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.
The Field
The Truist Championship (formerly Wells Fargo) is a Signature PGA Event that features 70-72 golfers. This event is usually held at Quail Hollow Country Club, but since it is hosting the PGA Championship next week, this season the event has been moved to the Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club for 2025 only.
Scottie Scheffler is taking this week off after demolishing the field at the Byron Nelson last week, but Masters champion Rory McIlroy will be playing in his final tune-up before the year’s second major. McIlroy has owned Quail Hollow for most of his career (four career wins), so he will no doubt be looking forward to next week.
The rest of the field includes names like Justin Thomas, Ludvig Aberg and Collin Morikawa, who is still looking for his first win on the PGA in over two years. This week’s event does not have a cut line, so the entire field will get to play in all four rounds, which makes this an interesting week for DFS lineup building and certainly raises the upside of stars and scrubs builds.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $750K Summer Sand Trap [$250K to 1st]
The Course
Philadelphia Cricket Club, the Wissahickon Course | Philadelphia, PA
Par 71, 7,119 yards | Green: Bentgrass
The Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club will be used this week as a one-off replacement for Quail Hollow to host this event. The AW Tillinghast design was restored recently in 2013 and looks like it will be in prime shape for this season’s event. The course is short, but as we’ve seen at past stops, short doesn’t always mean easy.
The venue does have decent-sized fairways, which were restored to their normal capacity in the recent renovation, but it also has extensive fairway bunkering that won’t allow players just to aim at the middle of the fairway on every hole. The offset greens and some of Tillinghast’s dramatic greenside designs will also test players’ short games and course-management skills.
Unlike next week, where players will be on a much longer course where brute strength off the tee will play a bigger factor, this week looks more about precision and the ability to handle the tiered greens (which are likely to play fast and present tons of challenges). Tillinghast has designed several courses in this region, including Ridgeway CC, Bethpage and Winged Foot, so there are some comparables and past leaderboards to look at. However, with this venue being renovated recently and never seen on the PGA, it will undoubtedly be a new experience for everyone.
For DFS, looking to emphasize recent form will be key. I would take a longer viewpoint this week and include results from before the first major, as there have been some easier courses in play of late, including last week at TPC Craig Ranch, which doesn’t have much, if anything, in common with this week’s venue. Good approach stats and around the green stats in long-term form should be emphasized as well as players who have shown good results at some of the more recent Tillinghast venues in play at the 2020 US Open and 2018 and 2015 Northern Trust playoff events.
2025 Weather Outlook: The weather is a bit of a mixed bag this week. Highs will likely be in the low 70°F on Day 1, where AM starters may have an advantage. Some poor weather and wind is set to move in the afternoon and evening, so the quicker players get on the course and get their rounds over with, the better on Thursday. Friday highs go down well into the 60°F range, and heavy winds with gusts into the 20 MPH range are expected on Day 2, along with rain. This should be a hard day on the course, assuming they play, and short games will certainly be tested. The sun returns on Saturday with winds dying down on Sunday. All-in-all, expected Friday to be tough with Saturday also having some decent wind in the forecast that will make birdies hard to come by. The weather will likely help keep scoring down and put a bigger emphasis on GIR% and around the green play.
Last 5 Winners
*2024—Rory McIlroy -17 (over Xander Schauffele -12)
*2023—Wyndham Clark -19 (over Xander Schauffele -15)
**2022—Max Homa -8 (over three players -6)
*2021—Rory McIlroy -10 (over Abraham Ancer -9)
*2019—Max Homa -15 (over Joel Dahmen -12)
*Played at Quail Hollow.
**Played at TPC Potomac.
Winners Stats and Course Overview
Rory McIlroy—2024 (17-under-par; played at Quail Hollow)
2024 lead-in form (T33-T22-T3-T19-T21)
SG: OTT — +6.1
SG: APP — +6.3
SG: TTG — +8.7
SG: ATG — +15.6
SG: PUTT — +4.3
- McIlroy demolished Quail last season. Of note is the fact that he didn’t play all that great at Augusta or Hilton Head
- However, he did gain over 4.0 strokes on approach at Valero and the PLAYERS last season, his third and fourth final starts before winning this week’s event
- Looking at a player’s full body of work over the last couple of months likely has some benefit this week, given how much time off some players have had since Augusta.
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 compared to their DraftKings Sportsbook odds of winning this week.
Corey Conners +3000 and $8,800
Comparables:
- Hideki Matsuyama +3000 and $8,900
- Russell Henley +3000 and $9,400
Robert MacIntyre +4500 and $8,000
Comparables:
- Jason Day +5000 and $8,000
- Keegan Bradley +4500 and $8,100
- Min Woo Lee +5000 and $8,200
Recent Form
1. Andrew Novak ($7,800; win-2nd-T3): Novak has been on a straight tear of late, landing top-five finishes at the RBC and Valero before finally breaking through for a win at the Zurich with teammate Ben Griffin. It’s possible we see some regression soon, but at just 7.8K this week, expect him to be popular for DFS.
2. Jordan Spieth ($9,200; 4th-T18): Spieth finished big last week as his 9-under par final round launched him into fourth place at the Byron. It was a nice result, but remember, he still lost by 12 strokes. Regardless, he is playing solid golf, and his finish last week will get him more attention this week. He’s now gained over 6.0 strokes on approach in two of his last five starts, so there is likely some good weeks ahead for him this spring/summer.
3. Justin Thomas ($10,000; win-T36): Thomas won the RBC Heritage his last time out and capped off a successful return to top form after he also managed a second place at the Valspar in March. He’s been off the last couple of weeks but comes in showing confidence with his putter, having gained big on the greens in four straight starts.
4. Maverick McNealy ($8,300; T3-T32): McNealy has had a nice start to 2025. He managed a second at Torrey Pines in February and also posted T-3 finishes at Hilton Head and TPC San Antonio. Few have had better starts to the season, and he’s now gained over 4.0 strokes putting in two of his last three starts.
5. Eric Cole ($6,700; T5-T18): Cole has again shown some great form after a dip in performance to start the year. The journeyman has yet to win on the PGA, but he’s finished in the top-20 in four of his last five starts and gained over 3.0 strokes on approach at each of the last two events. This isn’t a course you’d necessarily say is a great fit for his skillset, but given his form, he does look like a solid GPP play for big DFS tournaments.
DRAFTKINGS DFS STRATEGY
Cash Games: Matsuyama and Lowry are a nice value duo
I mentioned Matsuyama ($8,900) below, but both he and Shane Lowry set up well for a classically designed layout where a nice mix of precision and scrambling will be key. Lowry was in contention for three rounds at Augusta a couple of weeks ago (before imploding on Sunday), but remains a player who has looked sharp all season and is just waiting for the week when it all comes together for four rounds. Like Matsuyama, he’s gaining around the greens every start, which should be a good sign for success at this week’s setup. Maverick McNealy ($8,300), who I mentioned above in the recent form section, also looks like a solid target for this format at under 8.5K, as does Si Woo Kim ($7,600), who gained over 6.0 strokes on approach last week at the Byron and is starting to get it together after a tough start to the season.
Tournaments: Thomas could double up
The tendency is usually to fade the guy who just broke through, but with the floodgates now open, Justin Thomas ($10,000) is a player I expect may win again sooner than people think. The American is showing tons of confidence on the greens right now and could go overlooked now that his salary has risen a little. If he dips in sentiment (or your ownership projections), then I wouldn’t hesitate to be overweight on him this week. Under Thomas, I also like this setup for Jason Day ($8,000), who has performed extremely well on Tillinghast designs in the past, and Tony Finau ($7,400 – mentioned below). Some extremely low-owned names to potentially look at for larger field GPPs this week include Lucas Glover ($6,600) and Christiaan Bezuidenhout ($6,300).
MY PICK: Hideki Matsuyama ($8,900)
Matsuyama skipped the last signature event after he finished T-21 at the Masters, an event where he gained 7.6 strokes on approach but lost over 4.0 strokes putting. The big splits seem to be going unnoticed this week, as the break in play has still caused him to be priced at under 9K on DraftKings. The Japanese pro is hitting it well and remains potentially the best scrambler in the world at this point as he leads the field in strokes gained ATG stats over the last 24 rounds of play.
Matsuyama’s around-the-green play should pay big dividends on this new venue, where restoration back in 2013 sought to make around-the-green play tough at Wissahickon with tighter green side runoffs and lies. He’s also a veteran of these Tillinghast designs and has plenty of solid results in the NE United States, having finished T-4 at the 2016 PGA Championship (Baltusrol) and T-17 at Winged Foot for the 2020 US Open.
Considering some of the names above him in price this week, Matsuyama looks like a potentially great core play to build around, and at +3000 in the outright market on DraftKings Sportsbook, he has good value appeal given names like Spieth, Henley and Cantlay are all lower in price this week.
For betting, he still has big odds in the outright market where he makes sense as a longshot play at +3000 and as a top-10 bet at +280 (with ties).
MY SLEEPER: Tony Finau ($7,400)
It’s easy to be bearish on Tony Finau right now. He missed the cut at the Masters and could only manage a T-38 at the last signature event, where he also lost strokes on approach. That said, his slump isn’t that bad. Having missed the cut at the two biggest events of the season isn’t ideal, but he’s still been gaining strokes off the tee on a consistent basis and hasn’t been that off with his iron play. He slumped around the greens at the tricky Harbour Town but has generally scrambled well this season.
In short, he doesn’t seem all that far off from putting together a big week, and after a nice break, this venue may finally be the spot we see his A-game make an appearance. Finau has done well in this portion of the USA, landing a T-8 at the Tillinghast-designed Winged Foot at the US Open in 2020, a solo second at the Tillinghast-designed Ridgeway CC in 2018, and a FedEx Cup playoff win at the nearby Liberty CC in 2021.
With this course being new to the field, Finau’s experience playing in this part of the country should provide a decent edge. At under 7.5K for fantasy purposes, he’s the sort of value I would not hesitate to be overweight on at this venue, and for betting, his top-20 (+190) and top-10 (+500) prices both look like decent targets.
