The PGA TOUR tees off in Dublin, Ohio, for the seventh of the eight Signature Events on the 2026 calendar. This tournament is celebrating its 50th anniversary and has always been held at Muirfield Village Golf Club, which was conceived and designed by Jack Nicklaus. “Jack’s Place” is a difficult venue that typically ranks as one of the hardest non-majors each season. The demanding but fair test usually results in the top players near the top of the leaderboard with plenty of drama on Sunday
This year, the limited field of 72 players will be cut to the top 50 and ties (plus any players within 10 strokes of the lead) after Round 2. For more info on the field, the format, and the challenge at Muirfield Village Golf Club, check out this First Look from RotoGrinders.
Especially in large-field 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 tournament 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 tournament 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 tournament 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
Ludvig Aberg $10,100
Ludvig Aberg has the highest SimLeverage in the field this week, making him a good pivot if you opt to pass on two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler ($13,500) and Rory McIlroy ($11,500). Scheffler is a great option to consider in all formats, as explained well in my colleague Alex Hunter’s cash game picks for this week. Rather than running down Scottie’s long list of accolades again, let’s examine why Aberg stands out as a tournament alternative that would go more against the public groupthink.
Aberg is $3,400 less than Scheffler, which makes a huge difference for the rest of your roster. He also has a much lower ownership projection than Scheffler and matches the most Pro Trends in the field. He and Rory match 10 Pro Trends, while Scheffler matches nine, and no other player matches more than eight.
Aberg has the highest Perfect% in the field, meaning he is in the highest percentage of optimal lineups in our thousands of sims.
He ranks second in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach over the last three months, third in Total Strokes Gained, and third in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He has run off an impressive streak of nine top-25 finishes, including five top-five finishes.
While he hasn’t been able to claim a win in 2026, he has placed in the top five in big tournaments, including the PGA Championship, THE PLAYERS Championship, and two Signature Events. Last week, he was in the mix at the Charles Schwab Challenge until fading over the weekend.
As such a well-rounded golfer with great shotmaking ability, Aberg has a strong history at Muirfield Village. He finished T5 in 2024 and T16 last year. In both of those events, he gained strokes in each major category. Since Strokes Gained: Approach is the most predictive stat on this layout, it’s a good fit for Aberg, who comes in with great form.
Patrick Cantlay $9,200
With a salary just over $9,000, Patrick Cantlay has the fourth-highest SimLeverage of the players over $9,000. His ownership projection is under 10%, the lowest of all players over $9,000, despite some trending form and great course history.
The 34-year-old from California hasn’t won on the PGA TOUR since the 2022 BMW Championship, which was his eighth career victory. He earned two of those victories at Muirfield Village Golf Club, claiming the 2019 and 2021 editions of the Memorial. He has three other top-10 finishes at this tournament in his previous appearances and only missed the cut one time, which was in 2024. He bounced back with a T12 last year, though, and is a great horse for the course.
Cantlay made the cut at the PGA Championship with a T35 before taking the last two weeks off. Before that T35, though, he had been turning in even higher finishes with four straight top-12 finishes at the Valspar, the Masters, the RBC Heritage, and the Truist Championship.
Over the last three months, Cantlay ranks in the top 25 in the field in all major Strokes Gained categories except for putting. He ranks sixth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and eighth in Total Strokes Gained over that span.
With solid form coming back to where he has played so well, Cantlay brings a high ceiling and makes a good leverage play since he’s going so overlooked coming into the weekend at this price point of just over $9,000.
Now available: our PGA DFS SimLabs Lineup Generator that creates advanced DFS lineups using the power of simulation.
Mid-Priced PGA DFS Picks
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
