PGA Major-Only Underdog Draft Strategy & Which Players are in Which Majors
Underdog PGA Major-Only Draft Strategy & Major Eligibility List
There are two types of Underdog drafts currently posted in the lobby: Majors-Only drafts and a rest of the season draft. Both will start at The Masters. I’m focusing on the Major-Only draft. I’ll have a rest of the season strategy piece once I dig into that more. But, frankly, the strategy all these PGA Underdog drafts is the same: Draft as much volume as you can get and let it work itself out from there.
There are three contests to focus on:
The Albatross: $10 per entry; $50K to 1st (28,100 Entrants)
The BIG Albatross: $50 per entry; $40K to 1st (4500 Entrants)
The Pat Mayo Open: $25 per entry; $3K to 1st. NO RAKE (798 Entrants)CONTEST FULL
The rules for the three are all slightly different in terms of how many teams advance and size of your group in each Major. The payouts in my contest are much flatter than the giant contest. Because of this, it’s already filling incredibly fast against the other two. The draft room remains the same, however. You draft a team of 10 against five other people and you will carry that team forward to finals at the Open Championship, God willing. There’s no moves to make, just draft a team(s) and sit back.
I have a PGA Draft strategy video up already about the different rules and player targets right now.
PGA Underdog Majors Best Ball Draft Strategy & Different Contest Rules
Here are the three things you need to know before you start drafting:
If you are new underdog, take advantage of the the deposit bonus of up to $1,000. Make your deposit, then draft your teams with the bonus money. This way you’re not stuck forcing pick’em entries to roll over the funds. And who doesn’t want to draft on someone else’s dime? These drafts are the best way to take advantage of the bonus.
CLICK HERE or Use code “MAYO” at underdog for a deposit match up to $1000
2. Take as many players in all four Majors as possible. Seems simple. People still don’t do it. The one caveat to this is the delayed qualification for the PGA Championship.
Since the field for the PGA Championship isn’t officially set until well after The Masters, there are bunch of names you would have assumed were already qualified that currently are not: Ben An, Tony Finau, Corey Conners, Sepp Straka, Taylor Pendrith, Sungjae Im. Its a pretty good assumption to think this group of these players (and probably a few more) will get into the PGA Championship field without issue. But because of this, those players’ ADPs are going later than they probably should.
3. Differentiate your team with your final three/four picks with players who are only currently qualified for two majors. Just make sure it’s the Masters and PGA Championship.
Yes, I realize I said take players in all four Majors, but there just aren’t that many. As of this writing there are only 27. So all those guys will likely be taken by round five. Then you need to start mining for gems. If you target the players currently in only The Masters and PGA Championship, and they play well enough to help your team advance, chances are they’ll end up getting themselves into the final two Majors. Pick wrong, and you probably aren’t going to advance anyway. Of that group, these are my favorite targets:
Sergio Garcia (MAS/PGA) — Since you probably haven’t noticed, Sergio is killing it on LIV right now. He’s spoken openly about wanting to make the Ryder Cup team this year and his frequent conversations with Luke Donald. He’s clearly taken his game far more seriously this year and he’s ball striking at a level which would put him near the best in the world.
Nicolai Hojgaard (MAS/PGA) — Rasmus has been tumbling down the world golf rankings and his spot in the second Major does seem in doubt if he can’t turn it around quickly. Meanwhile, Nicolai has started to play some solid golf again, primarily with his irons and putter. The driving and chipping remains a tad wonky. Still, he just 24, was the DP World Tour winner in 2023, and made a big push at Augusta a year ago before Sunday happened. Plus, he was one of the few to make the weekend in all four Majors a year ago.
Thomas Detry (MAS/PGA) — It’s a tad worrisome Detry is going to be a a debutant at Augusta, but if he can make the weekend, he should score enough from the back end of your team to help you advance. Then it’s on. The Belgian has the perfect blend of T2G combined with solid putting and distance to do damage at the PGA and US Open. In fact, he’s actually finished inside the Top 15 in each of his last three Majors starts (T14 US Open 24/T8 PGA Championship 24/T13 The Open 23).
UPDATED FOR MARCH 31
ALL FOUR MAJORS
Ludvig Aberg
Keegan Bradley
Sam Burns
Patrick Cantlay
Wyndham Clark
Bryson DeChambeau
Matt Fitzpatrick
Tommy Fleetwood
Brian Harman
Russell Henley
Billy Horschel
Viktor Hovland
Brooks Koepka
Shane Lowry
Robert MacIntyre
Hideki Matsuyama
Rory McIlroy
Phil Mickelson
Collin Morikawa
Jon Rahm
Aaron Rai
Xander Schaufelle
Scottie Scheffler
Cameron Smith
Jordan Spieth
Sahith Theegala
Justin Thomas
THREE MAJORS
Byeong Hun An (MAS/US/OPEN)
Jose Luis Ballester (a) (MAS/US/OPEN)
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (MAS/US/OPEN)
Akshay Bhatia (MAS/US/OPEN)
Corey Conners (MAS/US/OPEN)
Tony Finau (MAS/US/OPEN)
Justin Hastings (a) (MAS/US/OPEN)
Tyrrell Hatton (MAS/PGA/OPEN)
Tom Hoge (MAS/US/OPEN)
Sungjae Im (MAS/US/OPEN)
Dustin Johnson (MAS/US/OPEN)
Chris Kirk (MAS/US/OPEN)
Matt McCarty (MAS/PGA/US)
Joaquin Niemann (MAS/PGA/OPEN)
Matthieu Pavon (MAS/US/OPEN)
Taylor Pendrith (MAS/US/OPEN)
Justin Rose (MAS/PGA/OPEN)
Adam Scott (MAS/US/OPEN)
Sepp Straka (MAS/PGA/OPEN)
Davis Thompson (MAS/PGA/US)
TWO MAJORS
Evan Beck (a) (MAS/US)
Brian Campbell (MAS/PGA)
Rafael Campos (MAS/PGA)
Laurie Canter (MAS/OPEN)
Cameron Davis (MAS/PGA)
Jason Day (MAS/PGA)
Thomas Detry (MAS/PGA)
Nick Dunlap (MAS/PGA)
Nico Echavarria (MAS/PGA)
Austin Eckroat (MAS/PGA)
Harris English (MAS/PGA)
Sergio Garcia (MAS/PGA)
Nicolai Hojgaard (MAS/PGA)
Rasmus Hojgaard (MAS/OPEN)
Max Homa (MAS/PGA)
Zach Johnson (MAS/OPEN)
Noah Kent (a) (MAS/US)
Patton Kizzire (MAS/PGA)
Thriston Lawrence (MAS/OPEN)
Maverick McNealy (MAS/PGA)
J.T. Poston (MAS/PGA)
Davis Riley (MAS/PGA)
Vijay Singh (MAS/PGA)
Nick Taylor (MAS/PGA)
Min Woo Lee (MAS/PGA)
Jhonattan Vegas (MAS/PGA)
Kevin Yu (MAS/PGA)
Richard Bland (PGA/US)
John Daly (PGA/OPEN)
Padraig Harrington (PGA/OPEN)
Luke Clanton (a) (US/OPEN) — if he stays an (a)
ONE MAJOR
Daniel Berger (MAS)
Angel Cabrera (MAS)
Fred Couples (MAS)
Lucas Glover (MAS)
Max Greyserman (MAS)
Michael Kim (MAS)
Tom Kim (MAS)
Stephan Jaeger (MAS)
Bernhard Langer (MAS)
Denny McCarthy (MAS)
Jose Maria Olazabal (MAS)
Patrick Reed (MAS)
Adam Schenk (MAS)
Charl Schwartzel (MAS)
J.J. Spaun (MAS)
Hiroshi Tai (a) (MAS)
Bubba Watson (MAS)
Mike Weir (MAS)
Danny Willett (MAS)
Cameron Young (MAS)
Will Zalatoris (MAS)
Rich Beem (PGA)
Dean Burmester (PGA)
Jason Dufner (PGA)
Rickie Fowler (PGA)
Harry Hall (PGA)
Lee Hodges (PGA)
Martin Kaymer (PGA)
Shaun Micheel (PGA)
Taylor Moore (PGA)
Alex Noren (PGA)
Jimmy Walker (PGA)
Karl Vilips (PGA)
YE Yang (PGA)
Trevor Gutschewski (a) (US)
Daniel Brown (OPEN)
KJ Choi (OPEN)
Stewart Cink (OPEN)
Darren Clarke (OPEN)
David Duval (OPEN)
Ernie Els (OPEN)
Darren Fichardt (OPEN)
Ryan Fox (OPEN)
Julien Guerrier (OPEN)
Todd Hamilton (OPEN)
Rikuya Hoshino (OPEN)
Shugo Imahira (OPEN)
Ryggs Johnston (OPEN)
Matthew Jordan (OPEN)
Romain Langasque (OPEN)
Paul Lawrie (OPEN)
Marc Leishman (OPEN)
Justin Leonard (OPEN)
Curtis Luck (OPEN)
Matteo Manassero (OPEN)
Tom McKibbin (OPEN)
Guido Migliozzi (OPEN)
Francesco Molinari (OPEN)
Dylan Naidoo (OPEN)
Bryan Newman (OPEN)
Niklas Norgaard (OPEN)
Thorbjorn Olesen (OPEN)
Louis Oosthuizen (OPEN)
Ryan Peake (OPEN)
Marco Penge (OPEN)
Antoine Rozner (OPEN)
Jordan Smith (OPEN)
Sebastian Soderberg (OPEN)
Henrik Stenson (OPEN)
Justin Suh (OPEN)
Jesper Svensson (OPEN)
Matt Wallace (OPEN)
Paul Waring (OPEN)