This article is part of our DraftKings PGA DFS Picks series.
THE CJ CUP IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Purse: $10.5M
Winner's Share: $1.89M
FedEx Cup Points: 500 to the Winner
Location: Ridgeland, S.C.
Course: Congaree Golf Club
Yardage: 7,655
Par: 71
2021 champion: Rory McIlroy (Summit Club)
Tournament Preview
The CJ Cup debuted in 2017 and was a key component of the PGA Tour's plan to expand into the coveted Asian market. And for three years, that plan was wildly successful, with great fields heading to Korea and big names in Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas (twice) emerging victorious. Then the pandemic happened. The tournament has not been in back in Korea since. After two years in Las Vegas, the CJ Cup will be played this week at Congaree Golf Club in South Carolina. There has not been anything said or written about the tournament returning to Korea, and with this the last wrap-around season before big changes come in 2023, it's fair to wonder about the tournament's future. For what it's worth, the original agreement called for a 10-year commitment from the PGA Tour. But all of that speculation is for down the road. For now, we've got a dang good field to talk about.
While the 78-man, no-cut field has always been good, either in Korea or Vegas, it is absolutely loaded this week, with 15 of the top 20 in the world rankings, possibly making it the strongest fall-season event ever. Defending champion Rory McIlroy and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler lead a contingent that includes Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler. Then there's the heavy Asian presence of Tom Kim, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim, plus about a dozen Korean or Asian Tour golfers to round out the field requirements.
We know Congaree Golf Club from last year's Palmetto Championship, a one-off tournament that replaced the 2021 Canadian Open, which itself was a pandemic casualty. South Africa's Garrick Higgo was the surprise winner at a mere 11-under.
Congaree is a 2017 Tom Fazio design situated in the South Carolina Lowcountry that quickly soared into the top-40 of Golf Digest's top-100 U.S. courses. For the TV viewer, it will have similarities to the famed Ocean Course -- minus the ocean.
It is extremely long and very flat with little rough, wide fairways and sandy waste areas almost everywhere. Thinking links? Yeah, kinda, though there are some trees, water on 10 holes and forced carries over wetlands and native lands. The champion bermudagrass greens on moderate in size at an average of 6,150 square feet with large run-offs, so we could occasionally see putter as the club of choice around the greens. We recently saw champion bermuda at the Sanderson Farms, and it's also in play at the Wyndham and FedEx playoff event.
How long is extremely long? Get this: There's a 230-yard par-3, a 540-yard par-4 and a 645-yard par-5. All three par-5s are at least 580. The 540-yard eighth is the signature hole with an S-shaped fairway. When you go 540 yards, there's plenty of time for some twists and turns. That is one of three par-4s exceeding 500 yards. But for all the length on the course, driving distance wasn't high on the list of requirements for success at the Palmetto Championship, maybe because so many guys can see their ball run and run down the fairways.
Only six holes played under par at the Palmetto, three of them being the par-5s. The two hardest holes were the 13th, which was a mere 465 yards, and the ninth, coming in at 510. Both had a large number of double bogeys or worse. The course was ranked 12th hardest out of 51 in 2021.
The official golf course superintendents' sheet said of Congaree, "Course is built to play firm and fast similar to sandbelt courses in Australia." The sheet also noted that last year the staff had less than three months to prepare the course after it was named to replace the Canadian Open. They obviously did a fantastic job or else we wouldn't be talking about them this week.
Weather-wise, high temperatures will rise from the 60s into the 80s over the course of the four days, with little chance of rain and light winds all tournament.
Key Stats to Winning at Congaree
The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.
• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee
• Strokes Gained: Approach/Greens in Regulation
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Bogey Avoidance
Past Champions
2021 - Rory McIlroy (Summit Club)
2020 - Jason Kokrak (Shadow Creek)
2019 - Justin Thomas (Nine Bridges)
2018 - Brooks Koepka (Nine Bridges)
2017 - Justin Thomas (Nine Bridges)
Champion's Profile
Garrick Higgo won last year's Palmetto Championship at 11-under. He was not among the driving-distance leaders but then again, lots of guys saw their balls go far in flat, wide-opn fairways. He also wasn't especially accurate off the tee, but he did rank third in the field in greens in regulation, 11th in Strokes Gained: Approach and eighth in SG: Tee-to-Green. He also ranked 15th in SG: Putting. In the six-way tie for second place one shot behind Higgo, four of the golfers were the top-four guys in SG: Tee-to-Green and the other two were first and third in SG: Putting. So, you were either great with your irons or your putter, and Higgo was the former, with just enough on the greens to win. We saw that scrambling didn't factor in to the top of the leaderboard, despite all the runoffs around the greens. The over/under on the winning score as set by golfodds.com for the Palmetto Championship was 267.5, 16.5 under par, which proved wildly off. This week, they set it one shot higher at 268.5, which is 15.5 under. So they must think the course will be more receptive to scoring than last year's 11-under.
DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS
Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap
Tier 1 Values
Rory McIlroy - $11,100 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +650)
It's borderline insane how well McIlroy has played this year. Since the Masters, a span of 14 events for him, he has two wins, two runners-up and five more top-5s. He's in the mix almost every week. And since this isn't a major, there's a good chance McIlroy can win -- sorry for the snark.
Jon Rahm - $10,900 (+900)
Rahm will be the first one to tell you that 2022 has been a disappointment. But it's certainly gotten better as the year progressed. He's coming off his second win of the year at the Spanish Open, following a runner-up at the BMW PGA Championship and a couple top-10s in the FedExCup Playoffs.
Matt Fitzpatrick - $9,800 (+1800)
Fitzpatrick is one of the few big names to have seen Congaree at the Palmetto Championship. He tied for 10th. That makes sense for a great tee-to-green player. Fitzpatrick has been busy since the TOUR Championship, playing four times on the DP World Tour and notching a runner-up at the Italian Open.
Tier 2 Values
Max Homa - $9,100 (+1600)
It's been a great past few weeks for Homa, who won the season-opening Fortinet for the second straight year and then shined in the Presidents Cup. Homa does his best work at longer, harder tracks, and that aligns with Congaree.
Jordan Spieth - $8,800 (+2200)
Outside of the Presidents Cup, Spieth has not played in the fall season. Of course, he starred for the Americans in winning all five of his matches. With wide-open fairways this week, that should eliminate Spieth's big miss. As always, it will come down to how well he can putt. At The Presidents Cup, he could putt.
Taylor Montgomery - $8,200 (+4500)
Montgomery has shown in just a few fall tournaments how good of a putter he is, currently ranked second on Tour. He tied for ninth at the Sanderson Farms a few weeks back, and the Country Club of Jackson has the same champion bermudagrass that the golfers putt on this week. The Palmetto Championship showed us you can get around Congaree two ways: great tee-to-green play or great putting.
Tier 3 Values
Aaron Wise - $7,800 (+4500)
Wise had a very good 2021-22 season and moved into the top-50 in the world rankings. A big reason why was vastly improved putting, because he already was doing just about everything else really well. Maybe the one area that was lacking was driving accuracy, which won't be an issue this week. Wise ranked top-25 in SG: Approach and Tee-to-Green and greens in regulation last season. His lone start of the fall season so far was a T64 at the Shriners.
Sepp Straka - $7,400 (+8000)
Straka is No. 27 in the world, so $7,400 seems a little bit of a bargain. Very often when a player comes out of nowhere, as Straka has done this year, it takes time for his price to catch up to his success. Straka won the Honda Classic earlier this year and recently was runner-up at the Sanderson Farms -- both tournaments had champion bermuda greens.
Scott Stallings - $7,200 (+8000)
Like Straka, Stallings was in the ZOZO last week. He didn't have a great week in Japan, but otherwise has been shining for a few months now. Before the ZOZO, he tied for 13th at the Sanderson Farms -- on champion bermuda -- and it could've been so much more without a bad Sunday fade. And before that, Stallings was second at the BMW Championship in late August. He is not very accurate with his driver. But that won't matter this week, which should help the rest of his already-good game.
Long-Shot Values
Matt Kuchar - $6.900 (+10000)
Kuchar doesn't hit the ball very far anymore, not that he ever did. The flat, links-like setup of Congaree may help him out, and then his still-fantastic short game could do the rest. Kuchar ranked first in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and 11th in SG: Putting last season. He's played just once in the new season, tying for 12th at the Fortinet.
J.J. Spaun - $6,700 (+13000)
Spaun went into a little bit of a slide after his breakthrough win at the Valero Texas Open in the spring. Understandable. He has reversed course of late, with a top-25 at the BMW Championship and then two more top-25s in his past two starts at the Shriners and ZOZO. Spaun doesn't really shine in any one area of the game; instead, he's better than average across the board.
Danny Willett - $6,200 (+15000)
Willett was fortunate to retain his card, which came about after all the LIV defections moved him into the top 125. He then came close to locking his card up for in effect three more years when he coulda/shoulda won the season-opening Fortinet only to blow it at the end and let Homa win. But still, finishing second got him a lot of points. He played really well that week -- for 71 holes. This is a cheap price for someone with great upside. Granted, he doesn't always show it. But he has it. And there's no worry about missing a cut.
