DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: The Memorial Tournament

Daily fantasy golf requires a new approach for each and every event.

The course and field change week after week, making no two contests alike. That means you need to refine your approach for each PGA Tour event to try to find golfers who are primed to excel for your daily fantasy golf lineups.

Each week, we have a course primer, and our daily fantasy golf projections and lineup builder can help you get started, but these golfers stand out specifically on DraftKings for the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Key Stats

Let's get to the picks. For details on why these stats stand out this week, check out the primer.

Stats are from Fantasy National Golf Club and are for golfers in the field over the last 50 rounds, unless otherwise noted.

High-Priced Studs

Rory McIlroy (DraftKings Price $11,500 | Vegas Win Odds 8/1) - McIlroy was able to eke out another top-10 at the PGA Championship despite not having his best stuff for most of the week. He was a big gainer with the putter on Friday and Sunday, which made up for his lackluster tee-to-green (T2G) play. He gained just six strokes T2G, his second-lowest total of the season behind only the Tournament of Champions. His recent form has been stellar, and even with that blip, he still leads the field in strokes gained: tee to green, thanks largely to dominance off the tee (OTT). He has gained 55 strokes OTT over his last 50 rounds, the most of any golfer (by more than 11 strokes). He is also first in birdies or better gained. A bounce back in his tee-to-green game is in store, and that could be trouble for the rest of the field.

Tiger Woods ($11,100 | 12) - Woods is 4th in strokes gained: approach, 5th tee to green, 12th in birdies or better gained, and 30th in strokes gained: par 5s. He is a five-time champion at the Memorial, and his missed cut at Bethpage should have almost no bearing on his potential at Muirfield. While it's easy to look back on Tiger's heyday and recall him crushing everyone in all facets, he was always a cut above on his approach. He's retained that ability, but age and injuries have neutered his strengths off the tee. At a course like Bethpage Black, one that required enormous length and accuracy with the driver, Woods struggled mightily. He posted a -4.8 fairways gained on Friday and left himself no path to claw back above the cut line. On the contrary, this week he'll be able to club down and play target golf.

Patrick Cantlay ($10,200 | 16) - Cantlay enters at one of the shortest odds of his career at an event of this caliber. It is notable that Cantlay is priced similarly, per the oddsmakers, to Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose despite the fact that he lacks the pedigree of either. But his discount on DraftKings makes him an elite value in the top tier. He is one of the safest players on the board with top-17 finishes in all but two events this year (MC at the Genesis Open and THE PLAYERS). With four top 10s in his last five events, Cantlay has been in the mix all season and has long been a promised breakout candidate. He is 8th in strokes gained: tee to green, 10th in approach, 20th on par 5s, and 26th in birdies or better gained. He finished in solo fourth here last year, missing out on the playoff by a single stroke.

Mid-Priced Options

Justin Thomas ($9,300 | 18) - Thomas is the most important player on the slate this week. He is second in strokes gained: tee to green, par 5s, and birdies or better gained, and he is third in approach. Coming off injury and playing for the first time since the Masters, DraftKings has priced Thomas way down and possibly overestimated the effect that the injury would have on his popularity at the sportsbook window. So he "should be" low owned with the injury uncertainty, but he "should be" mega chalk given his price and course fit. Whichever way that pendulum swings by lock is the key to the slate. He's attractive even at somewhat high ownership given his propensity and potential to win outright, but a poor performance or withdrawal could give you big-time leverage on the field if you choose to fade.

Hideki Matsuyama ($9,100 | 18) - The 2014 Memorial champion, Matsuyama shines as arguably the best iron player in the world right now on a week-to-week basis. Hideki is first in strokes gained: approach over the last 50 rounds and has ridden the hot iron play to 21 consecutive made cuts. In a small field at a course he's dominated in the past, Matsuyama is one of the safest plays on the board and also has elite upside. In addition to leading the field in approach, he is 3rd in tee to green overall and 19th in birdies or better gained.

Gary Woodland ($8,800 | 33) - Woodland is third in birdies or better gained, fourth in strokes gained: tee to green, sixth on par 5s, and eighth in approach. He flashed world-class form at the beginning of the fall season and carried it through the New Year before a few stumbles broke his stride as we moved into spring. But a T8 at the PGA should give him loads of confidence, and he has arguably the best statistical case this week outside of Thomas.

Adam Scott ($8,700 | 25) - Sensing a pattern? Elite ball-strikers who you wouldn't trust to make a seven-foot putt if your life depended on it. Scott has been rolling just fine when he actually packs the right putter, and he turned in a solid PGA finish (T8) even though he lost strokes on approach for the week. That won't happen again this week, but neither will Scott's superhuman efforts around the green (gained a field-leading 7.2 strokes ARG). The Aussie is 1st in the field on par 5s, 7th in birdies or better gained, 17th tee to green and 18th on approach.

Low Priced Options

Lucas Glover ($7,800 | 66) - Glover is balanced in all three core stats tee to green - 33rd off the tee, 19th on approach, and 12th around the green. In all he rates out 10th T2G to go along with 28th on par 5s. He makes the trip to the Memorial every year, and while his best career finish is just T33, his form since he earned his card back has been as good as at any point in his career. In 16 events over the last calendar year, he has 3 missed cuts and 11 finishes of T17 or better.

Sung Kang ($7,700 | 90) - Kang is getting no respect from the bookmakers, but he showed a few weeks ago that he could take down a tournament with his impressive win at the Byron Nelson. He followed that up with a top 10 at the PGA Championship and has been quite good all year. He's missed just two cuts in 2019 and has six finishes inside the top 20. He's made the cut in each of the last two years at Muirfield, though with uninspiring finishes of T57 and 75th. But the form then was nowhere near what he's shown this year as he has gained more strokes tee to green over the last two events than in any other two-event stretch of his career (by a mile).

Keegan Bradley ($7,600 | 80) - Tee to green plus emphasis on approach equals running out Keegan once again this week. Bradley is 6th in strokes gained: approach and 12th in strokes gained: tee to green, and he better do it tee to green because he's been so bad (even for him) on the putting surfaces. He's lost strokes putting in all but one event since his win at the BMW Championship last year -- the exception was when he gained a whopping 0.1 strokes at the Farmers Insurance Open -- and he's gained strokes with approach in every single one of those events. Regression always comes for Bradley, and he has one big gainer week in him every season. He's proven he can contend at the Memorial before, with back-to-back T8 finishes in 2015 and 2016.

Byeong-Hun An ($7,400 | 100) - An is the culmination of the Team No Putter philosophy this week, and he both has earned it and informs it with a runner-up finish here last year to go along with a T25 in 2017 and T11 in 2016. He's lost strokes putting in 13 of his last 14 events, yet his back-to-back missed cuts before the Charles Schwab Classic were his only two missed cuts in 10 months. He is 7th in strokes gained: tee to green, 16th in approach, 29th in birdies or better gained, and 37th on par 5s.

Bargain Basement

Corey Conners ($6,900 | 150) - Conners has proven himself one of the best ball-strikers on Tour, ranking 6th off the tee and 12th on approach. He's ninth overall in strokes gained: tee to green, and he showed he could sink a few putts en route to victory at the Valero Texas Open. He's made three of four cuts since that win but is right back to being priced in the $6,000s. Generally he's a target on slow greens, and while this week is the literal opposite, Conners is worth a flyer at this price if we are considering guys like An, Bradley, and Matsuyama.

Steve Stricker ($6,300 | 250) - Stricker won the Memorial in 2011 and has made the cut in each of his four trips since then (2012, 2014, 2015, and 2017), including a T6 in 2015. While his recent log looks scary (lead-in features a T58 as his best finish in 2019), a closer look at Stricker reveals he's been focused elsewhere the last few months. He won the Regions Tradition on the PGA Champions Tour -- which is one of that Tour's majors -- by six shots. He has three other finishes of T11 or better this year on the Champions Tour.

Mike Rodden is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Mike Rodden also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mike_rodden. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.