World Wide Technology Championship Fantasy Golf Picks: DFS Lineup Advice for El Cardonal

El Cardonal hands out fairways like free samples, so this week’s lineup edge lives on the greens and in the approach game.

Quick take:

• Top play: Ben James ($9,900 on DraftKings)
• Why: He is the hottest player in the field and is priced below the three golfers at the top of the board.
• The number to watch: 88.7 percent, the share of fairways the field hit here last year, the highest of any 2025 Tour event.

The World Wide Technology Championship wraps up the Tour’s two-week Mexico swing at El Cardonal at Diamante, the Tiger Woods design in Los Cabos. It is a par 72 that stretches to 7,452 yards, with large, contoured paspalum greens that putt slowly. It is also the sixth of eight FedExCup Fall events, so a lot of players in the 120-man field are fighting for 2027 status, and that desperation shows up in how hard they attack the course.

Winning scores here have been 27-under, 24-under and 29-under, and defending champion Ben Griffin set the tournament record at 259 last year. Expect birdies in bunches. Wind should run 12 to 15 mph on Thursday and Friday before calming down for the weekend, with dry, mid-80s weather.

Chalk at the Top, Value in the Middle

The top of the DraftKings board is crowded. Jackson Koivun is $10,400, Ryan Gerard is $10,200 and Griffin is $10,000. Gerard is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 23 in the world, with three runner-up finishes and eight top-10s this year. He is also the best tee-to-green player over his last 20 rounds, but he ranks 96th of 112 in strokes gained putting, and putting is the stat that matters most at this course. That makes him a bit riskier than his price suggests.

Griffin is the obvious defending-champion story, and he finished T4 last week in Mexico with a new caddie. Koivun, 21, already has a 3M Open win this year. All three will draw heavy ownership, and spending $30,000 or more on that trio leaves a tight budget for the rest of your lineup.

Ben James at $9,900 is the smarter pay-up. He is the hottest player in the field, with three top-5s in a row before a missed cut in Bermuda and then a T16 at the Mexico Open. He ranks fourth in the field in strokes gained tee-to-green over his last 24 rounds. Harry Hall at $9,400 is another solid mid-tier option after four straight top-25s, and he ranks 18th on Tour this season in strokes gained putting.

Sleepers and Value Plays

Because the course is so forgiving off the tee, the field bunches up, and cheap players with sharp putters or irons can easily outscore their salary. Here are the names worth stacking beneath the stars.

Ben Kohles ($8,500) is playing the best golf of his career. He has finished 29th or better in 11 straight starts, including a T3 at the John Deere Classic, and he ranks first on Tour in strokes gained on approach over the last year. At a second-shot golf course, that is exactly the profile you want. Garrick Higgo ($7,100) is the course-history pick. He finished T4 here last year and T6 the year before, and he ranks third in this field in strokes gained per round at El Cardonal. He also won on paspalum greens at last year’s Corales Puntacana Championship.

Ben Silverman ($6,700) is the budget play. He finished third at the Bermuda Championship and T19 at the Mexico Open, and he is gaining strokes in every area over his last 36 rounds. Luke Clanton ($7,400) is also worth a look. He has finished T7, T11 and T29 in his last three starts, shot under par in all 12 of those rounds, and sits 123rd in the FedExCup Fall standings, so every start matters to him.

Why the Putter Decides This Week

When nearly nine in 10 drives find the fairway, driving accuracy stops separating players. A missed fairway costs only about 0.74 strokes here, so the real separation comes from approach play and putting. Putts per round at El Cardonal rank among the 10 most predictive stats on the Tour for any course.

The field hit 88.7 percent of fairways at El Cardonal last year, the highest of any Tour event in 2025.

That is why a player like Gerard, whose putter is cold, is a riskier bet than his world ranking implies, and why players such as Hall, Kohles and Michael Kim ($8,800) look better than their salaries suggest. Kim is historically one of the better putters in his price range and has three top-10s in his last nine starts.

If you are playing a large-field tournament, it can also help to stay away from the heaviest chalk. Keith Mitchell is $9,600 coming off a runner-up at the Baycurrent Classic, but that salary is $1,900 above his average over his last five starts. Kris Ventura at $9,000, fresh off a T2 and a final-round 63 in Mexico, is the better use of that money. For a deeper look at how these contests work, see our PrizePicks review.

Seamus Power ($8,100) deserves a mention too. He has shot 67 or better in 10 of his 11 rounds this fall and has a history of strong results in Mexico. Scoring is going to be low, so you want players who keep their rounds clean.

This Week’s Lineup Picks

Build around a pay-up who is peaking, then fill out your roster with iron players and putters who can take advantage of the easy setup.

1. Top play: Ben James ($9,900)
2. Value play: Ben Kohles ($8,500)
3. Sleeper: Garrick Higgo ($7,100)

James gives you the form, Kohles gives you the irons, and Higgo gives you a course record that few others in the field can match. If you want live odds as the week unfolds, check the live golf odds page.