After an awesome PGA Championship last week at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, the PGA TOUR is headed to Fort Worth for a one-week stay in the Lone Star State. Colonial Country Club has hosted this event since 1946 and provides a solid field with a tough test this week, especially if the Texas winds kick up. It should be a fun week of fantasy golf, and some nice prizes are up for grabs in the GPP contests. If you’re looking to find some fantasy golf pivot plays with low-ownership, check out these three options: Maverick McNealy ($9,500), Kevin Yu ($7,400) and Chandler Phillips ($6,700). Each of those three players should have lower ownership but also the potential to outperform expectations at their price point.
To make sure we’re all aiming at the same green, a “fantasy golf pivot play” is a golfer with lower ownership but similar upside to more popular options available around the same DFS salary. Often, golfers with lower ownership bring extra risk factors, but they can be worth that added risk since their lower ownership improves your chance of finishing near the top of tournaments. Even though they’re NOT the safest plays in their price range, they have enough potential upside to be worth the sweat. Be sure to check out my picks for cash lineups if you’re looking for safer options that raise the floor of your lineup.
Let’s break down why I like each of my top three pivot plays this week.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $700K Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
Maverick McNealy ($9,500)
The top players in this field are all getting lots of attention, starting with Scottie Scheffler ($13,700) at the top of the salary structure. He’s a great play that I highlighted in my cash game picks but is too popular to be a pivot play. J.T. Poston ($9,400) and Jordan Spieth ($9,800) are getting plenty of attention in the top tier as well, leaving McNealy as a great pivot play since he’s flying under the radar.
Last week, Mav finished T33 at Quail Hollow, giving him six consecutive made cuts. In his 14 events this season, McNealy has posted five top-10 finishes, including a T3 at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio a few weeks ago.
He ranks ninth in the field in Total Strokes Gained and 13th in Strokes Gained: Ballstriking over the last 24 rounds. He also ranks fourth in this field for Greens in Regulation Gained and is 15th for Good Drives Gained over that same span, all of which should set him up for success.
In his career, McNealy has played at Colonial Country Club six times, making the cut five times with a pair of top-25 finishes. One of those high finishes was last year, when he finished T17 after a closing-round 66. That strong finish catapulted McNealy to an impressive six-month run that culminated in his first PGA TOUR win at The RSM Classic last November.
McNealy has a high ceiling this week since he has posted strong results on similar courses and good course history here. He’s one of my top fantasy golf pivot plays for this week and his low ownership projection makes him a great option for GPP lineups.
Kevin Yu ($7,400)
Yu also made the cut last week at the PGA Championship, but he’s coming in under the radar in the $7,000s with ownership expected to be much lower than popular options Bud Cauley ($7,800), Alex Smalley ($7,700) and Eric Cole ($7,300).
After his T50 at Quail Hollow, Yu has now made the cut in nine of his last 12 events dating back to February. During that run, he has five top-20 finishes with his best finish during that run coming at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, where he finished solo fourth just one stroke out of the three-man playoff.
Last fall, Yu got his breakthrough PGA TOUR win at the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson. He has added top-20 finishes this year at the Houston Open and Valspar Championship, each played on tighter technical courses that have similarities to Colonial. He also tacked on a T29 at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, the most recent PGA TOUR stop in the Lone Star State.
Over the last 30 rounds, Yu ranks 10th in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and fifth in Strokes Gained: Ballstriking. His flat stick can be shaky at times, but he has gained strokes putting in seven straight rounds coming back to Colonial, where he made the cut in his debut last year.
Chandler Phillips ($6,700)
This field features plenty of good value options since 81 players have salaries of $7,000 or lower this week. Chris Gotterup ($7,000), Sami Valimaki ($6,900), Matt Kuchar ($6,800) and Danny Walker ($6,400) are all popular plays but Phillips also offers a lot of upside that makes him one of this week’s best fantasy golf pivot plays.
The Texas native and former Texas A&M Aggie sports one of the best mustaches on the PGA Tour, and he has thrived in events in his home state. The 28-year-old is quietly putting together a solid second season on the PGA TOUR and will look to make some noise at this course, where he finished T12 last year.
Part of the reason people are out on him this week is that he missed the cut in Myrtle Beach in his last tournament. Before that, though, he had been putting together a strong run of results. He made headlines by becoming the first player to make three eagles in a single round at THE PLAYERS Championship, where he eventually finished T61.
He built on that momentum with a T32 and T18 in the back-to-back Texas events before the Masters and tacked on a T15 at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson to continue his success in the state. He also added a top 10 at the Zurich Classic playing alongside Jacob Bridgeman.
With his strong results before missing the cut two weeks ago, Phillips is a nice “boom-or-bust” play in Fort Worth this week.
