How to Play Golf DFS: Tips, Beginner’s Guide to Daily Fantasy Golf on DraftKings

Golf is a very unique sport, both in real life and in the world of daily fantasy. If you are new to DFS golf on DraftKings, consider this your beginner’s guide on how to win. In this article, we will be going over everything from contest selection to what stats are most important, with plenty in between.

As the Official Daily Fantasy Game of the PGA TOUR, DraftKings is the best place for all of your fantasy golf action. Play now!

Daily Fantasy Golf Contest Selection on DraftKings

If you have ever been in a DraftKings fantasy sports lobby, it could be a bit overwhelming seeing all the types of contests available to choose from, and where exactly you should be allocating your money. The first thing you have to decide is what type of daily fantasy sports player you want to be.

Do you want to do this strictly as a hobby because you love the game of golf and just want to add a little sweat to it? Or, do you plan on taking this seriously and have real hopes of profiting big by year’s end? There is no right or wrong answer to that question, as it all depends on your day-to-day life schedule. The good news is, there are contests for all types of players, both serious grinders and hobbyists alike.

There are two main types of DFS golf contests on DraftKings: Cash games and GPPs (guaranteed prize pools, better known as tournaments).

Cash games are contests that pay out around 50% of the field. These include head-to-head contests (you against a single opponent), double-ups (games where about 45% of the field doubles their money) and 50/50s (where half the field wins 90% of their entry fee).

GPPs, much like cash games, range in sizes from big to small, but feature more top-heavy payout structures, while usually paying under 30% of the field. Each GPP is also different in terms of how many entries you’re allowed to enter. There are single-entry tournaments, three-entry-max tournaments and then what’s called MME (mass-multi-entry) tournaments, which can allow up to 150 entries per player.

There are various buy-in levels for both cash games and GPP contests, ranging from $0 to $10,600. GPP winners often receive huge payouts, with prizes ranging up to $1 million for 1st place.

The rules of DFS golf on DraftKings are quite simple; you have to pick six golfers from the allotted pool of players while staying within the $50,000 salary cap. Once you have your roster and lineups lock, the scoring system is as follows:

DraftKings DFS Golf Scoring

In addition to individual-hole scoring, golfers also get points for where they place in a given tournament. The winner receives 30 points, while second place gets 20 points, and then the scoring drops by point-increments of two and then one until you reach 50th place.

Course Rotations and Key Stats to Know

Every week in golf is different, and that goes for the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and LIV Golf League. Each tournament is held on a different course, which all differ from each other based a bevy of things: Course length, green-surface/size, as well as whether the course measures as a par 70, 71, 72, or even 73.

Being that no course is created equal, it’s important to know which stats are most conducive to success at that given venue. Nowadays, the metrics used most often are what’s known as Strokes Gained Data. There are six categories you need to know:

• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (SG: Off-the-Tee)
• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: Approach)
• Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green (SG: Around-the-Green)
• Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: Putting)
• Strokes Gained: Ball-Striking (SG: Ball-Striking), which combines SG: Off-the-Tee + SG: Approach
• Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green (SG: Tee-to-Green), which combines SG: Ball-Striking + SG: Around-the-Green

In a nutshell, Strokes Gained Data tells us how many strokes relative to the field a golfer is gaining from any specific spot on the course. For example, if a golfer is rolling in a bunch of 15+ foot putts in a given round, they are gaining strokes putting to the field on average. The same thing can be said if they are hitting an iron-shot to five feet or drilling their tee shot 330 yards to the middle of the fairway. You can just as easily lose strokes to the field in any one of the above categories, with the easiest example being missing a bunch of putts inside 10 feet.

In addition to Strokes Gained Data, there are more traditional stats that we should look at when analyzing golfers, such as driving distance, driving accuracy and greens-in-regulation. Again, each course is different, meaning longer tracks with wide open fairways will favor the longer hitters, while courses with narrow fairways and penal rough will favor the more accurate drivers of the golf ball. Knowing what skillset each course requires from a golfer is paramount to picking winning lineups.

Difference Between Golf Betting and DFS

When betting on golf, the only thing you need to pay attention to is that one specific golfer that you bet on, whether that be to win, or finish inside the top 20, top 10 or top five. Placing of course matters in daily fantasy as well, but what we really need to pay attention to are golfers who score.

There’s a big difference in terms of DraftKings points scored for a golfer who makes two birdies and 16 pars in a round, compared to a golfer who makes eight birdies, six bogeys and four pars in a round. Both golfers finished at two-under-par for their round, but the latter scored way more DraftKings points than the former due to the amount of birdies he made. When betting an outright or a top-20 placement, we do not care how a golfer reaches the required score, we just need them to get there.

In DFS, scoring is everything.

As the Official Daily Fantasy Game of the PGA TOUR, DraftKings is the best place for all of your fantasy golf action. Play now!

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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and customer (my username is Lan1228) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.