DraftKings PGA DFS Picks: Farmers Insurance Open Cash and GPP Strategy

This article is part of our DraftKings PGA DFS Picks series.

FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

Purse: $9.6M
Winner's Share: $1.728M
FedEx Cup Points: 500 to the Winner
Location: La Jolla, Calif.
Course: Torrey Pines GC (South and North courses)
Yardage: 7,765 (South)
Par: 72
2025 champion: Harris English

Tournament Preview

Tiger Woods used to play this tournament every year and he'd win it almost every year. It was a Very Big Deal. But could what's about to happen be even bigger? Bigger than Tiger? You decide. Here's what's happening:

ESPN will not only televise a regular golf tournament for the first time in 20 years, it will bump Pat McAfee -- Pat McAfee! -- to do so.

What is happening?

Brooks Koepka is happening.

You remember Koepka, right? The former world No. 1, five-time major champion and now suddenly the central figure in the ongoing tug-of-war between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

On Monday, it was announced that ESPN will simulcast the PGA Tour Live main feed on Thursday and Friday to showcase Koepka's return to the PGA Tour, the first time it will air a non-major PGA Tour event in 20 years. And get this: It will also be shown on Hulu and Disney+. That's wild. (Heck, maybe Koepka could do a guest shot on Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building" to cross-promote this extravaganza.)

But that's not all. Because golf will be on ESPN from noon to 3 p.m. ET on both days, the omnipresent McAfee will be bumped to ESPN2. Really, who else could move the needle like this? (Check back when Charlie Woods turns pro.)

In a scene never before played out in professional golf, one of the greats of the game is coming back. It had never been played out before because there had never been a LIV Golf before. But Koepka, after spending three years at the breakaway circuit, had finally had enough, even with one year left on his lucrative LIV contract.

He wanted back on the PGA Tour so badly that it will end up costing him tens of millions of dollars, and that doesn't even include the reported $50 million to $85 million of potential earnings in the Player Equity Program that he has agreed to forfeit over the next five years among the conditions of his return.

Koepka, now 35, struggled mightily since leaving the PGA Tour after playing a final time at the 2022 Open Championship. He did win the 2023 PGA Championship for his fifth career major, but he has not had so much as a major top-10 since. He missed three of the four cuts last year. He even floundered on LIV. While he did win five individual tournaments in 2024, he was winless in 2025 and finished 31st among 54 golfers in the season-long individual race.

So which Koepka will the PGA Tour get when he tees off on Thursday alongside Ludvig Aberg and Max Homa in what is bound to be the most featured feature group we'll see all season? The one who struggled so mightily the last two years that he looked lost on the course? Or one that is already among his generation's all-time greats and just one or two more major wins from entering a rarified place in golf history? With one more major, Koepka would tie Phil Mickelson, Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino. With two, he would tie Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Bobby Jones and others and enter the top-10 on the all-time major leaderboard.

Do you think Koepka would like back the lost LIV years and take mulligans for all those major opportunities lost, as he sits so close to joining some of the Mount Rushmores of the sport? He might never say.

We should not expect too much, at least initially. For one, Koepka has never played well in this tournament, with just one made cut in four starts, the last one coming in 2022. Further, he will have a spotlight on him like never before -- and that was the case even before ESPN jumped into the fray. The last thing he wants to do is fall flat on his face. But he may need time to rediscover his game. Also, this Farmers field is one of the strongest in years, with 27 of the top-50 golfers in the world.

For the record, the No. 255-ranked Koepka is priced at $8,000 in DraftKings DFS and +5300 for an outright win at the DK Sportsbook.

Besides Aberg and Homa, local boy Xander Schauffele will make his 2026 debut, having a lot to prove himself after a lost 2025 that followed his two-major 2024. Patrick Cantlay, Keegan Bradley, Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama, Cameron Young and Jason Day are also in the 147-man field. 147? That's an odd number. In more ways than one.

Normally the count is 144, but the PGA Tour simply added Koepka to the field, making it 145. Wanting to preserve threesomes for the first two rounds, the Tour decided to just add two more golfers. So not only did Koepka not take anyone's spot, he created two more. In this case, top alternates Jackson Suber and Lanto Griffin got in. This will happen at all the regular events among the 15+ tournaments Koepka will play this season, as he fulfills one of the requirements of his return to the Tour.

One final thought on Koepka (for now): The PGA Tour and LIV Golf have a lot at stake here. If Koepka plays well this season, the Tour can claim bragging rights. If Koepka shows he's washed, LIV will giddily point out it lost someone who had nothing left.

Okay, now the non-Koepka portion of this article:

The Farmers has been around for almost 75 years, beginning in 1952 as the San Diego Open. Things are a bit in flux, with Farmers Insurance's agreement with the Tour expiring after this week. But it's impossible to see this tournament going away, even with the inevitable PGA Tour schedule consolidation coming as early as next year.

The tournament was played Wednesday to Saturday the past few years to avoid the NFL conference championship games. But this year it is back to Thursday-Sunday.

Following last week's Amex birdie-palooza, scoring is usually tight this week. Harris English won at 8-under last year.

Here's why:

• Torrey Pines South will be in play for three of the four rounds. A mere 235 yards shy of 8,000, it was the longest track on the PGA Tour last season. It also features some of the smallest greens, with the tricky poa surfaces averaging a mere 5,000 square feet. Only two courses on the PGA Tour are at least 7,500 yards with greens that small -- Torrey Pines South and Muirfield Village for the Memorial.
• Seven of the 10 par-4s on the South are at least 450 yards. The shortest par-5 is 564 and two exceed 615. Three of the par-3s are 200-plus and two are 225-plus. Really, you could make a case that there's only one short hole on the entire course -- the 389-yard second. Traditionally, the 505-yard 12th and 480-yard 15th are the biggest brutes. The back is usually harder than the front, often by almost a full shot.
• The sheer length of the course is not the only challenge. While targeting those tiny greens, the golfers will be standing far back in the fairway for their approach shots -- and they are narrow fairways, at that. If they miss the greens, then they are then faced with chipping from the gnarly kikuyu grass. Water is in play on just one hole, but it can be a game-changer on the 570-yard 18th.
• The North course is some 500 yards shorter at 7,258/par-72 and is far easier, though a bit harder since a Tom Weiskopf redesign in 2016. Still, anyone hoping to contend must crush the North course and hope to survive the South. The 486-yard 18th on the North is often among the hardest holes on the entire PGA Tour. The fairways on both courses on similarly narrow, 24-27 yards, but the North greens are a bit larger at an average of 6,000 square feet, and they are bentgrass.

Needless to say, there's a premium on distance this week. Yes, with driver but maybe even more so long irons. It's always hard to envision a shorter hitter. Patrick Reed did it five years back, but his short game was elite.

As for the weather, conditions should be great. Highs in the low 70s all four days with zero rain and very light wind.

DFS Strategy Tip: With the golfers playing the North either Thursday or Friday, it's a smart play to turn to Single Stat or Tiers games and load up all six spots with guys playing the North that day. Same goes if you are wagering on the first-round leader. 

Key Stats to Winning at Torrey Pines South

The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.

• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee/Total Driving
• Strokes Gained: Approach/Approach from 175-200 yards
• Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Par-4 Efficiency 450-500 yards 

Past Champions

2025 – Harris English
2024 – Matthieu Pavon
2023 – Max Homa
2022 – Luke List
2021 – Patrick Reed
2020 – Marc Leishman
2019 – Justin Rose
2018 – Jason Day
2017 – Jon Rahm
2016 - Brandt Snedeker

Champion's Profile

For five years running, the winning score fell between 13- and 15-under. But last year, English won at a mere 8-under. Torrey Pines can do that to a golfer. And certainly if it's windy. It was gusting so much last year that play was suspended for a bit in the second round, and Sunday was very gusty, too.

A few weeks later, they played the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines because of the devasting wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Aberg won at 12-under-par, hitting his drives very far and quite straight in a masterful performance off the tee.

Even though the South course is so long, driving distance has not directly correlated to success over that span. Now, we want to be clear on that: The longest hitters have not done the best here, but that doesn't mean the short hitters have. You have to have *some* distance this week, combined with accuracy to keep the ball in the narrow fairways. Let's call it "medium" distance. Total driving is a key stat this week.

English did average 300 off the tee, but that wasn't among the top-40 in the field and he wasn't particularly straight either. But he ranked fourth in the field in SG: Approach, third in SG: Putting and first in scrambling. Stats like that will get the job done almost no matter how you drive the golf ball. (As we like to say, there is always more than one way to win a golf tournament.)

Runner-up Sam Stevens ranked only 29th in SG: Putting, but he was fourth in SG: Off-the-Tee and third in Approach. Solo third Andrew Novak was far back in the fairway, yet he ranked seventh on Approach and 12th in Putting.

Two years ago, Pavon ranked 38th in the field in driving distance and the year before, Homa ranked 55th. Four years, ago, even the long-hitting List ranked only 12th in the field. The high finishers balanced accuracy off the tee, which made their approaches at least a little bit easier. Pavon ranked 16th in fairways hit and Homa was ninth.

No matter what happens off the tee, there will be long iron shots. Driving accuracy and GIR numbers are annually among the lowest on Tour, which brings deftness around the greens into play. A check of course history over the past five or so years shows that a lot of guys do well here year after year, maybe more so than any other course.

This may be just coincidence, but six of the past seven winners started on the North. Only List started on the South.

The over/under on the winning score on golfodds.com is 274.5, which is 13.5 under par.

DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS

Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap

$10,000 and up

Ludvig Aberg - $10,400 ((Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +1750)
When Aberg's game is on, he's a perfect fit for Torrey Pines. It's just a question of where Aberg's game is. The Swede took a couple of steps back in 2025, which began with him ranked No. 5 in the world and ended with him at No. 18. That despite making it all the way to the TOUR Championship, not to mention winning the Genesis Invitational. The key point there is that the Genesis was played at Torrey Pines South, relocated from the Los Angeles area after those devastating wildfires. Aberg made his 2026 debut last week at The Amex but withdrew after two rounds citing an illness. As mentioned above, he will be playing alongside Koepka for the first two rounds. While much of the pressure will be on Koepka, there also will be a spotlight on Aberg and the third member of the group, Homa.

Patrick Cantlay - $10,100 (+2350)
Cantlay has played the Farmers only four times and just once recently. But he did play the Genesis last year and tied for fifth. Really, with a game well-suited for this course, it's a wonder Cantlay hasn't played here more often. Who knows, because if he had, his winless streak might not stretch all the way back to 2022. Cantlay kicked off his 2026 season last week with a tie for 13th.

$9,000-$9,900

Jason Day - $9,600 (+3300)
Day has won here twice and has added finishes of second, third, fifth and seventh. Unfortunately for him, all that happened between 2014 and 2023. He's a far cry from his dominating period as No. 1 in the world, but being ranked 33rd is still pretty good. Day's approach numbers from 175 to 200 are not a strength, but he otherwise rates well in all the key metrics, landing him a top-10 spot in our model. Day shared runner-up to Scottie Scheffler last week at The Amex.

Hideki Matsuyama - $9,300 (+3000)
Matsuyama tied for 13th at the Sony two weeks back. That's pretty much how 2025 went for him. He racked up 12 top-25s, but could muster only one top-10. At least it was a win, coming in the very first tournament of the season at the Sentry. He went on to tie for 13th at the Genesis. Matsuyama's game is borderline elite in every key stat except putting.

Keegan Bradley - $9,200 (+3800)
Bradley ranks very high in our model, and his profile comes close to mirroring Matsuyama -- very good in all areas except putting. When Bradley's game is on, he's a terrific long iron player. He has three top-5s here through the years and tied for 15th a year ago. There is at least some concern on our part about where his head is at, post-Ryder Cup. Yes, that was months ago but still, it was such a devastating defeat that Bradley took very hard. He missed the cut at the Sony two weeks back.

$8,000-$8,900

Will Zalatoris - $8,800 (+4800)
Zalatoris is another guy whose game is such a good fit for Torrey Pines. But coming off of a second back surgery, there are questions about the state of his game. He looked fine last week in tying for 18th at The Amex. One of Zalatoris' better results last year came at the Genesis, where he tied for 24th.

Taylor Pendrith - $8,700 (+3600)
Driving distance isn't the be all and end all at Torrey Pines. But Pendrith is among the longest drivers on Tour and has top-10s here the past two years. The rest of his game, especially from 100 yards and in, would not suggest he's  a good fit here. But results don't lie. Pendrith opened 2026 with a tie for sixth at the Sony before missing The Amex cut last week.

$7,000-$7,900

Aaron Rai - $7,700 (+8400)
Rai finished sixth here in his tournament debut in 2022. He hasn't come close to matching that since, but his game does indicate a good course fit. Rai is not a long hitter, but he is very accurate, a huge plus on these narrow fairways. Putting has always held him back, but he ranked a respectable 70th on Tour last season. He missed the cut at last year's Farmers but bounced back with a T37 at the Genesis.

Justin Rose - $7,500 (+5400)
Rose won here in 2019. But last year, he missed the cut twice at Torrey Pines -- at the Farmers and the Genesis. Not easy to do! Roses' game really picked up after that. He was that hard-luck playoff loser to Rory McIlroy at the Masters, then scored a playoff win at the FedEx St. Jude playoff event. Those results carried him all the way back inside the top-10 in the world rankings.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout - $7,300 (+9200)
Bezuidenhout tied for 39th at the Genesis last year in just his third start at Torrey Pines. He had a lot of trouble hitting the ball straight last season -- until he got closer to the hole. Bezuidenhout possessed one of the better wedge-putter games on Tour, ranking top-20 last season in both SG: Around-the-Green and SG: Putting. He's not a long hitter, which doesn't help here, but he has that elite short game to make up for it.

$6,000-$6,900

Austin Eckroat - $6,700 (+20000)
Eckroat did not have a good 2025 season. He made 17 of 27 cuts with just five top-25s. He missed the cut at both Torrey Pines tournaments. But outside of his play around the green, his stats were average, maybe a bit better than average. He's a very accurate driver, a big plus this week, plus ranked top-60 on Tour in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach and greens in regulation. Eckroat tied for 37th at the Farmers two years ago.

Adam Schenk - $6,200 (+90000)
Schenk's game had all but disappeared the past few years. And then out of the blue he won the Butterfield Bermuda Championship last fall, one of jut 12 cuts he made in 29 starts on the year. Before that, a golfer once ranked 40th in the world had fallen to almost 250th. But through it all, Schenk played well at Torrey Pines. He's made the cut four straight years, with top-25s the past three. True to form, he's already missed his first two cuts of 2026.  

Finalizing your lineups for the Farmers Insurance Open? See how they look in RotoWire's PGA DFS Lineup Optimizer.