DraftKings Pivot Plays for THE PLAYERS 2021
We're going to look at 2 extremely popular names across DFS contests and why you could justify staying away. More importantly, I'm going to tell you about 2 other players with as much upside at significantly less projected ownership. Ownership leverage and equal or greater upside from the players we're pivoting away from is the name of the game every week for the Pivot Point article.
Rory Mcllroy (18%) / Xander Schauffele (12%)
Rory McIlroy $10,600 18% - Rory enters the The Players for the second straight year as the defending champion. The last year has not been kind to Rory, but he’s starting to find some form and has back to back top 10s on two Florida tracks. Rory made a putter change two weeks ago after losing over 4 strokes putting against the field at the Genesis. The putter change seems to be working great as he’s gained a total of 6+ strokes on the greens in his last two events.Â
Xander Schauffele $10,300 12% - Xander is coming off his worst performance in the past 8 months with a T39 finish at Concession. The T39 finish broke a record of 16 straight events where Xander has finished in the top 25. Half of those top 25s were top 10s including 4 runner up finishes. Xander doesn’t have a weakness in his game and will look to build on his T2 here in 2018.
Why Pivot? While Rory seems to be flashing some form with back to back top 10’s, I am still worried about his ball striking. Rory admitted in his press conference this week that he’s not feeling comfortable with his swing and is currently battling a two-way miss. WHAT? I am sure Rory’s two way miss is a little more predictable than mine but it still sounds sketchy to me. If he is feeling a little uncomfortable and trying to figure some things out at Sawgrass, Rory could be in for a short week. At his price and ownership projection he needs at least a top 5 to pay off. I will pivot down to Xander this week instead. I like his form over the past year especially in big events and checks every stat category you can look for. I think Xander adds a Players Champion to his resume this week.
Hideki Matsuyama (14%) / Scottie Scheffler (8%)
Hideki Matsuyama $8700 14% -Â Deki is trending and everyone is taking notice. He has posted back to back top 20s the last two weeks in Florida. Deki fired a first round 63 last year tying the course record, and was leading the tournament before play was ultimately suspended due to Covid-19 concerns. Hideki has great course history with four top 25s in his last five events including two top 10s.Â
Scottie Scheffler $8900 8% - Scheffler will be teeing it up this week still looking for his first win on tour. He’s in great form with two top 10s in his last three starts and has been showing up on leaderboards at big events for a while now. The finishes include a 5th place at WGC-Workday two weeks ago and a run at the PGA championship in 2020 finishing T4. While he does not have any course history logged in any stats engine, he did have a good first round in 2020 before play was suspended.
Why Pivot?: While Hideki does have good course history, his game has not been the same the past year. Hideki still struggles with the putter and his ball striking has been underwhelming considering his career baseline. At $8,700, I struggle to see his upside compared to the other plays around him and his course history is…..well…..outdated. While Scottie Scheffler may seem slightly overpriced, I like his current form and upside here. He is continuing to get better with his irons and has now gained strokes on approach in 4 straight. His higher price should keep his ownership nice and low.
Written by: Tim Gaymon (TH803)