Fantasy Golf Value Picks: The Best DraftKings PGA TOUR DFS Bargains for the Open Championship

We travel to Royal Troon Golf Club (par 71, 7,385 yards, bentgrass/POA greens) in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland, for the 152nd Open Championship. This is the 10th time Royal Troon has hosted the Open, most recently in 2016 when Henrik Stenson won comfortably at 20 under par, three strokes ahead of Phil Mickelson, who was 11 strokes ahead of the rest of the field. This week’s Open Championship features 158 golfers and will feature a slightly extended cut, with the top 70 and ties after the first two rounds advancing.

Royal Troon is a challenging seaside links golf course with narrow fairways, extremely small greens, thick rough and a whopping 101 bunkers. Avoiding the punishing rough and pot bunkers that are scattered along every fairway makes Royal Troon a course where accuracy is far more important than distance. Stenson’s success on this course in 2016 is clear evidence that accurate drivers are a good choice on Royal Troon – he finished fifth in driving accuracy when he won the Open here – or golfers who score well in overall driving. Since the putting areas on this course are very small, we must also give preference to elite iron players, as Stenson and runner-up Mickelson finished the 2016 Open in first and third place in GIR% respectively. Finally, with 11 par 4s on the course, efficiency on the par 4s is the most important of all holes at Royal Troon. When Stenson lifted the Claret Jug on this course in 2016, he was two shots ahead of the field on the par 4.

Below, I’ve highlighted four of my favorite DraftKings deals for the Open Championship, all under $7,500.

Set your DraftKings Fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $600K DRIVE THE GREEN ($100K TO 1ST PLACE)

Aaron Rai ($7,300) – Rai is a must-have value player at this low salary. Despite the stakes being high, the English pro finished T4 at the Genesis Scottish Open last week, including a 63 (seven under par) to close out the event. That result secured Rai a spot in this week’s Open Championship, which is well deserved considering the 29-year-old has been one of the best golfers in the world recently. Rai has finished T7 or better in three straight tournaments and hasn’t missed a cut in eight starts. If we compare the last 24 rounds of this field, Rai is remarkably sixth in total strokes gained.

He has made one of two cuts at the Open Championship and that one result was a T19 at Royal St. Georges in 2021. As a former DP World Tour player, Rai has experience competing in windy European conditions and his sense for finding the fairway makes him the perfect opponent for Royal Troon. This season, Rai leads the entire PGA TOUR in shot accuracy.

Sahith Theegala (7,200 USD) – Warming up for the links conditions that await him at Royal Troon, Theegala shone at the Genesis Scottish Open last week, finishing fourth while gaining strokes in every major category at the Renaissance Club. The 26-year-old has now made 16 of 19 cuts this season, with nine top-25 finishes, and he is the 11th-best golfer in the world. Despite that ranking, Theegala is only 32nd.^and Most expensive golfer on DraftKings this week.

Although the rising star lacks Open Championship experience – he’s made just 1 of 2 cuts at the major – Theegala has missed just one cut in his last eight major starts, with two of those finishes coming inside the top 12. At +5000 in the DraftKings Sportsbook, Theegala has the best odds to win the Open Championship this weekend of any golfer priced under $7.5k for DFS, and he simply can’t be ignored at that low price tag, which is a new season low for Theegala.

Sungjae Im (6,900 USD) – Im has been playing incredibly well of late and is an elite value at his sub-$7,000 salary. The 26-year-old is coming off a T4 at the Genesis Scottish Open last week, which is impressively his sixth top-12 finish in his last nine starts. In his last three starts in particular, Im has shot under par in all 12 of his rounds – including two 63s – and he has gained at least 3.0 strokes on approach shots in all three events. Since missing the cut at the Masters, Im has moved up 17 spots in the World Golf Rankings to 24th, but he is only 40th.^th Most expensive golfer at DraftKings for the Open Championship.

Im finished T20 at last year’s Open, and not only is he an excellent DFS target, but he’s also a fantastic bet for a top-20 finish in the DraftKings Sportsbook at +210.

Louis Oosthuizen ($6,800) – Oosthuizen has taken his talents to LIV Golf and become a forgotten name. He is an excellent dark horse this week who could really pay off. The South African has a brilliant track record at the Open Championship. Oosthuizen won that major in 2010 and has made 9 of 12 cuts at the Open since then, with six top-30 finishes, including a T23 last season.

Oosthuizen also finished fourth in the LIV Andalucía event last week, which is his eighth top-25 finish in nine starts on Tour this season. Oosthuizen ranks third in fairways found on LIV this season, and he really stands out when we compare DFS salaries to the Open Championship odds at DraftKings Sportsbook. Oosthuizen has +6000 odds to win this weekend, which are better odds than Jordan Spieth, who costs $7,900.

Set your DraftKings Fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $600K DRIVE THE GREEN ($100K TO 1ST PLACE)

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I am a promoter at DraftKings and also an avid fan and user (my username is Hunta512) and sometimes play the games I advise on using my personal account. Although I have expressed my personal opinion on the games and strategies mentioned above, they do not necessarily reflect the opinion(s) of DraftKings. and do not represent a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All clients should use their own skills and judgment in assembling their own positions. I may use different players and strategies than those I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to non-public information.