Large-Field GPP Breakdown: The Players Championship

This is a question for my fellow contributor Darddog and Discord crash-out expert BeckBeck. If you had the choice to win a major or The Players in DFS, which would you choose? Either way, this week is all about The Players, which the PGA Tour is trying to pass off as the fifth major for whatever reason. This likely will be the strongest field we see all year, so you know that DraftKings pumped up the contests for this one. I’m excited to get started, so let’s review the previous week before getting to the nuts and bolts of the week at TPC Sawgrass.

Arnold Palmer Invitational – Recap 

Of course, I have to give a quick shout-out to positivity king Dolesy for winning the Driver by 40 points last week. It’s always good to see subs win, even when they win by just playing their guys. I wonder how that’ll work out for my man Doles going forward.

Anyways, with Akshay Bhatia and Daniel Berger battling for the top spot in a signature event, last week was a great week for GPP bros who bought into either player at fairly low ownership. While Akshay was in the double digits, Berger came in sub-5% owned at a very low price point. Those can be game changers, especially when it comes to smaller-field, single-entry stuff, where having an elite pivot often can catapult you to the top. I’ll talk more about this later when I chat about the $4,444. Let’s take a look at the winning lineup from last week:

• It skipped the $10K+ range and went with a 9/9/8/8/7/6 build, which was not super common given the field’s desire to play one of Scottie Scheffler/Rory McIlroy/Tommy Fleetwood in their builds. 
• The lineup came in at 62% cumulative ownership, actually quite low for a signature event. With a slightly different build structure and a lower cumulative ownership, it’s quite clear to see how this lineup was able to win the lotto by a whopping 18 points. When you’re right in this way, it’s hard to beat.

This year so far has been quite boring in terms of roster construction of lotto winners, but it’s nice to see a lineup with a slightly different build take the cake. With the kicker of a low-owned Berger getting a ceiling performance, this lineup was unstoppable. 

The Players Championship – Preview

Now let’s move on to The Players Championship, which really kicks us off into the whirlwind that is official golf season. While we’ve been able to enjoy some incredible events so far, there really is nothing like majors SZN. The Players is really the kickoff to that. DraftKings has recognized this, thankfully. We are getting a $25 buy-in Milly Maker as our large-field lottery flagship, a $4,444 Milly Maker for the rich guys like Grex and Fade Me, and a slew of other great contests throughout. DK knew this was the week to push for golf. The only thing I would change would be a bigger prize up top for the $200 Driver, but alas, I’ll take the $50K to put Sky and Sam in a hole once again in the contributor contest. By the way, Sam is set to do his Hot Ones Challenge before The Masters. Mark your calendars. 

The Players has a long history at TPC Sawgrass, where it has been played since its inception in 1974. So, McKinley and the data team have all the information they need to crush projections this week. The thing is, so does everyone else. I’ve already seen a bunch of narratives based on data that I am questioning, but that probably isn’t different than any other week. TPC Sawgrass typically presents a fairly tough challenge for the golfers, but it is a little bit dependent on the wind that week, and especially headed into the weekend. Here are the results of the past five years:

• 2025: Rory McIlroy (-12) def. J.J. Spaun in a playoff 

• 2024: Scottie Scheffler (-20) def. Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Xander Schauffele by one stroke 

• 2023: Scottie Scheffler (-17) def. Tyrrell Hatton by five strokes 

• 2022: Cam Smith (-13) def. Anirban Lahiri by one stroke 

• 2021: Justin Thomas (-14) def. Lee Westwood by one stroke