Daily Fantasy Golf: Using Current Form When Building Lineups
When breaking down daily fantasy sports, we at numberFire like to be objective. We try to look past narratives and subjectivity and rely on data to make the case.
That's not always possible, though. And that's especially true for some daily fantasy sports offerings more than others.
We've broken down various aspects of FanDuel's PGA format already, but when building lineups, you'll need to keep tabs on current form for golfers. That, however, requires some finesse.
What Is Current Form, And Why Does It Matter?
Current form is what it sounds like: how well has a golfer been performing in recent contests. Seems important, right?
If a golfer has reeled off three straight top-20s or back-to-back wins? Whew. You'll want a piece of that provided that his price is in this stratosphere. But recent form can also go the other way, with missed cuts racking up, and you have to be willing to take a chance on a golfer who is running cold or to fade a player who keeps finishing near the top of the leaderboard.
Simply put, knowing who is playing well and who is struggling can help you identify golfers to trust when building your lineups as well as helping you avoid a letdown. There are numerous places to find past results, but if you want a shortcut, then check out PGAGolfBets.com to see how golfers have fared in the last five events.
Unfortunately, the importance of recent form is not exactly straightforward or quantifiable, and figuring out a way to weight it can even be problematic.
What if I told you a golfer had compiled three straight top-15 finishes? Pretty darn good, yeah?
What if he had missed three cuts before that stretch? Or what if he missed one cut after the streak? Is the current form dead, or was it a blip on the radar?
Simply relying on the past week's result is pretty foolish in the long run, and you're better off looking at a larger body of work, like the past two years of data.
Recent form is important only if you can combine it with knowledge of particular courses, as well. Perhaps a player played hot on a particular course setup and then struggled on a links course. Is the streak over?
These are a lot of questions, I know, but they really do all come into play. At the end of the day, though, golfers can win tournaments after missed cuts, and golfers can miss cuts after wins.
But if you're brand new to the PGA, you'll definitely benefit from learning about recent form when constructing your lineups each week, and studying it will build your knowledge of these golfers during your journey into PGA DFS.
