DraftKings is where I got hooked on playing fantasy golf. I first played in one of their PGA leagues on a whim. I play fantasy football there and saw their PGA contests listed. I bought into a few of the cheaper ones and ended up cashing. I finished 36th out of 1721 players and 9th out of 443 in two of the events I entered that week for some quick easy money.
I love it, and I hate it. You will too. It is that much fun. I’ve been playing every week since I first played. Weekly style fantasy golf is the most enjoyable fantasy league I play. And I’m a pretty big fantasy football freak, too. Fantasy golf is that good.
Give it a try. www.DraftKings.com – Sign up, make a deposit and join me this week.
This review will focus on playing fantasy golf at DraftKings.
Updated 5/2/2016
You Will Find:
- DraftKings vs DraftDay / Draftpot (no FanDuel Golf)
- Go over how to pick a team
- List out the types of contests you can find week to week
- My honest thoughts on playing DraftKings fantasy golf
Fantasy Golf Nuts & Bolts – How To Start Playing on DraftKings
Register Your Account -DraftKings is my favorite fantasy golf site and it’s where I (Spry13) play.
Create your account at DraftKings.
The minimum deposit is $20.
You can sign up and play in some free contests before depositing anything, so I recommend you at least do that. If you deposit later they will give you a free entry into one of the big field $3 entry GPP’s (guaranteed prize pool contests) where you can put your first line up in risk free.
Credit cards easily accepted. (ok enough, lets see how it works)
DraftKings Fantasy Golf Scoring Rules
Here are the official rules from DK themselves.
Fantasy Golf Site | DraftKings | DraftDay |
---|---|---|
Compare Fantasy Golf Sites | ||
Review | DraftKings Golf Review | DraftDay Golf Review (in process) |
New Player Deposit Bonus | Free Ticket With Deposit | 100% Match to $200 Claim Bonus Now |
Salary Cap Leagues | ||
PickEm Leagues | ||
Per Hole Scoring: | Double Eagle: + 20 Double Eagle (DBL EAG): +20 PTs Eagle (EAG): +8 PTs Birdie (BIR): +3 PTs Par (PAR): +0.5 PTs Bogey (BOG): -0.5 PTs Double Bogey (DBL BOG): -1 PT Worse than Double Bogey (WORSE DBL BOG): -1 PT | ALBA 30 pts EAG 12 pts BRD 4 pt PAR 0.5 pts BGY 0 2BGY+ 0 |
Tournament Finish Scoring: | 1st: 30 PTs 2nd: 20 PTs 3rd: 18 PTs 4th: 16 PTs 5th: 14 PTs 6th: 12 PTs 7th: 10 PTs 8th: 9 PTs 9th: 8 PTs 10th: 7 PTs 11th–15th: 6 PTs 16th–20th: 5 PTs 21st–25th: 4 PTs 26th–30th: 3 PTs 31st–40th: 2 PTs 41st-50th: 1 PTs | 1st: 30 pts 2nd: 25 pts 3rd: 20 pts 4th: 15 pts 5th: 14 pts 6th: 13 pts 7th: 12 pts 8th: 11 pts 9th: 10 pts 10-15th: 8 pts 16-25th: 6pts 26th-40th: 4pts 40-60th: 2 pts |
Bonus Scoring: | Streak of 3 Birdies + (MAX 1 Per Round) +3 PTs Bogey Free Round: +3 PTs All 4 Rounds Under 70: +5 PTs Hole in One: +10 PTs | Bogey Free Round: 6 pts Par or Better All 4 Rounds: 10 pts All 4 rounds in the 60's: 25 pts |
Real Money Leagues | $0.25 - $1090 buy-in's for tourneys. $2.00 "Chipshot" with ~$4,000 prize pool $5.00 "Par 5" with $1500 prize pool $27 "Fairway" with $12,500 prize pool $1-$55 one line-up entry only events Double up leagues Triple up leagues Winner take all leagues Satellites Qualifiers $100,000 1st place prize during PGA majors. | $2.2-$1000 tournaments $2-$200 Pick Em leagues $2 pickem with $1000 prize pool $109 entry with $10k prize pool and 100 slots $100k tourneys during majors. |
Free PGA Leagues | One free tourney each week. PGA Weekly Freeroll - Usually awards entries into upcoming leagues. | Freerolls for small $ prizes weekly. |
Major PGA Leagues | Masters - $1 Million - $20 entry & $1m to 1st place | Varies |
I’ll recap:
Per Hole Scoring
- Double Eagle (DBL EAG): +20 PTs
- Eagle (EAG): +8 PTs
- Birdie (BIR): +3 PTs
- Par (PAR): +0.5 PTs
- Bogey (BOG): -0.5 PTs
- Double Bogey (DBL BOG): -1 PT
- Worse than Double Bogey (WORSE DBL BOG): -1 PT
Tournament Finish Scoring
- 1st: 30 PTs
- 2nd: 20 PTs
- 3rd: 18 PTs
- 4th: 16 PTs
- 5th: 14 PTs
- 6th: 12 PTs
- 7th: 10 PTs
- 8th: 9 PTs
- 9th: 8 PTs
- 10th: 7 PTs
- 11th–15th: 6 PTs
- 16th–20th: 5 PTs
- 21st–25th: 4 PTs
- 26th–30th: 3 PTs
- 31st–40th: 2 PTs
- 41st-50th: 1 PTs
Streaks and Bonuses
- Streak of 3 Birdies of Better (MAX 1 Per Round) (3+ BIR STRK): +3 PTs
- Bogey Free Round (BOG FREE RD): +3 PTs
- All 4 Rounds Under 70 Strokes (ALL 4 RDS UND 70): +5 PTs
- Hole in One (HOLE IN ONE): +10 PTs
I will get into strategies later, but as you can quickly see that you want golfers who make a lot of birdies and eagles, even if they mix in some bogeys and doubles.
You would prefer someone to make birdie, bogey, birdey, bogey, birdey, bogey for an even score than someone who shoots par, par par. Anyway, more of that later.
Join A Fantasy Golf League – Choose A Contest
By Monday afternoon there fantasy PGA contests listed for entry. I use a reserve seat function in the single entry tournaments that I want to play right away. There are a limited amount of seats and I want one. I do this for many of the tournaments I plan on playing. Here is an example list of contests running on any given week. Keep in mind that during the big PGA tournaments there are bigger prize pools and contest sizes running.
Examples of DraftKings Weekly Fantasy Golf Contests
- $0.00 – PGA Freeroll
- $0.25 – PGA Quarter Arcade
- $1 – PGA Divot
- $3 – PGA Chipshot
- $5 – PGA Par 5
- $5 – PGA Caddie
- $12 – PGA Albatross
- $27 – PGA Fairway
- $109 – PGA Long Drive
- $200 – PGA Scramble
See this weeks List of Current PGA Leagues here. You can play in real money pga leagues starting at a quarter. I will be in the cheap games with you every week playing as Spry13. There are a handful of $1, $2, $5, $12, $27, $55, $109, $200 tournaments running each and every week.
On the big PGA weeks you can compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just keep an eye on the latest fantasy golf promotions for details on upcoming possibilities.
PGA Chip Shot – Huge contest in terms of numbers of entries. A $2 entry fee and usually between $4,000+ guaranteed each week make this a no-brainer tournament to play. This event gets a few thousand entries weekly and for only a $2 buy-in with 1st place paying $500+ you can see why. If you want to try it out I recommend joining this contest this week. It is fun and low risk.
Drafting Your 6 Man Team – Pick Six PGA Golfers
The games are salary cap based. You you have to draft 6 golfers with a budget of $50,000. A top tier golfer is usually $10,000+ of your budget. The cheapest golfer is usually around $4,500+ Most of the mid-tier picks fall between $6,500 to $9000.
The how to draft your team is so user friendly that we do not have to even explain it. Click on the obvious buttons and add and remove players from your line-up.
Some useful features that I like are just how damn smooth everything is.
- You can see easily how much per player you have left to spend.
- Easily scroll through players and add them to your line-up to see how it looks.
- Remove players just as easily.
- View latest info on players – see avg scores, cuts made and basic stats
- Edit line-up’s simply across multiple contests.
- Option to create line-ups and then enter the line-up into the contest instead of the other way around.
- When you are done the steps are equally as clear, click submit / confirm and you are in!
- Edit your team up until the 1st golfer tee’s off.
Once the team is entered they offer more contests that you can enter the same team in. It is quick, easy and I love it.
Another cool option that I have started using is simply building a line-up first. Click on My Lineups tab and then create a new line-up. You can build your team there, save it and enter it into any contest you want. Build as many line-up’s as you want and enter them into the cash games of your choosing.
The contests and line-ups lock EARLY Thursday mornings whenever the 1st golfer tee’s off. After that you can not change your team. Set your teams by Wednesday night before you go to bed to make sure you do not fire a blank or leave a line-up unfinished.
Managing Your Line-Up – Edits And Swaps
The “My Lineups” tab on DraftKings is my best friend. It can be yours too. Click on it and it displays your current line ups next to one another. It makes managing them simple smooth and easy. Just click the ‘edit’ button and you can manage the line-up as much as you want. It gives you the option to save the changes in all of the contests that the line-up is used in. It is super easy and smooth to use.
I usually visit my Lineups tab again and take a quick look at my scores with a birds eye overview.
From there you can click on the ‘entries’ tab to see which contests and how you are doing in those contests.
From there you can then click on the individual contest to see how you are doing and watch your team rise or fall on the leaderboard AND watch your players score or lose points hole after hole. It looks like this:
In Game Experience – Playing Fantasy Golf at DraftKings
Weekly fantasy golf takes 4 days, covering four rounds of a PGA event. They begin Thursday morning and end on Sunday (weather permitting). Once your line-ups are set and the leagues have begun the ‘sweat’ part comes into it.
On the left you can see your overall rank on the leaderboard and on the main screen you can see a recap of your golfers and what they are currently doing. One feature that gives the site that awesome feel is that while you are watching this page, points will flash next to each golfers score as they gain or lose points. You like to see those green + points appear as the contest rolls on.
You can also click on the ‘My Contests’ tab to see an overview of your contests and your current place. Click on one to go to the page and see your spot on the leaderboard and your team. Smooth and easy.
Fantasy Golf at Draft Kings – Final Thoughts and Recap
DraftKings Positives
- Best user interface
- Best in-game experience
- Best variety of PGA tournaments
- Excellent promotions and major fantasy golf contests
- Legit, Licensed, Legal U.S.A based company.
DraftKings Misses
- No Pick’Em Games (see DraftStreet)
- Bonus expires in 4 months
More Great Reads
- Weekly Fantasy PGA Picks and Previews – I post a weekly recap of the best links I can find that week from around the web.
- Fantasy golf Strategy Articles
- Why No FanDuel Golf?
- Vegas Odds for Upcoming PGA Tournament – Linked directly to current odds and lines at Bovada (legit!)
- Daily Fantasy Sports 101 – My big site covering the basics of all sports