Six of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Ranking will be on the course at Golf Club of Houston for this week’s Houston Open. This course draws praise from players as a good practice run for the Masters at Augusta National next week. With a long Match Play event for some and a huge major on tap, we do have our weakest field in several weeks, but there are a lot of good values on the board and some strong contenders to fill out your DFS lineups.
We’ll try to help you with your daily fantasy golf choices by looking for the top values. Everybody can take the top guys and hope for the best, but it’s often that low-cost missing piece that makes all the difference in your GPPs, 50/50s, or H2H matchups. Keep that in mind as you read through these plays. We’re looking for cheap players with upside.
New to daily fantasy sports? Need to reload? DraftKings or FanDuel are the industry leaders in ease of use and safe, free transactions. Use these tips and the tips from BangTheBook Radio on Wednesdays with our resident golf betting expert Wes Reynolds, who outlines players to take a chance on for this weekend’s event. Also, we have golf previews for the PGA event each week.
Value Picks
Corey Conners ($7,600) – Corey Conners is one of many players in the field this week looking for a win that would provide a berth in the Masters. Conners has played really well over his last two events, but bad Sunday efforts have hurt. Conners shot 64-71-67 at Corales last weekend, but finished with a 76 and fell to 13th. Conners led the Valspar Championship into Sunday, but shot a final-round 77 and dropped to 16th. He shot 67-69-68 prior to that. Conners is a big hitter that can shorten this long track at GCH and he’s swung it well off the tee in his two top-20 showings thus far.
Keegan Bradley ($8,600) – Sometimes we have to use context to help us. Keegan Bradley’s last five events have been T-26th, T-31st, T-49th, MC, T-43rd, and yet Bradley is priced above the average salary in DraftKings formats. Why is that? Well, Bradley needs to make the Masters, like several others. Also, Bradley has played well at GCH in the past. Last year he tied for 15th and two years ago he tied for fifth. That little bit of extra motivation plus some solid course form data could have Bradley in the hunt by the time Sunday rolls around. This is a bit pricier than we usually go in this article and this format, but the stars could align for Bradley.
Bud Cauley ($8,200) – Bud Cauley is another player looking to gain entry into the Masters. Cauley’s last appearance resulted in a top-15 finish at Bay Hill in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It was the first cut he had made since his 20th-place finish at the Genesis Open in mid-February. Cauley has been battling a wrist injury, but had a couple weeks off. He shot 73-73 and missed the cut last year, but it was his first stop at the Houston Open in a while, so he’s looking to do enough to get himself up the ladder and into the Masters.
Brice Garnett ($7,800) – Brice Garnett has actually played pretty well here in the past. He won last week in the inaugural Corales Puntacana Championship, but because that wasn’t a full points event, it wasn’t good enough to get him into the Masters. That means that he’ll have to be on the ball again this week. He hasn’t played this event in the last two years, but he narrowly missed the cut at 2-under back in 2015 and tied for seventh in 2014. Riding last week’s win, Garnett is in a good place as he heads back to a course where he has played his last six rounds at par or better.
Dylan Frittelli ($7,400) – Dylan Frittelli has been a pleasant surprise this season on the European Tour. Then he came stateside and finished 11th at the Honda Classic. Following a mediocre showing in the WGC-Dell Match Play, Frittelli will give it a go at Golf Club of Houston. Frittelli played his college golf at Texas, so catching up with some old friends last week in Austin and now moving over to Houston should give him a feeling of comfort. Frittelli is safely in the Masters based on his spot in the OWGR as of the start of this week, so he can really go at it this week and see how things play out.
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The final event before the Masters is this week’s Shell Houston Open at the Golf Club of Houston. This course has been praised for its similarities to the track at Augusta National, so players can get a feel for some of the club selection required for the first major of the season and also can work on different things. With the best of the best working on some things, it probably isn’t a surprise that some long shots without an entry to the Masters have won this event over the last three years. That opens up a lot of DFS possibilities for this week and we’ll hope to narrow some of those down for you.
Our quest in these golf daily fantasy articles is to look for the top value picks on the board. Everybody can take the top guys and hope for the best, but it’s often that low-cost missing piece that makes all the difference in your GPPs, 50/50s, or H2H matchups.
New to daily fantasy sports? Need to reload? DraftKings or FanDuel are the industry leaders in ease of use and safe, free transactions. Use these tips and the tips from BangTheBook Radio on Wednesdays with our resident golf betting expert Wes Reynolds, who outlines players to take a chance on for this weekend’s event. Also, we have golf previews for the PGA event each week.
Value Picks
Russell Henley ($8,700) – If course form is your thing, it’s tough to do better than Russell Henley this week. Henley tied for fifth at 11-under last year. He was all alone in fourth at 14-under in 2015 and stayed under 70 in all four rounds. He was one of two players to do that. The other was Johnson Wagner, who lost in the playoff with JB Holmes and Jordan Spieth. Henley was so bad in 2014 that he finished tied for seventh. He shot a final-round 66 to march up the leaderboard on moving day after struggling a little bit in the earlier rounds. You’re unquestionably paying a premium on Henley for his course form, as he was priced at $7,000 for the Arnold Palmer, but some guys are just comfortable at certain courses.
Jimmy Walker ($7,600) – Jimmy Walker hasn’t been able to put it all together for a little while now, but if you’re looking for a consistent, low-priced option to add with the big boys, he’s a good bet this week. Walker has two straight top-25 finishes in the Shell Houston Open and three straight top-25 finishes in stroke play events this season. He lost to Martin Kaymer and Dustin Johnson last week at the Dell Match Play, but Kaymer is an exceptional match play player and Johnson won the event. It’s not a bad thing to get knocked out after group play with the Shell Houston Open and the Masters coming up. The guys that finished high were forced to play a lot of golf over five days last week in Austin.
Peter Uihlein ($7,300) – Peter Uihlein generally finds himself on the first or second page of the European Tour leaderboard as one of the few Americans that consistently plays overseas. He was brilliant last week in the Puerto Rico Open, which is the alternate event for those that did not qualify for the Dell Match Play. Each of the last three years, the winner of the Shell Houston Open has been a guy that didn’t have an entry to the Masters. Uihlein does not. Furthermore, Uihlein was priced at $10,100 as one of the more notable names in Puerto Rico last week. He’s much lower this week with a stronger field, but he’s had a lot of success that people haven’t noticed. After going 69-68-68-66 in Puerto Rico, it’s clear he’s in pretty decent form. He also had back-to-back top-20 finishes on the European Tour before coming to North America.
Tony Finau ($7,100) – Tony Finau took an interesting path last week. Rather than defend his Puerto Rico Open championship, he went to play in one of the qualifiers in an effort to get into the Dell Match Play. He came up short, but that basically meant a bye week for Finau and he should be rejuvenated heading into Houston. Finau was 28th at the Arnold Palmer and fifth at the Valspar, so he has had some decent results recently. The risk-reward for Finau was smart in that last week was the last chance to get into the top-50 of the Official World Golf Ranking and the Puerto Rico Open isn’t a full points event. He’ll need a win this week, which means we could see an aggressive approach from the heavy hitter. Fortune favors the bold, right?
Bernd Wiesberger ($6,700) – A lot of people don’t realize how good these European Tour players are because they get overshadowed by the more talented North American fields. Bernd Wiesberger is a legitimate player and is at a bargain bin price this week. Wiesberger had his first start in the Shell Houston Open last year and finished tied for 27th. Because he finished in the top 50 of the OWGR last season, he has an entry into the Masters, so he can play a little bit looser this week. He didn’t have a great run at the WGC-Mexico, but was third earlier this year at the Maybank Championship. At this price point, he’s worth it because you can grab a guy like Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, etc. and still have some money left over.
