Golf DFS: Open Championship Top Picks

Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler would be strong anchors, but they wouldn’t leave much salary to fill out a competitive roster.

I’ve been chasing the daily game battle for many years with the hopes of taking down a million-dollar prize. With the British Open taking place at St. Andrews this week, it’s another opportunity to play some golf DFS. In essence, the goal in golf is almost like playing the pick-6 in horse racing: The deeper your bankroll, the more outs you give yourself to win. The downside is that adding each additional entry adds a higher multiple to your investment.

With my limited funds, I’m comfortable entering between 10 and 25 teams in golf GPPs with a price point between $10 and $25. Ideally, I’d like to get as many teams as possible through to the weekend to help increase my chance of winning.

When reviewing the player pool, I know I need the tournament winner. In addition, there is a good chance that all six of my golfers (depending on the site) must make the cut, play on the weekend and finish in the top 15. Therefore, based on my thought process and approach, it makes the most sense for me to build around a core of four golfers plus mix and match the final two spots in my lineup.

Darron Cummings/AP

To help with some of the backstories of the top players for this week’s event, I wrote about them in my SI Betting preview.

• The Open Championship Odds at SI Sportsbook

Here’s a look at the top-tier players by salary:

· Rory McIlroy ($11,100)
· Scottie Scheffler ($11,000)
· Jon Rahm ($10,800)
· Justin Thomas ($10,500)
· Collin Morikawa ($10,300)

It is nearly impossible to roster two of the top five salaries and win a GPP with a big field of entries. So sometimes, I’ll rotate in one of the top-tier players to help create a broader range on my last two players while using three other core players.

Of this grouping, I’m fading Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. I don’t like Thomas’s history at this event, and Morikawa isn’t in the proper form. If I roster a top-tier player, they almost have to win unless another player on my team beats them out for the championship. Without laying out my game plan, my early thought would be to invest about 40% in both Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. The remaining percentage will go to Jon Rahm.

Contenders
· Jordan Spieth ($10,000)
· Xander Schauffele ($9,900)
· Matthew Fitzpatrick ($9,700)
· Cameron Smith ($9,500)
· Will Zalatoris ($9,600)

A case could be made for all players at this level. Spieth has an Open Championship title and an excellent history at this event. Xander Schauffele played poorly in one round (75) at the U.S. Open, costing him a higher finish (14). Over his next two tournaments, he broke through for a win at the Travelers Championship, followed by a victory at the Genesis Scottish Open. His game is rounding into top form while being slightly discounted over the top-tier grouping. In 2022, Matthew Fitzpatrick has become a top 10 force in many of his starts, highlighted by his magical win at the U.S. Open. He finished four shots off the lead in the Genesis Scottish Open (sixth place with a score of -3). Will Zalatoris was highlighted in my betting preview.

Board Dogs
· Shane Lowry ($9,300)
· Louis Oosthuizen ($8,800)
· Tyrrell Hatton ($8,700)
· Tommy Fleetwood ($8,600)
· Tony Finau ($8,400)

When reviewing the next 10 or so players, I leaned on past success at the Open Championship and/or ties to the European Tour. Shane Lowry won in 2019, followed by a 12th-place finish in 2021. Louis Oosthuizen made the jump to the LIV Tour while showing a spark at the BMW International Open (eighth) in late June. He added a 20th, 28th and third to his resume over the past three years at this event while taking home the title in 2010 at St. Andrews. If they click on all cylinders, Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood have top 10 upside with the game to win.

Next Tier
· Corey Conners ($8,200)
· Joaquin Niemann ($7,900)
· Robert MacIntyre ($7,800)
· Webb Simpson ($7,600)
· Paul Casey ($7,500)

Paul Casey hasn’t played in a tournament since late March due to a back issue. I can’t expect him to be in form, but his salary does give him a chance to finish in the top 20 if his pre-tournament reports are positive.

Possible Values
· Tiger Woods ($7,600)
· Sergio Garcia ($7,400)
· Justin Rose ($7,400)
· Talor Gooch ($7,300)
· Patrick Peed ($7,300)

As I move lower in the salaries, I’m looking for players that have a chance to finish in the top 15. Players without starts at the Open Championship are more challenging to gauge. The two players that fall into that category are J.T. Poston and Mito Pereira. I included Tiger Woods, as I don’t want to miss out if he gives golf fans a glimpse of yesteryear.

Fishing for a Pulse
· Thomas Pieters ($7,200)
· Jason Kokrak ($7,200)
· Adrian Meronk ($7,100)
· Danny Willett ($7,000)
· Cameron Tringale ($7,000)

Pieters didn’t play in last year’s Open Championship, but he made the cut in his first four trips to this event (30th, 44th, 28th and 67th). He has three top 10s (ninth, 10th, second) over his last six tournaments while also picking up a pair of wins since the start of November in Europe. Kokrak reached the weekend in 2019 (32nd) and 2021 (26th) after a quick exit in between. However, his play hasn’t been sharp (no weekend rounds at the U.S. Open, Travelers Championship or Genesis Scottish Open) since a three-week layoff starting in late May. Meronk won the Irish Open while shooting over par in two rounds (73 and 76) at the Genesis Scottish Open. He has six other 10s this year in 14 events. Willett isn’t in winning form, but he’s made the cut six consecutive times at the Open Championship, highlighted by two sixth-place finishes, with the first coming at St. Andrews in 2015.

Picking six golfers to succeed and play on the weekend at St. Andrews will be challenging. Many players will outperform expectations while others make just enough mistakes to leave them on the outside looking in.

When building your DFS teams, I would focus on finding a core of players with the best chance to survive until the weekend. Doing this gives you a better chance of cashing while hoping one of your six-player darts lands at the top end of the leaderboard. So here’s my foundation four players I will build around this week:

· Xander Schauffele
· Matthew Fitzpatrick
· Robert MacIntyre
· Thomas Pieters

They have a combined salary of $34,600, putting in a range where I can avoid the backend of the player pool where there are more chances of being wrong. If I start a team with either Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler, my other five golfers will have an average price of about $7,800, thus requiring more darts to cover my risk of not getting six golfers through to the weekend.