Underdog PGA Draft Review
The 2025 PGA Tour season is upon us and Underdog's featured $10 "The Scramble" contest with $50k to first still has spots available. In this article, we'll take a look at a draft I completed on Dec. 23 out of the four hole.
RotoWire Golf Tools
Our full breakdown of each golfer's schedule and projected point total can be found here. This is incredibly useful not only for projected total points but also that it can be sorted for each round of the contest.
Our cheat sheet can be found here. These rankings can be exported directly to Underdog for your convenience.
Are you new to Underdog's season-long PGA contest? Check out our full overview and strategy article here.
First Five Rounds
The Eric Cole hype has taken full effect as he went all the way up to second behind Scottie Scheffler. If you take a look at our schedule breakdown page, you can certainly see why. We have Cole projected for the second most points due to his busy schedule. When a lot of the best players in the world are taking the week off, Cole is most likely going to be playing and getting you points. I took Schauffele at fourth overall, and I'm happy with that considering he just about always goes second or third. He's clearly the best player in the world outside of Scheffler, and he also sprinkled in four non-signature events last year.
Next I went with Akshay Bhatia, who is going to be a useful player to have in Round 3 of this tournament. We have him projected to play six of the seven events in that stretch that starts with The Masters and ends with the Memorial. He'll also play the Valero Texas Open to close Round 2 as the defending champion. The only pick I didn't really understand in this round was Corey Conners at 12, who went six spots ahead of ADP. I'm not saying I would fade him in general, but I don't think he'll play enough to warrant going this high.
Rory McIlroy fell much further than we're used to seeing, all the way down to the 2/3 turn. His talk of playing less this year is certainly a worry for drafters. With that said, if you make it to the finals, we have him projected for the most points in Round 4. It's just a matter of if you can get there with him. I ended up settling on Viktor Hovland, who I think we can expect to be a big contributor in the final two rounds of the tournament as long as I can make it that far.
This next round is a bit uneventful as it's that range with some solid names and middling players that should play quite a bit. Nick Dunlap went six spots ahead of ADP so it's probably a slight reach, but the 21-year-old should play often, although he doesn't necessarily have to being exempt into all of the signature events. My choice was Maverick McNealy, who is only into the first two signature events, meaning he's likely going to have to play in non-signature events thereafter to qualify for the other big events.
In the fifth round, Keith Mitchell went nine spots ahead of ADP and some people really like him due to a busy schedule, but he closed the year with four consecutive missed cuts and you can find similar players much later in the draft. I don't currently have any exposure to him. I ended up going with Mackenzie Hughes, who had a strong fall with three top-10s across four events.
Last Five Rounds
A sign to how much sharper these drafts have gotten is evidenced by Patrick Cantlay falling to the sixth round. He's a second round talent but it's difficult to justify taking him early on when it's rare to see him tee-it-up in a non-signature event. Still, I don't think you can go wrong with him here. Austin Eckroat was my pick and is a guy I'm high on and wouldn't be surprised to see as a top-10 player within the next couple years. He's eligible for all the signature events but still played a few tournaments this fall and will defend his title at PGA National, so we get a bonus tourney out of him there.
We have Robert MacIntyre as the fourth highest projected player in Round 4 as he has titles to defend at the RBC Canadian Open and Scottish Open, making it likely that he plays five of the final seven events. He'll be another excellent player to have if you can make it to the end. J.T. Poston and Rasmus Hojgaard are both players I've taken often in this round. Really good players that will play a lot.
The end of the draft is where I like to get players that I think will be able to help me in Round 2 - a seven tournament stretch with only two signature events. Andrew Novak, Patrick Fishburn and Matt Wallace are all good candidates here as players that finished the year outside of the top-60 in the FedExCup. They are all trending upwards and darkhorses to have improved 2025 campaigns.
Late in the draft I've tended to fade players that aren't going to play in the lesser tiered events. While guys like Keegan Bradley, Will Zalatoris and Shane Lowry are all really talented golfers and fine choices in other formats, the Underdog contest isn't suited particularly well for them based on their schedule.
I thought Team 5 did a good job with their draft that included: Sungjae Im, Davis Thompson, Max Greyserman, Byeong Hun An, Wyndham Clark, Taylor Pendrith, Poston, Max Homa, Chris Kirk and Alex Noren. All of these players are exempt into every signature event and will also mix in some lesser events.
Happy drafting!
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