Another signature event on the PGA Tour is here as we head to Orlando for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. These are the toughest conditions we see in a regular PGA Tour event year after year. We are going to look for bombers who have a decent course history around Bay Hill. You need the complete bag around Bay Hill. As much as driving distance is important, you need to be able to control your irons into these firm greens and have a great short game. Let’s take a look at the best DFS plays by range ahead of this year’s Arnold Palmer.
2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational: Best DFS Plays By Range Invitational.
Upper Range: Rory McIlroy $10,600
Rory is a staple in Orlando year after year. He has won this event and has multiple top-five finishes with that. The narrative around Rory is not great right now, which should keep his ownership in check. Rory actually hit his irons well in Palm Beach, which has been nagging him of late.
What I love most about Rory at Bay Hill is his apex height on shots into greens. These greens are very hard to hold, but Rory hits a very high ball, which allows it to land from a steeper angle, leading the ball to stay rather than skip through.
This will be a big factor and keep Rory atop the leaderboard over 72 holes. He is a great first click at the top of the Arnold Palmer Invitational DFS board.
Mid Range: Sungjae Im $8,000
No one is going to click Sungjae Im at this price, as he is in horrendous form. He has hit his irons as badly as ever, but it will click for him sooner than later. Sungjae is a grinder and does not play badly for long.
I will continue to play him at low ownership because there will be a week that he will pop, and we will be on him sub 10%.
Lower Range: Emiliano Grillo $6,900
Grillo is one of my favorite plays this week. Last year, he gained over 10 strokes of ball striking and lost nearly all of it on the greens. That is very Grillo-esque, but he has figured out the putter of late.
This is almost the exact profile we saw of Luke List at Riviera last year, and he is content this year. I am bullish on Grillo in 2024 as a whole, and I really believe he can contend in this field.
