The PGA TOUR is visiting Long Island this week for the third major of the season. The U.S. Open is always held on a very difficult course, and this week’s stop at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club definitely fits that profile. This will be the sixth U.S. Open at the venue, with Brooks Koepka’s +1 winning score in 2018, with none of the players able to stay under par for the four rounds. It’s going to be another tough test this week, and DraftKings is ready to tee it up with some nice GPP contests, including one contest that has a $1 million top prize and several other big payouts. My top three fantasy golf picks as pivot plays for this week’s GPP contests are Tommy Fleetwood ($9,700), Min Woo Lee ($6,900) and Gary Woodland ($6,600).

Let’s define what we’re searching for in this post, to be sure we’re all aiming at the same target. A fantasy golf pivot play is a golfer with low expected ownership in tournament formats but high upside. These picks go against the grain and typically come with more risk compared to popular options with similar salaries. In large-field tournaments, it’s important to differentiate your lineup with low-ownership plays like these, even though they are NOT the safest options.

These are “grip it and rip it,” boom-or-bust style options that could go off or flame out. Getting players at low ownership is critical for success in GPP tournament-style events with many entries, so making yours stand out is critical. Be sure to check out my companion post to this one that highlights my picks for cash lineups if you’re looking for safer options that raise the floor.

Let’s break down why I like each of my top three pivot plays this week!

Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $2.75M Millionaire [$1M to 1st]

Tommy Fleetwood ($9,700)

This week’s elite field includes six golfers over $10,000 in salary, led by Scottie Scheffler ($14,900) and Rory McIlroy ($12,200). Most lineups will focus on at least one of those players, but Fleetwood makes sense just below $10,000 as a strong pay-up play as well. He’s not a total unknown, obviously, but the 35-year-old veteran isn’t getting quite as much hype as the other big names at the top of the salary structure, making him a solid pivot play this week.

Fleetwood has the advantage of having played Shinnecock Hills in 2018, and he should have good memories from his memorable Sunday charge to try to catch Koepka. He finished with an impressive 63 in the Final Round, which was almost nine strokes above the field average. He finished one stroke short and finished as the solo runner-up. Even though that great run fell short, the experience should serve him well this week.

He comes with plenty of experience and has racked up 11 professional wins in his career, including last year’s TOUR Championship. He has eight career wins on the DP World Tour, including one last October in India. His experience at majors has been mixed, with eight top-10 finishes in 43 career appearances. He has totaled three top-10 finishes at The Open Championship and three top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open, including his runner-up finish in 2018. Since this week’s links-style course is similar to lots of The Open venues, he should be familiar and comfortable with whatever Shinnecock Hills has in store.

He missed the cut at the PGA Championship this year but surrounded that with four top-25 finishes in his last five events, including a T-5 at the Truist Championship, a T-4 at the Memorial Tournament and a T-11 last week in Canada.

His form is strong enough for him to be a great alternative option to the more expensive plays and bring good leverage this week.

Min Woo Lee ($6,900)

While there are lots of very strong plays in the $7K range, I’m going to dive a little deeper for the second two options in this week’s pivot plays. Lee has the potential to contend this week, but he also has the potential to miss the cut badly. His volatility doesn’t work for cash games or “safe” builds, but it fits perfectly in GPP builds, where upside and leverage are paramount.

Lee has mixed in some great finishes this season with a few bad misses. He missed the cut at the Masters and the Memorial by wide margins, and he hasn’t played since that down week at Muirfield Village. However, he has also been in the mix in several big events this season. In his 13 tournaments, he has seven top-20 finishes overall.

His best finish was a runner-up at the wind-blown AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the other coast early in the season. He also posted top-20 finishes at the Cadillac Championship in Florida, the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow, and the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. Those three top-20 finishes had him trending in the right direction before his struggles in Ohio.

Throughout his climb to the PGA TOUR, the 27-year-old from Australia has posted good results on links-style courses, including a win at the Scottish Open in 2021 on the DP World Tour.

He has contended at the U.S. Open in the past with a T-5 in 2023 as one of his three straight top-30 finishes at the event. However, that string came to an end when he missed the cut last year at Oakmont. 

Lee is a volatile play, but I love his upside, and it would be exciting to see him break through for his first major championship win if he can solve the many challenges ahead of him this week. He has that kind of ceiling but also brings a very low floor.

Gary Woodland ($6,600)

Woodland is another cheap player with a chance to post a high finish this week. He isn’t a rising star like Min Woo Lee, but he has been trending up after his amazing comeback from PTSD and a brain tumor.

The 42-year-old was a feel-good story earlier this season when he won the Texas Children’s Houston Open, but he has continued to play well and could be a great fantasy golf pivot play this week at this affordable salary. Woodland finished T-36 at Shinnecock Hills in 2018 and then won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2019. He added another top-10 finish in 2022 and has made the cut in six of his last nine trips to this event, even during the time he was recovering.

This year, his form has been very solid throughout the season. He ranks third in the entire elite field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee over the last three months and in the top 25 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, Total Strokes Gained, and Strokes Gained: Putting.

In addition to his win in Houston, he posted three top-20 finishes in his last six events. He was T-8 at the RBC Heritage, T-17 at the Truist, and T-6 at the Charles Schwab Challenge just a few weeks ago. Woodland has been strong and accurate off the tee, and if his approach game and putter come along, he’ll be ready to continue his renaissance with a good showing at Shinnecock.