By: @Ryan_Humphries on Twitter & LineStar Chat

Top DFS Offers 3/12/25 💸 

Our editors found the top deals in sports-books so you don’t have to! Tapping below links will help support LineStar through an affiliate referral.

• Sleeper DFS - Deposit Match up to $500 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Underdog DFS - Deposit Match up to $100 

• Chalkboard DFS - Deposit Match up to $100 

• Parlay Play - Free $5 Entry no Deposit Required 🆕

Must be 18+ (some states may require 21+) and be present in an eligible state; if you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.

Tournament & Field 🏆

Welcome to one of the most exciting weeks in golf! It’s time for the world's best to compete at The PLAYERS Championship hosted by TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida! Widely regarded as golf’s unofficial “Fifth Major,“ this event annually boasts what is considered to be the strongest field we’ll see compete across the entire season. Unlike typical Majors, there are no amateur invites sent out and no “over the hill” veterans who received a grandfathered invite for winning this event decades ago. Only current PGA Tour cardholders and a few select international players and qualifiers are eligible to receive an invite to The PLAYERS Championship. 14 of the world’s top 15 ranked golfers, and 70 of the top 75, will be teeing up this week. They’ll be competing for the largest purse of the PGA Tour season – $25 million, with $4.5 million going to the winner. Also, exactly like the four Majors, there are 750 FedEx Cup points awarded to the winner.

This is a large field event featuring 144 golfers in total, and the typical 36-hole cut rule applies (top 65 plus ties make the weekend). The PLAYERS Championship has been held at TPC Sawgrass every year since 1982, and the course was designed specifically for this tournament. There are some massive PGA DFS contests posted this week, including a Milly Maker over on DraftKings, so here’s to a great week for the LineStar fam!

The Course Preview ⛳

TPC Sawgrass

Par 72 | 7,275 Yards

Greens: TifEagle Bermuda (Overseeded w/ Poa Trivialis)

Course Type: TPC

Course Difficulty Last 5 Years: 15th, 18th, 16th, 23rd, 29th

Cut Line Last 5 Years: -1, +2, +2, Even, -1

Winners Last 5 Years:

2024: Scottie Scheffler (-20)

2023: Scottie Scheffler (-17)

2022: Cameron Smith (-13)

2021: Justin Thomas (-14)

2019: Rory McIlroy (-16)

TPC Sawgrass is a Par 72 set-up that checks in at a moderate length of 7,275 yards. This is a Pete Dye-designed course, which means there is an intention to bully and intimidate golfers off of the tee. Golfers will be forced to make “risk versus reward” decisions and choose the correct lines and landing zones in order to set up more advantageous looks on approach. Errant shots can be very punishing with hazards and tricky lies looming around every corner of this course. The fairways are tight and tree-lined, and the TifEagle bermudagrass greens (overseeded with Poa Trivialis) are smaller than the PGA Tour average and should run firm and fast (12+ on the stimpmeter). There are also 17 water hazards, along with 88 sand traps to contend with. Wind can also become a primary course defense if it kicks up at any point. TPC Sawgrass is also home to one of the most iconic holes in golf -- the Par 3 No. 17 “Island Green” that sees some packed crowds and a ton of TV coverage, which places immense pressure on every shot golfers will attempt there. However, the closing Par 4 No. 18 is truly the defining hole of TPC Sawgrass… at least in the minds of most players and golf analysts. Water lines the entire 18th hole, and it’s simply a great example of a Pete Dye design that forces golfers to be at the top of their game both mechanically and mentally. The No. 17 and No. 18 holes are largely considered to be the best two-hole finishing stretch of any course on the entire PGA Tour circuit.

TPC Sawgrass is a true second-shot course – meaning it is more important what a golfer does with their approach shots rather than what they do off the tee. Approach shot accuracy is always extraordinarily crucial, but perhaps even more so this week. Ever since this tournament moved to March, most approach shots have come from the 125-175 range, so mid-iron accuracy will be important for golfers this week. Traditionally, nearly 50% of all birdies scored at TPC Sawgrass come on the four Par 5 holes, so everyone should be expected to perform well there; golfers who play the Par 4s at or just below par will be the ones who climb the leaderboard in a hurry. Since the greens are small and feature considerable slope and run-off areas, around the green play should be taken into consideration as well because, inevitably, every golfer is going to need to get “up and down” whenever they fail to hit a green in regulation. TPC Sawgrass is a grinder’s course so players who are mentally steadfast and can manage to avoid posting big numbers will also need to be targeted. With that in mind, those who excel in the “bogey avoidance” metric will take priority as well.

Course experience can be invaluable at TPC Sawgrass. In recent years, around half of all golfers competing at TPC Sawgrass for the first time have gone on to miss the cut. One final note: DFS salaries for this tournament were released earlier than usual, so you may notice some golfers who look to be significantly mispriced, especially for certain golfers who competed well at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. Feel free to take advantage! A more balanced approach will be great for cash games this week, and I’d be extremely wary of delving too far into the “scrub” range, even in the riskiest of GPP builds. One punt play in a lineup seems fine but going with multiple complete long shots feels unnecessary – but that is just one man’s opinion. Good luck this week! Let’s get it!

Weather & Tee Times ⛅

Click the image above to view the most up-to-date forecasts.

⚖️Weather Verdict: The good news this week is that weather conditions look pretty pristine ahead of the cut line over the first two rounds. On both Thursday and Friday, winds will stay around 0-5 mph in the mornings, creeping up slightly in the afternoons, along with a few gusts, but nothing beyond 10-15 mph is expected. Plenty of sunshine and pleasant 70-degree temps on those days as well. The weekend will have other ideas as sustained winds could reach ~20 mph at times with 25+ mph gusts on both Saturday and Sunday. As usual, keep an eye on the forecast in case anything changes between now and Thursday. As of now, no weather/wave advantage.

The PLAYERS Championship Tee Times

Key Stats to Consider 📊

1. Strokes Gained: Approach | 30%

2. Par 4 Average | 20%

3. Strokes Gained: Around the Green | 15%

4. Bogey Avoidance | 10%

5. Par 5 Birdie or Better Percentage | 10%

6. Mid-Iron Accuracy (Proximity 125-175 Yards) | 10%

7. Strokes Gained: Putting | 5%

PGA Tour Stats Page

The PLAYERS DFS Model Standouts 🏅

Below are the top 25 ranked golfers in both my overall model and my key stats model. Below that are the top 25 leaders in average finishing position over the last five and last ten starts. The players ranked on these lists do not necessarily mean they are the top golfers I’m targeting for this week's event, but many of these guys should no doubt be favorable DFS options.

Overall Model Rank: A golfer’s ranking (within the current field) in my personal DFS model, which weighs all of the key stats listed above in this newsletter, as well as factors like course history, recent form, recent average fantasy scoring results, and odds to win.

Key Stat Rank: Provides a golfer’s overall rank (within the current field) in my "key stats only" model, which considers only the key stats listed in the section above with the specified percentage weights allocated towards each statistic.

Pete Dye Course Specialists Rankings

Top-Ranked Golfers in Strong Fields

The PLAYERS DFS Cheat Sheet📑

Click the Cheat Sheet above for the higher-quality direct image link

Alternative Cheat Sheet Direct Image Link

That will do it for our PGA preview! Best of luck this week and, once again, feel free to hit me up in the LineStar chat or on Twitter @Ryan_Humphries with any questions.