This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
THE PLAYERS Championship
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
TPC Sawgrass - Par 72 - 7,275 yards
Field - 144 entrants
Purse - $25M
The Preview
Much like we saw at Bay Hill last week, the water features and bunkers spread throughout TPC Sawgrass figure to bring bogeys or worse into play early and often, at least for everyone not named "Scottie Scheffler." Although, it's not uncommon to see a handful of tournament favorites fall completely short of simply advancing to the weekend, so THE PLAYERS Championship definitely presents an opportunity to lean into risk tolerance, which always makes for entertaining roster construction from a daily fantasy perspective.
Expect to see slightly longer rough in Ponte Vedra Beach this time of year, while bermuda remains dormant on the greens in March as quick putting surfaces overseeded with poa trivialis invite plenty of three-jacks. TPC Sawgrass is by no means a bomber's paradise, placing more of an emphasis on plotting from target to target and SG: Approach, but it's still key to take advantage of the four par-5s, especially for our DFS scoring purposes. A breeze figures to strengthen off the Atlantic as the weekend arrives, but there isn't much precipitation in the forecast outside of a few scattered showers Saturday.
Recent Champions
2023 - Scottie Scheffler
2022 - Cameron Smith
2021 - Justin Thomas
2020 - None
2019 - Rory McIlroy
2018 - Webb Simpson
2017 - Si Woo Kim
2016 - Jason Day
2015 - Rickie Fowler
2014 - Martin Kaymer
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Approach
Proximity: 75-150 and 200-plus yards
Par-5 scoring
Bogey avoidance
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Scottie Scheffler - $45
The defending champion returns to TPC Sawgrass with strong 11/2 odds to repeat, and he's now coming off a victory at Bay Hill where he gained more than two strokes putting in a measured event for the first time in about 13 months since his win at the 2023 WM Phoenix Open. Scheffler's wedges have been phenomenal this season as he ranks second on Tour in Prox: 100-125 and third in Prox: 50-125, and he's yet to lose strokes around the green through three PLAYERS Championship appearances. Once again, the $45 salary is no issue from a lineup-building perspective as Yahoo promotes the feasibility of including several studs up top.
Xander Schauffele - $43
Schauffele joins Scheffler as the only two golfers to rank top-10 in both SG: Off-the-Tee and SG: Approach over their last 24 rounds, but the former also sits top-5 in three-putt avoidance, Prox: 200-plus and bogey avoidance within this sample. Schauffele hasn't missed a single cut since the 2022 Masters Tournament, and he's placed top-10 in four of six outings to begin the 2024 campaign. His PLAYERS Championship resume includes a runner-up effort here in 2018 when he paced the field in SG: Tee-to-Green, and he notched a top-20 in Ponte Vedra Beach last year despite losing 3.6 strokes off the tee.
Justin Thomas - $39
Slightly discounted compared to the rest of the betting and DFS market, Thomas figures to draw heavy interest at just $39, especially given his consistent run of eight straight made cuts at TPC Sawgrass, including a win here in 2021 when he racked up 21 total birdies and two eagles en route to playing the par-5s in 14-under-par. He rebounded from a missed cut at The Genesis Invitational by tying for 12th at last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he gained strokes across the board. It's entirely blasphemous that Thomas is priced lower than names such as Tom Kim and Keegan Bradley.
Glue Guys
Will Zalatoris - $34
Speaking of wonky salaries, Zalatoris should be a popular click at $34 after posting finishes of T4-T2-T13 in his past three starts dating to the Farmers Insurance Open, gaining strokes with the broomstick putter in each of these instances. He's second to none in Bogey Avoidance over his last 12 rounds while ranking top-10 in overall proximity, Par-5 Efficiency and SG: T2G during this stretch. Zalatoris led the API in FIR percentage last week, but he also converted 19 of 25 scrambling opportunities, which ranked second among the field.
Shane Lowry - $29
The Irishman continues to excel during the Florida Swing, gaining a collective 10.5 strokes with his irons on the way to back-to-back top-4 finishes at the Cognizant Classic and the API. Nobody's been better from 125-150 yards than Lowry over his last 24 rounds, and he's seventh in driving accuracy within this time frame as well. Lowry's last three trips to TPC Sawgrass have concluded with promising results of T35-T13-8, gaining an average of 7.2 strokes from tee to green per visit.
Tom Hoge - $28
Hoge, not Scheffler, leads the PGA Tour in SG: Approach this season, while also claiming the No. 1 spot in both overall proximity and Opportunities Gained over his last 24 rounds. Before struggling on the greens at Bay Hill last week, Hoge gained strokes putting in five consecutive starts from the Farmers Insurance Open through the Cognizant Classic, and he's finished T28 or better in five straight outings. He's a perfect 5-for-5 in cuts made at TPC Sawgrass, most notably tying for third here last year when he ranked second among the 2023 PLAYERS field in SG: Tee-to-Green.
Bargain Bin
Keith Mitchell - $25
Landing in the No. 3 spot of my 12-round custom model this week, Mitchell ranks No. 1 in both Prox: 200-plus and Opportunities Gained, fourth in SG: OTT and eighth in SG: APP en route to three straight top-20s from the WM Phoenix Open through the Cognizant Classic. He owns just one top-30 finish through his first five PLAYERS Championship showings, but he's gained strokes on TPC Sawgrass' greens in four straight starts here, and he finished T3 in putting average last year.
Erik van Rooyen - $23
It's always a bit frightening to play van Rooyen at a venue with a myriad of water hazards, but that didn't keep him from finishing T2-T25 during the first two legs of the Florida Swing at the Cognizant Classic and the API. He's made his DFS upside clear with six eagles and 52 birdies over his last three starts, averaging 96.3 points per event since the Mexico Open at Vidanta. The South African ranked second in SG: APP at the 2022 PLAYERS Championship, finishing T13 as a TPC Sawgrass debutant.
Doug Ghim - $20
Ghim models extremely well this week, so he won't go unnoticed despite being buried down here at the minimum salary as he ranks top-20 in both SG: OTT and SG: APP, second in Par-5 Efficiency, seventh in bogey avoidance and 11th in driving accuracy over his last 24 rounds, leading to four straight top-20s from the Farmers Insurance Open through the Cognizant Classic. He tied for sixth in his second career voyage to TPC Sawgrass in 2022, when he finished T2 among the field in driving accuracy and T4 in GIR percentage.
Pore through the best Sports Betting Apps before wagering on THE PLAYERS Championship!
