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DraftKings reset: Looking back … and looking ahead

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DraftKings reset: Looking back … and looking ahead


    Written by Geoff Ulrich @PGATOUR

    2019-20 PGA TOUR Season look back


    On March 13, the PGA TOUR officially halted play one round into THE PLAYERS Championship. It’s been a long, winding road since then, but the TOUR is officially set to resume next week at Colonial Country Club with the Charles Schwab Challenge. That event will feature a star-studded, full 156-man field, but before we analyze that event, let’s take a look back on how the 2020 season had unfolded prior to the stoppage.

    January to March

    The season started off with some high drama as we saw two playoff winners in Hawaii. Justin Thomas rallied from a late collapse in regulation and scored 125 DraftKings Fantasy Points (DKFP) to win the Sentry Tournament of Champions in a playoff against Xander Schauffele (104.50 DKFP) and Patrick Reed (118 DKFP).

    Thomas, who averaged 75.80 DKFP before the stoppage, would go on to a score a couple more decent results, recording 103 DKFP at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship and 101.50 DKFP at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

    Reed eventually broke through at the WGC-Mexico in late February, scoring 132.50 DKFP. Reed averaged 82.58 DKFP in six events, and both men looked in solid form in the first part of the season.

    If Reed and Thomas can recapture their form, look for both golfers to add some major hardware later in the year.

    At the Sony Open in Hawaii, Cameron Smith (116 DKFP) was able to grind out a playoff win over Brendan Steele (113 DKFP) for his first TOUR. He hasn’t done much since then, scoring under 25 DKFP twice by missing the cut, but a T22 his last time out at WGC-Mexico was promising. Smith recorded 76.50, which was the 25th best score at the event.

    A surprising victory by Andrew Landry (158.50 DKFP) followed Smith at The American Express (his second win on TOUR) and that was subsequently followed by a couple of venerable veterans picking up trophies in Marc Leishman (115 DKFP) at the Farmers Insurance Open and Webb Simpson at Waste Management (128 DKFP). Leishman came from behind in the final round to defeat a stacked field at the Farmers, while Simpson’s win marked his first on the PGA TOUR since his 2018 PLAYERS win. Simpson has quietly been one of the best golfers in the world the past eight months, recording six top-5 finishes in his past 12 TOUR starts. He’ll be someone to watch when play resumes, especially with three majors scheduled between August and November.

    Nick Taylor, who averaged 64 DKFP in six starts, was another shocking winner by scoring 139.50 DKFP, as he ran away with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title, while Adam Scott returned to the winner’s circle at Riviera and recorded 115 DKFP at the Genesis Invitational. Scott won in his first TOUR start of 2020 and is another veteran to watch when play resumes as his form was clearly where he wanted it to be right before the hiatus.

    On the same weekend at Reed’s victory in Mexico, Viktor Hovland (134.5 DKFP) also landed the Puerto Rico Open, his first TOUR win. Hovland joined the likes of Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa, other recent collegiate standouts who also landed a win within their first calendar year on the PGA TOUR.

    The Florida swing started off by adding two more first-time TOUR winners in Sungjae Im (The Honda Classic ; 103.5 DKFP) and Tyrrell Hatton (Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard; 95 DKFP) picked up wins. Im has been one of the most consistent players on TOUR in 2020 (see below) and leads the FedExCup point standings going into the Charles Schwab Challenge.

    DOMINANT DAILY FANTASY STARTS

    The 2020 season was suspended with many of the elites in various form, but there’s little doubt that both Bryson DeChambeau (87.13 DKFP) and SungJae Im (74.75 DKFP) were two of the most “in-form” players heading into the hiatus. Prior to THE PLAYERS Championship, Im was coming off a win and a T3 in his past two starts as the reigning PGA TOUR rookie of the year was maintaining his uber consistent play with an equally busy schedule. The South Korean has already picked up five top-10 finishes and a win in 14 starts in 2020, and he also ranked inside the top 40 in all of the major strokes gained categories. From a DraftKings standpoint, he averaged over 90 DKFP in his past two starts on TOUR and the condensed schedule ahead likely makes him another man to watch as the late-season majors approach.

    While Im was able to grab a victory prior to the stoppage, DeChambeau wasn’t quite as lucky. The now muscular American went through a body transformation beginning late last season and, while it hasn’t meant any big additions to his trophy case (yet), the results have been positive. His added muscle has seen him gain an astounding 18.5 yards on his average drive this year and he scored over 70 DKFP in each of his past three starts. DeChambeau has now ranked inside the top 5 for the week in DraftKings scoring in four of his past six events.

    Joining Bryson and Im among the most consistent golfers in the first three months were Marc Leishman (78.4 DKFP) and Daniel Berger (81.5 DKFP). Leishman benefitted from an off-season workout regime that saw him begin with a win in just his second start of the season and he also added a solo second place at the Arnold Palmer. Berger recorded three consecutive top 10s before the hiatus began. Berger was becoming an exceedingly great weekly play on DraftKings before the season halted, landing inside the top 10 in DK fantasy points scored in three straight starts.

    DISAPPOINTMENTS AND SURPRISES

    Even though he was coming off a knee injury that saw him play little last fall and skip The Presidents Cup, the slow start to the year for Brooks Koepka, who averaged 45.3 DKFP in three starts, was still somewhat jolting to watch. The last time we saw him, he limped home to a T47 finish at Bay Hill, where he post aed shocking 81 in the third round. It’s too soon to sound the alarm on Koepka, and the break may even have given him time to fully realign his game, but if he starts slowly in his next few events, more questions about the current state of his game will arise.

    While Koepka certainly deserves our patience, the same cannot be said of Jordan Spieth (56.7 DKFP). After taking a long break at the end of 2019, Spieth has managed to finish inside the top 50 once in just five TOUR starts — a T9 at Pebble Beach.

    On the flip side, two of the bigger surprises include the resurgent Harris English (67 DKFP) and Charl Schwartzel (50.63 DKFP). English is coming off a disastrous 2018-2019 that saw him relegated to conditional status at the end of last season. The demotion has seemed to light a fire under the two-time PGA TOUR winner, however, as he’s played well since the beginning of the 2019-2020 fall swing, landing five top-10s in 11 starts, he's also returned 64 or more DKFP now in four of five starts 2020. It’s also worth giving a shout out to Schwartzel, who missed most a lot of 2019 with an injury but posted strong finishes in February and March, and looks to be regaining some of the form, which has landed him multiple big titles all around the world, including the Masters in 2011.

    TOP DRAFTKINGS POINTS GAINED

    1. Rory McIlroy

    2. Scottie Scheffler

    3. Hideki Matsuyama

    4. Justin Thomas

    5. Patrick Reed


    Writer’s bio: I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is wavegoodbye) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above.

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