The brief Texas swing commences Thursday with the Crowne Plaza Invitational, an event that falls solidly middle pack among PGA Tour fields.

But there’s nothing middle pack about our DraftKings fantasy game this week.

Per usual, there’s the DraftKings $100,000 draft pool game with a $3 buy-in and a grand prize of $10,000 (along with money for the top 7,850 scorers). If you enter your rosters through the link below, you can earn your entry fee back if you beat my main lineup.

Enter the $100K Contest HERE

That’s not all, though!

If your roster is among the three best through the link above, you’re getting one of the following three prizes:

1st Place

First place will get these awesome Mizuno JPX-825 irons with True Temper Dynamic Gold S300 shafts! You will receive the full iron set, 4-GW. That’s a FREE full set of high-performance irons just for picking the right fantasy roster!

2nd Place

Second place gets the TaylorMade SLDR S MINI (12 degrees, TP S-Flex). This metal wood is a unique product that combines the forgiveness of a driver with the versatility of a three-wood, and has been popular with certain Tour pros. For amateurs with driver woes, this is the club for you.

3rd Place

Third place will get Cobra’s Limited-Edition Rickie Fowler Tour Trusty 55-degree wedge. Only 1600 of these were made, and each wedge features special hand stampings designed by Fowler himself!

Cool prizes, right?! All you have to do is enter through the link above and finish in the top three. IMPORTANT: ONLY NEW ACCOUNTS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

Now that you have all this in the ether, here is my advice to help you secure those prizes.

Click to enter.

The Course

Mild winds and softer conditions are expected this week at Colonial Country Club, one of the more respected Tour tracks among the players.

Photo credit: comfortfortworth.com

Nicknamed “Hogan’s Alley” for the great success The Hawk had at Colonial, you would expect the course to get a “ball-striker’s paradise” reputation considering Hogan’s legendary tee-to-green play.

That would be accurate. Colonial is a shorter course with narrow, tree-lined fairways that gets lumped in with layouts like Riviera and Harbour Town for its ball-striking demands and ability to really test players even at a shorter yardage.

Once again looking to key in on these assumptions, I did my usual analysis of the top-10 finishers of the last five events at the course, adding in top 54-hole performers who imploded in the final round to the sample.

The assumptions did well this week. As one would expect with difficult fairways to hit, good driving was the most important predictor of success by a healthy margin at Colonial. The fairways aren’t only narrow, but the dogleg-heavy nature of this layout sets up to cut off attempts to overpower the track, which means a dent to the bomber’s advantage.

That proved true in the sample, with driving accuracy far outperforming length among the group. Almost as many short hitters showed up in the sample as long-hitters, which speaks to a large (but not complete) neutralization of the long ball at Colonial.

Approach play and short game performance proved equally important, not far behind driving. Putting was the least valued party, but not by much. The flatstick isn’t insignificant this week.

Still, like last week, I would steer toward players who tend to be good in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green. Accurate drivers are highly encouraged picks, and there’s really no need to worry about length off the tee.

Some minute factors: Colonial has a lot of green side bunkers, so players with some touch from the sand could be useful. Also, with just two par-fives and a pretty benign set of par-3s, players high in par-4 performance are also something to look out for.

Six-Man Roster (Last Week: 385.5 points, 14697th of 38315)

• Zach Johnson — $12,000
• Ryan Palmer — $9,600
• Graham DeLaet — $8,100
• William McGirt — $7,100
• Bo Van Pelt — $6,600
• John Huh — $6,400

There are a lot of really intriguing, cheaper options in the field, so go ahead and select one of the most expensive players without worry.

No offense to Jordan Spieth and Jimmy Walker, but Zach Johnson has to be the guy here, right? I mean here are Johnson’s list of finishes at this event from 2009-2013: T9, 1, 4, 1, 3.

This is pretty much a Luke Donald at Hilton Head situation, and Johnson is in excellent form with five top-20s in his last six starts. Clearly the course fits him well,; he’s one of the most accurate drivers in the game and perennially among the top-40 in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green. Yeah, he finished 73rd here last year, but that included an uncharacteristic final-round 76 and is outlier performance that is now out of the way.

Palmer is also a bit of a no-brainer pick this week. His recent history at Colonial isn’t Johnson-level, but it’s pretty good, with three consecutive top-15s. Oddly, his game doesn’t scream Colonial with a mediocre short game and a long, inaccurate driver. I’m trusting the results, though, and he’s in the midst of a fine season too.

DeLaet and Van Pelt fall in the same category, both are generally master drivers with high value in Stroke Gained: Tee to Green. Van Pelt is the safer pick. After struggling early this season, he’s really hit a groove making four of his last five cuts, and he’s placed top 20 in four of his last five trips to Colonial. Actually, kind of a steal. DeLaet’s game is admittedly in tough shape right now, but again, that fit is key, especially when you consider that he historically loves par-4s.

McGirt’s had two good performances this year at Riviera and Hilton Head, similar courses to Colonial. He has a decent history here, he’s 37th in Strokes Gained: Tee To Green in 2015 and is a very accurate driver. His game hasn’t been clicking of late, but he closed in 67 at Quail Hollow to finish top 30, which means he may have found something.

As for my bottom guy, I know I picked Huh last week to little avail. But he loves this course, as a T5 and T11 in his first two starts here proves.

Overpriced Player to avoid

Adam Scott — $9,400

The Aussie is actually the sixth-highest salaried player this week, which would usually be a steal, especially with him winning at the Crowne Plaza last year.

I’m staying clear, though. Scott actually has a very mediocre record at Colonial aside from the win and he still seems to be in a massive funk. His putting woes won’t turn around this week.

Cash-Strapped Pick to take a chance on

Scott Piercy — $5,900

This is the kind of guy that Colonial would most like to chew up. Piercy is a wild driver and not a good ball-striker. In spite of that, though, he has a decent record at the Crowne Plaza.

He’s missed his last three cuts, but Piercy’s never been a guy who needs to show any form before a big performance.

Alternate Six-Man Roster (Last Week: 246 points, 37112th of 38315)

• Paul Casey — $9,300
• Charley Hoffman — $9,300
• Brendon Todd — $9,100
• Brian Harman — $7,700
• Chris Stroud — $6,800
• Jonas Blixt — $6,800

Casey, Hoffman, Todd and Harman are my four guys here who’ve shown that they can be excellent Strokes Gained: Tee to Green players. I’d say Hoffman and Todd are the best course fits among the quartet. Casey hasn’t player here much of late, but his old course history is outstanding, and nobody among this group has had a downright awful slate at Colonial. All are in good form as well.

Stroud and Blixt are similar players in that they rely heavily on their play on and around the greens to save them. They both have great histories at this event, and Stroud is playing solid of late. Blixt has missed his last four cuts, but I’m willing to take a flyer on him because his record at this course is so good.

Enter here to win $100K and a chance at our GIVEAWAYS.