This article is part of our FanDuel PGA DFS Picks series.
Wells Fargo Championship
Course: Quail Hollow Club (7,538 yards, par 71)
Purse: $20,000,000
Winner: $3,600,000 and 500 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
The Wells Fargo Championship has always seen pretty solid fields over its 20-year history, but 2023 will mark the strongest field ever for the Charlotte event. That is of course because it has been selected as one of the PGA Tour's designated events for this season and a $20 million purse has been put up for grabs. This is also the first designated event to feature the full-field maximum of 156 players, something that will change next season when only 70-80 players are eligible for designated events. That all being said, there are a number of players who can really take advantage of this week.
World No. 3 Rory McIlroy is the highest ranked player in the field at Quail Hollow with both Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler electing to use their one designated event skip this week. McIlroy is a three-time winner of the Wells Fargo Championship. Max Homa is the defending champion and only other player to win the event more than once, although Homa's win last year came at TPC Potomac in Maryland as Quail Hollow was getting the course prepared for the President's Cup in the fall. The United States would defeat the International Team 17.5 to 12.5 and the MVP of the American squad was Jordan Spieth, who went a perfect 5-0-0. Spieth's teammate that week was Justin Thomas whose lone loss came in the singles and who also won the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in 2017. Both Spieth and Thomas will be seeking their first victory of the season this week.
The Wells Fargo Championship will be the final competitive tuneup for the PGA Championship for a number of top players. It certainly will be a great test as Quail Hollow and Oak Hill will call for a lot of the same skill sets, primarily driving it long and straight. Only one player has ever finished 72 holes lower than 16-under-par here, and that was McIlroy in 2015, when he finished 21-under and won by a whopping seven shots. The weather this week is ripe for some pretty good scoring, however, as the wind will be down and we may get some showers over the weekend to soften up the greens.
Recent Champions
2022 - Max Homa (-8) *held at TPC Potomac
2021 - Rory McIlroy (-10)
2020 - None
2019 - Max Homa (-15)
2018 - Jason Day (-12)
2017 - Brian Harman (-10) *held at Eagle Point Golf Club
2016 - James Hahn (-9)
2015 - Rory McIlroy (-21)
2014 - J.B. Holmes (-14)
2013 - Derek Ernst (-8)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Off-the-Tee
- SG: Approach
- Scrambling
- SG: Putting
Champion's Profile
Quail Hollow is definitely a big boy golf course at over 7,500 yards. It is one of the more demanding driving courses on the PGA Tour. The Tom Fazio redesign in 2017 brought in a lot of bunkers on the fairways to challenge players visually off-the-tees. It is really no surprise that Rory McIlroy has been better than anyone here over the years given how great of a driver he has been his whole career. There will be a lot of lengthy second shots into these firm bermuda greens, so getting elite iron players who hit it long could be the formula to success this week. There also won't be a lot of thick rough around these greens, allowing balls to feed away into green-side bunkers or into a tight lie on the fairway. That will be advantageous to players who feature a good short game. Bottom line is this is not a course you can fake it around. It is a proper major championship test and all facets of your game need to be sharp to shoot some good scores.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Patrick Cantlay ($11,900)
Cantlay really seems poised to be the next player to get themselves into the win column this season. He has not finished worse than T19 in his last seven starts, with four of those being top-five finishes. Cantlay is a supreme driver ranking second in SG: Off-the-Tee and second in total driving. He is also fifth in GIR percentage and has been especially good with the long irons. Cantlay went 3-1-0 in the President's Cup last fall here and tops the Tour in par-4 and par-5 scoring.
Cameron Young ($10,900)
I love the fit of Quail Hollow for Young's game. He ranks third in driving distance, 12th in SG: Off-the-Tee, and 18th in SG: Approach this season. The 25-year-old also is top-five in proximity from 125-150 yards, 150-175 yards, and 175-200 yards, all distances where a player like Young will see a lot of shots from this week. Young makes the fourth-most birdies per round on Tour and has not missed a cut in 11 starts.
Viktor Hovland ($10,600)
Maybe the best value in the field, Hovland is another supreme ball striker. He ranks seventh in SG: Off-the-Tee, fourth in total driving, 14th in SG: Approach and 14th in proximity to the hole this season. Hovland's short game has seen improvements this season and that is a big reason why he has found himself in contention more frequently. The Norwegian is 12-for-12 with nine top-25 finishes and finished third at Quail Hollow back in 2021.
Jason Day ($10,300)
Other than Rory, Day might have the best course history in the field this week. Quail Hollow was the site of his last win back in 2018 and he has piled up four other top-25 finishes here, including a T9 at the PGA Championship in 2017. Day has been so consistent this season with a whopping 11 top-25 finishes in 14 starts. The Aussie has that all-around game needed to win another major championship as he sits sixth this season in SG: Total. Day's worst strokes gained category ranking is 37th. He will be extremely fresh having not played since The Masters
Longer Shots with Value
Keith Mitchell ($9,600)
Whenever we come to a golf course where driving it well is of the utmost importance, Mitchell has to be one of the first names to come to mind. The Georgia product leads the PGA Tour in total driving and is sixth in SG: Off-the-Tee. His iron play hasn't been quite as good as some of the other top drivers, but the putter is certainly coming around. Mitchell's record at Quail Hollow is also of note with top-eight finishes in his last two starts. He's coming off a sixth place finish at the Zurich Classic.
Gary Woodland ($9,400)
Woodland might be one of the more polarizing names on the slate this week. If you just look at his ball striking you'd say he has an excellent shot to contend as he ranks 13th in SG: Off-the-Tee, 12th in total driving, 17th in SG: Approach and 29th in GIR percentage. The short game and putting have just been really poor this season, however. I'm still inclined to take a risk with Woodland because the upside is just so high in this field. He's missed just one cut in his last nine starts and has five top-25 finishes at Quail Hollow, one of which was a T5 in 2021.
Wyndham Clark ($9,300)
The Clark train continues to roll, and it doesn't seem like it is going to stop anytime soon. The 29-year-old has now made 15 straight cuts. During that stretch Clark has piled up 11 top-30 finishes and five top-10s. Clark has the power you covet at a place like Quail Hollow has rounded his entire game into form. He is gaining across every category and is 17th in scoring average on the PGA Tour.
S.H. Kim ($8,400)
Kim has kind of been that under-the-radar option all season, and he continues to turn out very respectable results at a reasonable price. Kim made nine of his last 10 cuts and is coming off a stretch of three straight top-25 finishes. He has struggled at times with his irons, but he ranks top-50 on Tour in SG: Off-the-Tee, driving distance, scrambling, SG: Putting and putts per GIR. Kim is a very safe option at a nice price.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
This is without a doubt one of the deepest fields of the season, which always gives DFS players tons of options on how they wish to construct their lineups. I think there is a lot of merit to skipping the $11K range entirely this week and constructing a lineup chalk full of ball-striking machines in the $9K and $10K ranges. If you feel like going the other way and stacking a couple of the top names, then there are a lot of cheap options that you can find at the bottom that are ideal course fits. Taylor Pendrith ($8,100), Will Gordon ($8,000), Joseph Bramlett ($8,000), Aaron Rai ($8,000), and Luke List ($7,900) are all names that come to mind. Justin Thomas ($11,300) seems to be the one biggest pricing discrepancy from FanDuel to DraftKings. He is the sixth highest priced in FD, but 12th-highest in DK. I need to see something from JT before I'm forking over $11K.
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