It is major week once again in Fantasy Golf. The golfers will travel to Brookline, Massachusetts this week for the U.S. Open. This is typically the toughest of the four majors because the U.S.G.A. likes deep rough and fast greens. That will be the case once again this week. It should be a challenge for the golfers and a challenge for DFS golf contests this week too. You lineup could easily explode in one or two holes if your golfers get too wild off-the-tee this week.
The field is absolutely stacked. Most of the top-100 golfers will tee it up this week and that includes the LIV Tour players. It will be interesting to see how the galleries treat Phil Mickelson, Dustan Johnson and Sergio Garcia this week. It will also be interesting to see how the PGA Tour regulars interact with the LIV Tour players, especially if they are paired together.
COURSE BREAKDOWN
The U.S. Open will be played this year at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, right outside of Boston. This course is as iconic in golf as Fenway Park is in baseball. The Country Club is the course where 20-year-old armature Frances Ouimet won the U.S. Open (If you do not know the story, I recommend watching the movie The Greatest Game Ever Played). The Country Club is also the course were the U.S.A. team came from four matches down to beat the Europeans in the Ryder Cup in 1999. This is where the Ryder Cup revelry was built as the two teams were in each other’s face, talking trash the entire final round (can see a clip here: 1999 Ryder Cup).
This will be the fourth U.S. Open played at the Country Club and just like the previous three, it will be a tough test for the best golfers in the world. The Country Club will play 7,264 yards and will be a par-70. That is not a long course for a major. The fairways are tight, the rough is deep and the greens are small. That means accuracy off-the-tee and on approach shots is the key to winning the U.S. Open this year.
Click here to see the course: The Country Club
* Check out this video of the 9th hole to see how tough this course is going to be: The Country Club 9th Hole
KEY STATS FOR U.S. OPEN
-Shots Gained Tee-to-Green
– Accuracy off the Tee
– Stroke Gained Approach
– Bogie Avoidance %
TOP 30 GOLFERS
U.S. OPEN TOURNAMENT STRATEGY
You can get creative with your lineups this week. There is not one strategy that works better than others. This field is so deep that you could easily build a “stars and scrubs” lineup and some of the lower priced golfers on your team will still be some of the best golfers in the world. You can also build a “balanced lineup” and get six golfers into your lineup who are all ranked in the top-30 in the World Golf Rankings.
I like the balance lineup approach the most for Cash Contests this week. We want to eliminate our risk in Cash Contests and you should be able to find six golfers who can make the cut in the $8K price range this week. There are 156 golfers in the field and only the top-60 players make the cut. We will win all of our Cash contests if we get 6/6 through to the weekend.
The strategy for tournament contests is all about finding ownership advantages. We need to find the golfers who are low owned and finish at the top of the leaderboard. Cameron Smith (before he caught fire), Sungjae Im and Cameron Champ were the golfers who won the large Tournament Contests at The Masters. Cameron Young, Mito Pereira and Chris Kirk were the winning golfers in the PGA Championship. There are a lot of names that could pop this week, so be diverse. Play multi-entry Tournament Contests and create different lineups with multiple golfers from the low-$9K and $8K price ranges this week.
I have been monitoring the Fantasy Golf industry and it looks like Collin Morikawa, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka are getting overlooked this week. I plan to own them in 15% of my Tournament Contests and that should give me more ownership than most of the field. I also expect Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed to get overlooked since people cannot separate their hatred for the LIV Tour from their wallet. I will also own these two golfers at 15%. My highest owned golfers will be Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele. I will have 35% ownership of these three golfers this week.
CORE GOLFERS FOR U.S. OPEN
Top-Tier Golfers: Justin Thomas ($10,900), Rory McIlroy ($10,500), Cameron Smith ($10,200), Collin Morikawa ($10,000), Xander Schauffele ($9,600), Dustin Johnson ($9,400), Will Zallatoris ($9,300), Patrick Cantlay ($9,200), Shane Lowry ($9,000)
Mid-Tier Golfers: Joaquin Niemann ($8,900), Cameron Young ($8,800), Brooks Koepka ($8,700), Matthew Fitzpatrick ($8,500), Daniel Berger ($8,400), Sam Burns ($8,300), Tony Finau ($8,200), Max Homa ($8,100)
Value Golfers: Mito Pereira ($7,800), Aaron Wise ($7,800), Tommy Fleetwood ($7,700), Sungjae Im ($7,600), Webb Simpson ($7,400), Davis Riley ($7,300), Russell Henley ($7,300), Patrick Reed ($7,200), Justin Rose ($7,100), Brian Harmon ($7,000)
Punt Plays: Francesco Molinari ($6,900), Branden Grace ($6,900), Matthew NeSmith ($6,900) Lucas Herbert ($6,800), Mackenzie Hughes ($6,800), Adri Arnaus ($6,800)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
XANDER SCHAUFFELE ($9,600): We want safe plays with some upside in our Cash Contests lineups and it is tough to find any golfer safer than Schauffele this week. He has played in five U.S. Opens in his career and he finished 7th, 5th, 3rd, 6th and 5th. That is simply amazing. He is almost a lock for all of my Cash Contests lineups.
SHANE LOWRY ($9,000): This is “The year of Shane Lowry.” I still like him to win The Open Championship at St. Andrews in July, but he should be a fantastic pick in the U.S. Open too. Lowry has not missed a cut this year and he ranks 10th in my key stats. I expect the Irishman to continue to roll at The Country Club.
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK ($8,500): There is a lot to like about Fitzpatrick this week. He is the only golfer in the field who has won a tournament at The Country Club when Fitzpatrick won the U.S. Armature in 2013. He ranks 2nd in the field (behind Rory McIlroy) in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green and 12th overall in my keys stats this week. Fitz should be dialed in to go low like he did at the Canadian Open last week.
TONY FINAU ($8,200): I had Finau check-marked, stared and circled for the U.S. Open before he played in the Canadian Open last week. Finau then went out and battled Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas for the win. His ownership is going to be high, so I like Finau more for Cash Contests. I also like his recent form and history in U.S. Opens.
SUNGJAE IM ($7,600): Im seems to be one of the best bargains in DraftKings contests this week. Im does not do anything great, but he does not have any weakness as well. Im ranks 15th in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green, 36th in Shots Gained Approach, 10th in Scrambling and 47th in Shots Gained Putting. He made the cut in the last two U.S. Opens and I expect Im to do the same this week.
JUSTIN ROSE ($7,200): I will take a chance with Rose in this week. He won the U.S. Open in 2013, finished 3rd in 2019 and 10th in 2018. Rose is smart enough to know how to navigate tough courses. I also like what I saw from Rose last week on a difficult course at the Canadian Open (Rose finished 4th in the Canadian Open). He should be owned by enough people in Cash Contests that it will not kill us if he misses the cut.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
WILL ZALATORIS ($9,300): I will be playing a lot of “stars and scrubs” lineups this week, but I am going to post my favorite “balanced” lineup for the article. I will start with Mr. Majors, Will Zalatoris. He loves the big stage. He finished 2nd in the Masters and the PGA Championship over the last two seasons. He is one of the elite ball-strikers in the field and ranks No. 1 in putting on fast greens. I would not be surprised if Zalatoris is holding the Wanamaker Trophy Sunday.
BROOKS KOEPKA ($8,700): Every year I watch the U.S. Open and I say, “Damn it, why did I fade Brooks Koepka.” He always arrives at the U.S. Open in shitty form and I always fade him. Koepka lives for this tournament. He has finished 4th, 2nd, 1st and 1st in his last four U.S. Opens and he has not missed the cut in a decade. I do not care what the stats say, I am playing Koepka this week.
DANIEL BERGER ($8,400): Berger is from South Florida but he lives half of the year near Boston. He has said many times this is his favorite course and Berger has played I many times. He is an elite ball-striker who does not make mistakes. That is the key to the game this week. I expect Matthew Fitzpatrick and Tony Finau will eat up some of Berger’s ownership, so I will play him in Tournament Contests this week.
MAX HOMA ($8,100): Homa is my favorite pivot in the $8K price range this week. The chalk should be Matthew Fitzpatrick, Sam Burns and Tony Finau. There really is not much difference between those golfers and Homa so I will take the ownership advantage this week. He won at the Wells Fargo last month. That is tough course, similar to the U.S. Open. Homa has a lot of upside for $8.1K this week.
AARON WISE ($7,800): When Wise graduated from the University of Oregon I immediately thought, “This kid is going to win a U.S. Open someday.” That day could happen this week. Wise is good at keeping his tee-shot in the fairway and hitting greens in regulation. That is what we are looking for this week. He finished 2nd in a tough field at the Memorial Tournament two weeks ago. I will ride the hot form and play Wise in the U.S. Open.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD ($7,700): The lineup doesn’t look too bad when Fleetwood is your worst golfer. I doubt Fleetwood will win this week (although it would not surprise me if he did), but he should have a great chance to make the cut and finish in the top-25. Fleetwood has made every cut since February (9 in a row) and he finished 5th in the PGA Championship, 14th at The Masters and 22nd in THE PLAYERS Championship. He will be a great pick if he can play like he did in those big tournaments.
Here are my lineups for Multi-Entry Tournament Contest: (FantasyRacingTips)
FANDUEL CASH CONTEST LINEUP
FANDUEL TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
YAHOO! TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
PGATOUR.COM FANTASY PICKS
* This is the second tournament of segment four. This is also the toughest segment to navigate. We have the U.S. Open, Open Championship and the four playoff tournaments in this segment. It is going to be tough getting to the end with the top golfers, but this is not the week to save allocations. I am playing the best lineup I can at the hardest tournament left on the schedule.
ONE & DONE PICK: Tony Finau (U.S. Open)
– One & Done picks used so far this season: Cameron Smith (42nd), Cameron Young (60th), Max Homa (23rd), Jordan Spieth (34th), Sam Burns (MC), Rory McIlroy (5th), Gary Woodland (24th), Matthew Fitzpatrick (MC), Justin Thomas (8th), Chris Kirk (35th), Xander Schauffele (33rd), Louis Oosthiuzen (62nd), Collin Morikawa (MC), Will Zallatoris (38th), Sungjae Im (MC), Patrick Cantlay (33rd), Scottie Scheffler (1st), Jason Day (24th), John Rahm (3rd), Abraham Ancer (40th), Corey Conners (5th), Marc Leishman (9th)
* I am quickly running out of the top golfers to use for the One & Done Contests. The best golfers I have left include. Shane Lowry, Joaquin Neimann, Daniel Berger, Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Max Homa, Correy Conners and Sunjae Im. I will use Tony Finau based on his recent form, but my top plays would be Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Matthew Fitzpatrick (In that order).
BEST BETS FOR U.S. OPEN
Xander Schauffele (16-1)
Will Zalatoris (30-1)
Shane Lowery (35-1)
Tony Finau (35-1)
Joaquin Niemann (40-1)
Good Luck This Week!!!!
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