Daily Fantasy Golf FanDuel Picks (PGA DFS) - Fortinet Championship

Joe Nicely breaks down the FanDuel slate for the 2021 Fortinet Championship providing information of not only who will come into the week under-owned but also who should be avoided for your lineups.

Hello RotoBaller PGA crew! It's great to be back with you guys and I appreciate you joining us here at RotoBaller for the first event of the PGA Swing Season...the Fortinet Championship!

In this article we'll discuss some of the standout PGA DFS plays available on FanDuel for the 2021 BMW Championship. While it's impossible to hit on every player, we'll touch on some different plays across all price ranges, breaking the groups down into "High", "Mid", and "Low" price options that are worth considering.

Like always, the purpose of this piece is to help you put together your optimal daily fantasy golf lineups for FanDuel, whether that be from a GPP perspective or a cash-game mentality. Be sure to also read all of our other top-notch weekly PGA DFS and betting articles to help you win big!

Fortinet Championship - PGA DFS Overview

Silverado Resort & Spa - North Course

7,166 Yards - Par 72 - Greens: Poa Annua - Designers: Robert Trent Jones Jr. with Johnny Miller Redesign in 2011

This course is somewhat tough to peg, as it is very short for a Par 72 at just over 7,100 yards, but isn't really a true "birdiefest", as Stewart Cink's 21-under-par winning score last season was the first time a champion at Silverado crossed the 20-under-par threshold. While recent champions - as well as players that have found success in this event - are a fairly diverse and eclectic bunch, there is a pretty common thread of "long-off-the-tee-with-good-ballstriking" types finding success here. Big surprise, right? Of course, successful players will also need to have a great putting week on these sloped Silverado greens.

For an in-depth breakdown of this week's course, check out RotoBaller's PGA Premium Course Breakdown by Josh Bennett!

Let's Look At The Stats

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach
• Strokes Gained: Ball Striking
• Strokes Gained: OTT
• Birdies or Better Gained
• Par-5 Scoring
• Driving Distance or Driving Accuracy

Fantasy Golf Lineup Picks for FanDuel (PGA DFS)

We have tons of great weekly PGA articles, DFS analysis, tools and DFS advice. Be sure to read our other fantastic articles regarding this week's event including DFS lineup picks for DraftKings/FanDuel, betting advice and DFS prop picks.

High-Priced FanDuel DFS Plays 

Jon Rahm ($12,500)

Jon Rahm is a man apart in this week's Fortinet Championship, from both a talent and DFS salary perspective. The Spaniard is the only golfer price above $12k on FanDuel this week, but it is with good reason, as Rahm truly stands head and shoulders above the rest of this field. Big Jon ranks first in this field in SG: Total, T2G, Ball Striking, & OTT, as well as DK Points scored over the last 50 rounds. Simply put, he's a prohibitive favorite in this event in his current form and is a player that you should have at least some DFS exposure to this week.

Harold Varner III ($10,900)

The East Carolina alum has been tremendous in this event over the last five years, making the cut in all five Fortinet starts, with three top-20 results. He grades out fourth in this week's field in SG: Total for this event. In addition to the elite course history, Varner comes into town off closing the regular season out in hot fashion. HV3 has posted top-15 results in three of his last four starts with two of those coming against elite competition in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The price tag is scary, but this is a really nice combination of course history and recent form.

Maverick McNealy ($10,200)

Maverick McNealy's course history at Silverado doesn't exactly blow us away, but he's made the Fortinet cut in three of his four career appearances, never cracking the top-50. However, it's fair to consider McNealy a different player now than he was in the past, as the Stanford alum had a truly breakout season. He closed out the Tour season with eight consecutive made cuts, with five top-25s among those. Over the last 24 rounds McNealy grades out seventh in this field in SG: OTT and fourth in Bogeys Avoided. A former collegiate star that's finally found his footing at the professional level, I fully expect him to blow his previous Fortinet results out of the water this week.

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Mid-Priced FanDuel DFS Plays

Mito Pereira ($9,900)

We'll be talking a lot about Korn Ferry Tour graduates over the next several weeks. Mito Pereira was plying his trade on the KFT, but actually earned a "Battlefield Promotion" at the tail end of last season thanks to his wins on the KFT. Pereira made the most of his opportunity in the big leagues, racking up two top-six results in just a handful of starts on the PGA Tour. The Chilean has averaged a SG: T2G mark of +3.8 over those five tournaments and also gained strokes on average in every major SG category. He's solid all around and brings GPP upside to the table as well.

Chez Reavie ($9,800)

This Silverado layout is kinda strange in that you can find success in multiple ways. Players need to be very long off the tee OR very accurate. Chez Reavie will never be mistaken for a bomber, but he ranks first in the field in Good Drives Gained over the last 24 rounds, while also grading out second in Fairways Gained. That accuracy has helped him to find loads of success at Silverado. He's never missed a cut in five career starts with a pair of top-25s in addition to a T3 in last year's edition. The short knocker's game doesn't translate to every layout on the modern PGA Tour and he suffered through a slump in the early portion of the summer. Reavie did battle back to play better golf over the latter half of the season and has gained strokes T2G, OTT, and Approach on average over his last five tournaments.

Brendan Steele ($9,200)

When things are clicking, the streaky Steele is one of the best ball strikers on the Tour. Unfortunately, when things aren't clicking, Steele has a tendency to fall off a cliff, as he did throughout the latter portion of the summer. Silverado provides a nice bounce-back spot for the veteran, considering he won this event back-to-back in 2016-17. This amounts to a pure course history play and bet that he'll find a level of comfort in the friendly confines of Napa Valley.

Harry Higgs ($9,100)

The stat geek in me says "NO!", but the fan inside says "YES!". Harry Higgs' recent ball-striking statistics aren't very pretty, but he's still been able to notch very solid recent results (T15-T16-T38 over his last three starts) thanks to a super-human short game that places him first in this week's field in SG: Around The Green over the last 12 rounds. "Big Top" has played very well in two previous trips to Silverado, nabbing a runner-up finish in last year's edition and a T23 on debut in 2019.

Low-Priced FanDuel DFS Players

Alex Smalley ($8,800)

My favorite part of the Swing Season is the "fresh blood" that steps on to the PGA Tour. As someone that plays PGA DFS every week religiously, it's a bit reenergizing to have new players thrown into the mix. One of my top youngsters to keep an eye on is Alex Smalley, a player that was a collegiate standout at Duke, but didn't make it on to the KFT or PGA Tour right away. Smalley has been grinding away at Monday Qualifiers and earned just three starts on the PGA Tour last year, though he made the cut in all three of those appearances. He earned enough points with a T29 at the Wyndham to sneak into the KFT Finals, where he went T48-T4-T15 to earn status. It's a great story and Smalley is an exciting young player.

Hudson Swafford ($8,600)

How much stock can we put in Hudson Swafford's late-season renaissance? Enough to roster him at this price in this field. Swafford is a hot-and-cold player that's either playing great or missing cuts, but he closed out the '21 in sharp form, going T37-T11-T17 over his last three starts of the season. The UGA alum grades out first in this Fortinet field in SG: Ball Striking over the last 12 rounds and ranks first in GIRs Gained over the same time frame. At $8.6k, I'm more than willing to roster him in hopes that his form hasn't left him yet.

Greyson Sigg ($8,500)

Greyson Sigg is another KFT grad that shows tons of promise. Sigg would've actually been on the PGA Tour last season if not for COVID-19 and had an exemplary year on the KFT, winning my hometown Knoxville Open, as well as the Albertson's Boise Open just a few weeks ago. He made the cut in five of six starts on the PGA Tour last year, posting a T9 at Corales and a T15 in the Barracuda. Sigg hits the ball sicko straight with a baby draw and should have no trouble becoming successful in the big leagues.

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Our very own Joe Nicely took down a big DraftKings DFS tournament for the Travelers Championship. And as an encore, RotoBaller subscriber @tenndolly2 won $100K on FanDuel with the help of Joe and the rest of our Premium PGA team:

If you read my articles @RotoBaller or listen to @TheTurnGolfPod I’ve been telling y’all it was #WinningSeason when golf came back! Shoutout to the entire @RotoBallerPGA squad and all you guys that support my work for all the ❤️ pic.twitter.com/07a4ynvbSU

— Joe Nicely (@JoeNicely) June 28, 2020

Congrats @tenndolly2 ???

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