Large-Field GPP Breakdown: Rocket Classic

Hello again, my fellow PGA DFS enthusiasts. It’s time for another edition of the Large-Field GPP Breakdown, as I continue on my quest to capture a lotto bink in 2026 (it hasn’t happened yet!). We’re in the part of the season where the majors hype has died down and the players are preparing for the playoffs. But, unlike the NBA, everyone should still be trying out there, especially those guys who are vying to keep their Tour cards for 2027. These events are great opportunities for them to make some noise against some of the best, who are using an event as a warmup for the playoffs. Lets get right into it.

3M Open – Recap

The 3M Open was probably one of the more interesting DFS slates of the year, because it was one of the only slates where the Scottie decision was actually one that could go either way. And while Jackson Koivun stormed onto the PGA Tour scene with a win, I feel confident that the way I approached the slate was correct. The 3M is known for its variability, but also the scoring, which lends itself to more variance, especially at the bottom. That portion of the theory came true, as we saw multiple $7.5K and under players make the top 10. Seven, to be exact. And so if I am going into a week basically betting on Scottie Scheffler to beat the rest of the top-priced players, I’m going to take that bet every time. The next time we see Scottie, we’ll see him in the playoffs. And I suspect he’ll be overpriced in a totally different situation. Let’s take a look at the winning lineup:

• The lineup started with a triple-$9K build that dipped into the low $7K range, something I advised NOT to do in my article last week. How did I not know?!? This lineup threaded the needle perfectly by picking the right $7K players and had all three $9K players who made the top 10. When comparing that with Scottie lineups, I still would much rather take the Scheffler side.
• It came in with ~56% cumulative ownership, just under the 60-80% threshold I communicated. That being said, after building with Scheffler lineups and trying to actively avoid Ben Kohles and Casey Jarvis, my set actually came in more around the 40-60% range. There are some lessons to glean here. 

One thing I’d like to discuss quickly is the combination of Scheffler/Kohles or Scheffler/Jarvis. I actively avoided this combination and actually got multiple messages afterwards as to why, considering my lock Scheffler position. This argument can go both ways, to me. One point is that I’m already taking leverage by locking Scheffler, so it behooves me to at least have some of those guys and just be underweight. I fully understand that point and wouldn’t blame anyone for taking that position. For me, I tend to play a little bit more aggressively, knowing that I only have 150 lineups in a contest to mess around with. And when you think about all the combinations I could have played, I still didn’t want to be competing against most of the field if playing those chalk combinations. The two most popular combos on the week were Scheffler/Zac Blair and Scheffler/Kohles, both around 7-9% played. Funny enough, both of those combinations “hit,” you could say. It’s really all about risk tolerance and how much you trust the projections. In hindsight, given Kohles’ 8.0 value score, I should have trusted that a bit more. Had he been a 3.0 and mega-chalk, I would have been more comfortable with the fade. 

Rocket Classic – Preview 

On to the Rocket Classic, which has a very similar feel to the 3M but will have a very different narrative and way to play the slate. This will be the last year this tournament is held here at the Detroit Golf Club, from what I understand, so cheers to a solid run over the last few years. There WILL be scoring at this event, as there normally is in the tournaments before the playoffs. Here are the past five winners at Detroit Golf Club: