Fantasy Golf Insider: 9 players to target at the Wells Fargo Championship

The strongest field since the Masters heads to Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina following a shortened and delayed Monday conclusion to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

DFS owners should be careful of rostering players from last week's event, as the miserable conditions and re-adjustments to their weekly schedule make them risks with only two days rest.

Thirteen of the top 30 players in the Official World Golf Rankings are present this week, including five players from the top 10. Eleven golfers in the field have already won this season, and nine have previously won this event. Rory McIlroy became the first two-time winner of the event with his 2015 victory. It was just one of the 11 event records McIlroy broke or tied last year.

Here's a look at the past three leaderboards (*denotes a playoff):

Per FantasyInsiders, the key stats for Quail Hollow are Driving Distance (DD), Par 4 Efficiency 450-500 Yards (P4E), Par 5 Scoring Average (P5S), and Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (SGT2G). These stats have been strengths of previous winners and need to be used in combination with recent form and course history when building lineups.

Top Tier, Top Dollar, Top Results

Rory McIlroy

McIlroy is sure to be highly owned this week, regardless of his field-leading salary. He won here by seven strokes in 2015, and he prevailed by four shots in his first career tour victory in 2010. Few players have the strength of his course history and no one has the scoring upside of McIlroy this week.

He hasn't played in a tour event since the Masters, giving him more rest than most of the field. He ranks 13th in DD, 12th in P4E, T1 in P5S, and eighth in SGT2G. He hasn't won yet this year but his form is still very well suited for this course and his course history puts him in a tier of his own. He's a must play in cash games and GPPs alike.

Adam Scott

Scott's recent form has faded slightly since back-to-back victories at the WGC-Cadillac Championship and The Honda Classic, but he hasn't missed a cut in nine tries this year. He has been off since finishing 42nd at the Masters.

He's the second favorite, according to the key stats. He's 13th in DD, 28th in P4E, T1 in P5S, and second in SGT2G. Scott missed the cut here last year, and in his two previous tries in 2009 and 2010. He does have two career top 10s at Quail Hollow, including a third in 2006.

Rickie Fowler

Fowler bounced back from his missed cut at the Masters to place 20th in last week's Zurich Open. He made just two bogeys with no scores worse than that. This is the final tune-up for Fowler - and the rest of the field - before he begins his defense of The Players Championship next week.

Fowler ranks 36th in DD, sixth in P4E, third in P5S and sixth in SGT2G. He won this event in a playoff in 2012, fending off McIlroy and D.A. Points. He skipped last year's tournament at Quail Hollow and came 38th in 2014. He has the form and the stats to join McIlroy as the only two-time winners at the Wells Fargo, in advance of his defense of the more marquee event.

Best Value With a Chance

Justin Thomas

Thomas hasn't played since a disastrous weekend at the RBC Heritage. He made the cut at even par, but had rounds of 77 and 82 Saturday and Sunday, respectively. He finished 75th, his worst placing in 12 made cuts this season.

He has since taken two weeks off and returns to a well-suited course. He ranks 28th in DD and 12th in P5S. He came seventh here in 2015, posting a third-round score of 65. He has one of his lowest salaries of the season in this week's strong field, but ownership will be high. Still, he's tough to fade with the possibility of a high finish and a low score.

Bryson DeChambeau

Public perception - and pricing - returns to reasonable levels following DeChambeau's missed cut at the Valero Texas Open. His price soared in advance of his appearance as a professional at the RBC Heritage. A T4 caused his salary to rise even more before the Valero. Entering the Wells Fargo Championship, he's now a bargain.

He doesn't qualify for any of PGATour.com's statistics, but he's averaging 292.4 yards off the tee (which would be T66), and he's averaging .844 SGT2G (good for 32nd). The week off will have given him plenty of time to prepare, and he's a bargain at a decreased price.

Tony Finau

Finau is the second-longest driver on tour, and has already won this season. He has made just eight of 14 cuts, but he has one other top-10 finish and two top 20s to go with his win. In addition to the long drives, he ranks 16th in P5S.

He finished 16th in his first career appearance in 2015. He's a relatively poor putter, but his length off the tee is good enough for a high finish.

If Everything Goes Right

Harold Varner III

Varner is a GPP-only play due to 10 made cuts in 17 events, but he's coming off consecutive top-10 finishes at the Zurich Classic and the Valero. He's a long hitter, ranking 19th in DD and ninth in P5S. He missed the cut here in 2014 but it was just his second-career PGA Tour event.

His price has dropped, even after a top-10 finish, and he still deserves consideration in a deeper field.

Ollie Schniederjans

Schniederjans has missed the cut in two of his past three events, but has finished inside the top 50 in each of his other four tour events this year. Since his last PGA event, he has a 35th, a second (lost in a playoff), a 13th, and a seventh on the Web.com Tour. He ranks seventh in DD and 11th in P4E.

He has never played here before, but he can't be ignored in marquee events, after last year's 12th at The Open.

Sean O'Hair

O'Hair is coming off two missed cuts, removing him from the minds of DFS owners and relegating him to usage in GPPs. He came 10th in the Shell Houston Open, his lone top 10 of the season. He ranks 28th in DD and 30th in P4E. He is a good putter, averaging .429 Strokes Gained: Putting. It could help compensate for other flaws in his game.

Top Fades

Henrik Stenson

Stenson, who almost exclusively uses a 3-wood off the tee, ranks just 75th in DD. He also ranks third in both P4E and SGT2G, and 11th in P5S, but history has shown driving distance to be the most important stat at Quail Hollow. He came 58th last year and missed the cut in 2013.

He's priced near the top end of the elite tier, but his game doesn't match the styles of McIlroy, Johnson, and Scott.

Phil Mickelson

Mickelson followed up a missed cut at the Masters with an even more disappointing missed cut at the Valero. He did make seven of his first eight cuts this season, with three top-10 finishes. His key stats check out, and he does have a good course history, despite never winning. His recent form makes him too much of a risk at a still-elite price.

Hideki Matsuyama

Matsuyama ranks fifth in SGT2G and 16th in P5S, but just 61st in DD and 108th in P4E. He has top-10 finishes in each of his two most recent stroke-play events, but he has a high finish of 20th in two appearances at this event. He doesn't have the distance to win, something likely required of golfers in his price tier.