2025 Golf Draft Kit: Draft & Salary Cap Strategy

Every year around this time, many of us are in the thick of our fantasy football seasons. It's fair to say that it's the height of the fantasy year. DFS is a big part of fantasy football, but it's not like the thrill and satisfaction we get from season-long leagues, especially our home league with friends that have been ongoing for years.

In fantasy golf, DFS is king. But it's certainly possible to closely mirror season-long fantasy football in golf. We do it at RotoWire, we've been doing it for roughly a quarter-century and for many of us it's the most fun league of the year -- in any sport. That surely has a lot to do with the people in the league, camaraderie forged over many years.

That's all a roundabout way of saying that you can get that same thrill and satisfaction in fantasy golf. It takes only a couple of years to develop the bonds that you feel in your football home league, if even that, so why not start now?

This article will serve as  a guide on how to set it up. Or, if you're already playing in a season-long golf league, this may help you be more competitive or perhaps win the whole dang thing.

THE BASICS

Just like in fantasy football, there are two draft options: snake draft and salary cap draft -- an auction. With RotoWire, we've always done the auction. But lately I've been in industry leagues that use a snake draft. Both are awesome.

A lot of what we'll discuss here will apply to both formats. It's not like in fantasy football where you need to fill different positions. That's not to say there aren't differences between the golfers and what you should be looking for in the draft. More on that as we progress here.

In the RotoWire league, we have 15 teams that draft nine golfers each (135 deep). That is quite a lot and, in all honesty, probably too much. The number of teams has grown over the years. We used to have 10 golfers on a team. But with 15 teams, well, the PGA Tour does not go 150 deep. It really doesn't go 135 deep.

We have a budget of $100. You need at least $1 to draft each guy. Just like in fantasy football, we have starters and a bench. We start a maximum of five golfers every week from The Sentry in January through the Tour Championship in August and just count up the golfers' earnings when they were active in our lineups. Simple. There are a couple of wrinkles. We have bonuses for winning a major. And we divide the 15 teams three ways into a season-long team bet (hmmm, we had teams before LIV had teams). The losing team plays the winning team's entry fee for the next season, while the middle team pays for itself.

We are allowed 10 free-agent moves during the season, at a slight cost. Trades are allowed, but they're hard to pull off, just as in all fantasy leagues. There's not a lot of money changing hands, but that's never detracted from the enjoyment.

Of course, leagues are completely customizable to your needs, beginning with the number of teams, the number of golfers on each team, when you start your season and how much money is at stake. Twelve owners and 120 players? Frankly, that sounds better than what we do in the RotoWire league.

As a bonus, an auction format could help you prepare for a football auction (we have one of those too in RotoWire). While the snake draft understandably is the staple of draft formats, many fantasy football industry types say they like to make at least one of their leagues an auction.

Here's one important component of the RotoWire league: We do not have weekly head-to-head team matchups and we do not have playoffs. It's all aggregate money and everyone plays through the Tour Championship.

In my industry leagues, we do have weekly team matchups and playoffs. We use the Fantrax website as our commissioner platform to conduct the snake draft and score all season long. Fantrax mirrors DFS a little more closely in that scoring is based not on earnings but on birdies, eagles, pars, bogeys, etc.

Really, the strategy for both formats is quite similar: Pick the best golfers. Duh. Really, this isn't rocket science. A lot of it is basic stuff.

Overall, there are two rules to play fantasy golf (or fantasy sports) of any kind:

Rule No. 1: Do your homework.
Rule No. 2: Your homework is never done.

CHEATERS ALWAYS PROSPER

As in, get a cheat sheet. For all your fantasy sports, however you play, you have to know all the potential options, who all the players are, know what the rules of your league are. Like with running backs in football, there aren't enough top golfers to go around. In a snake draft, you clearly will take one of the top golfers when it's your turn in the first round. But in a salary cap draft, you don't necessarily need one of the very best. We've seen guys win the RotoWire league with a top-10 guy to anchor their lineup; we've also seen guys win the league with maybe three more cost-effective top-25 guys.

But full disclosure: Last year, Scottie Scheffler was so dominant that the guy who had him won rather handily. That's a concern that's hard to overcome. It hadn't been a concern since Tiger Woods' heyday.

ROSTER CONSTRUCTION

With the PGA Tour now having so many signature events with their $20 million purses, plus the majors, plus THE PLAYERS Championship, the top golfers play more events than they had in recent years. But they also now tend to play the same events together more than they used to. We still need to fill lineups for all the John Deeres and Mexico Opens of the schedule. You'll need to strike a balance.

In a snake draft, you draft the best golfers you can as early and as often as you can. Depending on how many teams are in your league, you might be able to get two predicted top-10 or top-12 guys. After the superstars come other guys who will be in the signature events. At some point you will be left with lesser guys, at which point you have to consider a variety of characteristics, which we'll detail shortly.

It's more nuanced in an auction format. I've always wanted a big name for the RotoWire league, especially with our majors bonuses, and was fortunate enough a few years ago to get Jon Rahm. He cost me $50, leaving $50 for the other eight guys. That paid off; Rahm was great. A year later, I spent $47 on Xander Schauffele, a threat to win every time out, including in the majors. But it didn't work out. He won only one tournament — the Olympics, which was not part of our league. Three years ago, I was similarly snake-bit by taking Collin Morikawa at $50. He didn't win at all. Two years ago, my bell cow was Max Homa and, thankfully, that paid off (I finished third overall of the 15 teams).

It's possible to pay for two big names, but not the biggest names. In theory, you could spend up to $93 on two guys, leaving $7 for the remaining seven guys on your team. That's an extreme scenario.

It would not surprise me if Scheffler went for $70-plus when we draft in January.

CREAM OF THE CROP

So who are the big guys? You should check the RotoWire rankings. Just about everybody's top three will be Scheffler, Schauffele, Rory McIlroy. Lather, rinse, repeat. But you know what? Last year, Viktor Hovland looked like he was a top-3 guy. Whoever ended up with Hovland was woefully disappointed.

Patrick Cantlay also didn't deliver, neither did Jordan Spieth. He was injured. Ah, yes, injuries, just like in football, though not nearly as prevalent.

Conversely, every year new guys emerge and come out of nowhere to win.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

As you make your way through the draft, here's what to look for as things get deeper after the studs are gone: guys who will play a lot, top-10 and top-25 finishes from the past year, who will make a lot of cuts, who will get into the bigger events (the majors and signature tournaments). And of course, check our Sleepers and Busts.

The top guys are all playing more now than ever before. Why? Is there a dollar sign in money? There are 33 events from the Sentry through the three playoff events ending with the Tour Championship (not including opposite-field tournaments or the Zurich Classic team event, though you can customize however you want). The best guys now should play about 20 times, give or take one or two tournaments.

We'll still need/want to start five guys in the weeks where most of the top guys won't be playing. Here's what to look for with lesser guys, either in an auction or a snake draft:

Of course, the first thing to consider is a golfer's results. But if you focus on golfers with strong tee-to-green play — ball striking, Strokes Gained: Approach, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, greens in regulation — they tend to do well over the long haul. You know how much easier it is when you find the fairway in your weekend game? Same thing for the pros (only 100ish yards farther down the fairway than for us). There tends to be more variance in putting.

Good tee-to-green and approach guys have a higher floor; top putters with weakness elsewhere likely have a higher ceiling.

At the bottom, look for cuts made and guys who play a lot. Two years ago, Mark Hubbard set a record with 39 starts (including the fall, obviously). Last year, Eric Cole played 29 times through the playoffs and didn't even reach the Tour Championship.

See where a guy sits on the PGA Tour's priority rankings list. The higher up he is, the less chance of getting squeezed out of fields that aren't the maxed-out 156. The golfers who play the most are generally the worst golfers (except for the really bad guys who simply can't get into tournaments).

San Antonio or Detroit, for example, may not have the best fields, but if your lesser golfers are playing, they have a puncher's chance to claim a high finish. Every season on the PGA Tour, a bunch of punches connect. Just ask Nick Dunlap, Austin Eckroat, Matthieu Pavon, Jake Knapp, Peter Malnati, Stephan Jaeger, Davis Riley and Jhonattan Vegas. They all were tournament winners last season.

FAST START OR SIT TIGHT?

In the RotoWire salary-cap draft, some owners can't wait to start bidding and owning golfers, making a dent early in the draft. Others like to sit back and see what develops. There's no right or wrong. Just be aware how the draft is unfolding. It can switch gears pretty quickly. Which brings to our next point …

ADJUST ON THE FLY

If it's a snake draft, golfers go in order of how good they are. In a salary cap draft, good or even great players can go long after the start of the draft. If you've done one for fantasy football, you know exactly what this is. A golfer's value will change at various points in the draft, depending on who's been taken, how much money everyone has left to spend and whom you've already drafted. Don't just look at how much money you have, look at all your opponents' balances, too. You need to be able to adjust your thinking. A golfer's value on the course won't change, but his value during the draft will. Pay attention to that, it's very important. One thing we see year after year, if you sit back too long, that last big-name guy up for grabs can end up costing the most, just because he's the last one. If you have 15 teams as in the RotoWire league, not everyone can get a top-10 golfer (math!). And when everyone realizes there's only one left, the price gets jacked.

RECENT HISTORY

You have to look at history, how a guy has done not only last year, but probably the last two. A golfer could have an off year. He could've been hurt for one year. His price surely would go down, but chances are you shouldn't dismiss him entirely based on one year. If a golfer has two bad years in a row, well, then that could be a red flag.

NEW GUYS

The Korn Ferry Tour is GOOD – probably the second-best tour in the world now. Really. The top players are VERY GOOD. There will be 30 KFT grads on the PGA Tour this season. Some are former PGA Tour players who lost their cards. They are largely meh. Focus on the younger guys just making the jump. Will Zalatoris, Cameron Young, Sahith Theegala and Adam Svensson, to name a handful, all emerged in the past few years. Last year, Max Greyserman and Knapp were rookies. Matt McCarty was the top guy who graduated from the KF Tour for this season and we already saw him win during the fall. Again, check out the RotoWire Sleepers and Busts page to perhaps see some of these stars of the future.

Also, college guys. Michael Thorbjornsen led the PGA Tour University standings and has his card for 2025. The college season ends in the spring and the top guys come out ready to compete immediately, like we saw with Morikawa and Hovland a few years back. As an example, Florida State's Luke Clanton is not even a senior and he had two runners-up last season (don't draft him, he'll get very few starts).

NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST

Try to keep emotions out of it. You love a certain guy because you went to the same college, sure. Who doesn't root for Rickie Fowler? Don't simply green-light a guy who did wonderful things for you last year. I have learned to hate just about every guy on Tour — hate is the wrong word, but you get the idea. In fact, if a guy did well for me last year, I think there's no way he can do it again. (Hmmm, if you don't like the guys who didn't do well for you and you don't like the guys who did do well for you, well, maybe counseling is right for you). The broader point is, don't pick a guy because you like him, just as you shouldn't avoid a guy because you don't like him. If the price is right, or the round is right, pounce.

TAKE DEEP BREATHS

Lastly, keep your wits about you during the draft. Stop. Focus. Breathe. It's easy to get caught up in the fast pace. It's easy to get mad if a guy you wanted went one pick before you or went for more than you could pay. It's like real golf: You can only play one shot at a time. You can only play the next shot. Make sure it's right down the middle.