The PGA TOUR heads to Detroit, Michigan this week for the fifth installment of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Detroit Golf Club will be the host and measures as a 7,370-yard par-72 with Bentgrass greens. Since its inception, this has been one of the lowest-scoring events on the PGA TOUR calendar.
Below, I have outlined three of my favorite DraftKings plays for the week.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
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Tony Finau ($10,900)
Anytime we get to a birdie-fest type of event like this, Finau is automatically in play. This is a complete 180 from how he started his career because we used to run him solely in majors, where he would consistently find the top 10. This trend really started with his win at the 2021 Northern Trust, where he finished 20-under-par and beat Cameron Smith in a playoff. Since then, Finau has won four more events, including two of which where he finished 24 and 26-under-par.
The 26-under came at this very event one year ago, where he cleared the rest of the field by five strokes. Finau has not been playing his best of late, but the same could be said in the weeks leading up to the Mexico Open, where he bested Jon Rahm by three strokes to take home the title. Despite not playing up to his standards, Finau still ranks sixth in this field in SG: Total and fourth in SG: Tee-to-Green over his past 24 rounds.
Even with this event boasting the deepest field we have seen since its inception, Finau still stands out head and shoulders as the best play on the board.
Stephan Jaeger ($8,900)
If it feels like I feature Jaeger in this article every week, that’s because it’s largely true. I just have this thing for guys who consistently make cuts, and Jaeger is as professional as they come in that regard. At the Travelers last week, he gained strokes both off-the-tee and on approach but lost an absolutely egregious 7.4 on the greens. I’m just going to go out on a limb and say he won’t do that again this week.
In two career starts in Detroit, Jaeger has a missed cut (2019) and a T5, the latter of which came last year. Overall, he ranks 17th in SG: Tee-to-Green and 31st in SG: Total over his past 24 rounds in this field, and should grind his way to another weekend tee time this week.
Until he gives us a reason not to, we should absolutely keep going back to Jaeger in spots like these.
J.J. Spaun ($7,500)
Spaun has played this event all four times it has been held and has yet to miss a single cut, the only one in the field who can make this claim. In those four starts, he’s yet to finish worse than T32, while posting a T13 in 2019 and then a T8 last year. This might sound cliche, and can probably be applied to many golfers on the PGA TOUR, but Spaun tends to play well at courses where he has always played well — the Valero Texas Open immediately comes to mind.
Spaun is a pretty poor putter, which holds him back from contending most weeks, but if we go back 24 rounds in this field, he ranks a very respectable 25th in SG: Tee-to-Green and 26th in SG: Ball-Striking. He’s also averaged 1.01 strokes putting per round at Detroit Golf Club in his 16 career rounds here, so it’s clear he feels comfortable on these Bentgrass greens.
He missed the cut and did not look great last week at the Travelers, but he did dominate off-the-tee, gaining 2.9 in his two rounds. This week sets up as a great bounce-back spot for Spaun and his $7,500 price tag in this field is very reasonable.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and customer (my username is Lan1228) 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 do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.