Fantasy Golf on DraftKings – The Masters 2018

Note: We wrote these considering the Millionaire Maker contest on DraftKings. With over 200K entries and only 88 players in the Masters field, you will have to be nearly perfect and rather contrarian to win a significant amount of cash. We like other players, but we feel these guys are a solid mix of low owned contrarian options and chalk. We also suggest leaving some salary on the table when building lineups as using all $50K will likely lead to a duplicate lineup that will significantly lower your E/V. We’ll be leaving as much as $1200 on the table in some of our lineups.

Lock of the week:

Jason Day $9,800 – Jason actually coming in a little under the radar this week despite a strong start to his 2018 season with a victory and several other top finishes. That is a perfect setup for his ownership to be lower than the other studs in the Masters field and we love that advantage, especially in the big Milly Maker contest on DraftKings this week. Course History is a huge factor at Augusta National and Day fits there as he has made the cut in 5 straight appearances with a 3rd place finish in 2013 and nothing worse than a 28th place finish in 2015. Throw in the fact that he is checking boxes in P5 Scoring and Putting and Day should be a lock and core play when you’re building lineups this week.

Value Plays:

Hideki Matsuyama $8,400 – Hideki is another example of an extremely solid player coming in with little fanfare after an injury scare earlier in the year. He has shown that he is back to full speed and should be a fantastic play, especially at his extremely valuable price tag this week. Looking at Course History, Matsuyama has finished in the top 15 three years in a row including back to back top 10 finishes in 2015 and 2016. Hideki is one of the most solid ball strikers and drivers of the ball on tour, which are key this week, but putting can be suspect at times. That being said, he is currently top 25 in the field in Strokes Gained Putting which is a dramatic improvement over the course of the year.

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Louis Oosthuizen $7,900 – Oosty is a guy who almost always comes into majors overlooked, but he has a fantastic track record competing on the biggest stage.  Augusta National fits his game perfectly and he should find his way into contention on Sunday. His price on Draftkings is especially enticing at $7,900 and will allow you to fit two higher-priced guys into to your tournament lineups with ease. Ownership should be low with so many big names around, something we will take advantage of that this week.

Matt Kuchar $7,600 – Kuch is an easy lock and core play for us at this incredible price. He has played well at Augusta National going all the way back to his amateur days when he made the cut here and even got into contention for a minute. He is a fantastic putter as he ranks in the top 10 in the field in Strokes Gained Putting.  Matt also checks the boxes for us in Par 4 and Par 5 Scoring as well as Bogey Avoidance as he rarely puts himself in much trouble on a course.

Best bargain basement option:

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Brendan Steele $6,900 – So you’re telling us that we can get a guy coming in on good form, finished top 30 here last year, and checks the box in the key stats of Ball Striking, Strokes Gained Off the Tee AND putting for $6900? Sign us up right freakin now! Brendan is a great bet to not only make the cut but also be in contention come Sunday. He is as steady as they come and shouldn’t give you heartburn when those cut sweats come around on Friday.

Player to Avoid:

Tiger Woods $10,000 – Tiger will no doubt be an extremely popular play this week in his return to the Masters and that is precisely the reason we will avoid him.  The ownership will more than likely be one of the highest of any player in the field and we will choose to fade that and gain ownership leverage by avoiding him. We have certainly seen a ton of improvement in his game, especially with his putting and scrambling, but the driver is a different story. While we do know that accuracy is not as important at Augusta National, you still need to avoid trouble off the tee and put drives in the right spots to give you the proper angles into these incredibly tough greens. Tiger is going to win again but this is not the week to play him in your lineups.

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