Course No. PGA 100
DraftKings PGA Scoring
In the first installment of The Daily Fantasy Cafe Golf Academy, we're going to look at how PGA scoring on DraftKings works, and how certain stats correlate to scoring fantasy points. There are so many different stats at our disposal, and understanding how to apply them to DFS scoring is imperative at having success. Below is the breakdown for fantasy golf scoring on DraftKings. There are also bonus points rewarded for things like bogey free rounds and birdie streaks, and those will be covered later in this article.
Scoring Stats
When I'm doing my daily research, I often focus on scoring stats to help build my lineups, based on the particular stats identified for each course. All scoring stats can be found easily on www.pgatour.com, and are updated weekly. On all par 72 courses, that means there are four different par 5's for players to attack. A key stat I will always look at here, is Par 5 Scoring. Generating at least a birdie on a par 5 is massive, and the occasional eagle can turn good lineups into great ones. A nifty stat that incorporates all of this is 'birdie or better %." This stat counts how often you make a birdie or eagle, and not surprisingly, the best players in the world are littered at the top of this list. Anything over 48 percent birdie or better on Par 5's is excellent, and would have you in the top 30 on the PGA Tour. Below is an example to illustrate the importance of making birdies and eagles.
Player A Scorecard (-3) – 3 birdies and 15 pars = 16.5 FP
Player B Scorecard (-3) – 1 eagle, 4 birdies, 10 pars, 3 bogeys = 24.5 FP
So, both of these players shot identical rounds, and if you were just scoreboard watching, you would think both rounds were created equal. For fantasy purposes, these rounds couldn't have been any different. Player A might have had a calmer round with less noise, plodding along tapping in pars and avoiding danger. For the weekend hacker like myself, I'm pretty happy with that (bogey tap ins, that is), but in DFS you want the Player B type. Player B took some chances along the way, and probably hit a lot more putts as well. Bogeys or worse are obviously bad occurrences for any golfer you select, but they aren't punished nearly as heavily as birdies or better are rewarded. That's the simple way to explain it, but diving deeper into the stats will Generally, the longer hitters on tour will make more eagles, so driving stats like driving distance and total driving are great for reference as well.
Finally, if you want to dig really deep to find an edge, the efficiency stats are a great way to look at scoring on certain types of holes. These efficiency stats break down each par 3, 4, and 5 scoring by the yardage of the hole. If you are researching for a tournament and notice the course being played has four par 3's measuring between 160-195 yards, there is actually two stats that may help you find that edge. 'Par 3 Efficiency 150-175 yards,' and 'Par 3 Efficiency 175-200 yards,' are two stats kept that may help you narrow down your potential list of targets, or find that sleeper pick nobody else will roster.
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Bonus Point Scoring
Finally, we take a look at the bonus points scoring on Draftkings, which is below.
The scoring stats correlate here as well, as these small bonuses usually make the difference in winning a tournament, or just missing out on the big paydays. From time to time you will see a golfer have four rounds in the 60's, but it will only happen on the easier courses on tour. I won't try and pretend there is an analytical way to predict a hole in one, because that would be stupid. If you roster a player that gets a hole in one, be very happy and grateful. These streaks and bonuses aren't very predictive as a whole, but you'll find you get a lot more of them with the more time and effort you put into your research.
