Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: Wells Fargo Championship

By now, you've probably dabbled in daily fantasy sports, but if not, don't worry. Now is a great time to start, especially with FanDuel's daily fantasy golf offering.

Golf can be one of the most exciting DFS sports to follow, as tournaments span four days and allow ample time to prepare each week. It's a great balance between time to research and time spent tracking your team.

But whether you're brand new to the PGA or daily fantasy sports in general, we have you covered -- and we have daily fantasy golf projections and lineup building tools, too.

Let's take a look at some golfers to target this week.

Key Stats

Quail Hollow is a long (7,521-yard) par 71, and as you can imagine, driving distance matters more here than just about anywhere on the PGA Tour, according to datagolf. But that doesn't mean accuracy goes out the window by any means, so it's actually strokes gained: off the tee that should top the charts among driving stats.

Approach is also more important than the average course and still explains more of the scoring dispersion than off-the-tee strokes gained. We need ball-strikers primarily.

Putting sees an uptick, too, and so we're kind of looking at elite all-around players, which is totally fine in a field this top-heavy.

The average winning score since 2003 is -9.3, and just two of those 17 winners were better than 12-under.

We won't get a ton of birdies, so targeting golfers without glaring holes in their games works this week more than at a birdie-fest.

For a more detailed breakdown on the course, check out our course primer from Mike Rodden.

Daily Fantasy Golfer Picks for the Wells Fargo Championship

All stats cited below come from FantasyNational. Strokes gained data includes stats from the past calendar year and is adjusted based on my field strength and recency adjustments. Putting surface splits also come from FantasyNational and include the past 100 rounds when possible, unless noted. All ranks and percentile ranks are among the field.

Best of the Best

Jon Rahm (FanDuel Salary: $12,100 | Golf odds Win Odds: +1200) - Rahm is my model's favorite to win this week by a pretty solid margin all things considered, and he finished fourth here in 2017 while gaining 6.2 strokes off the tee to lead the field. Though Rahm hasn't played solo since the Masters, it's impossible to critique his form: he's gained strokes on the field in 15 straight starts and has the distance (89th-percentile) to hang at the top again.

Tony Finau ($11,000 | +2900) - Finau had two straight missed cuts entering the Masters but finished 10th there regardless because he's a good golfer and because we shouldn't react to four rounds of data when we have plenty more reliable samples to trust. Finau has made all four cuts at this event in his career and is in the 95th percentile in distance gained and the 96th percentile in adjusted strokes gained: tee to green.

Others to Consider:
Bryson DeChambeau ($11,900 | +1400) - Obviously has the distance but also the putting; after two missed cuts, figured it out in 2018, finishing 4th.
Joaquin Niemann ($10,500 | +3400) - Has 93rd-percentile distance and gained strokes with ball-striking in two starts here.
Cameron Tringale ($10,100 | +3400) - Three straight top-15 finishes by gaining with the tee-to-green game; seven starts at Quail Hollow.

Mid-Range Picks

Bubba Watson ($9,700 | +6500) - Watson should be able to play at Quail Hollow well given the distance angle. He's in the 95th-percentile in distance gained and in adjusted strokes gained: off the tee. He's coming in with a 26th at the Masters and a 13th at the Valspar. He's played the Wells Fargo just once, missing the cut in 2013 despite gaining 3.7 strokes tee to green. Watson missed the cut at the 2017 PGA Championship here but lost 3.2 strokes around the green in it; that should be less of an issue with this week's setup.

Harold Varner ($9,400 | +6500) - Varner's form had been icy cold for a while, but he now has gone 19th, cut, 2nd. More telling are his strokes gained: tee to green totals in those: +7.0, -1.0, and +6.5. Sure, Varner has played here five times and missed three cuts, but he finds himself in better form now than entering any of those, which is -- you know -- important to consider. He ranks in the 89th percentile in adjusted tee to green strokes gained.

Others to Consider:
Jason Day ($10,000 | +4100) - Is a former winner here (2018) and has three top-10s in four starts here including a 9th at the 2017 PGA.
Emiliano Grillo ($9,600 | +6500) - Has all the ball-striking potential we could ask for: 91st-percentile off the tee and 86th in approach. Short game sucks.
Matt Jones ($9,200 | +9000) - Six starts at Quail Hollow and a win (Honda) and 26th (Masters) in past two starts.

Low-Salaried Picks

Lanto Griffin ($8,900 | +12000) - I'm sure that Griffin's missed cut last week when his salary was $7,500 won't get people clamoring to get back on the Lanto train, but he's the best golfer in this salary tier below $9,000, and he should be ignored as a result of the missed cut. Griffin ranks in the 70th percentile in distance gained and in the 74th percentile in adjusted strokes gained: tee to green.

Cameron Davis ($8,800 | +13000) - Davis can nuke it off the tee (94th percentile in distance gained and 93rd percentile in adjusted off-the-tee strokes gained). He gained strokes from approach play at this event in 2019 but lost 3.2 combined from short game (putting and around the green). He's a flier based on course fit and has gained at least 3.2 strokes off the tee in three of his past four starts.

Others to Consider:
Carlos Ortiz ($8,900 | +10000) - Long enough off the tee and an elite bermuda putter (86th percentile); missed four of past five cuts.
Sebastian Munoz ($8,600 | +12000) - The third-best tee-to-green player below $9,000 and gained 3.0 strokes tee to green in 2019 here.
Luke List ($8,200 | +12000) - The best tee-to-green player below $9,000 and three straight made cuts at Quail Hollow.