Hideki Matsuyama Carries DraftKings Users to the Top of the Leaderboards by Winning The Masters

The DraftKings Championship Series continued with of the year’s biggest events this past weekend, with three enormous golf contests that featured a combined prize pool of over $9 million for the 2021 Masters. The largest tournament of the three - the $4M Fantasy Golf Millionaire – had a $10 entry with over 470 thousand entries, and first prize was claimed by a solo winner (mrmcgibblets11), who edged out several close lineups late on Sunday. Hideki Matsuyama won The Masters without much drama, coasting to a victory that was never really in doubt after Saturday’s round.

Hideki Matsuyama ($8,300) becomes the second player from Asia to win a Major championship (Yang Yong-Eun, 2009 PGA Championship) and the first male player from Japan to win the Masters or any Major tournament on the PGA TOUR. Matsuyama adds his seventh and undoubtedly his most notable victory on his 33rd Major championship appearance.

Matsuyama has been impressive at Augusta National shooting 10 of his last 11 rounds at par or better here. He was also the 26th winner to come out of the final group on Sunday in the previous 31 years. His 65 on Saturday was one of the two bogey-free rounds recorded by a golfer in the tournament, and put him four shots in the lead heading into Sunday. Xander Schauffele ($10,000), who was in the final pair with Hideki, applied pressure all day on Sunday until he and Matsuyama reached the 16th green. Xander subsequently put his tee shot in the water, finishing with a triple-bogey and pushing him back to a tied for third.

Over the first two days, Justin Rose ($7,200) was shaping up to be the cheap, low-rostered golfer (2.8%) that was going to propel lineups to the top, but he never got back into form after Thursday, shooting two-over par across his final three rounds. The cheap option that played well was Will Zalatoris ($7,300), who made a beautiful par-save on the 72nd green. His par and Xander’s triple on 16 put Zalatoris in solo second-place in his first Masters appearance. His runner-up makes it back-to-back years a first-timer has finished in the top two (Sungjae Im finished T2 in 2020).

Hideki wasn’t the only champion crowned this week. Username mrmcgibblets11 took down the $4 Million Fantasy Golf Millionaire and won a ticket to the Tournament of Champions by 0.5 fantasy points. It appears to have come down to constructing a balanced lineup with rostering Xander Schauffele over Jon Rahm ($11,000). Rahm’s 66 on Sunday was the lowest of the day and the only other bogey-free round this week. Still, it wasn’t enough for Aye-Aron to surpass the half-point deficit. Even though Rahm was in the second-place lineup, fading the top-five-priced golfers this week was the optimal strategy.

Two Masters Tournaments in five months was a treat, and we only have to wait for a little over five weeks for The PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.

Learn more about the DraftKings Championship Series, including upcoming contests within the 2021-2022 season where the winners will qualify Tournament of Champions seat.