DraftKings PGA DFS Picks: Ryder Cup Cash and GPP Strategy

RYDER CUP

Location: Farmingdale, N.Y.
Course: Bethpage Black 
Yardage: 7,352
Par: 70
2023 champion: Europe

Tournament Preview

Every Ryder Cup always feels like the most important thing ever. And yet somehow this one feels more important. At least to the American side.

After what happened two years ago in Rome, a whipping at the hands of the Europeans, the PGA of America has resorted to drastic measures and in effect pushed all its chips into the middle of the table.

It wasn't just the 16 1/2-11 1/2 beatdown at Marco Simone that spurred extreme action. The stench was so bad after Zach Johnson's disastrous captaincy, one in which he not only stayed true to the failed system of the good ol' boys club, he compounded it with horrible pairings and strategy.

Wait, there's more.

When Johnson's six captain's picks did not include Keegan Bradley -- who at the time was among the top-12 players in Ryder Cup points and playing far better than some of Johnson's picks -- it set off a social-media tsunami and PR disaster. That would've been bad enough on its own. But it was exacerbated later on when we watched the actual rejection phone call Bradley received from Johnson, his crestfallen face captured so strikingly on the Netflix documentary "Full Swing."

And so the PGA of America, looking to erase the past -- make that, take a blowtorch to the past -- took the biggest 180 possible: It out-of-nowhere named Bradley, still playing and playing quite well at age 38, the 2025 Ryder Cup captain. What a shocker that was when announced on July 8, 2024.

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The last five Ryder Cups have been won by the home team. The last road victory was by Europe in the "Miracle at Medinah" in 2012, a Sunday collapse by Team USA in which a four-point lead turned into a stunning 14 1/2-13 1/2 loss (the Americans have not won a road Cup since 1993). If that were to happen again, on U.S. soil, after all the changes by the PGA of America, with Bradley vowing to wipe the slate clean and do most everything differently, well, that's why this seems more important to the Americans than maybe any other Ryder Cup in the nearly 100-year history of this storied biennial international competition.

With that as the back story, welcome to the 45th Ryder Cup.

Victorious European captain Luke Donald is back, and so are 11 of his 12 players, led by Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, with only one rookie on the squad. Rasmus Hojgaard has replaced his twin brother Nicolai Hojgaard from two years ago. (As the joke goes, all 12 faces are the same as in 2023.)

On the U.S. side, the big drama leading up to the announcement of captain's picks was whether Bradley would choose himself as a playing captain, a move unseen since 34-year-old Arnold Palmer way back in 1963. In the end, Bradley didn't pick himself. His team, spearheaded by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, has four rookies in Ben Griffin, Russell Henley, J.J. Spaun and Cameron Young. Europe had four rookies two years ago, so that is not an unsurmountable hurdle.

Bradley added almost entirely new blood with his vice captains, too. Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker and Gary Woodland not only are all first-timers, but also contemporaries of both Bradley and the 12 U.S. players. Only 55-year-old Jim Furyk, himself the 2018 losing captain in France, remains from the old guard as a vice captain.

Bradley engenders a lot of sympathy and empathy for all that's gone on the past two years. But he better win. Because the raucous New York galleries at their beloved muni Bethpage Black on Long Island -- not far from where Bradley attended college at St. John's -- would turn quickly, Conversely, Donald can lose this Cup and suffer no such indignity, as he's already a made man, elevated to hero status for taking down the mighty Americans two years ago.

It all starts on Friday morning, with four foursomes (alternate shot) kicking off the 28-match competition. It will be followed by four fourball matches (best ball) in the afternoon, then a repeat of those formats on Saturday, all leading to the 12 head-to-head singles matches on Sunday. This is the third straight Cup in which alternate shot will be played in the morning on the first two days. Two years ago, it was a surprising call by Donald to start with foursomes, since four-ball had been the starting format in previous European successes. Donald reasoned that Europe is stronger in foursomes.

You could say the competition was decided right there. The Lions of Europe roared out to a 4-0 shutout in the Friday morning matches (they almost did it again on Saturday morning with a 3-1 edge). Heading into Sunday singles, Europe led by five points, 10 1/2 to 5 1/2, and there was no Reversal in Rome for the Americans.

We don't know the pairings yet, and won't until all the pomp and circumstance of the opening ceremonies on Thursday evening. But we do know the DraftKings prices. And befitting the Ryder Cup, all lineups must be set up in Captain Mode. While there still are traditional six-man lineups with a $50,000 salary cap, every lineup must have a team "captain." It is far from a ceremonial decision; it is critical. Your lineup captain will accrue 1 1/2 times the points he would have under ordinary circumstances, but here's the catch -- and you knew there would be -- he will cost 1 1/2 times his designated price. For example, Scheffler is the top guy at $11,400 but would cost you a whopping $17,100 as your captain, almost 35 percent of your budget.

Since there are only 24 guys in the competition, let's just list them all right here, with the regular price and Captain Mode. We'll get into lineup construction and the complete scoring system lower down.

It is important to note that these are the prices for the entire Ryder Cup -- all five sessions over three days (check the DK site for any daily contests with different pricing). So we are flying blind somewhat. We don't know pairings and we don't know who will play when, how often and with whom.

We have some inklings, based the Americans' practice round on Monday: DeChambeau, Griffin, Thomas and Young in one foursome; English, Henley, Scheffler and Spaun in another; and finally, Burns, Cantlay, Morikawa and Schauffele. That tracks, in that we had been hearing that DeChambeau and Young could pair, as could Scheffler and Henley, and Cantlay and Schauffele have long been a duo.

The Europeans did not have practice at Bethpage on Monday, so we have even less information on them as of this writing.

Of course, it could all change in a heartbeat depending on who's hot and who's not. Don't forget that there's a chance one or two of the 24 golfers won't even play on Friday; others will play both morning and afternoon.

Bethpage Black Course Breakdown

The home team in the Ryder Cup has traditionally had input in setting up the course. And the course does seem to favor Team USA. While Bethpage Black has played host to majors in the past, most recently the 2019 PGA Championship, some fairways have been widened for this week, according to the Official Golf Course Superintendents fact sheet. And, the rough is not as thick as in past majors.

The rough is not as it would be in a U.S. PGA or a U.S. Open that has been played there before," Golf Channel's Paul McGinley, a former Ryder Cup player and winning European captain in 2014, said on an NBC conference call with reporters last week. "The fairways are pretty generous at the moment because they're soft."

At par-70 and 7,352 yards, the 1936 Joseph Burbank/A.W. Tillinghast design is long. But interestingly, it is shorter by more than 100 yards than it was at the 2019 PGA.

While there are many long holes, the course starts out very short and the easiest scoring stretch is probably the first six holes. Bethpage opens with two short par-4s, both under 400 yards. There's another short par-4 on No. 6.

This could be critical. The Euros are loaded with strong long iron players -- McIlroy, Rahm, Hovland, Aberg and more -- while the Americans boast the better collective wedge players, notably Thomas, Henley and Scheffler (yes, Scheffler is good at everything). So, hitting wedge into a green vs. a long iron should favor the U.S. team and, in theory, help them jump to an early lead in matches. We all know how momentum works in Ryder Cups.

There isn't another short par-4 until, of all places, No. 18. If a match gets to that final hole, again, in theory, it could favor the Americans.

But all in all, the golfers will be need to be skilled in all facets of the game, using the proverbial all 14 clubs in their bag, or they will be exposed. That's what Bethpage Black does. That's what the Ryder Cup does.

The course features numerous elevation changes -- downhill tee shots, uphill second shots to elevated greens, etc. Keeping the ball in the fairway will be important, even if there's less thick rough than we might have expected.

The greens may be the easiest part of the course. Maybe "less hard" would be a better way to say it. The poa/bentgrass surfaces are medium-sized, averaging 6,000 square feet. They could run a speedy 12 to 13 on the Stimpmeter. There are 76 bunkers -- not a lot -- but they are big and potentially big trouble. There's water on only one hole, a 210-yard par-3 with a pond guarding the green. So you don't want to be short. But you also don't want to be long, where two large bunkers lurk.

Marco Simone was a course more familiar to the Europeans, with multiple Italian Opens having been played there. Bethpage is equally familiar to both sides, so there won't be that edge of unfamiliarity. Besides, both sides have been in New York for more than a week, with the Euros arriving a whopping 11 days before the start of the competition.

"So all in all, it's what we expected," McGinley said on the conference call. "It's right out of the American playbook of what they do when they play at home. And they've been very successful doing it, so why change, which is generally rough, not too thick, greens quite fast, and trying to encourage a fast pace of low scoring. It's proved to be a very successful tournament in the past when they've played at home."

DraftKings Scoring and Lineup Construction

The lock time is listed as midnight ET on Wednesday evening, not only more than 24 hours before the matches begin but, importantly, before the pairings for the first session on Friday morning are announced.

Scoring will break down like this: +3 points for holes won, +0.75 for holes halved, -0.75 points for holes lost, +1.6 points for holes not played, +5 points for matches won and +2 points for matches halved. Also: +5 points for a streak of three consecutive holes won in a match (maximum one per round) and a +7.5-point bonus for no holes lost in a match.

Two final lineup/scoring notes: In foursomes and fourball, both golfers on the same team will receive the same score, no matter who is making birdies, bogeys, etc. And you ARE allowed to pick both partners among your six guys, which might be a very sound strategy if you think they will do well (and you know who is paired).

So if you like Scheffler (who doesn't?), you could also roster Henley, since it seems they could be paired at some point. The thing is, Henley is a little pricey himself as a mid-range guy. And then there's the decision of whom to captain. As mentioned above, Scheffler would cost you almost 35 percent of your budget. He does have the best chance of playing all five sessions on the U.S. side. But still, that would be just five of 28 matches. It's all very interesting and intriguing.

On the European side, we have seen McIlroy-Fleetwood and Rahm-Hatton paired in Rome foursomes with great success. Hovland-Aberg was a pairing in both formats in 2023. McIlroy and Hovland were the only two players on either team to play all five matches in '23 -- and Hovland also did it in the 2021 Ryder Cup.

Some things in the pricing caught our eye.

• No surprise with the top five guys -- Scheffler, McIlroy, Rahm, DeChambeau and Fleetwood. That seems spot-on.
• The next five guys -- Schauffele, Aberg, Cantlay, Hovland and Thomas -- have all had up-and-down seasons, with more downs that ups. Still, we know about the bulldog mentality of Cantlay and Thomas on the U.S. side, and Hovland on Team Europe.
• Here's where it gets interesting. After the top 10, we could see more "partners" to the big names and maybe piggyback on their success. Henley with Scheffler, Young with DeChambeau, for example.
• Burns is a great putter, No. 1 on the PGA for the season. You're gonna have to make a lot of birdies this week. He's only $7,000.
• Maybe the biggest surprise to us was Morikawa at $6,400. Sure, it's been a down year. He's been terrible around the greens and even worse on the greens. But he's still probably the best pure iron player on the team, ranked third this season in SG: Approach. Who was Morikawa grouped with in the Monday practice? It was someone who can make a lot of putts, the aforementioned Burns.
• Rose, with years of Ryder Cup experience and success and coming off a great year in the majors, is way down on the board. He is in the $4,000s. The thing is, at age 45, how much will he play? The guess is, three matches.

Lastly, the weather. There should be pristine conditions. High temperatures in the mid-70s, little chance of rain, single-digit wind.

Ryder Cup Factoids

The United States leads the overall competition 27-15-2 dating to 1927. But since Britain and then Britain/Ireland were expanded to include all of Europe in 1979, the Euros lead by 12-9-1.  The Cup matches will return to Ireland at Adare Manor. ... Bethpage now joins Hazeltine, Medina and Oakland Hills as the only courses to play host to a U.S. Open, PGA Championship and a Ryder Cup.

Key Stats to Winning at Bethpage Black

• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee/Driving Accuracy
• Strokes Gained: Approach/Greens in Regulation
• Approach play from 125 yards and 175+
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Birdie Average/Birdie or Better Percentage

Past Champions

2023 - Europe, 16 1/2-11 1/2 (Marco Simone, Rome)
2021 - United States, 19-9 (Whistling Straits, Wisconsin)
2018 - Europe, 17 1/2-10 1/2 (Le Golf National, France)
2016 - United States, 17-11 (Hazeltine, Minnesota)
2014 - Europe, 16 1/2-11 1/2 (Gleneagles, Scotland)
2012 - Europe 14 1/2-13 1/2 (Medinah, Illinois)
2010 - Europe, 14 1/2-13 1/2 (Celtic Manor, Wales)
2008 - United States, 16 1/2-11 1/2 (Valhalla, Kentucky)
2006 - Europe, 18 1/2-9 1/2 (K Club, Ireland)
2004 - Europe, 18 1/2-9 1/2 (Oakland Hills, Michigan)

Champion's Profile

There are so many variables other than the actual golf. Who can handle the pressure? Who will tune out the crowds, guaranteed to be fully lathered from early morning on? Playing for country is different.

We talked earlier how the course seemingly has been set up to favor the Americans, with wide fairways allowing them to let loose off the tee. Henley and Morikawa aren't long, but just about every other American is, shall we say, long enough. Europe has some shorter hitters in Straka, Lowry and Rose.

Scheffler tops our model (duh). Fleetwood is second, maybe a little surprising but it's based on how he played through the PGA tour playoffs. Then come two names that also might be a surprise in Hovland and Burns. Both of them are favorably priced. Hovland will rely on his iron play and Burns on his putter -- both skillsets are integral this week.

Two guys of note in the lower half of our model are McIlroy and Thomas, because of their sloppiness in hitting fairways and greens. We should caution that, this being the Ryder Cup, not everything is at it seems. McIlroy of course has been one of the great European Ryder Cuppers of all time. Thomas, if you recall, struggled a lot two years ago, carried a bit by partner Jordan Spieth.

The odds set by golfodds.com favor Team USA to win at -150 to Team Europe's +130, with +1200 for a tie.

Remember, all Europe needs to do to retain the Cup is tie.

DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS

Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap

Rory McIlroy - $10,200/$15300  (Top Point Scorer odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +600) 
McIlroy is far and away the most experienced Ryder Cup player on either team with 33 matches across seven Cups. Only Rose (26, six) is within even 20 matches. McIlroy played all five matches two years ago and led all scorers on both teams with four points. There's a chance he will play five matches again. He has played great both at home and on the road in Ryder Cups, and not many other guys can say that. Ultimately, we are picking four Americans and four Euros as we think the competition will be close. If you think it will be one-sided, go heavier on that side in your six-man lineups.

Tommy Fleetwood - $8,800/$13,200 (+950)
This will be Fleetwood's fourth Ryder Cup. He did far better in the two in Europe than the one in the U.S. He's a beter player now, coming off a great stretch that included his first PGA Tour win. As mentioned above, he's No. 2 in our model behind Scheffler, and at a substantially cheaper price. Being paired with McIlroy, which we are likely to see, can't hurt. Fleetwood has eight career Cup points, behind only McIlroy and Rose, and tied with Thomas for most among anyone in this Cup.

Patrick Cantlay - $8,200/$12,300 (+1600)
Scheffler is too expensive in our viewpoint for someone with only 3 1/2 career Ryder Cup points. DeChambeau will be boom or bust, and for someone with 2 1/2 points total in two Cups, bust seems more likely. So Cantlay is the top American for us. He became the de facto leader of the U.S. team two years ago in Rome, jawing with McIlroy and fans. He's much more suited to be the bad guy than either Scheffler or Thomas. In 2021 at Whistling Straits, Cantlay tied for most points in the Cup with Morikawa and Rahm at 3.5. He notched a big momentum-killing singles win over Lowry in the second match of the day, after McIlroy had taken down Schauffele. Cantlay might be a good captain option if you think the U.S. will win -- someone cheaper than both Scheffler and DeChambeau but who might play as many matches as they do.

Viktor Hovland - $8,000/$12,000 (+2800)
Hovland is the only golfer to have played the maximum 10 matches over the past two Cups. There's no of knowing if he'll play all five again, but at least four seems like a good bet. He proved a formidable team with Aberg. At 28, he's far younger than many of the aging Euros. It was certainly a down year on Tour for Hovland, but how many golfers, even those in the Ryder Cup, would consider this a down year: 12th in the FedEx Cup point standings, second on Tour in SG: Approach, 13th in SG: Tee-to-Green and 17th in birdie average. If you're favoring the European side, Hovland would be a good choice as captain, both price wise and playing time wise.

Russell Henley - $7,600/$11,400 (+2000)
The Sportsbook folk obviously think very highly of Henley at a mere 20-1 to be the top overall point scorer. Some of that may be attributed to him possibly playing with Scheffler but so what? We'll happily take those points even if a big chunk of them could be attributed to Scheffler, who costs almost $4,000 more.  

Sam Burns - $7,000/$10,500 (+3500)
Burns was in the practice pod with Morikawa, Cantlay and Schauffele. As we noted earlier, Burns and Morikawa could be a sneaky good pairing, with Morikawa's laser-like iron play and Burns' putting excellence. As a Ryder Cup rookie two years ago, he was done wrong by Johnson. He was sent out (with Scheffler) in the first round of the competition, a disastrous move by Johnson, and they were waxed 4 & 3 by Rahm and Hatton. Burns is two years older now, two years wiser, a more complete player now than then.

J.J. Spaun - $5,200/$7,800 (+4000)
We know there's no pressure like Ryder Cup pressure. But Spaun faced some big-time pressure this season. He was in a playoff with McIlroy at THE PLAYERS, won a taut U.S. Open, then was in long playoff against Rose at the FedEx St. Jude. He was so level-headed in all those big moments, a character trait that will serve him well this week. There really is no weakness in Spaun's game. A possible pairing with Scheffler (they were in the same pod) wouldn't hurt.

Justin Rose - $4,800/$7,200 (+4500)
At 45, this will be Rose's seventh, and likely, last Ryder Cup. Although the same thing was being written two years ago and here he is. Rose remarkably is up to No. 14 in the world rankings after a fantastic year. He did have that heartache loss to McIlroy in the Masters playoff, but then he turned the tables to win an epic playoff over Spaun in the first playoff event in Memphis. Rose has never finished worse than 11th in total points in his six Cups. Not even McIlroy can say that. The big question now is, how much will Rose play? We're guessing three matches. At $4,800, he won't have to play much to recoup the investment.

Ready to use Len's picks for the Ryder Cup? See how they look in RotoWire's PGA DFS Lineup Optimizer.