Reinforcements have arrived!

With four tournaments down and five to go in Segment 1 of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, roster fatigue is an emerging challenge. It’s not usually the case right out of the gate, but we’re definitely feeling the newest construct to PGA TOUR membership and its long-range goals.

The phenomenon isn’t unfamiliar to veteran gamers, so we’ll deal with it, but it’s been helpful that uncommon targets of our affection have been dominating. From two-time winner Chris Gotterup to the red-hot likes of Si Woo Kim, Ryan Gerard and even Pierceson Coody, reliable recent form among complementary pieces has allowed for the spread of wealth week over week. They have yielded some peace of mind while we’re all determining when and where to burn our allotted starts for captaining Scottie Scheffler.

As many gamers chase the weekly prize, all of us all have a long way to go before we feel the pressure of the finish line. It’s always easier to stay afloat than it is to dig your way out of a deficit, but it sure doesn’t hurt to have a little help along the way.

On cue, Rory McIlroy is making his PGA TOUR season debut as the defending champion. Predictably, in our context, he’s easily the most-owned at about 65 percent among saved rosters at last check. He’s joined by 2025 FedExCup champion Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry, who slot a respective third and eighth in ownership percentage.

While we can exhale as we diversify, remember that there is no cut in the first Signature Event of the season. And while there are two more Signature Events in Segment 1, both The Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard will have 36-hole cuts of low 50 plus ties and all within 10 strokes of the lead at that point. With 70 FedExCup bonus points reserved for the winners of all three – and 75 for the winner of THE PLAYERS Championship that anchors Segment 1 – roster management at Pebble Beach must include who will be on your short list at all of those premier competitions.

This is where future possibilities can shoulder some of the load.

McIlroy, Fleetwood and Lowry have all been added to the familiar section below. Somewhat surprisingly, note that Pebble Beach either doesn’t populate their personal short lists or rank inside the top-three most sensible sites despite the promise of a payday. So, before you reach rapidly for the freshest faces to aid your long-term planning, consider balancing this week’s lineup with talents in form who have some experience at Pebble Beach, because they’re also promised a payday.

Meanwhile, among all fantasy fixtures, only Justin Thomas (microdiscectomy) and Sungjae Im (wrist) have yet to make their season debut. Thomas hopes to return on the Florida Swing, but no details have emerged to explain the extent of Im’s malady or a timeline for when we’ll see him again.

Captain

Rory McIlroy … I could have referenced it above, but it’s better to demonstrate the strategy with an example.

Often when I’m utilized as a sounding board, I’ll ask if a gamer is pacing or chasing because decisions are unique to format and other context. In the ebb and flow of a season, league leaders have earned the right to play conservatively when it’s the preferred option. However, in my position of pursuit, I’m wasting no time in burning my first start for the defending champ, who slots No. 3 in my Power Rankings.

McIlroy should always be the captain when Scheffler isn’t, so if I were front-running, McIlroy would be omitted from my roster in favor of all three of the tentpole stops mentioned above.

Other considerations

• Justin Rose ... If McIlroy couldn’t defend this week, I wouldn’t hesitate to designate the Englishman to lead the charge. He’s No. 2 in the Power Rankings. He showcased his fit en route to victory here in 2023, among other impressive performances at Pebble Beach, and he’s fresh off a record-setting victory at the Farmers Insurance Open.
• Si Woo Kim ... There is a drop-off after the chalk (Scheffler and McIlroy) and the obvious go-to (Rose), but it’s due more to the impact of all three of those guys relative to their potential impact in the context of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. As a result, it’s not an indictment on guys like Kim (No. 4 in the Power Rankings), Jason Day (No. 6) and Patrick Cantlay (No. 7) who all step forward as reasonable pivots. My vote in that scenario is for the guy in the best form who also recorded a top-15 finish in different conditions in the last two editions.

Rounding out the roster

As always, this is subject to change until the draw is released and a final check of the weather. This is also the perfect spot to remind you that Pebble Beach is the preferred course when the wind is calm, but it’s not a deal-breaker in a vacuum. When the wind blows, as it likely will for Sunday’s finale, it’s a beast, but the opportunity to lean on Spyglass Hill will be long gone by then.

My starters

• Patrick Cantlay
• Viktor Hovland
• Rory McIlroy (C)
• Justin Rose

My bench

• Jason Day (1)
• Maverick McNealy (2)

Careful

For almost every tournament, a usually impressive subset of the field warrants avoiding, and it might be represented in my Power Rankings, which is not written in the context of any fantasy golf format. In this section, I single out those who demand a pause and why.

• Hideki Matsuyama ... Sure, there’s a concern for how he failed to slam the door at the WM Phoenix Open, but he still closed with 3-under 68 and the playoff loss aligned with his phenomenal play at TPC Scottsdale across the last decade. He’s also a professional who will figure it out and emerge with victory another time. Instead, this caution is relevant only for his forgettable history at Pebble Beach. Give him the week off and revisit when The Genesis Invitational returns to Riviera Country Club next week.
• Xander Schauffele ... It’s not lost on me that he closed out the WM Phoenix Open with a bogey-free, 6-under 65, but all it yielded was a seven-way share of 41st place and, well, a new consecutive cuts-made streak. He loves himself the no-cut, limited-field contest, but his track record at Pebble Beach is among the least impressive at any of his haunts. Finished T3 at the 2019 U.S. Open here, but scuffled en route to results outside the top 50 in both prior starts in this tournament.
• Ludvig Åberg ... Parked under just six percent among rosters saved, gamers have cooled on the Swedish talent. And rightfully so. The thing is, we all know that he’ll return with gusto sooner than later, so it makes the most sense that it could happen against a smaller field with no cut. For only that reason, I love the contrarian play. However, although he was the runner-up in his debut in 2024, he withdrew due to an illness during last year’s edition and he’s 0-for-2 to start this season, also while battling through an illness.
• Ryo Hisatsune ... The 23-year-old wunderkind from Japan turned heads the last two weeks with a T2 at the Farmers Insurance Open and a T10 at WM Phoenix Open, both tournaments at which he was making his third start, but this marks his debut at Pebble Beach. If you’re feeling frisky, give him a look in DraftKings’ Top 30 market where he’s +170.

Future possibilities

NOTE: This section consists of notables in this week’s field for whom more than three starts may be considered in Segment 1 of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple tournaments are listed (e.g., “1” for strongest, “2” for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change throughout Segment 1 no matter how many tournaments remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment.

• Ludvig Åberg ... Pebble Beach (2); Arnold Palmer (3)
• Keegan Bradley ... Arnold Palmer (1)
• Sam Burns ... Pebble Beach (4); Genesis (3)
• Patrick Cantlay ... Pebble Beach (3); Genesis (1)
• Corey Conners ... Arnold Palmer (1); PLAYERS (2)
• Matt Fitzpatrick ... Arnold Palmer (1); PLAYERS (2)
• Tommy Fleetwood ... Genesis (1); Arnold Palmer (2); PLAYERS (3)
• Ben Griffin ... Cognizant (2)
• Brian Harman ... PLAYERS (2)
• Russell Henley ... Cognizant (3); Arnold Palmer (1; defending)
• Viktor Hovland ... Pebble Beach (2); Genesis (1); Arnold Palmer (4); PLAYERS (3)
• Si Woo Kim ... Pebble Beach (1); PLAYERS (3)
• Shane Lowry ... Pebble Beach (4); Cognizant (1); Arnold Palmer (2); PLAYERS (3)
• Robert MacIntyre ... Arnold Palmer (3); PLAYERS (2)
• Hideki Matsuyama ... Genesis (3); Arnold Palmer (5); PLAYERS (4)
• Rory McIlroy ... Pebble Beach (4; defending); Genesis (3); Arnold Palmer (1); PLAYERS (2; defending)
• Maverick McNealy ... Pebble Beach (2); Genesis (3)
• Collin Morikawa ... Pebble Beach (2); Genesis (1); Arnold Palmer (4); PLAYERS (3)
• Justin Rose ... Pebble Beach (1)
• Xander Schauffele ... Genesis (2); PLAYERS (4)
• Scottie Scheffler ... Pebble Beach (5); Genesis (4); Arnold Palmer (1); PLAYERS (3)
• Jordan Spieth ... Pebble Beach (2)
• Sepp Straka ... Cognizant (1); PLAYERS (2)
• Cameron Young ... Genesis (1); Cognizant (3); Arnold Palmer (4)

Returning to competition

• Lucas Glover ... The 46-year-old is embarking on his 23rd consecutive season on the PGA TOUR. He’s in all of the Signature Events after another fruitful season last year, but he’s been out of action since the FedExCup Playoffs. But even if you include TGL, on which he competed recently, that appearance was delayed due to an undisclosed injury. He podiumed at Pebble Beach last year, but it had been years since he made any noise here. Still, his ball-striking doesn’t age, so consider limping in at DraftKings for a Top 40 at +102.

Odds were sourced at DraftKings.

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