With the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship set to head to Trinity Forest Golf Club in 2018, the TPC Four Seasons in Irving, Texas, will serve as host for the last time this week. This course has seen a handful of legendary champions over the years--Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and Jason Day--and it wouldn't be surprising if another elite player raised the trophy again on Sunday afternoon.
That's due in large part to a field that is considerably top-heavy. Day, Garcia, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth give the event four players inside the world Top-10, and the second and third tiers are also pretty strong, but the talent level quickly drops off after that. In terms of DFS and DraftKings, if you're going to use players in the $7,000-and-lower range--and that will likely be a necessity if you're going to have any of the studs in your lineup--you're going to have to sort through a lot of unexciting players with plenty of flaws.
The weakness of the lower-half of the field makes Johnson a particularly interesting option in DraftKings circles. His price ($12,500) means you'll have to settle for an ugly option or two, but with the way the world No. 1 is playing, fading him is also an extremely dangerous proposition. What DFS players ultimately decide to do with DJ will ultimately be a major factor this week.
With all of that in mind, you can click through the gallery for my ideal lineup picks. (Getty)
Dustin Johnson
Price: $12,500
Despite the lack of quality bargain options, I just can't fade DJ. After a stretch of three wins and a runner-up finish, he took on TPC Sawgrass--a course that is completely unfit for his skill set--and battled for a T12, easily the best Players finish of his career.
Now, he heads to TPC Four Seasons, a course much-more suited for his strengths. Players who can gain strokes off the tee have historically had success here, and that makes DJ a no-brainer, even if he wasn't playing at a near-unstoppable level over the last three months. The price is steep, but I wouldn't overthink this one. It's the world's most dominant player at a course that fits him well. (Getty)
Tony Finau
Price: $9,200
Spending $9,200 on a guy who has missed two cuts in a row (one was at the Zurich Classic, a team event) may not seem great, but Finau was playing fantastic golf just before this recent skid (fifth, T28, T34 and T3 in his previous four starts) and he checks off the right boxes for this course. Most notably, he's the best driver in this field not named Dustin or Sergio (fourth on Tour in strokes gained off the tee and sixth in strokes gained tee-to-green), which is the best indicator of success at TPC Four Seasons.
In two starts at this tournament, Finau has finished 10th and 12th. He's a combined 21-under and has never shot a round worse than 68 (Par 70). Beating DJ could be tough, but he should be in contention come Sunday afternoon. (Getty)
Sung Kang
Price: $7,400
After spending 43.4 percent of our salary on the first two players, we're going to have to start saving some money. Fortunately, Sung Kang is a steal at $7,400.
Not only does the 29-year-old rank 35th on Tour in our key stat (strokes gained off the tee), but he's 12th in the field in that same stat over the last 24 rounds, and he's also a strong putter, ranking 46th in strokes gained with the flatstick. That sparkling statistical profile has translated to a consistent leaderboard presence, as he has finished second, 11th, sixth and 30th in his last four individual starts (not counting the Zurich Classic).
Though he has missed two cuts in three attempts at this tournament, those came in 2011 and '12, while he finished 34th here last year. Combine that with his recent red-hot play, and he's tough to pass up at this price. (Getty)
Smylie Kaufman
Price: $7,100
Kaufman appears to have shaken off an absolutely brutal two-month stretch that saw him miss six cuts in a row. He finished a solid 37th at the Valero Texas Open, then after missing the cut in the team-format Zurich Classic, he has tallied a T5 at the Wells Fargo and a T12 at the Players. He's finally starting to look like the guy who last year tallied a win, four Top-10's and entered Sunday at the Masters in the final pairing, but his price hasn't yet caught up.
Oddsmakers have Kaufman at 50-to-1, which is the same as guys like Ryan Palmer ($8,200), J.B. Holmes ($7,900) and Ollie Schniederjans ($7,700). He may be slightly overvalued on the odds board, but he's undervalued on DraftKings with the way he's playing. (Getty)
Nick Taylor
Price: $6,900
Taylor will be making his debut at this tournament, but you aren't going to find many players in this price range who are playing as well as the 29-year-old Canadian. He has quietly racked up six Top-25's and two Top-10's in 18 starts this year, and over the last month, he has two T22's (RBC Heritage, Valero Texas Open) and a T8 (Wells Fargo Championship) in three individual events. Furthermore, in his lat eight DraftKings events, he has been under 50.0 DK points just once. With the high-upside players we have at the top of this lineup, Taylor provides the perfect floor at a bargain price. (Getty)
Keegan Bradley
Price: $6,900
In addition to his three Top-10's and seven Top-25's Bradley also has five missed cuts on the year. Players like that--especially when they putt the way Bradley does--can be awfully difficult to trust, but there's still plenty to like here. Bradley won this tournament in 2011, finished second in 2013 and has three other Top-30 finishes in his six Byron Nelson starts.
He's not playing nearly bad enough--he's made the cut in five of his last six individual events, and he ranks 19th on Tour in strokes gained off the tee--to ignore that kind of course form. Especially at $6,900. (Getty)
DraftKings PGA Lineup: Byron Nelson Championship 2017 Optimal Picks