The PGA Championship is the season’s second of four majors and it will be played at Aronimink Golf Club (par 70, 7,394 yards, bentgrass greens) in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Aronimink also hosted the PGA Championship in 1976, the AT&T National in 2010 and 2011, and the BMW Championship in 2018. Keegan Bradley (-20) took home the top prize at the 2018 BMW Championship by defeating Justin Rose in a playoff. This week’s PGA Championship features a 156-man field and there will be a top-70 and ties cut after the first two rounds.
For the PGA Championship, DraftKings is offering two GPPs that pay out $1 million to first place! The entry fees for these contests are $25 or $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.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA $2.5M Fantasy Golf Millionaire [$1M to 1st]
Justin Rose ($9,500)
Rose should get overlooked for two reasons. First off, Ludvig Aberg is only $300 more and the Swede is likely to soak up most of the ownership in this range. Secondly, Rose is coming off two mediocre performances, finishing outside the top-40 at both the Cadillac and Truist Championship. Rose did just make an equipment change before the Cadillac Championship, signing with McLaren Golf and he may be struggling to find a rhythm with new clubs.
While this is a concern, Rose always seems to come alive at majors and returning to Aronimink is a perfect place for him to rejuvenate his game. Rose just finished T-3 at the Masters last month and he has finished inside the top-10 at four of the last six PGA Championships. At Aronimink, Rose has been sensational, finishing first, T-15 and runner-up in his three starts at the par 70. Rose has shot under par in 9-of-12 rounds here and he has shot as low as a 7-under 63 at Aronimink.
Rose ranks first among this field in strokes gained per round at Aronimink and his expertise for this venue could absolutely translate into another high-major finish this week.
Patrick Cantlay ($8,900)
Cantlay rarely comes with high ownership at majors. Despite only costing $7,900 for the Masters, he was only rostered by 4.4% of the field for the Millionaire Maker on DraftKings. Sitting at a more lucrative $8,900 for this week’s PGA Championship, Cantlay should once again come with single-digit ownership and he brings great upside.
Cantlay’s resume at Aronimink isn’t anything to brag about, finishing T-20 and T-55 in two starts, but the veteran is in awesome form this time around. In his last four starts, Cantlay has finished T-7, T-12, T-8 and T-10. He gained strokes on approach at all these events and he shot under par in 11 of these 16 rounds, including three straight sub-par rounds to close out last week’s Truist Championship.
Also, while Cantlay hasn’t finished high in his two starts at Aronimink, there are reasons to suggest he could contend at this course. Aronimink was designed by Donald Ross and Cantlay won the 2021 TOUR Championship at the Ross-designed East Lake Golf Club. Furthermore, Aronimink features bentgrass greens and Cantlay has always played his best golf on this type of putting surface. Cantlay has won eight times on the PGA TOUR and six of these victories came at tracks with bentgrass greens.
Harry Hall ($5,800)
With Alex Fitzpatrick and Kristoffer Reitan just a little more expensive, Hall is going to get slept on this week and the Englishman is an outstanding cheap flier to take in the Millionaire Maker. Hall finished T-19 in his PGA Championship debut a year ago and he heads to Aronimink in convincing form.
Hall has made four of his last five cuts and three of these finishes have been top-30 results. At last week’s Truist Championship, Hall finished T-8 and he gained strokes across the board at Quail Hollow. The 28-year-old opened the Signature Event with a 5-under 66 and closed with a 4-under 67.
Hall has gained strokes with his putter in four straight starts and his hot flat stick could lead him to a high finish this week. With Aronimink presenting huge greens, putting is very important at this venue, as each of the last three winners here have finished the event top-three in SGP.
Andrew Putnam ($5,400)
Putnam isn’t a well-known player and he is another $5,000 option that should come with very little ownership. The 37-year-old is in the midst of a strong season on the PGA TOUR. Putnam has made 9-of-11 solo cuts and he has finished inside the top-30 four times, including some near-wins, with a runner-up at the American Express in January and a T-5 at the Valero Texas Open last month.
Putnam’s work on the greens has been impressive, ranking eighth in SGP when we compare this field’s last 24 rounds and he finished T-16 at Aronimink for the BMW Championship in 2018.
Putnam has made 3-of-5 cuts at the PGA Championship and he should make the cut in his return to Aronimink this week. On DraftKings Sportsbook, Putnam is a -118 favorite to make the cut at this major.
