Fantasy Advice
The Players Championship DFS picks 2025: Why we're buying low on Xander Schauffele
The PGA Tour returns to Ponte Vedra Beach for the Players Championship, its flagship event. The Players Championship features the largest purse in golf, and 144 of the world’s best players will be competing for $25 million dollars, a prize pool that has doubled since 2019. The host venue is the iconic TPC Sawgrass, the Pete Dye classic that has become one of the most recognizable golf courses on the planet. While the island green 17th hole gets all the fanfare, TPC Sawgrass is an incredibly strategic masterpiece from top to bottom, featuring an eclectic mix of challenging par fours and risk/reward par fives. The tournament was moved to March in 2019, and it features over-seeded rough and fairways, which makes the golf course play somewhat softer and more receptive. Yet the copious amount of water hazards and some sneaky high rough still elicits one of the highest missed fairway penalties on Tour. While the tournament saw uncharacteristically easy scoring conditions last year, there is far more wind in the forecast for 2025, and I’m tentatively optimistic for a more demanding overall test.
Scottie Scheffler will look to become the first player in PGA Tour history to win three Players Championships in a row, after becoming the first ever last year to win two Players Championships in a row. Scheffler will be met by an interesting crop of challengers, led by Ludvig Aberg, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele, as well as former Players Championship winners Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, among others. With some incredible prize pools to play for this week, let’s dive into the DraftKings slate.
$10,000 range
Play: Xander Schauffele, $11,100
Don’t get me wrong, I love Scottie Scheffler just as much as anyone else, but if we are trying to win the $1 million dollar prize on DraftKings, we have to find ways to get different from the field. There’s an interesting leverage opportunity on Xander Schauffele this week, and he played a lot better at Bay Hill than his 40th-place finish would suggest. Schauffele’s ball-striking still looked strong, especially on Sunday, and he unfortunately gave back five strokes around the green. I would not be deterred by a poor short game performance while he shook the rust off. This may be as strong of a buy low opportunity on a top-five player in the world as it comes, and I’m expecting a huge improvement from last week.
Fade: Rory McIlroy, $11,500
Icon Sportswire
I know that Rory McIlroy is a former champion at the Players, but since his 2019 victory, he’s missed two of his last four cuts at TPC Sawgrass. McIlroy’s ball-striking last week looked a few minor details off, and he shared later in the week that he was testing out some new equipment. I just don’t think TPC Sawgrass, which features one of the highest missed fairway penalties on tour, is the best golf course to enter on the heels of an equipment change with shaky ball-striking, and I’d rather look elsewhere in this price range.
$9,000 range
Play: Tommy Fleetwood, $9,800
Tommy Fleetwood is in quietly some of the best iron form of his entire career, and if there is one skill to fall back on at TPC Sawgrass, its strong overall approach play. The Englishman has gained over two strokes on approach in nine straight starts, and he is also one of the most accurate drivers of the ball on the PGA Tour. The best thing about this price is that I don’t even need him to win, and there may not be a player in this field I trust to sneak their way into a backdoor top-five come Sunday afternoon in Ponte Vedra.
Fade: Sam Burns, $9,300
I am always intrigued by Sam Burns’ upside on the greens, but his approach play is simply not sharp enough to win at this level right now. Burns lost over six strokes on approach last week at Bay Hill, and now travels to one of the most demanding iron courses on tour. Burns is simply putting a tremendous amount of pressure on his putter right now to even make the cut, and this is far from a sustainable roadmap to success at TPC Sawgrass.
$8,000 range
Play: Si Woo Kim, $8,200
Michael Pimentel/ISI Photos
Si Woo Kim was one of my favorite plays on the slate last year at TPC Sawgrass, and I’ll be going right back to the well in 2025. A former champion in 2017, Kim has recorded three other top-25s at TPC Sawgrass in seven appearances, as well as victories at other short, positional, accuracy dependent Pete Dye golf courses. A top-20 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was all I needed to see last week in the form category as well.
Fade: Jordan Spieth, $8,800
There are many worthy risks to take on the DraftKings slate this week, but Jordan Spieth is not one of them. The three-time major winner has never really found his groove at TPC Sawgrass. Even when he was at the top of his game, this Pete Dye design often stifled him. In nine appearances at the Players, Spieth has only made three cuts, with zero top-10 finishes. It would be one thing if he was playing with any semblance of consistency, but I certainly don’t expect Spieth to suddenly figure out Sawgrass in this form.
$7,000 range
Play: Aaron Rai, $7,100
Michael Pimentel/ISI Photos
What isn’t there to love about Aaron Rai this week? We’ve been riding Rai in this column for months, and TPC Sawgrass is truly an ideal fit for his skill set. Rai is one of the most accurate drivers of the ball in this field and an excellent overall approach player. Coming off back-to-back top-12 finishes at the Mexico Open and the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he gained over 11 strokes on approach. The Englishman is primed for a major breakthrough.
Fade: Cameron Young, $7,600
There’s no need to pile on, but Cameron Young is not a functional golfer at the moment, and he hasn’t been for quite some time. Young is coming off his third missed cut in at the Players Championship, and he has now lost strokes on approach in seven straight starts. TPC Sawgrass is one of the most exacting and important approach courses on the PGA Tour, and we do not have a single piece of evidence from 2025 that Young is an even field average in this category.
$6,000 range
Play: Lucas Glover, $6,800
Once we get down in the $6K range, all I’m looking for is upside, and Lucas Glover’s ceiling on approach cannot be understated. This elite ability with his irons is the same potion that propelled Glover to victories at other, short, positional Bermuda golf courses such as Sedgefield and TPC Southwind in the last two years, and I would not be surprised to see him contend for another on a similar track that emphasizes accuracy off the tee and middle iron play.
$5,000 range
Play: Adam Svensson, $5,500
Kevin C. Cox
I was actually surprised to see how many playable options there were this week in the $5K range, and Adam Svensson might be my favorite of the bunch. The Canadian already has a 13th-place finish under his belt at TPC Sawgrass, as well as a slew of top-15 finishes at some of my favorite comparative courses, including Sedgefield, PGA National and, of course, a victory at Sea Island. Even in a missed cut at the Cognizant Classic, Svensson still gained nearly three strokes on approach, and possesses a great deal of upside with his irons.
