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Expert picks for the Safeway Open

Luke List has the skill set to find success this week in Napa, California. Quinn Harris/Icon Sportswire

After a short break, the PGA Tour returns this week for the Safeway Open in beautiful Napa, California.

Our panel of ESPN and FantasyGolfInsider experts have laid out the players whom they believe have the skills to succeed and provide big fantasy point totals.


Picks to win

Webb Simpson

Looking to parlay some momentum from one season to the next, Simpson is back at it just two weeks after playing in the Tour Championship for the first time in 13 years. The 2012 U.S. Open champion tied for 13th at East Lake and had three top-10 finishes in his last five starts. -- Bob Harig

Kevin Na

For a guy who's never won the tournament he sure has performed well here the last few times he's played the event with three top seven finishes since 2014. What's going to make this week successful for Na is his long term experience on Tour. So many of the guys playing this week will be trying way too hard to get off to a great start for the year. Na's advantage will be his attitude around the course. -- Michael Collins

DraftKings value picks

Mackenzie Hughes

Ball-striking and hitting off the tee are his strengths, and we've got some history to go off of, though a very small sample. Last year he shot three rounds of 69 and a final round 68 and he did so by having a hot putter. If the rest of his game holds strong this week and the hot putter shows up he should easily pay off his salary and put you in the top of GPPs. -- Taras Pitra

Luke List

Silverado Golf Course is a perfect place for scorers to thrive and one of the very best scorers on par 5s and eagle makers on tour is List. Last fall, we saw him excel with four straight top-15 finishes. At only $7,900, I think he scores enough DraftKings points to easily pay off his price this week. I think he is a fine play for cash games and GPPs. -- Jeff Bergerson

Seamus Power

The 30-year old Irishman had a great debut season on the PGA Tour after playing in Rio last year, and managed to sneak his card back for another year by finishing 25th in the Web.com finals. Although he missed the cut on the number last year at the Safeway, he ran off a streak of made cuts after getting his first nervous event out of the way, and managed a top-10 finish (Canadian Open) and four top-25s last year. Power was above average in both avoiding bogeys on his card and scoring, but struggled finding fairways which was his main downfall. Power will have his work cut out for him on Silverado's narrow fairways, but he was strong on approach play and very strong in scrambling. Power was also a par-5 stud in 2017, ranking highly in overall scoring and as one of the better birdie or better scorers as well. -- Adam Daly

FanDuel value picks

Maverick McNealy

One of the best parts of following the PGA Tour during the fall is that you get to see a lot of new, young talent in action while the rest of the fantasy world is focused on the NFL. McNealy played his college golf at Stanford. For parts of 2016 and 2017, he was ranked as the No. 1 amateur golfer in the world. In 2015, he won the Haskins Award which is presented annually to the best college golfer in the country, following in the footsteps of Tiger Woods. He's made some cuts in previous starts on the Tour and although his experience is limited, his upside is incredibly high for his price. Play him now before other owners discover his talent. -- Zach Turcotte