Scottie Scheffler was the top golfer in this year's RotoWire annual staff/expert golf league – that's no surprise – but it was the potential return of several LIV golfers to the PGA Tour that threw a twist into the auction prices.
Scheffler went for $83 out of a $100 budget each manager has in the league that includes the full season of PGA Tour events. That's down from $91 last season as having just one major win and falling from eight to six wins discouraged the league from giving him the max salary.
RotoWire held its annual staff golf league draft Monday, Jan. 12 and the results are a good guide for those who have a season-long golf league and spend a fixed budget on golfers.
Our rules base winners on total earnings in PGA Tournaments from the Sony Open in Hawaii to the final FedExCup event, excluding alternate-field events (such as the Puerto Rico Open). We also use only a fraction of the TOUR Championship event money since it's massive relative to the other tournaments.
Our league had 15 members, a budget of $100 per team and each team starts five golfers per week with a total roster of nine golfers. The league has been around since 2000 and was once featured in the New York Times.
Our format also includes bonus points for the four majors. As a result, some European and LIV players may be ranked higher than your league. If a European or LIV golfer plays in just the four majors, he'll still have a lot of value in our league.
While Scheffler went for the highest salary, the surprise of the draft was the announcement just a few hours before the auction of the return of Brooks Koepka to the PGA Tour. Koepka negotiated his way out of the final year of his LIV Golf contract and applied to be reinstated by the PGA Tour. On Monday morning, the PGA Tour announced a new program in which champions of the four major championships and THE PLAYERS from 2022-25 could return to the PGA Tour prior to the Feb. 2 deadline. The other three players that could take advantage of this would be Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith.
These LIV players would likely have gone for $1 to $5 before the announcement. Instead, Koepka went for $21 since he'll play a full season on tour. Jon Rahm went for $22 due to speculation he may take the offer to move back to the PGA Tour. Bryson DeChambeau went for $18. Cameron Smith, who appears to be the least likely to move tours, went for $3.
Scheffler dominated the golf world in 2024 and the staff/expert golf league with seven wins, one major win and earnings in our format that were 60 percent more than the runner up. He was such a dominant force that our league debated whether to change the rules to divide Scheffler into parts where a manager would only acquire his earnings for a single month or quarter. Our league used such a rule from 2008-2010 when Tiger Woods was divided into months for bidding in the auction. Woods was so dominant that the auction became a race to see who could put forth a maximum bid to win Woods (the maximum bid this season is $92 since you are required to roster nine golfers). But Scheffler didn't repeat his 2024 performance so the league didn't elect to spit him into parts.
After Scheffler, it was a significant decline to Rory McIlroy, who went for $59. I decided to pay up for McIlroy (who went for $53 last year) since there seemed to be a steep drop-off to the next tier of golfers. McIlroy may take a step back after finally winning the Masters, but he'll be competitive in all the big events – something I'm not sure about with the rest of the top ten or so golfers.
Only one other golfer topped $50 with the league expecting a rebound from last year's rib injury for Xander Schauffele, who went for $52. The top of the market was flatter with 16 players costing more than $30, up from 14 last year.
Among the golfers the league was higher on than projections were Akshay Bhatia, who went for $27, which was 18th most despite him ranking 27th in RotoWire's projections. The league brushed aside injury concerns for Justin Thomas ($24), who went a surprising 20th overall. Several managers were high on Ryo Hisatsune who was bid up to $7 despite him ranking 131st in RotoWire's projections. Other buzzy sleepers who went for more than anticipated were Ben Griffin ($30), Kristoffer Reitan ($7) and Haotong Li ($6). I hopefully got a value on Min Woo Lee ($7) who went 58th overall despite listed at 40th in RotoWire's projections.
While these dollar values may not exactly fit your league's rules, this should be a good benchmark for your draft preparation.
Here are the participants:
Greg Vara - RotoWire golf writer
Len Hochberg - RotoWire golf writer
Kevin O'Brien - RotoWire golf editor (and league's defending champ)
Jeff Ritter - Managing Director of SI Golf
Jeff Erickson - RotoWire senior editor
Peter Schoenke - RotoWire president (and worst real golfer in league)
Tim Schuler - RotoWire COO (and the league's best actual golfer)
Scott Pianowski - Yahoo! fantasy writer
Ryan Pohle - RotoWire DFS Product Specialist and golf writer
Scott Jenstad - RotoWire NFL DFS podcast host and high-stakes baseball champ
Mike Regan & Daryl Shevin - friend and former RotoWire staff contributor, respectively
Josh Ross - former RotoWire staff contributor
Justin Green - former RotoWire staff contributor
James Ybiernas - former RotoWire staff contributor
Joe Sheehan - baseball scribe of the Joe Sheehan newsletter and elsewhere
| Golfer | Cost | Fantasy Team |
| Scottie Scheffler | $83 | Greg Vara |
| Rory McIlroy | $59 | Peter Schoenke |
| Xander Schauffele | $52 | Jeff Erickson |
| Tommy Fleetwood | $43 | Ryan Pohle |
| Ludvig Aberg | $42 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Collin Morikawa | $40 | Scott Pianowski |
| Viktor Hovland | $39 | Scott Jenstad |
| Robert MacIntyre | $37 | Jeff Ritter |
| Patrick Cantlay | $36 | Mike/Daryl |
| Russell Henley | $36 | Justin Green |
| Sam Burns | $36 | Josh Ross |
| Cameron Young | $33 | Joe Sheehan |
| Hideki Matsuyama | $33 | Mike/Daryl |
| Matt Fitzpatrick | $31 | Scott Jenstad |
| Ben Griffin | $30 | Ryan Pohle |
| Sepp Straka | $30 | Justin Green |
| J.J. Spaun | $28 | Len Hochberg |
| Akshay Bhatia | $27 | Scott Pianowski |
| Harris English | $27 | James Ybiernas |
| Justin Thomas | $24 | James Ybiernas |
| Maverick McNealy | $24 | Tim Schuler |
| Corey Conners | $23 | Jeff Ritter |
| Jon Rahm | $22 | Joe Sheehan |
| Brooks Koepka | $21 | Len Hochberg |
| Michael Thorbjornsen | $21 | Joe Sheehan |
| Sungjae Im | $21 | Tim Schuler |
| Shane Lowry | $20 | Tim Schuler |
| Alex Noren | $19 | Ryan Pohle |
| Bryson DeChambeau | $18 | James Ybiernas |
| Keegan Bradley | $17 | James Ybiernas |
| Daniel Berger | $16 | Tim Schuler |
| Si Woo Kim | $16 | Jeff Ritter |
| Aaron Rai | $15 | Justin Green |
| Chris Gotterup | $15 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Denny McCarthy | $15 | Jeff Erickson |
| Jordan Spieth | $15 | Scott Jenstad |
| Rasmus Hojgaard | $15 | Josh Ross |
| Wyndham Clark | $14 | Scott Pianowski |
| Tony Finau | $13 | Tim Schuler |
| Harry Hall | $12 | Jeff Erickson |
| Brian Harman | $11 | Peter Schoenke |
| Jacob Bridgeman | $11 | Len Hochberg |
| Sami Valimaki | $11 | Mike/Daryl |
| Taylor Pendrith | $11 | Justin Green |
| Rico Hoey | $10 | Jeff Erickson |
| Sahith Theegala | $10 | Len Hochberg |
| Jason Day | $9 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Johnny Keefer | $9 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Justin Rose | $9 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Marco Penge | $9 | Josh Ross |
| Michael Kim | $9 | Len Hochberg |
| Andrew Novak | $8 | Jeff Ritter |
| Nico Echavarria | $8 | Josh Ross |
| Billy Horschel | $7 | Len Hochberg |
| Kristoffer Reitan | $7 | Josh Ross |
| Kurt Kitayama | $7 | Peter Schoenke |
| Max Homa | $7 | Mike/Daryl |
| Min Woo Lee | $7 | Peter Schoenke |
| Ryo Hisatsune | $7 | Josh Ross |
| Haotong Li | $6 | Josh Ross |
| J.T. Poston | $6 | Peter Schoenke |
| Max Greyserman | $6 | Jeff Ritter |
| Nick Taylor | $6 | Len Hochberg |
| Pierceson Coody | $6 | Josh Ross |
| Sam Stevens | $6 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Will Zalatoris | $6 | Mike/Daryl |
| Byeong Hun An | $5 | Joe Sheehan |
| Chris Kirk | $5 | Scott Pianowski |
| Davis Riley | $5 | Greg Vara |
| Matti Schmid | $5 | Len Hochberg |
| Michael Brennan | $5 | Jeff Erickson |
| Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen | $5 | Josh Ross |
| Ryan Gerard | $5 | James Ybiernas |
| Thorbjorn Olesen | $5 | Joe Sheehan |
| Aldrich Potgieter | $4 | Jeff Ritter |
| Davis Thompson | $4 | Greg Vara |
| Jake Knapp | $4 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Mackenzie Hughes | $4 | Joe Sheehan |
| Matt McCarty | $4 | Joe Sheehan |
| Neal Shipley | $4 | Peter Schoenke |
| Patrick Rodgers | $4 | Scott Pianowski |
| Rickie Fowler | $4 | Scott Jenstad |
| Ryan Fox | $4 | James Ybiernas |
| Tom Kim | $4 | Scott Pianowski |
| Adam Scott | $3 | Joe Sheehan |
| Alex Smalley | $3 | Jeff Ritter |
| Bud Cauley | $3 | Peter Schoenke |
| Cameron Smith | $3 | Tim Schuler |
| David Ford | $3 | Mike/Daryl |
| Emiliano Grillo | $3 | Len Hochberg |
| Garrick Higgo | $3 | Jeff Erickson |
| Jackson Koivun | $3 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Keita Nakajima | $3 | James Ybiernas |
| Keith Mitchell | $3 | Justin Green |
| Luke Clanton | $3 | Greg Vara |
| Nick Dunlap | $3 | Scott Jenstad |
| Nicolai Hojgaard | $3 | Joe Sheehan |
| Stephan Jaeger | $3 | Scott Jenstad |
| Tom Hoge | $3 | Kevin O'Brien |
| Austin Eckroat | $2 | Ryan Pohle |
| Cam Davis | $2 | Scott Pianowski |
| Christiaan Bezuidenhout | $2 | Scott Pianowski |
| Eric Cole | $2 | Peter Schoenke |
| Gordon Sargent | $2 | Jeff Ritter |
| Jhonattan Vegas | $2 | Scott Jenstad |
| Kevin Yu | $2 | Justin Green |
| Lucas Glover | $2 | Scott Pianowski |
| Mac Meissner | $2 | Ryan Pohle |
| Max McGreevy | $2 | Scott Jenstad |
| Vince Whaley | $2 | Mike/Daryl |
| A.J. Ewart | $1 | Peter Schoenke |
| Adam Schenk | $1 | Greg Vara |
| Adrien Saddier | $1 | James Ybiernas |
| Adrien Dumont de Chassart | $1 | Ryan Pohle |
| Austin Smotherman | $1 | Mike/Daryl |
| Beau Hossler | $1 | Tim Schuler |
| Brian Campbell | $1 | Greg Vara |
| Chad Ramey | $1 | Justin Green |
| Chandler Blanchet | $1 | Jeff Erickson |
| Chandler Phillips | $1 | Justin Green |
| Christo Lamprecht | $1 | Tim Schuler |
| Erik van Rooyen | $1 | Mike/Daryl |
| Gary Woodland | $1 | Tim Schuler |
| Hudson Swafford | $1 | Justin Green |
| Joaquin Niemann | $1 | Jeff Erickson |
| Joe Highsmith | $1 | Greg Vara |
| John Parry | $1 | James Ybiernas |
| Jordan Smith | $1 | Scott Jenstad |
| Karl Vilips | $1 | Greg Vara |
| Mark Hubbard | $1 | Jeff Ritter |
| S.H. Kim | $1 | Greg Vara |
| Steven Fisk | $1 | Ryan Pohle |
| Takumi Kanaya | $1 | Jeff Erickson |
| Tyrrell Hatton | $1 | Ryan Pohle |
| William Mouw | $1 | Ryan Pohle |
