This article is part of our DFS Golf series.
LIV TULSA
Purse: $20M Individual, $5M Team
Winner's Share: $4M Individual, $3M Team
Location: Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Course: Cedar Ridge Country Club
Yardage: 7,213
Par: 70
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Tournament Preview
LIV Golf returns from a week off and heads back to the U.S. following a pair of events in Australia and Singapore. Talor Gooch stole the show overseas, posting a 65.5 scoring average over six rounds en route to winning both events. He enters as the co-favorite alongside Brooks Koepka at 9-1 odds. Cameron Smith was the only golfer other than Gooch to post two top-10s and is the priciest option on the DraftKings board, while Sergio Garcia also enters in good form after posting a T11 and falling to Gooch in a playoff two weeks ago. On the team side of things, RangeGoats GC -- led by Gooch, Bubba Watson, Thomas Pieters and Harold Varner III -- became the fifth different winner this season.
Cedar Ridge Country Club will be hosting a professional event for the first time, so we'll have to decipher the type of golfer who will succeed without any data to draw on. There are only two par-5s and the course features several dogleg holes that should put more of an emphasis on approach play and somewhat negate the advantage the longer hitters have. If you're looking for a similar venue, Orange County National -- which hosted LIV Orlando -- looks like the best comparison among the courses played this year.
The field remains unchanged from LIV Singapore, with Laurie Canter likely replacing Sam Horsfield for the rest of the season after Horsfield underwent hip surgery.
DraftKings Value Picks
Based on Standard $50k Salary Cap
Tier 1 Values
Talor Gooch - $10,100 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +900)
I feel like a broken record picking Gooch for the third tournament in a row, but it's difficult to pass him up if DraftKings is going to price him $900 cheaper than Smith. Gooch has finished top-20 in all five of his starts this season, and the Oklahoma resident and Oklahoma State attendee will have plenty of local support.
Mito Pereira - $9,500 (+1600)
Three of Pereira's last four LIV starts resulted in a sixth-place finish or better, making him a prime target in both GPPs and cash games. He showed himself to be one of the best ball strikers in his brief time on the PGA Tour, gaining 1.1 strokes per round off the tee and on approach combined last season.
Patrick Reed - $9,400 (+1600)
Reed sits sixth in the LIV standings and has been one of the hottest golfers since April, notching a top-5 at the Masters and a pair of top-5s over three LIV starts. I think he could easily be priced closer to $10,000, and his lack of driving distance shouldn't be a big detriment this week.
Tier 2 Values
Charles Howell III - $9,200 (+2200)
After an uneventful start to his LIV career, Howell has been one of the best golfers going, with a win and four top-10s over his last seven starts. Like Gooch, he played golf at Oklahoma State, so he should be more familiar with the course than the rest of the field.
Brendan Steele - $8,200 (+$3500)
It's tough to know what to expect from Steele, as with LIV he has two top-5 finishes but also three results in the bottom half of the field. As a result, he's more of a GPP play than a cash one, but his ball striking is simply too good to overlook in this salary range.
Dean Burmester - $8,100 (+3500)
Burmester is prone to spike weeks, which is what we're looking for in GPPs. He posted a pair of top-10s -- finishes of eighth and third place -- over his last three starts and also played well at the end of last year, posting a top-5 in a PGA Tour event as well as two top-10s over three DP World Tour starts. The 33-year-old is playing the best golf of his career and can be had for a modest price.
Tier 3 Values
Marc Leishman - $7,700 (+4000)
Leishman has been decent thus far, finishing in the top half in four of five starts with a worst finish of 28th. Can this be the week he breaks through? In his last season on the PGA Tour he was 33rd in Strokes Gained: Total, and he had T6 result at the Saudi International earlier this year. The potential is still there.
Kevin Na - $7,300 (+4000)
Na has lacked elite LIV results, but he has also finished in the top half of all five of his starts, which is something nobody else in the $7,000 range can say. His lack of distance off the tee will always be a weakness, but with only two par-5s and Cedar Ridge not being particularly long, this should be a place he can contend at.
Danny Lee - $7,000 (+6500)
Lee is primarily a target in GPPs, as he won LIV Tucson at long-shot odds but has been mediocre at best in his other four starts. His strengths -- driving accuracy and iron play -- should make him a good fit for Cedar Ridge.
Tier 4 Values
Charl Schwartzel - $6,600 (+8000)
In PGA Tour contests there are usually numerous options to consider under $7,000, but on LIV -- given the small fields -- it's difficult to find more than a few. Schwartzel is one of the aging LIV players that is still in relatively-decent form, as he made the cut at Augusta and posted a top-10 in Adelaide.
Scott Vincent - $6,500 (+8000)
Vincent sits 21st in the LIV standings -- the best of anyone in the $6,000 range. He's played on a variety of Tours over his career and seems to be coming into his own with LIV, posting his best finish in his last start -- a fourth-place result in Singapore. I'm not sure the top-5s will continue, but he doesn't need to finish all that high to justify this price.
Lee Westwood - $6,400 (+10000)
If you're looking for salary relief, Westwood makes for a sneaky contrarian play in lineups that include several pricier players. He hasn't shown much this year, but he notched five straight top-15s late last year, and this should be a good course setup for him.
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