'Tis the last Major of the year and time for my 2022 British Open DraftKings Value Picks.
The 150th Open will take place at my favorite Open venue, St. Andrews. St. Andrews is absolutely hallowed ground in my humble opinion. I've been to Lambeau Field and it was a religious experience, but I might actually fall to my knees in reverence if I ever got to visit St. Andrews. I've spoken to those who have been and they say it's as amazing as I would expect. I talked about my Father's Day golf wish in my US Open DraftKings Values article, but visiting St. Andrews might actually be a greater wish.
Enough sentimentality, we should probably discuss the elephant in the room. Or should I say the Tiger in the room? I don't really love Tiger this week, but at $7500 we need to consider him. He's won the British Open twice, both at St. Andrews. However, the percentage of rosters he will be on this week will likely be the highest it's been all year. I would suspect at least 20% ownership and wouldn't be surprised if he tops 30%, especially in the lower-end MME options.
So instead, I will give you some pivots/value picks that cost less than Tiger's $7500 on DraftKings. I'll leave it up to you if you want to include Tiger and some of the picks below. But if you're going to go with a handful of the chalkier picks up top, you're going to pretty much have to go with at least one or two options under $7500 anyway.
As usual, we'll go in descending order of salary and start with a guy I often have in my DraftKings entries.
2022 British Open DraftKings Value Picks
Seamus Power ($7400)
Power does not do any one thing particularly well, but he's above average in nearly every single PGA Tour stat. It takes some serious searching to find a stat where he is not 90th or better and most of his stat rankings are far better. Just two of the many are 7th in GIR and 20th in Scoring Average. It helps explain why he is 36th in OWGR (Overall World Golf Rankings).
One of the things I like about Power is he seems to play even better in majors. In the three majors so far this year, he finished T-12 at the U.S Open most recently, T-9 at the PGA Championship, and T-27 at the Masters. I think the Irishman has a decent shot of finishing in the top 25 again this week.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout ($7300)
One hop. Stop. Drop!
That's an eagle for Christian Bezuidenhout. #USOpen pic.twitter.com/F6c841Uhoq
— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) June 17, 2021
If the Open wasn't being played on St. Andrews and instead a course that truly favored long hitters, I wouldn't have Bezuidenhout here. But he's 29th on Tour in SG: Putting and an eye-opening 2nd in Sand Saves. Think those two capabilities might come in handy this week at St. Andrews?
Yeah, me too.
Jordan L. Smith ($7200)
Jordan Smith was my last golfer out last week. I won't be making that same mistake again.
Smith is pretty unknown here in The States as the only PGA Tour events he has played are those that overlap with the European Tour like WGC events and last week's Scottish Open. He also has played a few majors due to his accomplishments overseas, of which there have been quite a few.
Smith won his maiden tournament after he turned pro, and seems to have steadily improved each and every year. He is coming off a string of five straight Top 25 finishes, including last week's T-24.
He's 17th in Driving Accuracy on the European Tour and he's number one in GIR. That should help him avoid some of those killer bunkers at St. Andrews. The last time he played The Open he failed to make the cut. I don't foresee that happening again and I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the first page of the leaderboard going into Sunday.
Ryan Fox ($7100)
Ryan Fox drops it in for birdie.@ryanfoxgolfer | #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/zuEx8Kc1CQ
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 19, 2022
I placed a bet on Fox to win The Open a little over a month ago when he finished second at the Dutch Open. Since then he has added two more top-three finishes with a third at the BMW International Open and a second at the Horizon Open Irish Open soon after. He is currently ranked fourth on the European Tour.
I'm a little concerned about his driving accuracy (158th on the European Tour) on this course. But on the European Tour, he's 45th in GIR, 41st in Sand Saves, and 17th in average putts per round. If he can keep his tee shots out of trouble, I wouldn't be surprised to see him show why he is second in stroke average on the European Tour this week as well.
Padraig Harrington ($6700)
There is obviously some risk here taking "Old Man Harrington". I know, that sounds like somebody in an early '80s cartoon such as Scooby-Doo or Fat Albert. But I would take the 50-year-old Harrington seriously here. For one, he has two Open titles to his name, and both of them were in Scotland. You know he would love to make it three.
Harrington is also crushing it on the Senior Tour. He's played seven times this year and finished T-2 or better four times, including a victory at the US Senior Open Championship in late June.
Yes, the Seniors as a whole tour don't strike the ball as hard as those on the PGA Tour, but Harrington is statistically crushing that tour in nearly every stat. He's 1st in Driving Distance, but that is less useful this week. The fact that he's 11th in Sand Saves, 4th in GIR, 3rd in Birdie Average and All-Around Ranking, and 2nd in Ball Striking gives me plenty of confidence in recommending Harrington this week.
I like him to not only make the cut this week but make a run at the Top 20 also. And at this price, that's insane value.
Thomas Detry ($6600)
SOUND ON 💥
Rocket sent courtesy of Thomas Detry. pic.twitter.com/5gsluKXRm9
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 30, 2019
It is tough to predict DraftKings pricing any given week, yet you can bank on them having at least dominant European Tour golfer underpriced every week. This week it is Thomas Detry. For those who feel the Euro Tour is inferior to the PGA Tour, know he's done just fine in PGA events as well. He's only played four PGA Tour events this year but has made the Top 25 in all four, including a T-10 in last week's Scottish Open.
Detry doesn't qualify for any PGA Tour stat due to his limited number of Tour events. However, his European Tour stat rankings are a good indication of what he brings to the table. He's 9th in Driving Distance, but he's a solid 32nd in Stroke Average and 24th in Sand Saves. Think those latter two might come in handy this week?
I don't see Detry breaking into the top 20 like I do Harrington. However, I think he can definitely make the cut and at this price, that's all we need.
That will do it for my 2022 British Open DraftKings Value Picks. However, we will have a few more golf articles coming your way later this week. If you miss them, be sure to follow me on Twitter @Mark Strausberg, as well as @FantasySixPack as you might want to consider a subscription as well!
Check out Tyler's 2022 British Open Favorites to Fade!
