The FedExCup Playoffs continue this week, with the PGA TOUR heading to Baltimore, Maryland, for the second of the three tournaments in the postseason. The BMW Championship has occurred on a variety of courses over its long history, and this week it will take place at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland. It should be another great week of fantasy golf, and as you set your tournament lineups, check out my top three fantasy golf pivot plays for the week: Cameron Young ($9,800), Rickie Fowler ($7,900) and Andrew Novak ($7,000). I think those three golfers come in under the radar but have a strong chance to step-up and exceed salary-based expectations.
The players will face a new course this week, in many ways, since the only time the PGA TOUR visited Caves Valley was for the 2021 BMW Championship, won by Patrick Cantlay in a playoff over Bryson DeChambeau. After that record-setting, low-scoring tournament, the course had a major renovation to make it longer and dropping the par to 70 from 72. It should be a tough test for the 49-player field this week in the no-cut event, with the emphasis still place on distance and driving.
Let’s be sure to define our terms before we jump into this week’s picks. A “fantasy golf pivot play” is a golfer with low ownership and high upside. Typically, they come with major risk factors compared to more popular options that are available around the same DFS salary. Even though these plays are NOT the safest options in their price range, they have enough potential upside to be worth the sweat since they come with lower ownership. Be sure to check out my companion post to this one that highlights 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 $800K Summer Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
Cameron Young, $9,800
Young’s ownership this week is limited by his increasing salary. He’s up to almost $10,000, but could end up being a great source of pay-up leverage. He doesn’t carry as much name value as Patrick Cantlay ($10,100), Russell Henley ($9,700) or Collin Morikawa ($9,600), but he does come with outstanding form and plenty of upside. If you pair him with either Scottie Scheffler ($13,400) or Rory McIlroy ($11,400), you’ll have a tough time stretching your salary, but he should have low ownership. Since he’s a little more expensive, I’d go with Rory and Young as the anchors of a stars and scrubs lineup.
Just two weeks ago, Young broke through for his much-anticipated first PGA TOUR win with a dominating showing at the Wyndham Championship. He had a long run of strong results before the win and finally got the victory he had narrowly missed in the past. He looks ready to build on that with a run of strong finishes, especially after posting another great result at TPC Southwind last week. He had the best final round in the field and finished fifth.
Young led the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee on Sunday and for the tournament, so his driver is in great shape coming into this driver-forward event. He leads this entire elite field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and is second in Total Strokes Gained over the last eight rounds. In longer-term form, he ranks fourth in the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in his last 30 rounds, second in Strokes Gained: Putting, and ninth in Total Strokes Gained.
Young’s red-hot coming to Caves Valley, and if his driver keeps rolling, he could be right in the mix again.
Rickie Fowler, $7,900
Rickie is usually a very popular option since he has such a devoted fanbase, but he isn’t getting much hype this week, especially compared to Corey Conners ($8,400) and Chris Gotterup ($8,500) above him and Kurt Kityama ($7,600) and Harry Hall ($7,800) below him.
Fowler has had a quietly solid season, though. He is back in the playoffs and now into the top 50, ensuring he’ll play in all Signature Events next season. He’s made the cut in 17 of his 20 events in 2025 with eight top 25 finishes. He saved his best for late in the season, too, with his top finish of the year last week’s T6 at the St. Jude.
If we’re looking for players that are working well with their drivers, don’t sleep on Rickie, who ranks fifth in this strong field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in the last 36 rounds and 20th in both Total Strokes Gained and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green over that same span.
If he wants to get in one more event at the playoff finale, he will have his work cut out for him. He needs at least a solo 13th to advance to move into the top 30 to qualify for the TOUR Championship. Even though he’s a long shot to advance, I think he’ll be a solid DFS pivot play since he has so much experience on a variety of tracks and should adjust to this layout quickly.
Andrew Novak, $7,000
Last week in this space, I highlighted Justin Rose here, so no pressure, Mr. Novak.
Novak is exactly the kind of “swing for the fences” pick that makes sense in GPP lineups, especially in events with no cut. If things go his way, he has an extremely high ceiling and has looked on the verge of securing his first individual PGA TOUR win multiple times this season. He got his first PGA TOUR win when he and Ben Griffin teamed up to triumph at the Zurich Classic, and both players went on to put together excellent seasons.
While Griffin already got his individual win, Novak has been close with five top 10 finishes in 2025. He lost in a playoff at the RBC Heritage and was back in the top 10 with a T6 at the FedEx St. Jude last week.
Novak has done his best work in no-cut events like this one, with four top 20 finishes in his five no-cut events this season. He starts this week all the way up at No. 11 in the FedExCup standings, virtually assuring that he’ll play next week.
He did miss the cut at the Wyndham and barely made the weekend at The Open, but his ceiling is high enough that he makes a good fantasy golf pivot play for the BMW.
