Presidents Cup PGA DFS Stats Preview: Course Fits, GPP Picks, and Values

After a three-year hiatus, the Presidents Cup is back.

It’s the United States’ turn to host the event as we head to historic Quail Hollow to settle the 14th edition of the Presidents Cup.

Back in 2019, The United States team defeated the Internationa team at Royal Melbourne 16-14 in an exciting event. The events hosted by the United States haven’t gone as well for the International team with only one of those events having a margin of victory of fewer than three points (1996 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club).

Overall, the United States team is 13-1-1 overall against the International team.

It was going to be an uphill climb for the International team regardless, but the task looks even more challenging now that they’ve lost some of their best players to the LIV Golf series. Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Louis Oosthuizen, Joaquin Niemann, and Abraham Ancer are all unable to compete.

Quail Hollow is a par 71 that will be playing at 7,576 yards. The course features Bermuda-grass greens. The tree-lined, parkland style course can play quite difficult and features one of the most difficult three-hole stretches in golf known as “The Green Mile,” which typically up holes 16-18, but this week will play as holes 13-15. Additionally, the 9th hole with now play as the 18th. Quail “The Green Mile” features two mammoth par 4s and a 221-yard par 3.

Thursday will feature five four-ball matches and Friday will have five foursome matches. On Saturday, the teams will play four fourball matches in the morning and team play will conclude with four foursome matches in the afternoon. On Sunday, all 12 players on both teams will compete in a singles match.

For contests on DraftKings, I will be breaking down the key stats (past 24 rounds) and selecting golfers from different price tiers to provide flexibility for a DFS lineup.

And if you missed it, we added two new metrics in our models — Perfect% and SimLeverage. You can find an explainer on those metrics here.

The cliff notes version is that you can use SimLeverage to quickly find leverage plays in tournaments, while Perfect% is excellent for finding the best price-considered plays for cash games.

For large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups, or use our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

This analysis may reference Strokes Gained, a set of proprietary metrics generated by the PGA TOUR using millions of data points to calculate how many shots, on average, it takes a player to get the ball in the hole from every distance and situation.

Strokes Gained is now available in the FantasyLabs PGA Models.

Strokes Gained: Approach

Strokes gained: Approach will be extremely important this week as second shots at Quail Hollow can be very difficult. Great iron players such as Justin Thomas have had tremendous success at the course.

High-end target: Scottie Scheffler— $10,600 (2nd Strokes Gained: Approach)
Mid-range target: Tony Finau— $8,200 (1st Strokes Gained: Approach)
Value target: Mito Pereira— $4,600 (6th Strokes Gained: Approach)

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee

Quail Hollow is a long course on which it is important to play from the fairway. Both distance and accuracy are important, as shorter tee shots will result in approach shots from 200+ yards. With most of the holes heavily tree-lined, errant drives will create some real trouble for the players in their matches.

High-end target: Scottie Scheffler $10,600 (4th Strokes Gained: Off the Tee)
Mid-range target: Cameron Young— $6,600 (2nd Strokes Gained: Off the Tee)
Value target: Taylor Pendrith— $4,400 (1st Strokes Gained: Off the Tee)

Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass)

Strokes Gained: Putting has historically graded out as the most important statistic at Quail Hollow. While it isn’t always predictable, I do want to have it in the model to bump up golfers who prefer to putt on Bermudagrass. Putting becomes even more important in match play.

High-end target: Justin Thomas— $9,600 (9th in Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass)
Mid-range target: Sam Burns— $8,800 (1st in Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass)
Value target: Adam Scott— $6,000 (4th in Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass)

Par 4: 450-500

Quail Hollow features five par 4s measuring between 450-500 yards. These holes are among the most difficult on the course.

High-end target: Patrick Cantlay— $10,200 (5th Par 4: 450-500)
Mid-range target: Tony Finau— $8,200 (1st Par 4: 450-500)
Value target: Sungjae Im— $7,600 (6th Par 4: 450-500)

Proximity: 200+

The length of Quail Hollow is a major factor this week and will result in some very long approach shots. Additionally, three of the four par 3s are over 200 yards.

High-end target: Xander Schauffele— $10,000 (1st Proximity: 200+)
Mid-range target: Max Homa— $9,200 (2nd Proximity: 200+)
Value target: Cameron Davis— $4,800— (3rd Proximity: 200+)

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