It’s Tuesday, and there are still no real DFS sports in sight. I’m playing college basketball DFS tonight because, I suppose, I am desperate. Thursday should be a good day, at least. The NBA returns that night, and we’ve got the Genesis Invitational getting underway that morning.
Driving distance, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, and Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee are a few stats generally worth keeping an eye on ahead of events at this course.
We’ve had a lot of rain in the area this week, and it sounds like we could have some wet and windy conditions at Riviera, particularly in the early rounds. Fun!
We also have Scottie Scheffler and his cumbersome $14,300 salary in play again this week, so that’ll be a primary decision point. I’m going to go through the slate and give a few takes on guys I think make for decent building blocks for DraftKings GPPs.
Scottie Scheffler ($14,300)
As always, Scheffler is the big sticking point. Slotting him into your lineup leaves you with a measly $7,140 for each remaining roster slot. Rory McIlroy is $3,000 cheaper, which is bananas. His median projection is about 12 points higher than Rory’s, and, as always, he’ll probably come in between 25% and 30% owned in larger-field contests.
If you roster Scheffler, you’re going to be stuck surrounding him with a bunch of guys in the $6,400-$7,700 range. “Garrick Higgo,” things of that nature. Scheffler is obviously capable of carrying you to victory by himself. He won the AmEx 3 weeks ago before going T-3 and T-4 at the WM Phoenix and Pebble Beach Pro-Am in the last couple of outings. Scheffler is top-5 in every major DFS-relevant statistical category, though he has yet to win the Genesis. His best result here was a T-3 here last year.
If you’re playing single-entry, the Scheffler fade case is an easy one. He almost has to win the tournament outright to justify the salary. Any other result is almost surely killing your win equity. Not only are you forced into 2-3 fragile cheapies, but you’re also spending 30% of your cap on Scheffler. Loading up on multiple golfers in the $9,000 range and fading Scheffler is viable in single-entry. In multi-entry, I’ll strive to be a little over the field on his projected 25%-30% ownership.
Chris Gotterup ($8,800)
Chris Gotterup has 4 starts on the TOUR this season, and he’s won twice. Pretty good! Probably unsustainable, but not too shabby. Oddly enough, this will be Gotterup’s first outing at the Genesis, so we’re dealing with some uncertainty here.
That said, he’s arguably underpriced for the ceiling. There probably shouldn’t be 12 golfers with more expensive price tags. Gotterup is 3rd on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green this season, which could come in handy on this course. He’s also fifth in distance off the tee, and he’s around 30th in both SG: Approach and Bogey Avoidance. Gotterup dropped a bit in the latter two categories after a T-37 last week at Pebble Beach. For reference, Gotterup was near the top of the leaderboard in driving distance a season ago, so that’s a consistent aspect of his game.
The field will see the game logs and the salary, which should lead to some ownership. The projected ownership is pretty flat among the golfers in the $9,000 range, though, so I’m not too concerned. I think Gotterup will be a core play for me in more balanced, non-Scheffler lineups. Perhaps his lack of a course history at Riviera will help him go a little more overlooked than projections suggest.
Pierceson Coody ($7,300)
Everyone’s favorite golfer is off to a nice start, with 4 top-20 finishes in 5 starts to begin ’26. His lone failure to land inside the first 20 was last week at Pebble Beach (T-48). Coody’s 7th in SG: Off-the-Tee and 16th in SG: Tee-to-Green this season after he led the TOUR in SG: OtT last year. Even better than Scheffler!
The main thing is the $7,300 salary. That puts Coody in the same range as luminaries like Max Homa, Taylor Pendrith, JT Poston, and Corey Conners. He projects vastly better than everyone else in this range. As a result, Coody’s ownership is going to be heavily correlated with Scheffler’s.
If you’re playing Coody, you need to be thinking about combinations. If Scheffler is 30% owned, there’s a pretty good chance Coody’s projected ownership of around 15% is too low. Much of the field is using projections these days, and Coody is the best point-per-dollar value on the entire slate.
It’s risky, and it’s aggressive, but I’d strongly consider limiting my exposure to builds that include both Scheffler and Coody. You’re sacrificing lots of median projection this way, but if things go horribly wrong for one of them, you’re potentially lapping the field. This event has a cut. If Coody misses it, he’s going to take a huge chunk of the field’s Scheffler lineups down with him.
Because Coody projects well individually, there’s plenty of merit to plugging him into more balanced non-Scheffler lineups. Even with the risk that comes with splitting them up, at least you’ll be playing a chalky Pierceson in a more unique way than most of your opponents.
Jake Knapp ($8,600)
Knapp is another standout if you’re playing a balanced non-Scheffler lineup. I mentioned Riviera typically rewarding longer hitters off the tee, and Knapp fits the bill. He’s 9th in driving distance off-the-tee after finishing 16th last season.
Like Gotterup, Knapp is also coming into this one riding a nice wave of success with 3 consecutive top-10 finishes along with a T-11 at the season-opening Sony Open. Also like Gotterup, Knapp is a first-timer at Riviera. He finished T-17 at last year’s Genesis, but that took place at Torrey Pines as a result of the LA wildfires.
Knapp is typically at his best on courses like this one. His recent success at different courses suggests he may simply be a much-improved all-around player this year, which means there’s a chance he’s underpriced, even at $8,600.
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