The PGA TOUR closed out the West Coast swing last week and will tee it up for the first of four straight events in Florida at this week’s Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. As the name makes clear, the event takes place just north of Miami in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The tournament will be played for the 20th straight year at The Champion Course at PGA National, where the famous “Bear Trap” headlines a difficult course with water, water everywhere and plenty of balls in the drink. It’s usually a wild and volatile event with plenty of excitement, and if you’re planning to tee it up for any of this week’s GPP contests on DraftKings, check out these top three fantasy golf picks for the Cognizant Classic. This week, I’m backing Shane Lowry ($9,900), Doug Ghim ($7,400) and Karl Vilips ($6,800) as my three top GPP options, who I think come in with lower ownership but have a strong chance to step up and exceed salary-based expectations as strong pivot plays.
Let’s be sure to define what we’re searching for in this post to be sure we’re all hunting the same flagstick. A fantasy golf pivot play is a golfer with low expected ownership in tournament formats but very high upside. Typically, these selections 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 extra sweat since they come with lower ownership. These are “grip it and rip it,” boom-or-bust style options that could go off or could flame out. Getting players at low ownership is critical to finding success in GPP tournament-style events with many entries, in which making yours stand out is critical. 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 overall floor of your lineup.
Getting players at low ownership is critical to finding success in GPP tournament-style events with many entries, where making yours stand out is critical. 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 overall 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 $750K Sand Trap [$200K to 1st].
Shane Lowry ($9,900)
The DFS contests this week were totally shaken up on Monday when Ben Griffin, Jacob Bridgeman, and Adam Scott withdrew shortly after pricing came out. Those three players were each in the top five salaries, leaving no players over $10,000 and only seven players over $9,000. While each of those players has a strong case, most of the attention is going to Ryan Gerard ($9,700) and Nicolai Hojgaard ($9,400), but the fact is that none of these players is going to have low ownership since there are so few of them and so much salary available. Most GPP lineups will likely have at least two of these players, with carrying three very possible if you go cheap in other spots.
Rather than trying to find non-existent differentiation at the top of the salary structure for GPP lineups, I’m taking the top option, who actually isn’t looking like he’ll be the most popular play on the board. Lowry is a great blend of current form and course history, though, so he’s my favorite play in this price range.
Lowry had a strong fall with three straight top-12 finishes on the DP World Tour, including a T3 at the DP World India Championship. He added another T3 at the Dubai Invitational and a T26 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour to start 2026 and then came to the PGA TOUR, where he posted a T8 at Pebble Beach and a T24 at The Genesis Invitational in the Signature Events the last two weeks.
In one of the most memorable recent finishes at PGA National, Lowry came up one shot short of forcing a playoff with Sepp Straka when a sudden rainstorm hit while he was playing the final hole. Since then, he has finished T5, T4, and T11 at this event, and he is 8-for-8 making the cut in his career.
The course has so much water in play that it typically yields very volatile results, but Lowry has been able to have enough success at the venue to count on him with both a high floor and a high ceiling this week.
Doug Ghim ($7,400)
After you’ve picked a top option, or two, or even three, you can differentiate your GPP lineups by taking a few fliers lower in the salary structure. While Max McGreevy ($8,200), Kristoffer Reitan ($7,700), Mac Meissner ($8,000), and Sami Valimaki ($7,600) are all strong and popular plays that I’ve used before in other tournaments, I’m looking to take a swing with Doug Ghim this week, since the 29-year-old former Texas Longhorn brings lots of upside without getting as much attention.
With most of the biggest names in golf taking the week off, Ghim is one of several players looking to take advantage and improve their PGA TOUR status. Last season, he finished No. 113 in the FedExCup Fall standings, earning conditional status on the PGA TOUR this season. He finished the season on a solid run that led up to a T7 at The RSM Classic. He carried over that momentum to 2026, by making two cuts in three tournaments but not pushing into the top 30.
Over the longer term, Ghim has some of the strongest metrics in the field. Over the last 50 rounds, he ranks second in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and is also in the top 15 in Total Strokes Gained and Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. This season, his accuracy has still looked fairly solid both off the tee and on approach, but he hasn’t been able to post a high finish due to a few disastrous holes and some struggles with the flat stick.
Maybe moving to Bermuda greens can help flip his putter, and he’ll be playing on a course where he has had some recent success. After missing the cut in his first three trips to PGA National, he has been much better in the last two years, posting T16 and T11 finishes since the course changes went into effect before the 2024 event. The course has played significantly easier relative to par for the last two seasons, and the changes have made it a strong fit for Ghim’s game. He’s a bargain play under $7,500 and brings a high ceiling if he has a spike week.
Karl Vilips ($6,800)
Many young players will be looking to make a breakthrough this week, and one of my favorite rising stars to includeover the last year has been Karl Vilips, who is coming up on the one-year anniversary of his huge win at the Puerto Rico Open (played as an alternate event next week). Vilips is getting less attention than Seonghyeon Kim ($7,000), Zecheng Dou ($6,900), Lee Hodges ($7,100) and even Austin Smotherman ($6,500), but I think he brings a higher ceiling if he’s at his best.
The 24-year-old Stanford alum has had success at this event in the past, finishing T39 in his debut last year in the week before his win in Puerto Rico.
Not only did Vilips get that victory, but he also made the cut in 12 of his 21 events in 2025, finishing No. 100 in the FedExCup Fall standings. He got off to a strong start this season with a strong T18 at The American Express and a solid T38 at the Farmers Insurance Open. He did miss the cut in Phoenix before getting the last two weeks off during the Signature Events.
Vilips should be ready to return this week and has the potential to go off and contend if he’s at his best. He ranks in the top 15 in the field for Total Strokes Gained over his last 16 rounds and the top 10 in Total Strokes Gained over the last 12 rounds. His short game has been red hot, and if he can get his driver straight, he could be right in the mix this week.
