UNDERDOG SCRAMBLE RETURNS PLAYER RANKINGS & DRAFT STRATEGY

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Apr 03, 2025

Load up with as many Signature Event players as possible
Extra starts at CJ Cup Byron Nelson the key to advancing from Round 1
High end Euros/Internationals typically play in Canada and Scotland as extra starts
Aim to get 6 players in every tournament. It may not be possible so as many as you can.
Do not draft any LIV golfers
Don’t forget to take advantage of the deposit bonus and draft your teams with the bonus money

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Additionally, there is another style of draft also starting at The Masters which is just for the Major Championships. I wrote up the strategy for that contest here:

MAJORS ONLY UNDERDOG DRAFT STRATEGY

UNDERDOG SCRAMBLE RETURNS STRATEGY

Like the original Underdog Scramble drafts to kick off 2025 so much of navigating these contests is getting as many players on the course as possible. Since finishing position doesn’t matter: Win through volume. When we drafted Scramble teams in January you saw players like Eric Cole, Jake Knapp, Ben Griffin, Nick Dunlap, and Si Woo Kim drafted much higher than expected because Round 1 of the year-long contest featured a bunch of second-tier events at easier courses; loading up on players who would actually play in those events was key, especially if they also had status in the signature fields which (mostly) guaranteed all four rounds without a cut.

Although your teams were likely damaged after Round 1, there was no getting to Round 2 without winning Round 1. That was the trade off.

CONTEST RULES

Round 1 (April 10th - May 11th)

The Masters
RBC Heritage
The CJ Cup Byron Nelson
Truist Championship

Round 2 (May 15th - July 15th)

PGA Championship
Charles Schwab Challenge
The Memorial Tournament
RBC Canadian Open
U.S. Open

Round 3 (June 19th - July 20th)

Travelers Championship
Rocket Mortgage
John Deere Classic
Genesis Scottish Open
The Open Championship
At the end of Round 1, the top one (1) performing entries in each Group will advance to Round 2 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 2 will consist of 4,680 entries in 390 12-person Groups.
At the end of Round 2, the top one (1) performing entry from each Group will advance to Round 3 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 3 will consist of 390 entries in a single 390-person Group.
At the end of Round 3, the top one (1) performing entry from the Group will be the Grand Prize winner and prizes will be awarded to all entries in Round 3 (as described below).

In the Scramble Returns, the strategy is somewhat inverted:

Round 1 consists of just 4 events, One being a Major and two others being No-Cut signature events. Although it’s not a guarantee, everyone qualified for The Masters, Heritage, and Truist will likely play in those events.

The soft spot in these drafts is constructing a team of 10 players, six of which who will also play in the The CJ Cup Byron Nelson to maximize your points. It’s worth noting Corales, Zurich, and Myrtle Beach do not count towards the scoring.

Fortunately, using the Season-Long Planner tool on Fantasy National, we can search the early commitments to the The CJ Cup along with the players who participated last year and work from there. Then use general logic to try and guess who will play at Craig Ranch at the beginning of May. Since it’s the CJ CUP, expect almost all the South Korean golfers to participate since CJ is most of their main sponsor. Like how any player sponsored by RBC inevitably plays in the Canadian Open each season. Also, CJ CUP usually gets a bunch of Texas born/resident golfers, along with last year’s winner and some former champs.

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Here’s what we know if we’re making a short list of golfers who may play in all four Round 1 events:

Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris have already committed to playing CJ Cup. As have Ben An, Sungjae Im, KH Lee, and Si Woo Kim. Si Woo Kim is not qualified for the Masters however.
Taylor Pendrith is almost a lock to play as he’s the defending champion.
Stephan Jaeger, Tom Hoge, Adam Scott, Jason Day, and Aaron Rai have all played in this tourney each of the past three years.
Tom Kim and Jordan Spieth are likely participants but do not have guaranteed status to signature events (both in The Masters) although each is on the short list of exemptions for the SEs.
Mav McNealy is currently inside the AON Next 10 and should receive automatic invites to both Signature Events based on his position in those standings. He’s played this event the past three years.
Michael Kim is Masters, Heritage and Truist and Craig Ranch as his home course in Dallas. I spoke with him Thursday and he was still undecided on whether or not to play. Seemed like he was leaning on playing though.

Again, outside of the firm commitments, no one is a lock to play. And even then, Scheffler may decide to skip the signature event the following week. But you need to play the percentages to maximize the starts for your team.

I’d aim to grab at least six of these players in my drafts if possible. If I’m sitting in round 9/10 and I do not have at least six of these guys, and you’re already covered for the Majors/Signature Events with the rest of your team, it’s time to add some second rung golfers who will definitely play in as many secondary events as possible the rest of the season so you can be covered for each of the rounds.

Targeting players who are in all the signature events but do not have Major status is a great way to pick up extra starts since they’ll need to play as much as possible to retain their TOUR cards or grind to make the Majors: Adam Hadwin, Austin Eckroat, Max Greyserman, Cameron Young, JT Poston, Cam Davis, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and Chris Kirk all fit this criteria. So along with the SEs and periodic Majors, you may be able to nab some starts at the John Deere Classic, Rocket Mortgage, Colonial, etc.

Also a reminder that European/Worldwide players tend to gravitate towards both the Canadian Open and Scottish Open for extra starts. All Canadians will participate in the Canadian Open. This is law.

The most difficult part of this draft is figuring out Round 3. If you load up on the SE/Major players (as you should), it’s likely you’ll be devoid of players for Rocket Mortgage and John Deere Classic. Making matters worse, if any good players wind up playing in Detroit, it’s quite unlikely they’ll make the trek to Silvis the following week for the JDC. (Although Michael Kim did tell me he plans on playing JDC this year, along with the Scottish Open if he is qualified for the British Open too). It may be impossible to construct a team where you can field six players in every event in Round 3 without giving away the upside in the previous rounds to actually advance to Round 3. But we can try.

The one point I haven’t made is you actually need these players to do well in some events. That’s somewhat unknowable, though. I can more accurately project which players will play in which tournaments so I’m focusing on that and praying I get lucky.

If you’re truly trying to maximize your volume, I think your team of 10 should resemble something like this:

4 top players who are in Majors, Signature Events and Byron Nelson.
2 international/RBC/Canadians who are in Majors, Signature Events, and will likely play the Canadian Open/Scottish Opens.
4 Second tier players who preferably are already qualified for Signature events but will need to grind out the secondary events to keep status or qualify for bigger events.

This is really the only way to MAYBE max out your lineups. But there are three skeleton key players currently going undervalued in drafts.

Taylor Pendrith — After the absolute elite tier (Scottie and Rory), you can make a solid case for Pendrith at No. 3 overall. He’s in all the SEs, every Major but the PGA Championship (which he should qualify for when the time comes based on World Ranking), will likely defend his title at the Byron Nelson, play in the Canadian Open, and probably show up to Detroit for the fourth consecutive year. Playing the Rocket Mortgage would make it five weeks in a row for him, but he did it last year so it’s on the table.

Aaron Rai — This one is a bit riskier because his status has changed so much over the past 12 months. The Brit is in all Majors and SEs, will almost certainly play Canada and Scotland while Rocket Mortgage, CJ Cup, and Colonial are on the table for him too. Rai has played those events each of the past three years, but it’s worth remembering he HAD to make those starts because he was trying to get into the bigger tournaments, which he has now done. But if we’re projecting max upside, he’s a lock Top 10 player if he makes all three of those extra starts.

Si Woo Kim — Si Woo’s precarious Majors status actually makes him an attractive option for the lesser events. He’s currently qualified for none of the Majors. Doesn’t mean we won’t see him at the PGA/US Open, or British Open if he plays well enough. But his trump card is having automatic status to all the SEs. What you’d want is Si Woo being close enough to the Top 50 in the World Rankings and needing to play Rocket Mortgage and John Deere to accumulate enough points to get into The Open at the end of this tournament. You should be covered at The Masters based on your draft, and Si Woo fills holes at CJ Cup and Colonial, if he decides to take on extra events he’ll be one of the higher scorers.

These are two other players currently going late or undrafted that I am immediately putting in my queue at the begining of each draft. They can help fill out starts in the loser tournaments.

Adam Hadwin — Like Si Woo is in all the SEs, but none of the Majors. But now he’s almost outside the Top 80 in the world ranks so he’ll need as many starts as possible to keep a full card for 2025. He already has a history of playing CJ Cup, Rocket Mortgage, and John Deere and is going to play Canada for sure.

Michael Thorbjornsen — This can be whatever player you like who is primarily going to play all the secondary events and have a good shot of doing well. I’ll take my chances on the 23-year-old uber prospect who needs to play every event he can to make sure he doesn’t need to go to KFT next year.