The PGA TOUR is across the pond for the last major championship of the season. The Open Championship is the oldest golf tournament in the world and comes with all the tradition and prestige any golf fan could ask for. This year’s 154th Open Championship will be the 11th played at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, and storylines abound from all across the spectrum of players in the field. As you build your DraftKings rosters together for this week, be sure to check out my top three fantasy golf picks as pivot plays for GPP contests. These players will likely have lower ownership but still bring high upside. My favorite GPP picks for this week are Justin Rose ($9,100), Nicolai Hojgaard ($6,600) and Jesper Svensson ($5,700).
Let’s define what we’re searching for in this post, to be sure we’re all aiming at the same target. A fantasy golf pivot play is a golfer with low expected ownership in tournament formats but high upside. These picks go against the grain and typically come with more risk compared to popular options with similar salaries. In large-field tournaments, it’s important to differentiate your lineup with low-ownership plays like these, even though they are NOT the safest options.
These are “grip it and rip it,” boom-or-bust style options that could go off or flame out. Getting players at low ownership is critical for success in GPP tournament-style events with many entries, so 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 floor.
Let’s break down why I like each of my top three pivot plays this week!
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA $2.5M Millionaire [$1M to 1st]
Top Pivot Picks for the 2026 Genesis Scottish Open
Justin Rose ($9,100)
The very top of the salary structure has so many big names and key stories that someone has to be getting less attention than they deserve. Right now it looks like Justin Rose is that player since Xander Schauffele ($9,800), Tommy Fleetwood ($10,500) and Matt Fitzpatrick ($10,000) are getting lots of love in the tier just behind Scottie Scheffler ($13,300) and Rory McIlroy ($11,900), who each come in struggling a little bit.
The 45-year-old Rose is a major champion from his win at the 2013 U.S. Open, and he has had many other close calls throughout his career. In his impressive total of 87 career majors, he has posted 60 made cuts and 25 top-10 finishes. Four of those top-10 finishes have been at The Open Championship, and he finished runner-up twice, once in 2018 and once in 2024.
When Rose first played The Open Championship as a 17-year-old amateur, he finished T-4 in 1998, when the tournament was also held at Royal Birkdale. He has been back to the course twice for The Open since then, finishing T-54 in 2017 and T-70 in 2008.
For a few years, it looked like Rose’s career was pretty much a wrap, but he has bounced back with a few impressive years since then. He finished T-2 and T-16 in the last two Open Championships while riding that wave. Overall, he has missed 11 of 22 cuts at The Open, but his high finishes and success on this track also give him a high ceiling.
Since an Englishman hasn’t won the Claret Jug since Nick Faldo in 1992, the English players do carry some extra pressure and attention at this event every year. Rose does come in with strong form, though, with a win earlier this season at the Farmers Insurance Open. He has been excellent at the three major championships this year, finishing T-3 at the Masters as one of his six top-25 finishes in his last nine events, which also includes his T-10 at the PGA Championship and a T-11 at the U.S. Open.
If he has another good week at the major, Rose would be an awesome story and a great pivot play, since he’s not getting much hype coming into the event.
Nicolai Hojgaard ($6,600)
I highlighted Hojgaard in this spot last week, and the 25-year-old from Denmark made the cut and finished T-26 at the Genesis Scottish Open. He had a much higher salary for that event, and since the salaries for this event have been out for a while, he is extremely affordable given his potential upside.
While he’s still in search of his first win on the PGA TOUR, he has won three times on the DP World Tour, most recently at the 2023 DP World Tour Championship, which is one of the biggest events on that circuit. He has made the cut in four straight appearances at The Open Championship, including a pair of top-25 finishes and a personal best of T-14 last year at Royal Portrush. His European background should serve him well on links-style setups like Royal Birkdale, which is why his upside makes him a great option for GPP builds.
For the last few seasons, Hojgaard has been playing full-time on the PGA TOUR and has come close to getting a breakthrough win. He finished second at the Texas Children’s Houston Open behind Gary Woodland and T-2 at the Truist Championship behind Kristoffer Reitan. He also added top-six finishes at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour, the WM Phoenix Open and the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches.
While Hojgaard has the tools to contend, he did have a little dry spell with three missed cuts in a row in June, which keeps his salary so low. He seemed to find his footing at the Travelers Championship a few weeks ago, posting a T-14, and he was excellent in every category but putting at the Genesis Scottish Open last week.
His strong history on this kind of course and good finishes at previous Open Championships give him a good upside this week, and if he gets his putter going, he could contend for a breakthrough win.
Jesper Svensson ($5,700)
We’ll go with another European option that saves even more salary for the third of our fantasy golf picks this week. Svensson is a long driver who brings a high ceiling if the rest of his game can play up to his distance off the tee. The 30-year-old from Sweden earned his way to the PGA TOUR with a top-10 finish in the Race to Dubai on the DP World Tour in 2024, when he also earned Rookie of the Year honors.
He finished just outside full-time status in the FedExCup Fall in 2025, and he has split time this year between the DP World Tour and the PGA TOUR, posting three top-10 finishes in his 12 events on the PGA TOUR while adding a top-25 at the Qatar Masters in February on the DP World Tour.
He has been hot lately, finishing T-9 at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson and T-4 at the RBC Canadian Open, before making the cut and finishing T-52 last week in Scotland. In that tournament, he ranked in the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Driving Distance, in addition to total feet of putts made. While his approach work and around-the-green game is sometimes questionable, he has some elements of his game that dominate.
He’ll be playing his third straight Open Championship this year, which will be his fourth career major. He missed the cut in his debut in 2024 but finished a solid T-16 last year at Royal Portrush. With his success on links-style and European layouts, he makes sense as a sleeper play at Royal Birkdale, and his very low salary means he doesn’t have to do very much to be an exceptional value.
