We head to TPC Sawgrass (par 72, 7,352 yards, POA trivialis greens) in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for THE PLAYERS Championship. TPC Sawgrass has been the host of THE PLAYERS Championship since 1982. At this event last season, Rory McIlroy (-12) defeated J.J. Spaun in a playoff. This week’s field consists of 123 players and there will be a top-65 and ties cut after the first two rounds. THE PLAYERS Championship features a season-high $25 million purse and is considered the “fifth major” of the season by many golf fans.
For this anticipated event, DraftKings is offering three GPPs that pay out $1 million to first place! The entry fees for these contests are $25, $3,333 and $4,444. You will need to find some low-owned plays that perform well to contend in these GPPs and below, I have featured some of my favorite contrarian DFS options from each price range.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA $2.25M Fantasy Golf Millionaire [$1M to 1st]
Viktor Hovland ($9,100)
Hovland is going to get lost in the shuffle this week, as he has had some disappointing starts this season. Just last month, Hovland finished T-58 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and T-41 at the Genesis Invitational. However, Hovland improved after these outings, finishing T-13 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week. The 28-year-old gained strokes on approach and with his putter at Bay Hill, and while he has hit some speed bumps along the way, Hovland still has finished inside the top-15 in seven of his last 10 starts worldwide.
Hopefully last week was a sign of more things to come from Hovland and taking a chance on him at TPC Sawgrass makes sense. Hovland has produced two top-10 finishes in five starts at TPC Sawgrass – including a T-3 in 2023 – and his last win on the PGA TOUR came in Florida, at the Valspar Championship last year. When we compare this field’s results in the Sunshine State, Hovland ranks eighth in strokes gained per round.
Shane Lowry ($8,600)
After blowing a three-shot lead at the Cognizant Classic and then missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, very few are going to click on Lowry this week, but you should be one of them. The Irishman missed the cut at Bay Hill last week, but he only did so by one stroke and if his ball didn’t land in the rocks around the greens on the 18th hole on Friday, resulting a closing bogey, Lowry would have made the cut.
Nonetheless, the former Open champion has been great over the last few months and at TPC Sawgrass during his career, so a bounce-back performance this week is very possible. Before missing the cut last week, Lowry had made nine cuts in a row worldwide with six top-12 finishes during this streak and at TPC Sawgrass, he has made 7-of-10 cuts with four top-20 finishes, including a T-8 in 2021.
Brooks Koepka ($7,800)
The $7K range is flooded with appealing plays this week and Koepka should get overlooked, especially with Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Akshay Bhatia sitting right there at $100 less than Koepka. The 35-year-old isn’t fresh off a win like Bhatia, but Koepka made some serious progress in his last start and could surprise this week.
At the Cognizant Classic two weeks ago, Koepka opened with a 3-over 74, but then he shot 66, 69 and 65 in his final three rounds, resulting in a T-9 finish. This is easily Koepka’s best finish during his comeback season on the PGA TOUR and his 65 on Sunday was the low score of the final round at the Cognizant Classic. Outside of around the greens, Koepka gained strokes in every major category at PGA National. The five-time major winner now will look to build off this at TPC Sawgrass, where Koepka has made 4-of-5 cuts and finished T-11 in 2018.
Mac Meissner ($6,600)
Meissner isn’t a well-known name yet and coming off a missed cut at the Cognizant Classic, he should come with little ownership this week, making the 27-year-old one of the top cheap gambles for GPPs. Meissner only missed the cut by one shot at the Cognizant Classic and leading up to this, he had made 11 cuts in a row. During this streak, Meissner racked up seven top-30 finishes, most impressively with a runner-up at the Wyndham Championship in August.
Meissner ranks 24th in total strokes gained when we compare this field’s last 50 rounds and in his PLAYERS debut last season, he finished T-42. Meissner now returns to TPC Sawgrass 60 spots higher in the world golf rankings.
