Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

By now, you've probably dabbled in daily fantasy sports, but if not, don't worry. Now is a great time to start, especially with FanDuel's daily fantasy golf offering.

Golf can be one of the most exciting DFS sports to follow, as tournaments span four days and allow ample time to prepare each week. It's a great balance between time to research and time spent tracking your team.

But whether you're brand new to the PGA or daily fantasy sports in general, we have you covered -- and we have daily fantasy golf projections and lineup building tools, too.

Let's take a look at some golfers to target this week.

Key Stats

The WGC-Fed Ex St. Jude Invitational moved from Firestone to TPC Southwind last year, and we saw approach play pushed below the PGA Tour average in terms of how well it contributed to scoring dispersion. It was a bit of a putting contest, despite Brooks Koepka being the winner. Koepka was still sixth tee to green, but the putting mattered quite a bit here.

Four of the top six gainers off the tee here a year ago were top-seven finishers (Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood (4th), Rory McIlroy (4th), and Jon Rahm (7th)). With the no-cut event and the tough field, putting did a lot to separate the pack, and five of the top six putting gainers finished top-eight (Koepka, Ian Poulter (8th), Webb Simpson (2nd), McIlroy (4th), and Marc Leishman (3rd)).

We're switching greens from bentgrass/poa after five straight events. This'll be the first Bermuda track since the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town.

For a more detailed breakdown on the course, check out our course primer from Mike Rodden.

Stats cited below come from FantasyNational and include the past 50 rounds on the PGA Tour unless noted. Ranks are among the field.

Because of my schedule, I have to take a more circuitous route this week than usual.

Golfers to Target

Justin Thomas ($11,700) - Thomas has tons of wins in small fields: 2020 Tournament of Champions, 2019 CJ CUP, 2019 BMW, 2018 WGC St. Jude, 2017 CJ CUP, 2017 Tournament of Champions, 2015 and 2016 CIMB Classic. It's not often that I give a lot of stock to past results to that degree, but it's a different type of event to guarantee four rounds than it is to have a full field with a cut. And it's not like we should be worried about Thomas' current form anyway.

Xander Schauffele ($11,200) - It's kind of irresponsible not to talk about Schauffele in a small-field event. Schauffele has won the Tournament of Champions, the WGC-HSBC, and the TOUR Championship in his career. He also has some of his worst ever starts in small-field events (-12.4 strokes in each of the 2018 WGC St. Jude and the CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, his only double-digit negative strokes gained starts). Schauffele battled back from a terrible opening round at the Memorial to finish 13th by gaining 12.7 strokes tee to green and losing 5.0 on the greens. He's lurking.

Webb Simpson ($11,100) - Simpson has two wins already this season on Bermuda (Waste Management and RBC Heritage). That says a lot about him. He's a dominant putter on Bermuda greens, and we saw him finish second here last year. Simpson has the 14th-best approach numbers in the field over the past 50 rounds.

Daniel Berger ($10,500) - Berger's win at the Charles Schwab came on bentgrass greens, but he also was ninth at the Waste Management and third at the RBC Heritage on Bermuda. Pair that with good overall putting efficiency and top-18 tee-to-green play, and Berger rates out as a good DFS fit for TPC Southwind.

Matthew Fitzpatrick ($10,200) - Fitzpatrick has emerged as a promising ball-striker who does what we need him to do in the off-the-tee and approach categories. He's also the second-best putter on Bermuda greens in the field over the past 100 rounds (his sample is 74 rounds). We can buy into that for this event.

Sungjae Im ($8,900) - Im has been cold, and there's no denying that, but we have a large sample from him, large enough and good enough that we should believe he's not trending down for the rest of his career. Interestingly, Im has played on Bermuda greens for five of his seven top-five finishes. Those don't always come from putting, but it's certainly interesting.

Brendon Todd ($8,100) - Todd won the Bermuda Classic on Bermuda greens, and though that field wasn't very good, Todd has shown life since then and ranks 20th in the field in opportunities gained (effectively birdie chances). Pair that with top-10 putting splits on Bermuda, and we could see extra fantasy points from someone with a relatively cheap price tag.