This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Golf Club - Par 72 - 7,340 yards
Field - 156 entrants
Purse - $7.5M
The Preview
After being treated to a concentrated collection of the game's best players attempting to return to form over the past three weeks, the strength of field regresses to a much more normal level for an ordinary event like the second annual Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, where none of the Official World Golf Ranking's top-5 will be making an appearance. Nonetheless, headliners in attendance include RBC Heritage champion Webb Simpson as he looks to add his third win since the Waste Management Phoenix Open in early February, while Bryson DeChambeau plans to "unleash the kraken" in an attempt to overpower this Donald Ross design. In its inaugural edition last year, Nate Lashley coasted to a six-stroke victory here at the Detroit Golf Club while leading wire to wire, ultimately reaching 25-under-par to secure the $1.3M top prize. Expect another low-scoring affair this week on a par-72 layout that featured 10 holes with birdie rates above 20 percent in 2019.
Recent Champions
2019 - Nate Lashley
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Off-the-Tee
GIR percentage
Birdie or better average
SG: Putting
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Bryson DeChambeau - $48
A heavy 6/1 consensus betting favorite despite going winless on the PGA Tour over the last year and a half, DeChambeau isn't even the most costly option on the Yahoo board this week while four other players come in above the $45 mark as well. He's finished T6-T8-T3 since the restart at the Charles Schwab Challenge, bringing his current streak to six consecutive top-10s dating to the Genesis Invitational. Over his last 12 rounds, DeChambeau paces the Rocket Mortgage Classic field in both SG: Tee-to-Green and SG: Off-the-Tee, but the flat stick also got hot last week at TPC River Highlands where he gained five strokes on the greens. From a season-long perspective, he's second in SG: OTT, ninth in GIR percentage, eighth in birdie average and sixth in putting from inside 10 feet.
Patrick Reed - $47
Reed turned it on Sunday at the Travelers Championship with seven final-round birdies to just one bogey, ultimately notching a backdoor top-25 after barely making the cut right on the number at four-under through the first 36 holes of the tournament. He hit all 14 fairways in regulation during Round 4 at TPC River Highlands and missed only two greens, gaining over two strokes both with the putter and from tee to green Sunday. The seventh-ranked player in the world tied for fifth here in Detroit last year, and he's fourth in SG: Putting, fifth in birdie average, first in one-putt percentage and third in birdie or better conversion percentage this season.
Glue Guys
Kevin Na - $37
Na, who was blatantly bothered by what appeared to be back soreness at the Charles Schwab Challenge en route to a missed cut, took a week off from the RBC Heritage and then rebounded with a top-5 result this past week at the Travelers. He gained strokes across the board at TPC River Highlands on the way to ranking T2 in GIR percentage while also picking up over 5.6 strokes on the field with a putter in his hands. In six measured rounds since teeing it up at Colonial in June, Na ranks 13th in SG: Tee-to-Green, 18th in SG: Approach, 25th in SG: Putting and even 26th in SG: Off-the-Tee.
Lucas Glover - $30
Although he lost 1.7 strokes off the tee last week in Connecticut, Glover's ball striking has generally been on point since the schedule resumed at Colonial with a total of 15.3 strokes gained from tee to green en route to three consecutive top-25s from the Charles Schwab Challenge to the Travelers Championship. He's third in SG: Approach over these past 12 measured rounds, but he's also gained at least 1.4 strokes putting in his last two events. Glover is coming off a brilliant Sunday performance at TPC River Highlands in which he posted a bogey-free 63 to launch his name 29 spots up the leaderboard.
Doc Redman - $29
We took a leap of faith on Redman at the minimum price last week at the Travelers Championship, and it paid off as he tied for 11th at 13-under-par. Redman closed with a bogey-free 63 on Sunday and led the entire field in SG: Off-the-Tee. The inflated $29 price tag here makes sense given the diminished field strength and the fact that he notched solo runner-up honors in Detroit last year and carries 40/1 betting odds into this week's edition. Since Colonial, he's first among the Rocket Mortgage Classic field in SG: Approach and third in SG: Tee-to-Green.
Bargain Bin
Will Gordon - $20
It was a special week for Gordon at TPC River Highlands where the Vanderbilt product carded two rounds of 64 or better to ultimately tie for third, and he's since accepted Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour for the remainder of the 2019-2020 campaign. Gordon racked up a tournament-best 27 birdies while ranking T5 in GIR percentage and eighth in putts per GIR at the Travelers Championship. He's made only five starts on Tour dating back to a T10 at the RSM Classic during the fall series, but Gordon owns a quartet of top-25s during this span of such under-the-radar quality play.
Joseph Bramlett - $20
Bramlett has quietly made the cut in nine of 13 starts during his first full season on Tour since 2011, and he's coming off a T41 at the Travelers after collecting back-to-back top-3s at the Korn Ferry Tour's King & Bear Classic and the Korn Ferry Challenge earlier in June. He was sixth in the field at TPC River Highlands in SG: Off-the-Tee, hitting 75 percent of the fairways in regulation while also averaging just over 304 yards in driving distance. Bramlett is 40th on the PGA Tour in GIR percentage and 24th in proximity on approaches from over 200 yards.
