RADIO
Joe Nicely digs into his Horse for the Course for the Outlaw Tour's Legacy Shootout, an under the radar PGA DFS selection for this week's DraftKings tournament.
Hello again golf family! Long time, no see. I hope you are all staying safe and healthy during these crazy times. Unfortunately, we've been suffering through all this time at home with the PGA Tour on hiatus, though there does seem to be a tiny bit of light at the end of the tunnel with play tentatively set to resume in June (fingers crossed).
In the absence of PGA golf, the little-known Outlaw Tour has stepped in to somewhat fill the void. These events are really small and the fields are comprised of a mixture of professional golfers that are either trying to play their way on to a bigger tour or are at the end of professional careers, as well as some amateurs that want to test their games on a tougher level.
Horse For The Course is an article that highlights players in this week's field with elite course history and is part of our free PGA content here at RotoBaller. For my favorite DFS plays of the week check out my Core Four article here at RotoBaller every Wednesday. It's part of our amazing PGA Premium package that includes an all-new PGA Research Station, Lineup Builder & Optimizer, and some of the best articles in the PGA DFS industry! You can sign up now using Promo Code: NICE for an extra discount at checkout!
Legacy Shootout Overview
As I touched on in the intro, the Outlaw Tour is a fringe circuit. However, it is at least something to fill the golf void right now. Perhaps the thing I should point out first is that the Legacy Shootout is just a two-round event. That means these guys will be ultra aggressive from the first tee. We'll see some very low scores, as well as some big ones.
My advice when tackling this tournament from a DFS perspective would be to just have fun with it! We'll dive into some players that have a good chance of playing well, but we have nowhere near the predictive statistical resources at our disposal that we would have on a normal PGA Tour week.
The Course: The Legacy Golf Resort
Par 71 - 6,801 Yards
As it's name sort of reveals, The Legacy Golf Resort is just that - a resort course. These layouts are designed to keep visitors happy and coming back. As a result, the fairways are generous, the greens hittable, and the putting surface won't be extremely treacherous.
While we don't have PGA Tour pros teeing it up this week, these guys are still unbelievable golfers that were high school and college stars. There will be no shortage of firepower in this field and I look for these players to light up this layout and its rather meek 6,800 yards. There are four Par-5s for this field to attack, as well as nine Par-4s that average 411 yards in length. We'll also see five Par-3s in play at Legacy.
The Horse
Dylan Wu (DraftKings - $10,800)
Notable Course History:
I know this is the Outlaw Tour, but there are a few quality players in this field. Dylan Wu is the cream of the crop this week. The 23-year-old is a product of the proud Northwestern University golf program. Wu recently embarked on his second season on the Korn Ferry Tour and was in a very nice groove when things came to a halt due to COVID-19.
He hadn’t missed a cut in six KFT starts this season, racking up three Top-10 finishes, with a current standing of fifth on the KFT points list. He's very accurate both off the tee and with his irons, ranking inside the top-10 on the Korn Ferry Tour in both Driving Accuracy and Greens In Regulation Percentage. The youngster also comes in at seventh on the KFT in Birdie Average.
Wu comes in as the highest-priced player on DraftKings, but his pedigree is head and shoulders above the rest of this field. He's without a doubt the class of this event and one of the few players we'll see this week that actually has a bright future on the PGA Tour within grasp.
The Ponies
Riley Wheeldon (DraftKings - $10,000)
Notable Course History:
Riley Wheeldon might not have the type of future that Dylan Wu has, but he does have a fairly impressive amount of experience. The Canadian played his college golf at Louisville, where he earned Big East Player of the Year honors back in 2010. Wheeldon was once mentioned in the same breath as fellow Canadians like Adam Hadwin, Corey Connors, and Nick Taylor - but he's never been able to take his game to the next level after leaving college.
The 29-year-old most recently teed it up on Canada's Mackenzie Tour to mixed results in 2019. He has thrived on the Outlaw Tour this year however, as Wheeldon actually leads the Outlaw Tour in winnings this season. He's recorded one win, two runner-up finishes, and eight top-10 finishes. He heads to the Legacy Shootout on the heels of a T10 in last week's Outlaw event. Wheeldon is in good, consistent form and is obviously very comfortable performing at this level.
Ryan Porch (DraftKings - $8,800)
Notable Course History:
Like Riley Wheeldon, Ryan Porch is something of an Outlaw Tour grinder. He's perhaps not as explosive as some players in the field, but he's logged consistent, bankable results on this Tour with five top-10 finishes this season, including a T15 last week.
Porch appears to be a late bloomer, as he had a rather forgettable college career at the University of Idaho, but has kinda flourished on these mini tours. He was the 2017 Player of the Year on the Dakotas Tour and has been one of the most predictable golfers on the Outlaw this season. His resume is without a win however, so you might sacrifice a bit of upside in the name of consistency when rostering him.
Kyle Slattery (DraftKings - $8,700)
Notable Course History:
Ok I’m ready to label Kyle Slattery the Outlaw Tour version of Keegan Bradley. Slattery is a player that qualified for conditional status on the Latinoamerica Tour after a college career at tiny SIU-Edwardville.
He’s proving himself to be an explosive scorer on these Outlaw layouts, as he’s logged a 14th and a T10 in two recent starts, despite a round of 74 or worse in each event. This week’s Legacy is a two-round tournament, which means Slattery should be a feast or famine DFS option. He's a guy that I could easily see firing a Keegs-like 64-74 or something, but I do like targeting his explosiveness in a DFS tourney when it comes to his ability to go low in a single round.
