This article is part of our FanDuel PGA DFS Picks series.
The Masters
Course: Augusta National Golf Club (7,510 yards, par 72)
Purse: $11,500,000
Winner: $2,070,000 and 600 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
It is one of the best weeks in all of sports. The Masters is back with a full capacity gallery that will be sure to have their voices heard for all the heroic shots we see throughout the tournament, and especially on that back-nine on Sunday. Making this week even more special is the potential return of Tiger Woods after his horrific car accident less than 14 months ago. Woods played a practice round with his son Charlie and Justin Thomas last week at Augusta National and is on the grounds this week preparing to see if his body is ready enough to handle one of the most difficult walks in all of golf. The five-time Masters winner has deemed himself a "game-time decision", but by all accounts his swing looks really good, all things considered.
Tiger is obviously not the only elite player that deserves mentioning this week. Newly crowned World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will be looking for his first major championship after winning three of his last five events capped off by the victory in Austin at WGC-Match Play. The former Texas Longhorn took the title away from Jon Rahm, who had held the top spot ever since his first major win at last year's U.S. Open. World No. 3 Collin Morikawa won the last major championship we played at back in July at the Open Championship at Royal St. George's and can pick up the third leg of the career grand slam with a victory this week. Rory McIlroy needs just the green jacket to complete the career grand slam. Viktor Hovland, Cameron Smith, and Sam Burns are other young rising stars who have all won recently and are looking to taste major victory. There is just an outstanding field lined up this week for a course that always lends itself toward exciting shots and great finishes. They will all be gunning to do what Hideki Matsuyama did last year when he put a nation on his back and became the first man from Japan to ever win a major championship.
There is a massive storm that will make its way through Augusta on Tuesday, which likely will wipe out a lot of practice time and is expected to leave about two inches of rain. There is also the threat of storms on both Wednesday and Thursday, which could potentially soften the course even more. The one positive for those worried about a potential birdie-fest, is that winds through the first three rounds are expected to be pretty high and will definitely affect club selection. After relatively warm conditions for the practice rounds, temperatures will fall for the tournament rounds with highs in the low-60s for "Moving Day" at the Masters.
Recent Champions
2021 – Hideki Matsuyama (-10)
2020 – Dustin Johnson (-20)
2019 – Tiger Woods (-13)
2018 – Patrick Reed (-15)
2017 – Sergio Garcia (-9)
2016 – Danny Willett (-5)
2015 – Jordan Spieth (-18)
2014 – Bubba Watson (-8)
2013 – Adam Scott (-9)
2012 – Bubba Watson (-10)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach
- GIR Percentage
- Scrambling
- Par-5 Scoring
Champion's Profile
Augusta National is the ultimate second shot golf course. Players have gotten away with poor driving here for years because the fairways are relatively wide and there is virtually no rough. The only real key off the tee is avoiding the trees because we've seen some big numbers develop in there, but at the same time we have seen some truly heroic shots from the pine straw. The greens at Augusta National are some of the most undulating in the world and you can pay a big penalty for a misjudged iron shot. It will be a little easier in softer conditions, but still the area you have to land the ball in to some of these hole locations to get the ball close is so small. The man that is best in control of their distances this week likely will be the one putting on the green jacket at the end of the week.
Even the best iron players are going to miss some greens, however, and man when they do it will put an extreme amount of stress on your short game. Chipping off tight lies to elevated greens, pitch shots out of deep bunkers to greens running away from you, even some holes with thicker rough around the greens to try to judge how it will come out. It is as much as you want to try to get the ball up and down. Players can post a good finish here with elite short game alone, but if they can combine it with really good iron play as well, that is the perfect combination. That's why Tiger Woods has won here five times. The last thing to look at for the Masters is always par-5 scoring. The par-3's and par-4's at Augusta are all pretty challenging for the most part, but the par-5's is where you make your score. All four of them on the course can be reached, but all four can also ruin a round with a poor swing of the club. It's a bit of the rare case where finesse a lot of times is more key than brute force to making birdie on a par-5.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Scottie Scheffler ($11,600)
Considering the run this man has been on, it is a bit surprising to see him listed as just the fifth-priciest option on the board. The new world No. 1 has been elite this season in every area of the game. We've always known he was a great ball striker, but the chipping and putting prowess he showed while notching three wins over a five-tournament stretch was incredible. Scheffler will be making his third appearance at the Masters after notching top-20s in his first two attempts.
Cameron Smith ($11,200)
Smith has a chance to reach No. 1 in the OWGR with a win this week following his epic Sunday performance a few weeks ago at THE PLAYERS Championship. The Aussie has taken some time off, so he is fresher both mentally and physically that most of the other top ranked players in the field. Smith ranks second in SG: Total, first in birdie average, and first in scoring average this season and has three top-10 finishes in five starts at Augusta.
Patrick Cantlay ($10,700)
Cantlay has cooled off a bit after a seven-tournament stretch in which he didn't finish outside the top 11, which included his run that made him the 2021 FedExCup champion. Still, though, this price seems a bit disrespectful when considering how complete Cantlay's game is. He ranks top-25 this season in a number of key categories such as SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Around-the-Green, SG: Putting and scrambling. Cantlay also leads the PGA Tour in par-5 scoring and is second in birdie average. He has a T17 and a T9 in four starts at Augusta as a professional.
Will Zalatoris ($10,300)
Zalatoris has already established himself as a challenger for the title of best ball-striker in the world. He ranks eighth in SG: Off-the-Tee, second in SG: Approach, first in SG: Tee-to-Green and ninth in GIR percentage. Zalatoris has better touch around the greens than he gets credit for, but just needs to stay consistent on the short putts. Clearly he likes these greens after posting a runner-up finish in his Masters debut last year.
Longer Shots with Value
Matt Fitzpatrick ($9,600)
Fitzpatrick has been on a roll with seven top-20 finishes in his last eight starts worldwide. His game has come so far all the way through the bag and he now leads the PGA Tour in SG: Total. Fitzpatrick has that coveted combination of iron play and short game, ranking top-15 in SG: Approach, SG: Around-the-Green and scrambling. The Englishman is also third in par-5 scoring average. Fitzpatrick has made the cut in all six tries at the Masters as a professional, which includes a T7 finish in 2016.
Corey Conners ($9,300)
Conners hit a rare rough stretch early in 2022, but has turned it around the last month, highlighted by his third place effort at the WGC-Match Play. The Canadian is a great ball striker and ranks sixth in SG: Off-the-Tee, 14th in SG: Tee-to-Green and third in GIR percentage. Conners has gotten the feel for Augusta National, notching a pair of top-10 results the last two years.
Talor Gooch ($8,900)
Gooch checks that important box at Augusta National of great iron play and short game. He ranks 15th in SG: Approach, fifth in SG: Around-the-Green and 21st in GIR percentage. Gooch always plays well on difficult golf courses and has finished top-30 in 11 of his 15 starts this season. He is also eighth in par-5 scoring average and leads the PGA Tour in eagle percentage.
Si Woo Kim ($8,500)
Kim checks in at a really nice number. He is having a very consistent season, going 13-for-15 with 10 top-26 finishes. Kim has really improved his driving, ranking 21st in SG: Off-the-Tee and 10th in total driving. That, combined with his great hands around the greens, has definitely helped him get the job done. Kim made the last four cuts at Augusta and posted three top-25 finishes over that stretch.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
The Masters is a bit unique for a major because it's a small field of just over 90 players. You also have a number of older past champions and a number of amateurs teeing it up, which throws out about another 15-to-20 players. Because of that, the pricing is pretty spaced out as compared to, say, THE PLAYERS Championship, when things were really bunched. Experience always helps at Augusta National, but we have seen so much success from young players over the last 10 years at the Masters that I'm really more concerned about how their game fits on this course. Iron play and short game should tell the story this week, especially if the wind kicks up as expected. Some cheaper options to round out your roster include Cameron Young ($8,300), Tom Hoge ($8,200), Luke List ($8,000) and Lucas Glover ($7,700).
