How to Play Ryder Cup DFS: A Primer

This week kicks off one of the best tournaments in golf -- the Ryder Cup, a three-day tournament that offers a format that differs significantly from your traditional golf event. For DFS purposes, this offers a completely new strategy, and if you're looking for an edge this week, taking advantage of a format that not all are entirely familiar with is a good start.

To start, let's look at the format of the Ryder Cup:

• Friday AM -- Foursomes (Alternate Shot)

• Friday PM -- Four-Ball (Best Ball)

• Saturday AM -- Foursomes (Alternate Shot)

• Saturday PM -- Four-Ball (Best Ball)

• Sunday: Match Play Singles

The first matches will be announced on Thursday; the subsequent pairings will be announced shortly after the conclusion of each segment. You can expect most of the ownership to solidify around those first 16 golfers -- four two-man teams -- as one of the goals is to get as many rounds as possible into your 6-man DFS lineup.

DFS Scoring

In total, 24 golfers make up the player pool -- 12 Americans and 12 Europeans. Building a lineup requires a Captain -- much like in NFL Showdown contests. The Captain is 1.5x his normal price but also receives 1.5x the points.

How the scoring works...

PER HOLE

• Hole Won: 3 points

• Hole Tied: 0.75 points

• Hole Lost: -0.75 points

• Hole Not Played: 1.6 points

• Match Won: 5 points

• Match Tied: 2 points

STREAKS/BONUSES

• 3-Hole Winning Streak: 5 points

• No Hole Lost in Match Bonus: 7.5 points

Strategy

To best break down how the scoring works, let's hear from old friend (checks notes) Andy Lack! Andy wrote a breakdown on a different site back in 2023, and fortunately, I keep all of his archived articles. Ignore his references to the wrong Hojgaard brother, Spieth, and Homa, but other than that, it holds up. Take it away, Andy!

The strategy regarding this should be fairly obvious. Your captain should be a player that you are very confident will be given enough opportunity. Will you be different by making Nicolai Hojgaard your captain? Sure, but if Hojgaard plays twice all Ryder Cup, you are severely diminishing your returns. Even if Hojgaard goes 2-0, and the captain that you select goes 1-4, you are still going to earn far more points from the guy who plays more! Players still get points winning holes in matches that they lose! Opportunity (how much they play) is king in this format, and if you feel that you have an edge in terms of knowledge of who is going to play the most, than this may be a very profitable week for you!

Secondly, points are congruous between teammates. For example, if Justin Thomas makes a birdie on number one to win the hole in four ball (best ball), Jordan Spieth gets the same amount of DraftKings points as Thomas. It’s really not even about making birdies or eagles, it’s about holes won or lost. For example, if you think Cantlay and Schauffele are going to play all four matches together, why not just take Schauffele at the cheaper price? The only way for Cantlay to separate himself from Xander is in Sunday singles, but if they are paired together every match heading into Sunday, they will have the same amount of points.

Lastly, is it smart to try and make your lineup only players that you believe will be paired together? I guess it depends on what your goal is. If you are really high on Xander/Cantlay and Spieth/Thomas as two pairings that will play a lot of golf together and find success, you will stand a lot to gain from placing them in the same lineup. Same deal with if you are high on a certain side. If you believe that the United States will clean up, you definitely stand the most to gain by playing a U.S. only lineup. The counter-argument to that would be that you can hedge more by spreading it out. Let’s say that you have a lineup with a player from each pairing in a morning session. There’s a little more room to get something wrong if one of your players stinks, but you’re also opening yourself up to more chance. For example, if Thomas/Spieth, Cantlay/Schauffele, Scheffler/Burns, and Morikawa/Homa play the morning session, would it be more valuable to have a lineup featuring two full pairings, or one player from each of the four pairings? It really just depends on how confident you are in certain pairings and how big of a stand that you want to take. I think you probably want to shoot for nailing a pairing and riding it. As my friend Kyle pointed out, you are more likely to get three matches right than six.

One last thing: don’t get overly caught up in ownership this week. Projections are going to be off. It’s a tiny field. The way to get different is to leave money on the table and get creative with your captain. Again, I would not recommend getting too creative, but if you can avoid what you believe to be the most obvious build, that’s a decent start. I still see plenty of opportunity to get unique, but it may take a few uncomfortable clicks.

Wow, even a Kyle Hewitt shoutout in there. The writing was on the wall.

Anyway, to recap:

1) You need your guys to play as much as possible; your guys will still score points in losses, so being on the bench is the worst possible outcome.

2) Teammates score the same amount of points, so if Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley play together in all four team matches, the only difference in their points total will be how they fare in singles on Sunday.

3) Ownership is very tricky this week; leave money on the table, get creative with your captain, or try to avoid the most obvious builds.

Related Content

For a complete breakdown on how the course will play this week, check out Steve Schirmer's incredibly detailed breakdown of Bethpage Black.

Hold The Green will have a live betting preview Monday at 9pm EST.

Our premium-only Ball Knowers After Dark show will be Wednesday night at 8 pm EST.

We'll also have a LIVE Ryder Cup pairings reaction show on Thursday afternoon once the Friday AM pairings are announced.

Not a member of ISN? Join now for a special Ryder Cup discount this week only! Enter RYDERCUP at checkout and pay just $8!

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