The PGA TOUR tees off the first tournament of the 2025 season this week at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort. This well-known, low-scoring course in Maui will host the PGA TOUR for the 27th straight season and gives the top golfers in the world the chance to compete at this Signature Event with no cut and favorable conditions in picturesque Lahaina. As you build your fantasy golf lineup for this week on DraftKings, it’s important to try to identify golfers who have the potential to outperform expectations and deliver good results at low ownership. This week, I like Akshay Bhatia ($8,900), J.T. Poston ($7,600) and Harry Hall ($6,800) as my top three pivot plays.
A “pivot play” is a golfer with a similar upside to a popular option near the same salary. They sometimes come with additional risk factors, but in order to differentiate your lineup, it’s worth targeting the player with lower ownership to incrase your chances of finishing higher on the leaderboard. These pivot plays tend to be “boom-or-bust” and come with high risk and high reward. They are NOT the safest plays in the price range, but they do have the potential to exceed expectations and help your lineup stand out.
These picks are ideal for GPP tournament contests where having a lineup that’s different is critical to finishing in the top spot. They could be good plays in cash contests as well, but they come with extra risk, so make sure to consider that if you opt to roll with them in that format. Be sure to monitor how ownership projections shift leading up to tee time to see if these players remain under the radar compared to the players priced around them.
Here’s why I like each of my top three pivot plays this week:
Akshay Bhatia ($8,900)
Bhatia is expected to have much lower ownership than Sam Burns ($9,000), Tony Finau ($9,100) and Corey Conners ($8,700), but this course should be a great fit for the lanky young lefty.
Bhatia has done very well at low-scoring events in tropical environments throughout his career. At this event, he finished T14 in his debut last season. He went on to emerge as a rising star throughout the 2024 season, winning the 2024 Valero Texas Open as one of his three top-10 finishes.
In 2024, Bhatia racked up 12 top 25s in 26 events to finish 15th in the FedExCup Standings. While many golfers have uncertain recent form, Bhatia has been playing regularly over the last couple of months. He finished fourth at the Hero World Challenge and added a T3 at the Grant Thornton Invitation in Unofficial PGA TOUR Events in December. He added a runner-up finish at the Dunlop Phoenix on the Japan Golf Tour in October.
Bhatia has proven he can contend in elite fields and go low with the top golfers in the world. He doesn’t have as many appearances at this track as Burns, Finau or Conners, but he did finish higher than all three of thos golfers in last year’s tournament and comes in with good enough form to be a strong pivot under $9,000.
J.T. Poston ($7,600)
At around $8,000, the public seems to be focusing on Max Greyserman ($8,000), Davis Thompson ($7,900) and Adam Scott ($8,100), but I think it makes sense to get some leverage and spend down to Poston, who has shown the ability to excel in low-scoring events like this one.
Poston tied for fifth at this event last season and followed it up with a T6 the following week in Honolulu on the second stop on the Aloha Swing. He went on to rack up six top 10s in 2024 with his third career PGA TOUR victory coming at the Shriners Children’s Open in October. He followed that up with a T5 at The RSM Classic in his most recent event.
While he started and finished the year strong, his stats don’t stand out as much since he had a tough summer. He seems to have fixed whatever was the issue, though, and finished the year in great form.
He leads this elite field in Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green over this last eight rounds, and he’ll look to ride that hot streak in his return to Maui to tee off 2025.
Harry Hall ($6,900)
Near $7,000, Alex Noren ($7,400), Chris Kirk ($7,000) and Eric Cole ($6,900) are getting plenty of deserved attention, but Harry Hall is also a good option that fewer people seem to be focused on.
Hall will be making his debut at this event, which is one of the reasons he’s higher risk, but he has been in excellent form lately and comes into this event with plenty of momentum. The 27-year-old originally from England attended UNLV and earned his start at The Sentry this season with a win at the ISCO Championship. In that event which took place the same week as The Open Championship, he defeated Pierceson Coody, Matt NeSmith, Rico Hoey and Zac Blair in a playoff to claim his first career win.
Hall leads the entire elite field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green over the last 30 rounds and ranks third in the field in Total Strokes Gained over that span. He has racked up six top-25 finishes over his last nine starts, performing well around the world with events in England, Japan and Mexico during that stretch of success.
If you’re looking to go cheap and spedn under $7,000, Hall should be a good source of leverage based on his ceiling this week at Kapalua.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: PGA TOUR $500K Pitch + Putt [$100K to 1st] (PGA TOUR).
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is z.thompson) 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.
