watch for him to be added to the field.

Mike Rodden is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Mike Rodden also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mike_rodden. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.