DraftKings preview: WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession

The Houston Open is back after an 18-month hiatus – and don’t be surprised if Sunday’s final round is a tight finish. Since 2009, eight of the last 10 winners have either been decided in a playoff or by just one stroke, including the most recent winner, Ian Poulter, who beat Beau Hossler in a playoff in 2018. Russell Henley, Cameron Champ and Henrik Stenson are in the field, and Stenson is making his PGA TOUR debut at a tournament he’s played well at in the past. The Golf Club of Houston – the host course for the last time before the tournament moves to Memorial Park — is a par 72, measures a long 7,441 yards and will offer Bermuda greens this week as opposed to overseeded rye in the spring. The Houston Open played as the 10th easiest course in scoring relative to par last season but played as the 24th most difficult course the year before. What changed? The wind. The weekend rounds recorded extremely winding conditions and scores averaged 73.4 on Saturday and a few strokes better on Sunday at 70.2. Playing in Texas always means potentially playing in the wind; since 2015, the Houston Open has had 25% of their rounds played with significant windy conditions. Other than Vijay Singh, who has won this tournament three times dating back to the early 2000s, Australian golfers have done extremely well, winning this tournament five times since 1999. Check the weather report for wind conditions as this is an important piece of information we can leverage when building lineups. Other than playing the weather conditions, golfers will need to again be strong with their approach. In 2018, the top-5 gained an average just under three strokes with their irons (2.92). A lot of those iron shots were hit from 200-plus yards out, once again being the approach distance with the highest shot distribution. This is the first time we’ll experience the course in its new scheduling slot and we don’t know how it will play differently, but the strokes gained category to correlate the highest here is Strokes Gained: Putting. Winners here have gained 34% more strokes on the greens than off-the-tee. Putting has the highest variance day-to-day making it difficult to predict but should still be important on these Bermuda greens this week. Other key statistics will be par-5 scoring average and birdie or better percentage on this Rees Jones course design. TOP VALUES SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER ($9,900) He’s been my favorite play even though he shot 7 over last weekend in Las Vegas, which has been Scheffler’s Achilles heel of recent. His scoring average in the opening two rounds this season is 65.8, while his weekend scores increase to an average of 71.75. Scheffler, who grew up and played his college golf (University of Texas), also ranks first in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green over his last two tournaments. HARRIS ENGLISH ($8,900) English is hitting the ball fantastic and playing impeccable golf, gaining an average of three strokes tee-to-green over his last five tournaments. English ranks 15th in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, first in par-4 scoring average, and first in birdie or better percentage over his last six tournaments. English is also a great putter, ranking eighth in Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermuda greens over his last 50 rounds. If he’s able to hit these fairways with regularity this week, he should be in contention. SHAWN STEFANI ($6,800) Stefani played decently in his first start of the season with a top-30 a couple weeks ago and should have another solid performance this week heading back to his home state of Texas, where he also played his college golf. It’s not only his home ties, which make him a potential play this week, he also ranks 21st in birdie or better percentage, eighth in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green and inside the top-50 in Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermuda greens over his last 50 rounds. CAMERON DAVIS ($7,000) Davis is a cheaper option who has upside with his ability to score ranking sixth in birdie or better percentage over his last three tournaments. He’s been struggling with his driving accuracy of recent, but these wide Bermuda fairways should help Davis find the short grass even though he ranks 192nd in hit fairway percentage this season. He’s also struggled on Bermuda greens last season ranking 147th but gained 4.5 strokes putting over his last two tournaments on Bermuda. His experience growing up and playing in Australia should give him an advantage over the field this week hopefully mitigating his inconsistency over his short career. Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. Writer’s bio: “I’m a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is reidtfowler) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.â€�

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RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — Kyle Stanley shot an 8-under 64 on Thursday to take a two-stroke lead in the PGA TOUR’s Puerto Rico Open. Stanley had nine birdies and a bogey in windy afternoon conditions at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club. Related: Leaderboard | Brotherhood of the slump: How TOUR pros found their way back “Just kind of caught a hot putter,â€� Stanley said. “Ball-striking was pretty good and felt like I drove it well, too. Just a pretty solid round of golf. Kind of made my fair share of putts. Got off to a really nice start, birdieing my first three out of the gate. Pretty windy out there, so I’m really happy with the round.â€� The two-time PGA TOUR winner followed his opening birdie burst with another birdie on the par-5 fifth. He bogeyed the par-3 eighth, then birdied the next four and the par-5 15th. “To be honest, I really haven’t been playing that well the past month or so,â€� Stanley said. “I really struggled with my ball-striking last week in L.A., but felt like I putted pretty well. Just tried to clean up a few things in my swing and continue with some good putting prep leading into today.â€� Peter Uihlein, Josh Teater, Emiliano Grillo, Chris Couch, Henrik Norlander and Rhein Gibson shot 66, and 2013 winner Scott Brown, Martin Laird, Jay McLuen, MJ Daffue, Wes Roach and Julian Etulain followed at 67. “When it gets this windy, really the number on the bottom of the club kind of becomes obsolete, really,â€� Uihlein said. “It’s all about flight and what you want to hit, what you want to see.â€� Tom Lewis shot 73. Defending champion Martin Trainer opened with a 74. He played a five-hole stretch on his opening nine in 5 over with three bogeys and a double bogey, Six-time TOUR winner Bill Haas birdied two of the last four holes in a 69.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – Don’t tell Rickie Fowler and Jon Rahm the fight for a Green Jacket is a two-horse race. While Patrick Reed (-14) and Rory McIlroy (-11) are certainly in command of the tournament, Fowler (-9) and Rahm (-8) are not about to wave the white flag just yet. As we have seen many times at Augusta National – anything can happen on Sunday at the Masters. Ask Greg Norman. Ask Jordan Spieth. No lead is safe. Norman led by six in 1996 and lost by five. Spieth hit the par-3 12th hole still in control of a second win in 2016 and dumped two balls into Rae’s creek. Anything can happen. And so while the two rivals in the final group can take all the attention – those behind can go under the proverbial radar and try to make their Sunday charge. “I can’t control anyone else, other than putting birdies up on the board,â€� Fowler said. “We’re definitely in the golf tournament. I’m going to need to play the front nine well tomorrow and put myself really in the mix for when this golf tournament starts, which is the final nine holes. “They are fierce competitors, and we’ll see, maybe we can put a few numbers up there and sneak up on them.â€� The record for biggest comeback belongs to Jack Burke (1956) and Gary Player (1978) – they came from eight back to win. More recently, Nick Faldo was six back of Norman in 1996, and Danny Willett was five shots back with six holes to play in 2016 against Spieth. “The big thing is I’ll need to make some key putts, whether they are for birdie or pars, not to fall further behind, and to really put ourselves in a position to go win this tournament,â€� the 2015 PLAYERS champion added. “We’re ready to do that. Tomorrow’s a chance for us go do something pretty cool.â€� Fowler has recent history of getting it done from behind. While an 18-man unofficial event like the Hero World Challenge might not be a major, it was still against some of the best players on the planet last December. He started seven shots back. And he won by four. When he won at TPC Sawgrass in 2015, he started Sunday three back and shot 6 under over the last six holes to push into a playoff he would eventually win. Fowler says he will need to make little or no mistakes to replicate those famous wins. Saturday was a great test case, as he posted a scintillating 7-under 65 without a bogey. He will also draw on the experience of a year ago, when he started just one back of the leaders but shot 76 to fade to 11th. “Last year I may have gotten maybe too defensive or too aggressive and you learn from that and move on,â€� he said. “It wasn’t the finish that I wanted last year; it would have been nice to take advantage of the position we were in, making the turn and only being a few back, but we didn’t. “But I’m definitely playing this golf course the best I have, ever, as far as how comfortable I am on each and every hole, playing all the holes well. Definitely I’m hitting a lot more greens than I’ve ever hit here, and probably driving it the best I have here. “So looking forward to keeping that going. Fairways and greens will be big tomorrow. Just keep me on the putting surface and hopefully in the right spot, and we’ll go make some putts.â€� Rahm matched Fowlers bogey-free 65 and figures he might as well try to do the same Sunday. The Spaniard feels he has nothing to lose. Always an aggressive player, Rahm will try to get hot early and place the seeds of doubt in those behind him. “If you can get a really good start on that front nine and post a good score again, that back nine can be extremely long for the leaders,â€� Rahm said. “We know what can happen on that back nine on Sunday. It’s happened many times where a big lead disappears or even get cut down. Hopefully I’m one of those who plays good tomorrow and has a chance.â€� Henrik Stenson (-7), Tommy Fleetwood (-6), Bubba Watson (-6) and Marc Leishman (-6) are the only other players within the record eight shot margin.

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