The Cheat Sheet provides DraftKings fantasy golf players with course info, player history and the most noteworthy trends of the week to help them with their roster selections.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $700K Pitch + Putt [$200K to 1st]
The Field
This week marks the second-to-last event before the Masters. The Houston Open has undergone a few name changes, a venue switch, and now a date switch but has remained a regular stop for the TOUR over the long haul. This event had a three-year stay on the fall swing but is now back in a late March spot (right before the Masters) for the second straight season. It will also be contested at Memorial Park Golf Course for the fifth year in a row in 2025.
The field this week is again comprised of 144 players. While it’s not a signature event, it does, as of writing, feature world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is the massive favorite on DraftKings Sportsbook at +330, and world No. 2 Rory McIlroy. The cut will take place after Friday with the top 65 players and ties making the weekend.
The Course
Memorial Park Golf Course — Houston, Texas
Par 70, 7,412 yards; Greens: Poa trivialis overseed
This year marks the fifth season that the Houston Open will be played at Memorial Park Golf Course, a public links course that was renovated before 2020 by the city of Houston and once hosted this same event for a time back in 1963. This venue/event wasn’t seen on the PGA in 2023 after it hosted a fall event back in 2022. However, it’s now part of the main yearly schedule and is set to have a big impact on player preparation for the year’s first major.
The redesign of this course was completed in 2019 by Tom Doak, who brought in former PGA TOUR pro Brooks Koepka as an advisor. The venue is a parkland course but was modified significantly from its old layout. Water is in play on four holes, and natural hazards like ravines come into play throughout the venue. Elevation changes to the greens and fairways also occurred, while the redesign also decided to eliminate much of the sand that was on the course, as only 19 bunkers are in play now. Memorial Park was also given a variety of new tee boxes, allowing the course to play at various lengths, including an ultra-long setting for the pros. The course now plays as a par 70, and at over 7,400 yards, it is actually one of the longest par 70s the pros will see all season.
In 2020, this venue played as the 12th-toughest on the PGA TOUR, and the field here had a tough time with just about everything. Driving accuracy particularly was down vs. the PGA TOUR average, as players hit about seven-to-eight percent fewer fairways than usual. Despite the penal rough, it still played as a driver-heavy course, as Driving Distance for the week was over 295 yards and well above the PGA TOUR average. Driving the ball well here is certainly a theme to be keyed in on this week as well. Tony Finau led the field by a wide margin in Good Drive % in 2022 and gained over 4.0 strokes OTT. Many of the other top performers the year Finau won also performed well off the tee.
Scrambling around these greens is also difficult, and it’s worth mentioning Carlos Ortiz gained +6.1 strokes Around the Green on his way to winning in 2020. Stephan Jaeger, 2024 winner, took a similar approach, gaining over 9.7 strokes ATG and Putting, while just remaining slightly positive vs. the field on approach and off the tee. In 2021, Jason Kokrak leaned heavily on his ball-striking as he gained 6.1 strokes on approach, but he also gained a very impressive 8.7 strokes putting.
A solid comparison for this week may be Copperhead at the Innisbrook Golf Resort, the host of last week’s Valspar Championship. Both Memorial and Copperhead feature five par 3s and three par 5s as well as harder-to-hit fairways and greens strewn around a tree-lined flatter course. We’ve also seen a lot of the same names pop up at both venues as Finau, Sam Burns and Kokrak (2021 winner of this event) have all posted top-10 finishes at these courses. Both courses also put a lot of stress on long iron play and this week, there will be six par 4s at Memorial Park, which runs over 450 yards in length, requiring lots of approaches from 175+ yards.
Players at Memorial Park will also need to take advantage of the par 5s, which typically have run as the easiest holes on the course. While good putting is a must, consistent driving will be the main ingredient needed for grabbing birdies at those scoring holes and avoiding bogies on the tougher ones.
2025 Weather Update: The weather looks like it could again make things difficult for the players this week. Heavier winds are expected the first couple of days with gusts into the 20 MPH range on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. There is also some rain in the forecast, which could soften the course but also make the course play longer with the cool air and wet rough. Things are dryer on Saturday and Sunday but still windy, so don’t be shocked if we get a very similar tournament to what we saw last week. It’s going to be a guessing game as to which wave is better this week for stacking as stoppages could come into play the first two days. However, as of writing, the Thursday AM/Friday PM crew looks like they’ll have a better shot at less wind. Things can change in a hurry however so if you’re stacking waves, having exposure to both sides is likely prudent.
Last 5 winners
**Tournament was played at the Golf Club of Houston prior to 2020
2024–Stephan Jaeger -12 (over five players at -11)
2022—Tony Finau -16 (over Tyson Alexander -12)
2021—Jason Kokrak -10 (over Scottie Scheffler -8)
2020—Carlos Ortiz -13 (over Hideki Matsuyama -11)
2019—Lanto Griffin -14 (Mark Hubbard -13)
Past Winner Stats and Trends
2024—Stephan Jaeger (13-under-par)
Previous five starts coming into 2021 (MC-T44-MC-T44-T3)
SG: OTT — +0.9
SG: APP — +1.5
SG: TTG — +5.6
SG: ATG — +3.3
SG: PUTT — +6.4
- Five of the top-10 finishers in 2020 ranked in the top eight for strokes gained: tee-to-green stats for the week, and five of the top-six finishers gained +1.5 strokes or more around the green.
- In 2022, four of the top-five finishers gained over 2.0 strokes off the tee; in 2023 14 of the top-15 finishers gained over 1.0 strokes off the tee.
- Five of the top-six finishers from 2024 gained over 2.0 strokes OTT
- Carlos Ortiz gained most of his strokes around the green in 2020 but both Kokrak and Finau gained far more OTT and on Approach
- Finau was the leader in GIR% gained and Fairways gained in 2022
- Jaeger took the Ortiz, gaining 9.7 combined around the greens and putting for the week
Finding Values (DraftKings Sportsbook)
Odds to win are one factor to think about when picking players (but not the only thing, so be careful putting too much weight on them). This section is going to detail a few of the players who have the best fantasy value comparative to their DraftKings Sportsbook odds of winning this week.
Jason Day +3500 and $9,000
Comparables:
Keith Mitchell +5500 and $8,000
Comparables:
Recent Form
1. Rory McIlroy ($11,700; win-T15-win): McIlroy has got himself off to a great start in 2025. Two wins, including his second PLAYERS title, is nothing to sneeze at. He’s been consistent off the tee as always but has really found a groove on the greens where he’s gained over 4.0 strokes in three of his last four starts.
2. Jacob Bridgeman ($8,400; T3-T50): Bridgeman looks like a player who is going to break through soon. He’s finished T-15 or better in three of his last four starts and was a runner-up at PGA National and took solo third last week at Copperhead. He’s been mostly gaining with the putter but did finish T-21 at this venue last season.
3. J.J. Spaun ($9,900; 2-T31-T2): Spaun comes in off a hot run that includes a T-2 at the Cognizant Classic and a solo second place, playoff loss, at the PLAYERS. The American will undoubtedly be disappointed he wasn’t able to get across the finish line at Sawgrass but he’s someone we should expect to see spike again soon given his level of play thus far in 2025.
4. Davis Riley ($7,600; 7-T38-T6): Riley looks like he’s turned the corner as of late as the American comes into this week off another solid start that saw him finish T-7 at Copperhead. That marks four straight cuts made for Riley and two top 10s over his last three starts. He’s gaining big on approach and ATG but needs to find consistency off the tee and on the greens if he wants to break through for his third win.
5. Max McGreevy ($7,400; T54-T20): McGreevy’s recent results may not jump off the page but he is playing very consistent golf. He’s made five cuts in a row now and gained big on approach at three tough Florida venues in PGA National, Bay Hill and Sawgrass. At under $7,500 this week, it’s hard not to see him as a good value in DFS.
DRAFTKINGS DFS STRATEGY
Cash Games: Go back to Scottie
Scheffler ($12,700) has played extremely well at this event over the years, posting finishes of 2nd-T9-2nd at Memorial Park the last three seasons. He’s not broken through with a win yet but is still gaining big on approach. If you start with Scheffler you’ll need some good core values to build around and luckily the 8k range has some great names to look to. Both Keith Mitchell ($8,000) and Alex Smalley ($8,200 – see below) look like solid values as Mitchell started well last week before fading, but his off-the-tee game will play very well on this tougher course. Davis Riley ($7,600) and Sam Ryder ($7,300) stand out as two other names to consider in the 7k range.
Tournaments: Buy the dip on Day
Given how many people Jason Day ($9,000) burned at the PLAYERS with his late WD, I can’t see him being an overly popular pick this week. However, the Aussie was reportedly only dealing with an illness so the lack of an injury is encouraging. Day had previously been playing some solid golf, landing a T-3 at the Amex, a T-8 at Bay Hill and a T-13 at Pebble Beach. He’s also won in Texas multiple times before and was in contention at this event back in 2020, the first season Memorial Park hosted this event. Taylor Moore ($7,900) is another interesting name to consider, as the American had been striking it well before fading last week in Florida. Below Moore, names such as Karl Vilips ($7,000), Ryan Fox ($6,900), Aldrich Potgieter ($6,800), Emiliano Grillo ($6,700) and Trey Mullinax ($6,700) all offer low-owned, boom-bust appeal for large field GPPs.
MY PICK: Alex Smalley ($8,200)
This looks like a great spot for Alex Smalley to break out with a big week. The American had some understandable regression at the Valspar, where he missed the cut a week after being in contention at one of the biggest events of the season in the PLAYERS (where he finished T-14). Despite the step back, there is no denying that Smalley is now profiling like a future PGA winner.
He’s landed five top-20 finishes across eight PGA starts this season and sits fifth in strokes gained total stats, sixth in SG: OTT stats and fifth in SG: ATG stats over the last 24 rounds. He’s also shown a propensity for spiking with the putter on these Poa overseeded green surfaces, having gained 5.2 strokes putting a few weeks ago in Phoenix, a course that features similar surfaces to the ones in play this week. Smalley is also a veteran of this event, having played here three times in the past, posting finishes of T-4 (2022) and T-15 (2021). In both of those top-20 finishes, he gained over 3.0 strokes putting.
With a weekend of rest under his belt, he should be set for a good bounceback at a course that he’s excelled at in the past and for DFS purposes, he looks like the exact sort of core play you want to build around this week. For betting, his outright number at +5500 looks worth taking on as we have yet to see Scottie Scheffler come and dominate events like this in 2025. Until he does, pounding the middle of the board with names like Smalley looks like the right strategy.
MY SLEEPER: Victor Perez ($7,100)
Perez is a player I noted a few weeks ago at the Cognizant Classic when he finished T-18 but gained absurdly on approach (+5.1 strokes) and off the tee (+2.1 strokes). He took the PLAYERS off to rest his back but came back last week looking quite strong again, finishing T-22 at the tougher Copperhead venue and gaining 3.5 strokes on approach. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact Perez’s putter finally showed some life as he gained 3.1 strokes on the Poa overseeded greens at Copperhead, his best mark of the season by far in that area. The putter has been holding him back for a lot of the season so seeing him find some confidence with it is a noteworthy development.
This will also be the second season in a row Perez is playing Memorial Park, as he posted a T-17 in Houston last season, gaining across every category. The Frenchman is a multiple-time winner on the European Tour and has posted some big finishes already on the PGA, including T-3 finishes in Canada and Puerto Rico last season. Given his rising form, it wouldn’t shock me to see another solid week from him, and at just $7,100 for DFS, he makes perfect sense as an upside play for GPPs this week.
For betting, I wouldn’t hesitate to look at him as a ladder betting option either in the top 10/top 20 markets, specifically on DraftKings Sportsbook.
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