DraftKings PGA DFS Picks: Bank of Utah Championship Cash and GPP Strategy

BANK OF UTAH CHAMPIONSHIP

Purse: $6M 
Winner's Share: $1.08M 
FedEx Cup Points: 500 to the Winner 
Location: Ivins, Utah
Course: Black Desert Resort
Yardage: 7,421 
Par: 71
2025 winner: Michael Brennan

Tournament Preview

There aren't many good spots to land on during the PGA Tour's fall calendar. It's football season, it's the baseball playoffs and most of the big-name golfers are idle. But of all the inopportune positions on the schedule, the Bank of Utah Championship may have drawn the shortest straw.

The Presidents Cup is barely in the rearview mirror and the one elite event of the fall is coming up next week at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan (formerly the ZOZO).

Utah tournament organizers did catch one break, however. A big one. A ginormous one. In a field with only two golfers in the top-50 in the Official World Golf Rankings -- defending champion Michael Brennan and No. 33 and Maverick McNealy at No. 48 -- they did snare golf's new golden boy in Jackson Koivun.

Koivun is coming off a Presidents Cup in which he shined for the U.S. side, showing he will be a big part of golf's future. There may be no bigger draw in golf right now outside of Rory McIlroy or Bryson DeChambeau.

Koivun will be joined in the 120-man field by Presidents Cup International players Nick Taylor and Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Other names of note ("names of note" being a relative term) include Max Homa and another bright youngster in Ben James. If you want to throw in Tony Finau (from Utah) and Billy Horschel, both of whom have all but fallen off the golf map, go ahead. That's about it.

As a reminder, golfers have the next two months to secure their full playing privileges for next season by finishing in the top-100 of the FedEx Cup point standings. After Utah and the Baycurrent, there's a week off before the Tour runs off five tournaments in a row to conclude just before Thanksgiving.

The PGA Tour returned to the Beehive State two years ago after a six-decade gap. The inaugural tournament was called the Black Desert Championship. Then the Bank of Utah came on board in a three-year agreement to be the title sponsor. The purse dropped from $7.5 million to its current $6 million.

Matt McCarty wone in 2024 at 23-under and Brennan won last year at 22-under. So, it's a big-time birdie-fest.

Black Desert is a Tom Weiskopf/Phil Smith design, Weiskopf's final work that opened in late 2022 just months after his passing. It is located in the southwestern corner of Utah, right near Nevada and Arizona and not that far from Las Vegas (about 125 miles). The course is at elevation, more than 3,000 feet, so it will play at far less than the scorecard distance of 7,421 yards, even less than 7,000.

Black Desert is a rocky, sandy desert track built in the middle of a lava field. Chiseled out of it, actually. (And before you picture volcanos with fiery lava spewing out, no, that's not this.)

There are incredible vistas and topography, wide fairways (averaging 30 yards at 300 yards but close to 100 yards wide in spots) with severe undulations and angles and large multi-tiered greens. They are bentgrass, average 7,000 square feet and will run a speedy 12 on the Stimpmeter. There are only 50 bunkers and water comes into play on three holes. The rough will again be two inches, according to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) fact sheet.

There are some very long holes, though they won't play that long because of then thin air. There are four par-4s over 500 yards and two par-3s at 200ish-plus. The three par-5s at Nos. 7, 9 and 18 are in the 580-600 range and will play relatively short, so be on the lookout for a potential closing eagle. The 18th was the second easiest hole on the course last year, right behind the drivable 322-yard 14th. So we could see a bunch of eagles down the stretch.

The course starts out far harder. Last year, the first four holes and five of the first six played over par. There were only four more over-par holes the rest of the way, with the 532-yard 11th and 519-yard 13th the hardest. So maybe if you are deciding between two golfers for your lineup, there may be an edge to starting on the back-nine on Thursday to build a little momentum.

Utah golf factoids: The last PGA Tour event in the state before this tournament came into being was the 1963 Utah Open. As you'll recall, the late Terry Jacobs won one of his four PGA Tour titles that week. ... The LPGA Tour plays a tournament at this very same Black Desert course, one of two tracks that currently plays host to PGA and LPGA events in the same year. ... This tournament is the only one that uses robotic fairway mowers, according to the GCSAA fact sheet. 

Key Stats to Winning at Black Desert

The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.

• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee/Driving Distance
• Strokes Gained: Approach/Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green 
• Approaches from 150 Yards
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Par-5 Scoring 550-660 yards
• Birdie Average/Birdie or Better Percentage

Past Champions
2025 - Michael Brennan
2024 - Matt McCarty

Champion's Profile

When scores go very low -- McCarty won at 23-under and Brennan at 22 -- there are different ways to get there from tee to green. But the one constant is putting. You have to be elite on the greens to rack up birdies. McCarty ranked seventh in the field in SG: Putting in winning by three strokes and Brennan ranked eighth in winning by four.

McCarty shot a 62 on Thursday and we even saw a 60 that day, by Adam Svensson, though he faded by Sunday.

Brennan is a long and elite driver -- he ranked second in distance and seventh in accuracy here last year. He gained almost half of his 16 strokes on the field off the tee but also more than five on the greens. Just an elite performance that featured two eagles and 25 birdies but also three bogeys and even two doubles. He is a risk/reward player and that's something to focus on this week.

The cutline two years ago was 5-under but only 1-under last year.

The over/under on this year's winning score is 261.5 per golfodds.com -- 22.5 under par.

DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS

Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap

$10,000+

Michael Brennan - $10,200 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +1750)
There's always some concern about targeting a defending champion. But Brennan had a terrific year that saw him finish in the top-50, capped by a not-too-long-ago win at the Wyndham. He may even play with a chip on his shoulder, believing he had a chance to be a Presidents Cup captain's pick. Brennan is ranked third on Tour in both driving distance and SG: Off-the-Tee. He's a respectable 50th in SG: Approach, a better-than-average 76th in SG: Putting and 23rd in birdie average. He's definitely an aggressive player, perfect for this week.

$9,000-$9,900

Ben James - $9,900 (+1900)
James is a couple of years older than Koivun at 23, but almost as equally decorated during his college-golf career. And he's off to a great start in his PGA Tour career. In just nine starts, he has three top-5s and five top-25s, including runner-up at the Biltmore last time out and third at the Wyndham the time before that. James doesn't have enough measured rounds to qualify in the PGA Tour stats, but over his past 12 rounds, he's ranked top-25 in this field in SG: Off-the-Tee, Approach and Putting, plus birdie or better percentage.

Matt Wallace - $9,700 (+2400)
Wallace is on a big-time heater and now back up to No. 54 in the OGWR. Since the Tour's regular season ended (he didn't qualify for the playoffs), he's been tearing it up in Europe. Going back to the Rocket Classic, the Englishman has finished in the top-15 in six straight events, including a tie for 10th in the DP World Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship. Wallace ranks 20th on the PGA Tour in SG: Approach, 24th in SG: Tee-to-Green and -- get this -- 29th in SG: Total.

Matt McCarty - $9,000 (+4900)
McCarty won the inaugural Utah event in 2024 and then tied for third in his title defense -- no easy feat. So we don't want to overthink this one, and we suspect many gamers will do likewise and he will be highly owned. McCarty recently completed a great season that saw him finish in the top-50 in the point standings and thus qualify for every signature event next season. He's one of the best putters in this field, currently ranking 30th on Tour.

$8,000-$8,900

Johnny Keefer - $8,400 (+4100) 
Keefer has shown an ability to go low -- something we definitely look for this week. He got it to 20-under in tying for seventh two weeks ago at the Biltmore Championship. He hit 19-under in a top-10 at the Byron Nelson. The Tour rookie has been elite everywhere but on the greens this season -- he's ranked a sub-optimal 119th. But he ranked fifth in the Biltmore field.

$7,000-$7,900

Ben Kohles - $7,800 (+5200) 
We've tapped into Kohles often the past couple of months, and he's rarely disappointed. Technically playing out of the Korn Ferry Tour this season, he has made 13 PGA Tour starts and sits a respectable 96th in the FedEx Cup point standings. Kohles has two top-10s and six top-25s, including in three of his past four starts, most recently a T15 at the Biltmore. Three times on the PGA Tour this season he's gotten to 18-under. Kohles doesn't have enough rounds to qualify in the stats, but if he did, he'd actually be leading the Tour in SG: Approach (you read that right).

Stephan Jaeger - $7,700 (+4700) 
Not only did Jaeger finish runner-up here two years ago and T11 last year, he's one of the longer drivers on Tour. Okay, maybe that's why he's done well here. This has not been the best year for Jaeger, but he has had some brief flashes, mostly in lesser events, and this most definitely is a lesser event. His game has been at its best closer to the hole this season, ranking 24th in SG: Around-the-Green and 41st in Putting.

Zach Bauchou - $7,300 (+6500) 
The golfer with a last name that sounds like a little fluffy white dog -- okay, that was a long way to go for a marginal joke -- actually popped in our model. Like, No. 2 overall. The 30-year-old from the Oklahoma State golf pipeline has made 17 of 22 cuts this season with, get this, 10 top-25s. Bauchou was T24 at the Biltmore and T14 at the Wyndham. He is ranked top-50 on Tour in SG: Approach, Putting and even Total, which in this field would get you in the Hall of Fame.

$6,000-$6,900

Gordon Sargent - $6,900 (+12000) 
The 23-year-old Sargent is another recent college player, though not overly successful so far on Tour. But he has shown some signs, and we were actually on him at the Biltmore. He was in the top-20 heading into Sunday but then shot his worst round of the week at tied for 33rd. He led the field in driving distance and SG: Off-the-Tee, and was seventh in SG: Approach and T6 in greens in regulation (but 75th in SG: Putting). His approach play has been abysmal this season so it was encouraging to see such improvement at the Biltmore.

Ben Martin - $6,400 (+29000) 
We haven't been able to definitively confirm this, but we think the last time we tabbed the 39-year-old Martin was during the Obama administration. He's now primarily on the Korn Ferry Tour, and not exactly excelling there, but his approach play has been every bit as elite as his putting has been awful. Martin played the Biltmore two weeks and not only did he tie for 33rd, he ranked 29th in the field in SG: Putting. And 21st in SG: Off-the-Tee. Martin also tied for sixth the week before at a KFT event. Remember, in this 120-man field, more than half the golfers will make the cut, and that means lots of $6,000s.

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