This week's team competition brings a unique twist to the DFS format.
Scoring is largely based on the number of holes won by a golfer, which is largely influenced by how many matches they play.
As you likely know from previous team competitions, guessing on pairings and number of matches played is often a fool's errand. That is espeically true in recent editions where teams have started to lean more on analytics as opposed to just matching up good buddies or golfers from the same country.
With that being said, we can dive into the data to see which golfers are the class of the field and which golfers might like the layout at Quail Hollow Club. In theory, the captains will be seeing the same stats on their internal reports and that could lead to them getting the first crack at playing time. Our goal for the week should be to get as many golfers with the potential to play four or more matches.
Bermudagrass Specialists
Quail Hollow features bermudagrass greens but at this time of year the rough is also bermuda.
That is what they saw the 2017 PGA Championship but a slight change from what the pros see most years when they head to Charlotte for the Wells Fargo Championship.
Let's see who should enjoy the wall-to-wall bermuda this week.
Here are the top performers in performance on courses with bermudagrass greens, over the last two years:
Justin Thomas
Collin Morikawa
Tom Kim
Xander Schauffele
Sam Burns
Scottie Scheffler
Hideki Matsuyama
Jordan Spieth
Corey Conners
Patrick Cantlay
We can also look at their performance versus their baseline to see who elevates their game on the grainy grass.
Collin Morikawa
Hideki Matsuyama
Justin Thomas
Sam Burns
Billy Horschel
Corey Conners
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Kevin Kisner
Sebastian Munoz
Jordan Spieth
Overlap list: names that show up on both of the top-10 lists include Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, and Corey Conners.
Tom Kim has crushed it on bermuda in his early days on the PGA TOUR but the sample is too small to truly qualify as a "specialist."
The rest of the names should be in strong consideration when building our DraftKings lineups this week.
Editor's Note: Now, all our premium tools for Fantasy, DFS and Betting are included in one subscription at one low price. Customers can subscribe to NBC Sports EDGE+ monthly for $9.99. Click here to learn more!
Spieth to lead by experience
The Texan is not even 30-years-old yet but he's the veteran in the clubhouse this week when it comes to team competition. He is playing in his fourth Presidents Cup, the most of anyone on Team USA. His insane recovery skills make him a great teammate because he can get out of ugly situations and change the momentum of a match very quickly. I would look for Captain Love to trot out Spieth early and often as an established leader for the Americans.
Matsuyama to rack up matches played
The International Team is playing the underdog role this week but there should still be matches to be won by the road team. Matsuyama was tied for the 36-hole lead at the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and ultimately finished 5th that week. He's also playing in his fifth Presidents Cup with an average of 4.25 matches played per event. It's possible his recent neck injuries would limit his matches played this week but if he's healthy then I would expect to see a healthy dose of the star from Japan. With most gamers likely to load up on the American side this week, that may leave Matsuyama overlooked and under-rostered.