DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Helper: Wells Fargo Championship

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 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club.

Key Stats

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

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

High-Salaried Studs

Justin Thomas (DraftKings Salary: $11,300 | FanDuel Sportsbook Win Odds: +1100) - Thomas leads the way again after a ho-hum T13 at the Valspar Championship last week. The ballstriking remained elite, and were it not for a grisly minus-6.5 strokes on the green, Thomas may have found himself firmly in the mix. He gained 6.9 strokes in approach, his third straight measured tournament gaining at least 6.5, and he also gained 4.2 strokes off the tee, his best driving week since June of 2019. It's no surprise that he's first in strokes gained: approach and birdies or better gained, and Thomas is also 7th in proximity gained from 200-plus and 15th in strokes gained: par 5s.

Bryson DeChambeau ($11,000 | +1100) - This week will be Bryson's first foray into Quail Hollow since fully committing to his weight game and driving sideshow. He was fourth here in 2018 despite an opening 75, and for a meticulous competitor like DeChambeau, any prior course success will have been analyzed and studied for the best ways to emulate what worked and eliminate what didn't. He is first by a mile in strokes gained: off the tee, sixth in birdies or better gained, seventh in strokes gained: par 5s, and eighth in proximity gained from 200 yards or beyond. Thomas will always be a popular play on DraftKings, but Jon Rahm's ($10,800 | +1100) status as the co-favorite at a slightly lower salary should make Bryson be the lowest rostered of the top three.

Viktor Hovland ($9,800 | +2100) - A Sunday charge from way back gave Hovland a somewhat fraudulent third-place finish at the Valspar, but for the week, Hovland gained in all four strokes gained categories and picked up his fifth top-five finish of the season. He's making his Quail Hollow debut, but Hovland has racked up strong finishes throughout the first two years of his career, often at unfamiliar tracks. Ballstriking is at a premium, and Vik is one of the best. He is 2nd in birdies or better gained, 4th in strokes gained: off the tee, 6th in strokes gained: par 5s, 10th in proximity gained from 200-plus, and 14th in strokes gained: approach.

Mid-Salaried Options

Patrick Reed ($9,300 | +3100) - One of our primary comps is the South Course at Torrey Pines, where Reed won earlier this year. That win came off a missed cut at the American Express, so we won't sweat his MC at the Valspar Championship. When he makes the cut, he typically pays off, as each of his eight events this season where he made the cut ended up 22nd or better. Reed is 8th in birdies or better gained and 19th in strokes gained on par 5s. Despite lackluster ranks in our other stats, that combo of birdie making on par 5s is the magic recipe this week, and we already know Reed is prone to peaks and valleys that make his stat profile less consistent than other top golfers. His record at this event is spotty but he consistently makes cuts, and most impressive is his runner-up at the 2017 PGA.

Corey Conners ($9,200 | +3100) - Let the record reflect that we loved Conners long before he was mega-chalk every week on DraftKings. A T21 last week where he ranked sixth in both strokes gained: off the tee and strokes gained: approach won't cool us on the smooth-swinging Canadian. For the last 50 rounds, he ranks 5th off the tee, 6th on approach, 9th in birdies or better gained, 9th on par 5s, and 22nd in proximity gained from 200-plus. With the way he's going, Conners is close to a lock for cash games and really tough to exclude from your player pool if mass entering. But if you are entering just one lineup and can siphon off about a quarter of the field by fading Conners, it's at least something you have to consider this week given the strength of the field and how popular we expect him to be.

Brian Harman ($8,700 | +4300) - Stat models will love Keegan Bradley ($8,500 | +6000) and Cameron Tringale ($8,400 | +4300) this week, but for a few extra bucks we can leverage that rostership and tap Harman, who many will note won the Wells Fargo in 2017 when it was not held at Quail Hollow. But Harman was T13 that year at the PGA Championship that was at our host course, and a T24 in 2019 is not overlooked. He has three straight finishes of T13 or better, and while many will point to the putter as the main indicator, there's no reason he can't continue to stroke it. His last three tournaments on overseeded bermuda he's gained 3.2, 7.3, and 5.3 strokes putting.

Emiliano Grillo ($8,100 | +8000) - The Argentine ballstriking ace is always a favorite in stats models, and he ranks 2nd in proximity gained from 200-plus, 10th in strokes gained: off the tee, 14th in strokes gained: approach, and 19th in birdies or better gained. He usually has a salary in the $7k-range in a field this loaded, though, and that higher salary combined with a missed cut at the Valspar should keep him from becoming too popular. He was runner up at the RBC Heritage and sixth at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship before that. Over his last eight starts, he has three missed cuts to go with five finishes of T22 or better.

Low-Salaried Options

Kevin Streelman ($7,700 | +9500) - His missed cut at Innisbrook means Streelman has just one top-20 since his T3 at the season's first event of the season, the Safeway Open. This play is a pivot off Joel Dahmen ($7,600 | +13000), a recent winner and runner-up here the last time it was played. Streelman has been far more consistent even if he's lacking in high-end results, and his downfall has been largely with the flat stick. Unlike Harman's repeatable, sustained stroke, Streelman is a slightly below-average putter whose performance fluctuates widely week to week. In his past five events, he's lost 2.3, lost 1.0, gained 3.7, lost 2.3, and lost 0.9. He's a prime regression candidate and played well here in the past, with three straight top-14 finishes from 2013-2015.

Harold Varner ($7,600 | +8000) - Varner is a solid ballstriker, ranking 21st in approach, 24th off the tee, and 24th in proximity gained from 200-plus. He is a highly variant player week to week, but with a runner-up at the RBC Heritage, now is the time to jump on Varner and ride the wave. We've seen him string together strong performances in the past, notably at the Valero Texas Open and Zurich Classic in 2016 and the Military Tribute at the Greenbrier and John Deere Classic in 2018. In both cases, he backed up a top-10 finish with another, and he'll have the opportunity to do so again this week.

Francesco Molinari ($7,500 | +13000) - Molinari shined on the West Coast with three top-10 finishes in a span of four events. Two of those results came at courses that pop up in our comparison list, Riviera CC and Torrey Pines. He's struggled since heading east, but a few weeks off since a T52 at Augusta should favor the former Open Champion. He posted a T15 in Houston this fall after about three weeks off, then finished T8 at the American Express nearly two months out from his missed cut at the November Masters. When he's on, he's a fairway and green machine.

Matthew NeSmith ($7,300 | +15000) - NeSmith ranks fifth in strokes gained: approach and eighth on par 5s, an impressive showing in a field this strong. After losing strokes with the putter in six straight events, Matthew had a good week at Innisbrook and gained 1.2 strokes putting. The ballstriking will be there consistently week-to-week -- he's lost strokes on approach just twice since last July -- and if the putter catches up, he could rattle off a few straight solid finishes.

Bargain Basement

Luke List ($6,800 | +15000) - We've seen List compete at tough bermuda tracks before, namely when dueling with Thomas at the Honda Classic or chasing DeChambeau at the RBC Heritage. He was 9th here in 2018, and his distance keeps him in play at even the longest courses on Tour. He ranks 9th on par 5s, 12th in strokes gained: off the tee, and 27th in proximity gained from 200-plus.

Will Gordon ($6,200 | +36000) - Coming off a positive COVID test and two poor finishes where he lost more than 5.0 strokes putting, Gordon is hard to rely on as a true cog in our DFS lineups but may just be the key to jamming in one more high-salaried golfer this week. He ranks 3rd in proximity gained from 200-plus yards and 16th in strokes gained: off the tee.

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.