As has become tradition, the PGA TOUR is celebrating Super Bowl week with a stop in the desert at TPC Scottsdale for “The People’s Open.” This year’s WM Phoenix Open boasts a strong field and a great venue, and we’re entering my favorite part of the PGA TOUR season from here until The Masters with great courses, strong fields, and fairly typical event formats. No more course rotations or amateurs to confuse things. With an almost-full field, a typical cut line and a great course, it’s a great week for fantasy golf. There are definitely some strong popular plays, but to help you make your lineup stand out, I like Sahith Theegala ($9,800), Beau Hossler ($7,800) and Bud Cauley ($6,900) as my top-three pivot plays of the week.
To level set heading into this post, a “pivot play” is a golfer with a similar upside to a popular option available near the same DFS salary. Sometimes, the golfer with lower expected ownership brings additional risk factors, but in order to make your lineup stand out in tournament formats, it’s worth the extra risk for the extra upside. Players with lower ownership increase the chance of your entry finishing higher on the leaderboard. These pivot plays tend to be “boom-or-bust,” bringing high risk and high reward. Even though they’re NOT the safest plays in the price range, they have enough potential upside to be worth the risk.
These picks are ideal for GPP tournament contests where having a lineup that’s different is critical to finishing in the top spot. These plays could also be worth a look in cash contests as well, but just be sure to consider the extra risk they bring. Also, 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:
Sahith Theegala ($9,500)
Theegala is expected to have one of the lowest ownership percentages in the top tier of golfers this week. It’s a very strong field overall with top options like Scottie Scheffler ($12,00), Hideki Matsuyama ($10,200) and Sam Burns ($10,000) bringing good course history and solid form. Just below Theegala in the price structure, Sepp Straka ($9,400) also gets plenty of attention based on his recent form.
While his recent form has been a little sketchy, Theegala has been making cuts. In fact, he hasn’t missed a cut in ten straight PGA TOUR events dating back to last summer’s Open Championship. He hasn’t been near the top of leaderboards yet in 2025, finishing outside the top 35 after making the cut at the Sony Open and the Farmers Insurance Open and also finishing outside the top 35 at his two cut-free events, The Sentry and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
However, Theegala does have great history at this track. He finished third in his debut in 2022 behind Scheffler, who was claiming his first PGA TOUR victory. He finished T39 in 2023 and surged to a T5 last year.
Despite his struggles so far this season, he has the potential to be a high-ceiling play this week based on his comfort at this venue and fit for the course. If he does have a bounce-back week, he’ll be a great source of leverage for GPPs.
Beau Hossler ($7,800)
Hossler is also looking for a better week after struggling a bit at Pebble Beach. He finished T69 last week, which may be why the public seems to be much more focused on options like Si Woo Kim ($8,000), Matt Fitzpatrick ($7,700) and Harry Hall ($7,700) in this salary range. However, a closer look at Hossler’s recent form and a strong course history make him a good pivot option just under $8,000.
Last week’s struggles for Hossler were mostly just in a rough Round 3. He shot a 78 on Saturday but bounced back with his best round of the week to close with a 68.
A look at his longer-term for reveals that he ranks fourth in the field in Total Strokes Gained over the last 36 rounds and third in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. During that run, Hossler finished runner-up at the Sanderson Farms Championship last fall and added top-25 finishes at the Shriners, the World Wide Technology Championship, The American Express, and the Farmers Insurance Open.
Hossler also has a good course history after seven career appearances. He made the cut in five trips with a pair of top-20 finishes. Last year, he only finished T41 but did close with his best round of the week—a solid 68.
This week at TPC Scottsdale, Hossler has the potential to get back on track and post another top-25 finish which definitely makes him a strong play at low ownership in this price bracket.
Bud Cauley ($6,900)
Let’s get a little wild in this last spot and go with an off-the-radar option that comes with a great story and some solid stats as well. Almost any player this affordable will come with low ownership, but Cauley isn’t even one of the more popular bargain plays. Options like Thomas Detry ($7,300), Eric Cole ($7,100) and Chris Gotterup ($6,500) are getting much more attention than the 34-year-old from the University of Alabama.
Cauley is playing just his second PGA TOUR event this season after four rounds in the 60s pushed him to a solid T30 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Last season, he played on a Major Medical Exemption after a surgery to follow up on a rib injury originally suffered in a catastrophic one-car crash in June of 2018. He was out of golf for almost four years before returning to action last year at the WM Phoenix Open. Impressively, he made the cut in that event, which was a huge win even though he faded to a T65 on the weekend.
He went on to put together a strong 2024 season, making the cut in ten of his 17 events and notching three top-25 finishes including a T5 at the Sanderson Farms Championship last October. He has made the cut in five of his last six events with at least a T35 in each of those made cuts.
Cauley withdrew from The American Express before the event started a few weeks ago, but will return to action again at TPC Scottsdale where he has made the cut in six of seven career apprearances and has a pair of top-25s.
Given all he has overcome, Cauley is an easy story to cheer for, and his form and course history are enough to make him a very good pivot value option to consider this week as he continues to look to write his comeback story.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M People’s Open Special [$200K to 1st] (PGA TOUR).
