Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches: Top PGA DFS Picks, Values, and Sleepers for Large-Field GPPs on DraftKings

Last week, the PGA TOUR finished the West Coast swing with a pair of Signature Events, and now it has a huge month in Florida ahead. This week’s event at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches starts off the stretch in the Sunshine State with a stop at PGA National before another Signature Event next week, followed by THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. With so many big tournaments, most of the top names are skipping this week’s contest, but that opens up great opportunities for other players to step up. It’s also a fun week of fantasy golf with a new set of challenges and obstacles to figure out.

Last week’s course at The Riviera Country Club stands in stark contrast to this week’s track at the Champion Course of PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. The Riv has no water in play and uses poa annua greens, while PGA National has water in play on 15 of the 18 holes and has Bermuda grass greens. The difficult three-hole stretch called “The Bear Trap” is just part of the challenge this week, and the setup brings a high degree of volatility, which often sets up surprising results. For more on the field, format, courses, and what to look for from a statistical perspective this week, check out this First Look from RotoGrinders.

Especially in large-field GPP tournaments, you’ll want to make sure to target players who have lower ownership projections than their potential performance suggests. Finding high-leverage plays is critical for GPP success, so the picks here go against the grain, looking for under-owned options.

Usually, I rely heavily on the Strokes Gained Model in FantasyLabs, which is very predictive of results. I also tend to lean toward players who excel in Strokes Gained: Approach, which is more sustainable week to week than a hot putter.

Since these are GPP picks, we can accept more risk in exchange for getting a higher ceiling. High-risk, high-reward options with low ownership create the “boom-or-bust” style lineups that often lead to large-field success. To find guidance for all contest types, check out our full Daily Fantasy Golf coverage each week.

No matter what type of format you prefer, be sure to use the FantasyLabs PGA Models to help you make the best choices. These models use stats and simulations to highlight different players’ strengths and weaknesses. A few critical new stats for GPP play are Perfect% and SimLeverage, which are further explained here.

As you dig into the numbers, you can enjoy the many tools FantasyLabs offers, including the Lineup Optimizer, which effortlessly creates up to 300 lineups. Alternatively, you can use the Lineup Builder if you prefer a more hands-on approach.

Check out my top picks in each price range listed below.

Editor’s note: SimLeverage and Perfect% numbers may change after this piece is published. Be sure to check the PGA Models for any updates to the sims.

High-Priced PGA DFS Picks

Shane Lowry $9,900

After salaries came out this week, three of the five players with the highest salaries on the board opted out of the event, leaving a huge gap at the top of the salary structure. Without many big names, the event feels wide open, and the salary setup is unique, with Lowry the most expensive remaining option available.

Lowry has the third-highest ownership projection on the board, but the lack of any player at $10,000 or higher is resulting in six of the seven players at $9,000 or more with ownership projections of 20% or more. Ryan Gerard and Nicolai Hojgaard each have ownership projections all the way over 30%. With so much ownership saturation at the top, it will be necessary to differentiate GPP lineups with some of the pivot plays lower on the board.

Lowry leads the field in Perfect% and has the shortest odds to win and finish in the top 10 of any player this week. The 38-year-old from Ireland has the highest SimLeverage of any player this week, since his Perfect% is so much higher than his ownership projection. He won’t break the bank and offers a little pay-up leverage even though he’s under $10,000.

So far this season, Lowry has been very solid with a T8 at Pebble Beach and a T24 at The Genesis Invitational in the Signature Events the last two weeks. Before coming to the PGA TOUR, he placed T3 at the Dubai Invitational and T26 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour. Last fall, he added another T3 at the DP World India Championship, which was one of three straight top-12 finishes to close out 2025.

While he hasn’t won an individual event on the PGA TOUR since 2019, he has had an impressive run of consistently strong results at PGA National, which is extremely unusual given its natural volatility. He has made the cut at this event in eight straight seasons, highlighted by a runner-up finish in 2022. Since coming up just one stroke short of forcing a playoff with Sepp Straka that year, he has finished T5, T4, and T11 at this event.

His strong current form and great course history make him stand out as a top play this week, and the fact that he’s not getting much more attention makes him a strong starting point for GPP lineups.

Rasmus Hojgaard $9,500

Hojgaard is the only player in the field who matches more Pro Trends than Lowry this week. He matches nine Pro Trends, while no other player on the board matches more than six. Both Rasmus and his twin brother, Nicolai Hojgaard, are strong plays this week, but Rasmus has a slightly higher Perfect% and a slightly lower ownership projection, making him the preferred GPP option.

Rasmus Hojgaard has made the cut in all three of his events on the PGA TOUR this season, and he ranks in the top 10 in the field in Total Strokes Gained and Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in both the last 12 and the last 20 rounds. He hasn’t been quite as locked in on approach as Nicolai, but he is typically a somewhat better putter, especially on Bermuda, where he has gained more strokes than on any other surface.

Rasmus missed the cut at this event in 2024, which may be part of why his ownership projection is a little lower. He has the fourth-highest SimLeverage in the field as a result, as well as the second-highest among the players who are over $9,000, behind only Lowry.

Both Hojgaard brothers have a legitimate shot at claiming the win, but for GPPs, Rasmus makes more sense coming into the week, as the five-time winner on the DP World Tour could claim his first PGA TOUR title if he can take advantage of the wider fairways and putt like he has lately on Bermuda.

Now available: our PGA DFS SimLabs Lineup Generator that creates advanced DFS lineups using the power of simulation.

Mid-Priced PGA DFS Picks

Check out my top picks in each price range listed below.

Editor’s note: SimLeverage and Perfect% numbers may change after this piece is published. Be sure to check the PGA Models for any updates to the sims.