This article is part of our Golf Draft Kit series.
These are the actual dollar values from our RotoWire staff golf league, which took place on Jan. 6. Our rules base winners on total earnings in PGA Tournaments from the Sony Open to the final FedExCup event (we skipped the Tournament of Champions and also didn't use the fall portion of the 2018-19 wrap-around schedule), excluding those PGA Tour events held the same week as the World Golf Championship tournaments and the British Open.
Our format also includes bonus points for the four majors. As a result, some European players may be ranked higher than your league. If a European golfer plays in just the four majors and WGC tournaments, he'll still have a lot of value in our league. Our league had 14 members, a budget of $100 per team and each team starts five golfers per week with a total roster of nine golfers. The league has been around since 2000.
After some years where the top golfer would go for $70 or more, the auction wasn't as top heavy this year with the money more spread out.
The 2018 auction had three players going for over $60 (Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson) and eight players over $40. In 2019 our league didn't think the top players would dominate as much paying $470 for the top ten players compared to $504
These are the actual dollar values from our RotoWire staff golf league, which took place on Jan. 6. Our rules base winners on total earnings in PGA Tournaments from the Sony Open to the final FedExCup event (we skipped the Tournament of Champions and also didn't use the fall portion of the 2018-19 wrap-around schedule), excluding those PGA Tour events held the same week as the World Golf Championship tournaments and the British Open.
Our format also includes bonus points for the four majors. As a result, some European players may be ranked higher than your league. If a European golfer plays in just the four majors and WGC tournaments, he'll still have a lot of value in our league. Our league had 14 members, a budget of $100 per team and each team starts five golfers per week with a total roster of nine golfers. The league has been around since 2000.
After some years where the top golfer would go for $70 or more, the auction wasn't as top heavy this year with the money more spread out.
The 2018 auction had three players going for over $60 (Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson) and eight players over $40. In 2019 our league didn't think the top players would dominate as much paying $470 for the top ten players compared to $504 in 2018.
The 2019 auction has Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas at the top with last year's second most expensive golfer, Jordan Spieth, falling $14 to No. 4.
I had a strategy to take Rory McIlroy since he may be a value since he had an off year (at least in majors) and has said he'll play more in the U.S. this year. With the move of the PGA Championship to the spring, European players may stay on the PGA Tour in the first half of the year. I invested in European Tour players Tyrrell Hatton and Julian Suri as a result.
Among some notable prices in our auction included Tiger Woods at just $30. He was the first golfer nominated in the auction, which can typically depress a player's price since owners wait to see how market prices shape up. Still, our league has him as the 16th ranked golfer, perhaps fading much of the hype of his comeback from last season. Kevin Chappell ($3) was another player our league soured on, though much his price may have been from auction dynamics where he was nominated late.
Notable sleepers who went more than most expert rankings included Joaquin Niemann ($15), Sam Ryder ($6), Dyan Frittell ($5) and Kiradech Aphibarnrat ($9). Aphibarnrat was a factor of an owner overpaying with money left over at the end of his auction, but he would have exceeded his spot on most rankings in any scenario. Eddie Pepperell ($3) was a European Tour player who may do better in our format than most leagues.
Our league also was higher on Thomas Pieters ($4) who some may forget was in most experts' top 30 rankings last season, and Daniel Berger ($20) who was similarly disappointing last season and could be a bounce-back candidate. Bill Haas ($14) similar went much higher than most expert rankings with owners anticipating a bounce-back season.
While these dollar values may not exactly fit your league's rules, this should be a good benchmark for your draft preparation.
