First-time fatherhood has suited Rory McIlroy. ”I’ve got my hands dirty, put it that way,” McIlroy said Tuesday at Winged Foot. Since winning the 2014 PGA Championship for his fourth career major, McIlroy has gone 0 for 20 in golf’s four most important tournaments.
Click here to read the full article…
| Be sure to check the legality of online gambing in your state! Our partner Hypercasinos.com has a list of which US states allow online gambling. |
Daniel Berger won the Charles Schwab Challenge in a playoff, but it was a wild ride to the finish in the first PGA event in three months.
The PGA TOUR is back and heads to wine country in California’s Napa Valley for the 2023 season opener, the Fortinet Championship. Silverado Resort and Spa (North) once again plays host as a par 72, measuring 7,123 yards. The greens will be bentgrass mixed with poa annua. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $400K Pitch + Putt [$100K to 1st] STRATEGY The North course features tree-lined fairways and can get pretty tight around the 300-yard mark, measuring only 24 yards wide. We could see winning scores get into the high teens as a stock par 72, with four par 5s. The course also features six par 4s measuring between 400 to 450 yards, one over 450 yards and another stepping off under 400. The greens are where golfers can potentially struggle. Silverado features undulating putting surfaces and severe runoff areas on seven holes with thick rough surrounding them. Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green leaders and those with an above-average short game could find themselves on the front page of the leaderboard, even if they’re missing their irons. But with this said, even though golfers will need to putt well, chances are they will also need to be elite with their irons to win as Silverado plays difficult in approach proximity. Past winners have been a mixed bag of pure ball-strikers like Emiliano Grillo ($9,200) and golfers who hit it long Off-the-Tee like Kevin Tway ($6,300), Cameron Champ ($7,800) and Brendan Steele ($8,900). Still, Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green will be priority one this week, with winners gaining 25% more strokes with their approach than off the tee and twice as many over putting in the previous five years. Some of the Presidents Cup rosters will be in attendance, and you can bet they’ve been practicing and staying in form leading up to Quail Hollow next week. Hideki Matsuyama ($10,700), Corey Conners ($10,300), Taylor Pendrith ($9,800) and Cam Davis ($9,600) will represent the International Team, while the United States will feature the defending champion Max Homa ($10,500). GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Cam Davis ($9,600) Davis should feel confident gearing up for next week’s Presidents Cup on a course he’s played relatively well on for two of the previous three years. A 36th-place finish last season and a 17th on debut here in 2018 are good indications he’s keen on playing in California. Two out of three made cuts at The Genesis Invitational, two top 30s and a third-place finish (2021) at The American Express plus a 14th (2021) at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am are superb indications the big-hitting Aussie loves playing on the West Coast. Sixth in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, 22nd in approach and first in DraftKings points scored over the previous 24 rounds put him right near the top as a favorite play this week. Pendrith ($9,800) should also be a daily fantasy golf roster consideration with how well he played coming down the stretch last season. Davis’ International Team friend gained strokes off the tee in eight straight tournaments to close out last season and finished runner-up at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July as well as eighth at the BMW Championship. A 36th-place finish last season came off poor iron play, a part of his game he improved coming into this year. Brendan Steele ($8,900) An inconsistent 2022 season shouldn’t deter you from rostering Steele at one of his favorite tournaments. Some golfers love their “spots.” This week is one of “Steeley’s” favorite tracks, with two of his three wins at this tournament. Steele ranks second in Strokes Gained: Total at Silverado and second in Tee-to-Green over the previous 24 rounds. Carl Yuan ($7,800) The fall swing introduces us to some new faces on TOUR and it’s our opportunity to take some longshots early in the season, especially with golfers coming over from the Korn Ferry Tour (KFT). Justin Suh ($8,200), Taylor Montgomery ($8,500) and Yuan are a few names we’ll be hearing a lot of this season. One of my favorite sleepers from the KFT graduates is Yuan, who could be fantastic for Daily Fantasy Golf rosters. He played 22 events last season and missed the cut in nine of them. Still, the tournaments he did make the cut were great, recording nine top-10 finishes, three runners-up and a win (Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by Mistras). Last season he ranked 11th in driving distance, 25th in approach and 14th in scrambling. He was second in par 5 scoring average and first in par 5 birdie or better percentage. Yuan was T5 at the KFT Championship and 38th in the 2020 Summer Olympics, which are positives coming into your first week on the PGA TOUR. He was a streaky player on the KFT, which is what you want with golfers in this salary tier; a wide range of possibilities where his ceiling is high with a risk of a very low floor, hopefully keeping his sentiment low. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $400K Pitch + Putt [$100K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. 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. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600 (ONT), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY; 19+ ONT). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NH/NJ/NY/ONT/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for full terms and conditions. DraftKings operates pursuant to an Operating Agreement with iGaming Ontario. Please play responsibly.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Brooks Koepka is looking to wrap up the top spot in the Wyndham Rewards a week early with a win at the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Koepka overtook Matt Kuchar as the FedExCup and Wyndham Rewards leader with his tie for fourth at The Open Championship last week, his fourth top-four finish in major championships this season. The current PGA TOUR Player of the Year won the PGA Championship and was runner-up at both the Masters and U.S. Open. He also won THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES this season. As such, he is now on top, but just 37 points ahead of Kuchar, who had led since he was runner up to Kevin Kisner at the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play in late March. With 550 points on offer to the winner this week at TPC Southwind, Koepka could theoretically wrap up the top spot with a victory along a poor outing from Kuchar, among others. There are 500 points on offer to the winner of the Wyndham Championship next week, so any lead over that mark after play in Memphis would secure the title and the $2 million Wyndham Rewards Top 10 bonus. Of course, Rory McIlroy (142 behind), Xander Schauffele (507 behind), Gary Woodland (548 behind) and others can still have a significant say in the outcome. “(Winning the FedExCup is) the goal every time you step out and play an event out here on the PGA TOUR. You’re trying to build up FedExCup points, you’re trying to build as big as a lead as possible,â€� Koepka said. “That’s why we play, to make it to Atlanta. I’m sure everybody that tees it up on the PGA TOUR, that’s their goal, to make it to Atlanta and to have a chance to win. “So to be able to put myself in the spot that I have, it’s been an enjoyable ride to say the least and I think (winning the FedExCup) would just cap off a two-year stretch of great golf.â€� Koepka is not yet slated to play the Wyndham Championship, but has until Friday afternoon to commit. He did not rule out signing up, but said his early play in Memphis would dictate that. “If I do what I’m supposed to do this week and win, then everything takes care of itself. But yeah, there’s a lot of scenarios that can happen,â€� he confirmed. “I don’t know the actual breakdown of them, but there is a possibility that next week I could be out there and playing for a lot. So we’ll see where everything kind of falls.â€� Koepka is also in a battle with Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and a few others for a $1 million bonus in the Aon Risk Reward Challenge.
