Golf fans and bettors alike will be glued to the TV screen Thursday as the 151st Open Championship tees off at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in the seaside town of Hoylake, England. Sporting News has been grinding all week to get you prepared for the best bets and top sleepers, value bets, and props ahead of golf’s final major of the year, and now it’s time for us to build our DraftKings’ Open Championship DFS lineup.
Putting together an optimal DFS golf lineup requires even more research than betting on outright winners or wagering on a few golfers to finish in the top five, 10, or beyond. With a hard salary cap budget of $50,000, we must pinpoint the top value picks at each salary level, which means familiarizing ourselves with dozens of players in the field of 156 the average golf fan has never even heard of before.
Luckily for you, we live for this stuff, and we’re always trying to get a leg up on the public. Here’s our basic strategy when building a DFS golf lineup:
- Scout the course and pick golfers whose strengths mesh well with the layout and conditions.
- Pick players on hot streaks or who have performed admirably at this course in the past.
- Anchor the lineup with a solid superstar who has a history of clutch major-championship play.
Easier said than done, we know, but it’s good to have personal parameters for lineup construction rather than just going in all willy-nilly without a plan. The third part seems the easiest, but actually sometimes proves the most difficult. How do we pick between Scottie Scheffler ($12,500) and Rory McIlroy ($11,900), the two best golfers in the world?
Both are playing lights-out coming into this major, with Scheffler finishing in the top 10 seemingly every time out and McIlroy fresh off a victory at the Genesis Scottish Open a little further up the U.K. coast. Scheffler finished T3 in that seaside event — he could sleepwalk to a top 10 finish, at this point — but his putter continues to hold him back from going on a torrid winning streak. Given that McIlroy won this event the last time Royal Liverpool hosted it, we’ll go with the Northern Irishman by a hair.
That leaves us with $38,100 to spend on five other golfers. Let’s have some fun, shall we? Here’s our optimal DraftKings lineup for the 2023 Open Championship, and why we ultimately drafted each of the six golfers to our DFS team.
MORE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2023: Betting guide | Sleepers, values, props
Open Championship 2023 DraftKings Picks
Rory McIlroy ($11,900)
McIlroy only had competition from one other golfer in this field: Scheffler. Once we decided he was a tad better value than the world No. 1 given his recent hot streak and the fact that he’s won here before, locking him in as our lineup anchor became quite easy.
McIlroy might not have the power or flair that Scheffler has, but he has exhibited far better all-around consistency over the past two months. He has finished T9 or better in seven straight tournaments, including a win last weekend at the Scottish Open and a runner-up at the U.S. Open. He has cared a 64 in three of his past eight rounds, and he hasn’t scored worse than a 68 in that span.
Royal Liverpool is a fantastic course for McIlroy to showcase his skills. He has pure power and efficiency both off the tee and with his iron. He scrambles to save par as well as anyone in the world. He’s a greens-in-regulation monster when he’s in a groove, and when his putter cooperates on top of all these other skills, he’s practically unbeatable.
Another golfer we like in this price range: You obviously can’t go wrong with Scheffler ($12,500), who will cost you a bit more money but averages a whopping 99.3 DraftKings points per game on the season (McIlroy’s average: 86.6). Scheffler has the most dominating tee-to-green game in the universe, but his flat-stick keeps him from becoming the next Tiger. Still, there’s plenty to be said for proven high-score consistency on the DFS landscape, so don’t hesitate if Scottie’s your guy.
Collin Morikawa ($9,600)
We gladly picked Morikawa as a sleeper to finish in the top 10, and now we’re gladly taking him at a discount price to join our DFS squad. The 26-year-old has multiple major victories to his name since 2020, including the 2021 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich (on the opposite coast of England).
Morikawa has tons of talent, but back spasms earlier in the year have spooked bettors and fantasy players from buying too much stock in him. He has looked fine physically over his past few outings, showcasing the across-the-board skill that launched him up to No. 2 on the OWGR just a couple of years ago.
Morikawa has all the attributes that winning RLGC golfers possess:
- Superb tee-to-green and approach-the-green skills
- Strong putter and scrambling abilities
- Fantastic mental acumen and focus
We understand feeling a bit uneasy about picking Morikawa — back problems are no joke — but he just finished T2 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic two weeks ago, having carded 21 birdies, two eagles, and just one bogey. Take the discount and root for the Los Angeles native to put on a show in pursuit of his second Claret Jug win.
Another golfer in this price range we also like: England native Tyrrell Hatton ($9,400) has been quietly awesome as of late, with a -9 at the Scottish Open, -16 at the RBC Canadian, and -20 at the Byron Nelson. He’s a birdie machine when things are going right, and he has plenty of experience playing seaside links golf and storming through tough conditions (it could get a little gusty at times off the Wirral Peninsula). Don’t look at Hatton’s overall performance in past majors; instead, look at how his two best major performances have both been at the Open (both top-11s). His time could be now.
Bryson DeChambeau ($8,800)
DeChambeau might not be as widely discussed as he used to be since he defected to LIV, but he’s still a damn good golfer at just about every facet of the game. He has finished in the top 11 of his past four LIV starts and hasn’t finished outside the top 20 in any of his past six dating back to late May. He also finished T4 at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, much to the dismay of his detractors. DeChambeau has a solid combination of skills with the driver and iron, and if he can turn his putter on this weekend he should be a major contender (pun intended).
Another golfer in this price range we also like: American Wyndham Clark ($8,700) has been on a heater this entire season, and he makes for a great investment if you prefer a team of non-LIV defectors. Clark has averaged 87.6 DraftKings points over his past three tournaments, which includes his victory at the U.S. Open last month.
Keegan Bradley ($7,600)
Bradley is another golfer we’ve bought a ton of stock in going into this weekend. A veteran with superb ball-striking skills who always seems to find himself in contention at majors, Bradley has a well-rounded and efficient game that will serve him well at Hoylake. He’s fantastic on the approach from 150-250 yards, he excels at par-save scrambling, and he has one of the most underrated flat-sticks on TOUR. This is a tremendous value pick.
Henrik Stenson ($6,300)
We went a little heavy with the top portion of our lineup, so we’re drafting a couple of deep sleepers to finish off the squad. Stenson may be a veteran — and he’s now a LIV golfer — but he’s still quite good at the tender age of 47. His average DK score is 66.6 (ah, the mark of the beast), and he’s played Royal Liverpool in the past. Take the Swedish native to perform well on the northwest coast this weekend.
Marcel Siem ($5,800)
Germany’s Siem is certainly a sleeper, but one who has made the cut in 17 of the 17 tournaments he has entered this year. He finished runner-up at the Porsche European Open on June 1 and has finishes of T10, T23, and T42 over his past three tournaments. Siem won’t blow you away, but with an average DK score of 75.6, he also won’t disappoint you at this price range.
