Last week, Xander Schauffele continued his red-hot play, winning the Scottish Open after his win at the Travelers two weeks ago. It's going to be tough to fade him this week at the Open Championship at St. Andrews (commonly called the "British Open" here in the States), but with a stacked field of the best golfers in the world (including Tiger Woods), there is no shortage of potential PGA DFS picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, and Yahoo daily fantasy contests.
Reigning U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick will be hard to ignore, as well, after his top 10 last weekend. The wind conditions ended up being more severe than originally forecasted, and the final scores reflected that. While you can’t take everything that happened at the Scottish as gospel when picking players for the Open, it will play into the selections below.
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PGA DFS strategy for Open Championship 2022: Course, weather, more
St. Andrews is the quintessential links course -- one from which all links-style courses took their cues. It's set up as a par 72 and stretches out just over 7,300 yards. The only defense St. Andrews has against these fantastic players are the swirling coastal winds and 112 terrifying bunkers. I’m sure you will hear stories throughout the week during the coverage about all the famous landmarks around this course. There seems to be a story around every nook and cranny of this historic place.
The forecast for this weekend at St. Andrews looks to be wild. We could see the most difficult conditions in recent history. The average winning score at the Old Course for the Open Championship over the past six is 14.6 under par, but we could see a single-digit winner with these winds. We will see gusts increase from the low teens on Thursday to the mid-20s by Sunday afternoon.
This is a major championship, and that means only the best in the world will participate over the weekend in Scotland. It’s almost like a movie script with all this drama leading into this tournament at most considering the birthplace of this great game.
A reminder: The tournament begins overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning. You need to get those lineups locked by Wednesday before you go to bed. Get your coffee maker primed and ready for some early mornings this weekend in Scotland.
ONE AND DONE PICK: CAMERON SMITH
Open Championship DFS picks 2022: Studs, sleepers, & values
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Rory McIlroy (Yahoo: $48 | DraftKings: $11,100 | FanDuel: $12,000)
His last two trips to the Open Championship have not been great, but right now, McIlroy is playing on a completely different level. He seems to be a man on a mission, and he has a chance to show up all the LIV Tour players. In his past five starts since the Masters, he’s finished 2nd-5th-8th-18th-1st-19th. It's been a long time (2014) since he won his one and only Claret Jug, but he’s been turning back the clock. McIlroy currently ranks first in Scoring Average, second in Tee to Green, third in Off the Tee, sixth in Birdie Average, 13th in Approach, and 40th in Greens in Regulation. The biggest change has been ranking inside the top 10 in Putting.
Xander Schauffele (Y: $43 | DK: $9,900 | FD: $11,300)
If Schauffele was red hot coming into the Scottish Open last weekend, he's on fire heading into the Open Championship. I will eat the chalk with this one because it's impossible for me to ignore his current form. He has finishes of 5th, 13th, 18th, 14th, and back-to-back wins at the Travelers and Scottish. Schauffele has also never missed the cut at the Open, with a runner up finish in 2018 at Carnoustie. He ranks fourth in Birdie Average, seventh in Scoring Average, eighth in Tee to Green, ninth in Approach, 10th in Greens in Regulation, and top 40 in both Putting and Around the Green. The fact that he’s under $10K, it’s almost a crime not to play him at that price point.
Max Homa (Y: $37 | DK: $7,900 | FD: $9,000)
Homa is going to be a very chalky play this weekend. He seems to be everyone’s favorite mid-tier option, especially sitting at only $7,900 on DraftKings. The only thing that actually scares me about him is seeing that he’s paired with Tiger Woods for the first two days, and that can be intimidating. Homa has not missed a cut on the PGA Tour since the Farmers back in late January. Over that run, he won at the Wells Fargo and picked up another six top-20 finishes, including last week at the Scottish Open. Homa doesn’t excel in just one or two areas of his game, he ranks top 50 in Off the Tee, Approach, Putting, Tee to Green, Birdie Average, and Scoring Average.
Louis Oosthuizen (Y: $34 | DK: $8,800 | FD: $10,300)
We all know why I’m recommending him this weekend. He won the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews. He didn’t just win it, he ran away with the Claret Jug, winning by seven strokes over Lee Westwood. Oh, and did I mention that he finished runner up in 2015 at St. Andrews to Zach Johnson, as well? Oosthuizen also finished third last year. After struggling to start the season, he’s played well since starting on the LIV Tour with top-10 finishes at both the London and Portland events. It really is hard to ignore him at the Old Course.
Adam Scott (Y: $28 | DK: $7,700 | FD: $9,600)
The old handsome Aussie can still get it done on occasion. Scott played in the last two Open Championships at St. Andrews, finishing 10th and 27th, respectively. I’ve already mentioned the success that Austrailians have had on these Scottish courses with the gusty coastal winds. The 41-year-old ranks 33rd in Approach and 38th in Putting and Birdie Average. He has not played since the U.S. Open but finished inside the top 15 at that championship. I’m not saying he’s going to go out and win, but he could score a top 20, which provides value at this price point.
Tiger Woods (Y: $21 | DK: $7,500 | FD: $8,800)
Do I really need to give you a bunch of reasons to play Tiger Woods? You were probably going to play him even if I recommended him or not. He’s won here twice and knows this place inside and out. If he’s going to win another major, this is the place he could do it.
MORE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP DFS PICKS:
Cameron Smith ($43 | $9,500 | $10,900)
Tony Finau ($41 | $8,400 | $9,900)
Seamus Power ($31 | $7,400 | $9,200)
Patrick Reed ($28 | $7,300 | $9,400)
Thomas Pieters ($23 | $7,300 | $9,400)
Sam Horsfield ($20 | $6,700 | $7,900)
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