3 tied at the top at DEAN & DELUCA Invite

The PGA TOUR hits its third stop of the fall swing this week and enters Las Vegas, Nevada for the annual Shriners Children’s Open. The tournament will be played at TPC Summerlin, a par-71 venue that plays at 7,255 yards and has been a staple on the PGA TOUR schedule for many years now. The greens this week will be pure bentgrass. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $300K Pitch + Putt [$100K to 1st] STRATEGY The fall swing presents us with lots of courses that are set up for low scoring, and this week is no different. TPC Summerlin regularly plays as one of the easiest venues on the PGA TOUR and ranked as the third-easiest venue on the PGA TOUR in 2020-21, playing at -2.141 under par for the week. Players are helped at TPC Summerlin by the elevation — the thin air helps the ball travel longer — and it’s a course that doesn’t contain a ton of thick rough or penalty areas. Water is in play on four of the holes, but as long as players aren’t too wild with their drives, they’ll be in decent enough position to take aim at the pins on most greens. The approaches are where the scoring is really done on TPC Summerlin, and it’s no coincidence winners at this event tend to spike in the approach department. Three of the last four winners of this event have gained over 4.0 strokes on approach for the week and been in the top 10 of that statistic for the overall tournament. Greens tend to be much easier to hit at Summerlin, which means proximity stats are something to consider — hitting it close will simply mean your player has to do less to convert those approaches into birdies with the putter. That said, we’ve seen golfers dominate on these greens, and Kevin Na set a single-event record by gaining 14.2 strokes putting at TPC Summerlin in 2019. Na’s performance was somewhat of an anomaly, but this easier setup does make for a more wide-open event, where any player who is hitting the ball at least average will likely post high green-in-regulation percentages and will, therefore, have the potential to challenge if their putter gets hot. GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Cameron Davis ($9,200) Coming off a Presidents Cup where he played in five matches — and played well, grabbing two full wins against a tough American squad — should do wonders for the confidence of a player like Davis. We all know the talent Davis possesses, and his win at the Rocket Mortgage in 2021 cemented the fact this is a player who can take it low enough to win any of these regular season events where the setup demands a high rate of birdies. Davis may have had a bit of a slow start to his fall swing, logging a missed cut at the Fortinet, but he ranks sixth in long-term form in both birdie or better percentage and strokes gained: approach stats for this field. Over the summer, he posted four finishes of T16 or better and has played well in the desert. Overall, he’s 3-for-3 in made cuts at the Shriners and also has a third-place finish at The American Express in January of 2021, which is played in nearby Palm Springs. Rickie Fowler ($7,800) A new season may bring new belief for the five-time PGA TOUR winner, who started 2022-23 strong with a T6 finish at the first fall series event in Napa. Fowler’s top 10 at the Fortinet was his first since October of 2021, but it’s the way he went about achieving the result that should turn some heads. Fowler gained 6.0 strokes ball-striking at the event and was also positive from a strokes-gained perspective on and around the greens. The setup this week should also be a boon for the 33-year-old, who has had some of his best moments playing on TPC setups (winner TPC Scottsdale and TPC Sawgrass) and in the desert. In four career appearances at TPC Summerlin, Fowler is just 2-for-4 in made cuts, but two of those made cuts have yielded top-25 finishes. He’s worth a roster this week in daily fantasy, as his DraftKings price still remains somewhat depressed, and he’s not likely to draw a ton of rostership just yet, given how poor his 2021-22 season was. Joel Dahmen ($7,100) Dahmen had a solid week at the Sanderson Farms, finishing T13 while gaining over 6.0 strokes ball-striking (off the tee and approach) alone. Dahmen is a PGA TOUR veteran with a win under his belt already (2021 Punta Cana), so when we see an uptick in form from him, we should be interested for fantasy purposes. Dahmen had previously missed four of five cuts, but his record at the Shriners has seen him go 4-for-4 in made cuts over his career while also posting two top-25 finishes over the last four years. In short, he’s got a sneaky good track record at this event, and his approach game is trending well after last week, which is a huge part to having success at TPC Summerlin. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $300K Pitch + Putt [$100K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. Place your golf bets at DraftKings Sportsbook and bet online by downloading the DraftKings Sportsbook app. All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests. The contents contained in this article do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. 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The PGA Tour heads to iconic TPC Sawgrass with $15 million in prize money at stake. Here are our best bets for the event.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Jon Rahm felt like every shot would be good and most of them were Saturday as he posted an 8-under 64 and built a one-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood at THE PLAYERS Championship. Five shots behind going into the third round, Rahm shot 30 on the back nine at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course and surged into the lead when McIlroy and Fleetwood couldn’t keep pace. His only bogey was on the sixth hole, and even that landed next to the pin until running over the back. “Didn’t miss many shots out there,” Rahm said. “Really, really confident with my irons. Every time I stepped up, I felt like I was going to hit a good shot.” There were too many to single out for the 24-year-old Spaniard, who was at 15-under 201. McIlroy and Fleetwood struggled from the start and both eventually recovered, McIlroy sooner than Fleetwood. McIlroy muffed a chip and had to scramble for bogey on the opening hole, hit a chip over the green on the par-5 second hole and turned potential birdie into bogey, and that was as bad as it got. He still was under par at the turn by running off three birdies, including a 4-iron to a foot on the hardest par 3 on the course at No. 8. But after a two-putt birdie on the par-5 11th, McIlroy’s chances dried up. Even on the par-5 16th, he tried a low runner out of the pine trees and it came out so hot that it ran through the green and into the water. Even so, he was bogey-free over the last 16 holes and shot 70. And he can at least avoid questions about winning from the final group, something McIlroy hasn’t done in his last nine occasions dating to the start of 2018. “I just need to hit fairways and greens. If I can do that, and take the opportunities I give myself, hopefully I can turn tomorrow into the best Sunday of the year so far,” McIlroy said. Fleetwood missed a 30-inch putt on the opening hole and took double bogey, and he fell three shots behind through seven holes. He holed a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 8 after McIlroy tapped in for his birdie, and then picked up four birdies where they were available for his 70. “It was just a grind,” he said. “I’m glad I showed the strength mentally more than anything. Under par is always a good score around here no matter how you play.” Jason Day had a 68 and was three shots behind. Tiger Woods was five shots better on the par-3 17th — a quadruple bogey on Friday, a 2-foot birdie putt on Saturday — but still started so slowly that even a late run of birdies was only good for a 72. Five players were within five shots of Rahm, the deficit the Spaniard made up on Saturday. That group included Brandt Snedeker (65) and Keegan Bradley (68), and Dustin Johnson, who played the par 5s at even and still shot a 69. Rahm, who already has six worldwide victories in just short of three years as a pro, was still lagging behind when he made the turn, and then quickly moved to the top. After a short birdie on the 10th, he hit 4-iron from 243 yards to 3 feet on a front left pin at the par-5 11th for an eagle. He hit the right shot on the par-3 13th, with the pin below a ridge near the water, into 3 feet for another birdie. By the end of the day, his 64 was about as high as it could have been. He two-putted from just inside 15 feet for a birdie on the 16th, and he had another birdie chance from about that range on the 18th that would have tied the course record. No matter. He was in the lead, facing a Sunday pairing with Fleetwood as he goes for the most important win of his young career. It figures to be a mental test as much as anything he does with his irons. The Stadium Course can take as quickly as it gives, and the forecast was for much stronger wind — compared with very little on Saturday — and cooler weather. Rahm is fiery, and his emotions at times can get in his way. He has worked hard to control his temper and still let his passion carry him to great shots. “It was a year of personal growth rather than golf game,” Rahm said. “It’s been a work in progress of many years to get to this point, and it’s hard to do when you’re playing highly competitive golf. … This is what I called earlier a midterm of hopefully a very good final project.”

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