Palmetto Championship at Congaree DFS Preview

Welcome back golf fans! After an exciting Memorial Tournament, we head back to one of my personal favorite areas for golf…the coast of South Carolina. Patrick Cantlay defeated Collin Morikawa in a sudden death playoff and neither golfer is in the field. Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka headline the field at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree Golf Club in Gillisonville, South Carolina. This course has never been played on the PGA Tour and is fairly new. I have been reading that Lucas Glover is an ambassador here at Congaree and is quite familiar with the layout…I’ll just go ahead and say that I will be picking him at $8,600 for this reason. In terms of strategy, I will be looking at Driving Distance and Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green.

If you look at the name…it reminds you of Australia…and I cannot say this as I have never been to Australia, but I think the geography is quite different. The course is a LONG one…7,655 yards to be exact and is playing as a Par 71. Congaree is tucked away in the bottom corner of South Carolina, so I am sure its like Kiawah or Savannah. The forecast has chances of rain each day and low-90 temps…very humid I am sure. With the wet conditions…look for people to go with European, specifically English and Irish golfers…I will not be and I will explain why later. While doing research, I like to search on the town that the PGA Tour will be playing at…and Gillisonville, South Carolina’s wiki page is very small…General Sherman nearly obliterated the place during the Civil War…and that’s pretty much it. It looks like the course is on a historic estate and unfortunately…its a private course. I’d like to go visit the area one day though, it seems quite historic dating back to King George III.

Tier 1: Garrick Higgo ($9,000)

Photo Credit: Sky Sports

I know that Brooks and DJ are the top options this week, but I am going with the South African prodigy Garrick Higgo. With 2 European Tour victories within the last 2 months, Higgo is in search of his first PGA Tour win and I think he gets it this week. He ranks 4th in putting and 17th in driving on the Euro Tour. Most people are leaning towards a British golfers this week, but I am leaning towards the South Africans at Congaree, most of them are long bombers. Take Higgo at 40/1.

Tier 2: Wilco Nienaber ($7,300)

It is hard to call Wilco a Tier 2…but I thought I would give him some recognition. Another South African native…Wilco is a long-bomber…2nd on the Euro Tour. There is a video of him driving one 420+ yards and you should go check it out, it looked effortless. His game has a lot of holes in it, but I think this course will allow him to show his strengths. Wilco is listed at 125/1.

Tier 3: John Pak ($6,900)

When I started playing golf DFS regularly, I always looked for the “next big thing”. I love looking at prospects in baseball, so I applied this to golf and found Collin Morikawa, Doc Redman and Viktor Hovland at low prices when they first started. Well…John Pak is the #1 Amateur golfer and I will be utilizing the FSU product this week. In a field that is rather week in PGA standards, this is a tourney that can catapult John Pak’s professional career. Pak’s odds are at 150/1 which are pretty amazing.

References: Yahoo!, Golf Digest, European Tour