Fantasy Golf Picks

Guide to Drafting a Winning Team on the Links

It’s ironic that “futures” golf betting has taken center stage now that PGA Tour professionals are returning to the links. Gamblers are pining for any kind of action following the sports-less spring of 2020. 

Major championship bets are often placed 4 or 5 at a time, with the gambler’s selected “team” of golfers helping to ensure her chances to win going into Sunday. If a wagered-on player goes full “Jordan Spieth at Augusta’s 12th hole” and knocks multiple shots into the water, bettors can fall back on their other wagers.. But where can fans turn to get that “Ryder Cup captain” feeling of leading a team of golf pros with fortunes hinging on every shot? 

FanDuel fantasy golf gives the armchair expert his own personal leaderboard to track and provides an opposing “captain” to conquer on the course. Not only has FanDuel created draft portals for 72-hole, 36-hole, and 18-hole competitions, the DFS (DFS = Daily Fantasy Sports) site’s scoring system simulates the momentum of match play in midst of stroke-play events. 

Read below for a primer on FanDuel’s customizable DFS golf matches – and how to keep score once you’re teed-off against an opponent.

Making Fantasy Golf Picks at FanDuel: The Basics

In the National Football League, a salary cap is used to maintain parity between rosters. But our version of Fantasy golf employs a salary cap for the opposite reason – to keep teams of golfers unique. 

Each FanDuel DFS competitor can select 6 golfers headed into a PGA Tour event. But if everyone could select any (double-entendre friendly) “sexsome” among top golf money-winners and short-odds betting picks, then the teams of 6 would tend to look an awful lot alike. The website’s salary cap of “FanDuel dollars” presents tactical choices to each DFS participant. Want to load-up on “A” draft selections like Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson? Fine – but it’ll cost you in “B” options. 

In addition to matching skill levels at beginner vs beginner and expert vs expert, our DFS golf portal gives GMs the option of competing in an entire stroke-play tourney, “weekend only” or the final 36 holes, or “winner take all” Sunday-only Fantasy golf events with picks made on Saturday night.

Keeping Score in FanDuel’s Fantasy Golf Games

FanDuel uses an exciting 2-fold system to score matches between DFS golf participants. When a drafted golfer scores well and finishes 1st or in the top 10, his GM is rewarded with a bundle of points. For instance, a 3rd place finish results in an 18-point windfall for that player’s DFS team. 

Note, however, that there is no penalty if a drafted golfer finishes dead-last on Sunday. Nor are the penalties for missed shots nearly as substantial as the reward for birdies and eagles:

Hole-by-Hole Scoring Chart for Fantasy PGA Tour Picks

Double Bogey or Worse – minus 3 points 

Bogey – minus 1 point 

Par – Plus 0.5 points 

Birdie – Plus 3.1 points 

Eagle or Albatross – Plus 7 points 

The scoring system is all about great shots and red numbers. A player’s “number” at the end of a round can be “71,” but if the card has included 5 birdies in a row on the front 9, the golfer’s DFS GMs received a big boost of momentum that overshadowed the back 9’s bogeys. If a “John Daly” type player makes 3 bogeys in a row and then eagles a short Par 5, his GM has scored 2 more immediate points than a DFS competitor whose player has scored 4 pars in a row. 

Note also that Sunday and Weekend-Only competition is somewhat more-weighted to the final leaderboard, since drafted players have less holes in which to rack-up bonus points. On the other hand, at a major championship such as the U.S. Open, players could find themselves making so many weekend bogeys that some DFS golf GMs are happy to get their leaders off the course. 

Fantasy players are also rewarded when players string birdies together, bounce back with an under-par score following a bogey, finish a round without bogeys, or pepper a scorecard with red holes. 

What are some proven tactics for making successful Fantasy golf picks?

Fantasy Golf Draft Picks 101: Methods for Making Expert Picks

It’s important to avoid drafted players missing the cut. The “cut-line” at a golf tournament is usually “top 65 scores and ties” (down from 70-and-ties as of 2019), and, if the course is relatively easy, a golfer can score in the low 70s on Thursday and Friday and still miss the cut. 

When a 72-hole Fantasy golf match becomes imbalanced, with 1 GM owning more golfers who are eligible to make pars and birdies over the final 36 holes, the score can get lopsided in a hurry.

Know the golf course and the event. Veteran golfers like Tiger Woods are still capable of great rounds on a few occasions per year, but they’re more likely to be working on aspects of their swings at the Mickey Mouse Bahamas Classic than at Pinehurst. Top-ranked PGA pros will make sure to endure their equipment or coaching changes during the “silly season” and not when it’s time to tee-off in the majors. Therefore, sometimes a big-name (and salary-cap expensive) golfer can be a poor DFS draft choice going into a less-important event, but a strong draft choice in an iconic setting. 

It’s also important to note how many “birdie holes” a course map includes. Prior to drafting a 6-player Fantasy golf team, trace over the Tour stop’s course map and take note of the yardages. If the Par 3s are all 200+ yards and the Par 4s are severe, then there is a chance an old-fashioned team of careful “target” golfers could each make the cut and help a GM overwhelm an opponent with consistent pars. But even if a shorter, tempting layout is also dangerous, any factor that helps players make birdies will help the DFS golf GM score points with an aggressive team. 

Admire the old-school PGA Tour tacticians like Justin Leonard. But, unless the course is especially difficult, don’t draft a par-making expert onto a Fantasy golf roster that needs birdies.

More on Fantasy Golf Picks and Golf Betting Odds

There’s lots of “expert” advice on making Fantasy golf picks out there, including advice from an expert or 2 at FanDuel. FanDuel DFS competitors can draw on resources beyond this blog, including further draft guidance and a “Player Card” for each PGA Tour pro that includes his Fantasy point-scoring average (FPPG). (Maybe a stats expert could help the copy-writing team adjust – for the sport of golf we really ought to call it “FPPT” or Fantasy Points Per Tournament instead of Fantasy Points Per Game.) 

The coronavirus spring of 2020 has thrown a wrinkle into FPPG analysis. You can’t generally go wrong comparing recent performances using Fantasy points rankings, since scoring Fantasy points is the name of the game. But golf has been wiped off the calendar for months along with every other major sport. With nothing but fall ’19 and winter ’20 averages to go on, it’s hard to get a bead on which golfers are bound for a successful run when the tour gets going 100% again. 

Here were the PGA Tour’s own 2020 “Power Rankings” as published during the build-up to The Players’ Championship in early March. The tournament was cancelled prior to teeing-off. For completeness, we’re including each player’s most-recent competitive outing, as some touring pros (and a handful of PGA Tour venues) have already begun to pick up the pieces in May and June. 

#1 Justin Thomas (T6 (-13) at WGC-Mexico Championship, February 2020) 

#2 Rory McIlroy (Won Four-Ball Match at TaylorMade Driving Relief, May 2020) 

#3 Jon Rahm (3rd Place (-15) at WGC-Mexico Championship, February 2020) 

#4 Webb Simpson (61st Place (+5) at WGC-Mexico Championship, February 2020)

#5 Patrick Reed (Winner of WGC-Mexico Championship (-18), February 2020)

Want to wager on golf tournament outcomes in addition to playing Fantasy GM? Click around our golf betting blog for tutorials, tips, and futures odds on upcoming major championships in 2020 and 2021.