Niche Sports

TENNIS

We recommend utilizing a seven-round standard serpentine draft with four owners (or a five-round serpentine draft with five owners or six owners).  For the seven-round format, three men and three women must be selected with one additional “wild card” of either gender at each owner’s discretion; for the five-round format, two men and two women must be selected with one additional “wild card” of either gender at each owner’s discretion.  Tournaments to be utilized will be the Grand Slam  events in 2026.  For each of these five tourneys, point selection is as follows: 3 points for making the quarterfinals, an additional 5 points for making the semifinals, an additional 7 points for making the finals and an additional 10 points for winning the tournament.  Additionally, we are adding the final standings in the ATP and WTA as a “fifth category” — 25 points for finishing 1st in the standings, 15 points for finishing 2nd, 8 points for finishing 3rd, 5 points for finishing 4th and 3 points for finishing 5th.  Here’s the schedule of included events for this year:

Australian Open (January 12-February 1), French Open (May 24-June 7), Wimbledon (June 29-July 12), US Open (August 39-September 13).  In terms of when the respective seasons are complete, the WTA Finals end November 22 and the ATP Finals end November 16.

2026 FANTASY TENNIS DRAFT BOARD

NOTE: In 2024, we added two columns to the draft board: where each player ranks on the ATP/WTA rankings at the previous year and the ranking that they accrued on our system in the previous year by gender.  We have also broken out how everyone scored in the majors in 2026.

Players Rk FDH Aus French Wimb US ATP/WTA Total
1 Aryna Sabalenka 1 3 15 8 25 25 73
2 Carlos Alcaraz 1 2 3 25 15 25 25 93
3 Jannik Sinner 2 1 25 15 25 15 15 95
4 Iga Swiatek 1X 2 4 8 25 3 15 51
5 Amanda Anisimova 4 6 15 15 8 38
6 Novak Djokovic 4 5 8 8 8 8 8 40
7 Coco Gauff 3 3 8 11
8 Alexander Zverev 3 7 15 3 8 26
9 Taylor Fritz 6 8T 8 3 3 14
10 Jack Draper 2X 10 0
11 Ben Shelton 9 8T 8 3 3 14
12 Felix Auger-Aliassime 5 10T 8 3 11
13 Madison Keys 7 3 3
14 Elena Rybakina 5 3 3
15 Zheng Qinwan 0
16 Jasmine Paolini 8 3 3
17 Jessica Pegula 6 10T 8 3 11
18 Alex de Minaur 7 13 3 3 3 9
19 Naomi Osaka 14T 8 8
20 Lorenzo Musetti 3X 8 10T 8 3 11
21 Casper Ruud 0
22 Daniil Medvedev 0
23 Clara Tauson 0
24 Mirra Andreeva 9 3 3
25 Victoria Mboko 0
26 Iva Jovic 0
27 Ekaterina Alexandrova 10 0
28 Belinda Bencic 14T 8 8
29 Hubert Hurkacz 0
30 Emma Navarro 3 3
31 Tommy Paul 17T 3 3 6
32 Frances Tiafoe 3 3
33 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 0
34 Karolina Muchova 3 3
35 Andrey Rublev 0
36 Taylor Townsend 4X 0

The 2026 mock draft was held on January 10, 2026 with the following FantasyDrafthelp.com contributors: Danny Stancu, Mike Vili, Ilia Stancu, Jon Adams and Rick Morris.

FIRST ROUND
Rick Aryna Sabalenka
Mike Jannik Sinner
Danny Carlos Alcaraz
Ilia Iga Swiatek
Jon Amanda Anisimova
SECOND ROUND
Jon Novak Djokovic
Ilia Alexander Zverev
Danny Coco Gauff
Mike Taylor Fritz
Rick Jack Draper
THIRD ROUND
Rick Ben Shelton
Mike Zheng Qinwan
Danny Felix Auger-Aliassime
Ilia Madison Keys
Jon Elena Rybakina
FOURTH ROUND
Jon Jessica Pegula
Ilia Alex de Minaur
Danny Mirra Andreeva
Mike Daniil Medvedev
Rick Jasmine Paolini
FIFTH ROUND
Rick Naomi Osaka
Mike Frances Tiafoe
Danny Lorenzo Musetti
Ilia Iva Jovic
Jon Casper Ruud
SIXTH ROUND
Jon Andrey Rublev
Ilia Belinda Bencic
Danny Ekaterina Alexandrova
Mike Karolina Muchova
Rick Clara Tauson
SEVENTH ROUND
Rick Hubert Hurkacz
Mike Eva Lys
Danny Alexander Bublik
Ilia Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Jon Karen Khachanov
GOLF

We recommend utilizing a seven-round standard serpentine draft with five owners (or a six-round standard serpentine draft with six owner or a five-round standard serpentine draft with seven owners).

This year, we are modifying our “Scheffler vs. The World” rule, since it has been close to a foregone conclusion from 2022-24 that Scheffler owners won their leagues, but Scheffler wasn’t enough to swing leagues on his own in 2025.  This year, an owner who would forfeit every other pick to get Scheffler would still have a better-than-even chance to win your league.  Instead of our 2025 rule that Scheffler owners would not receive any other picks, this year we urge leagues to allow Scheffler owners to draft as many players as everyone else — but with the remaining picks coming at the end of the draft, all in a row.  Scheffler owners would get skipped from the time of his pick until the very end.

Because there are only a handful of tournaments that include a cross-section of the world’s best golfers, we urge you to use only these events for your league’s scoring system.  In so doing, the emphasis is kept on the skill level of the golfers as opposed to rewarding those golfers who thrive in the majority of events with the weaker rosters of competitors.  This method uses the four major tournaments, the eight signature events, the Players Championship and the Tour Championship.  These are the events utilized, in the order that they appear on the schedule, with the major tournaments in bold:

Pebble Beach (February 9-15), Genesis Invitational (February 19-22), Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 5-8), The Players Championship (March 12-15), The Masters (April 6-12), RBC Heritage (April 16-19), Cadillac Championship (April 30-May 3), Truist Championship (May 7-10), PGA Championship (May 14-17), Memorial Tournament (June 4-7), US Open (June 18-21), Travelers Championship (June 25-28), British Open (not The Open) (July 16-19), Tour Championship (August 27-30).

Scoring for the signature tournaments, the Players Championship and final FedEx Cup standings is as follows: 90 points for 1st  place, 76 points for 2nd place, 60 points for 3rd place, 50 points for 4th place, 40 points for 5th place, 30 points for 6th place, 26 points for 7th place, 20 points for 8th place, 16 points for 9th place and 10 points for 10th place.  These points should be awarded also to the Top 10 finishers in the final FedEx Cup standings, which essentially makes the Tour Championship a “double points” event, since it has the same final standings as the FedEx Cup.

Scoring for the 5 major tournaments is as follows: 135 points for 1st place, 114 points for 2nd place, 90 points for 3rd place, 75 points for 4th place, 60 points for 5th place, 45 points for 6th place, 39 points for 7th place, 30 points for 8th place, 24 points for 9th place and 15 points for 10th place.

So, elephant in the room, for the players who left the PGA Tour for the blood money, they should still be eligible in your leagues since some will be able to still play the majors (at least in 2026).  Regrettably, it’s still unclear if they will be able to play the regular PGA events as a result of this Frankenstein’s creation proposed merger of the two circuits.

2026 FANTASY GOLF DRAFT BOARD

NOTE: The columns on the draft board refer to their score on the FDH scoring system in 2025, the final World Golf standings of 2025, rankings for Top 10 finishes in 2025, rankings on the 2025 PGA money list and rankings for score on the 2024 tour.  We threw in LIV rankings for 2025 and where everyone scored on the FDH scoring system in 2024 as well.  LIV golfers are listed in bold:

Golfers FDH Top 10 Score $$ World Liv 24 FDH
1 Scottie Scheffler 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 Rory McIlroy 4 4T 2 3 2 3
3 Russell Henley 2T 2T 4 4 4 14
4 Justin Thomas 5 4T 9 6 5 12
5 Tommy Fleetwood 2T 4T 3 2 6 24
6 Patrick Cantlay 1X 6 16T 9 21 9
7 Harris English 7 23T 11 11 10
8 Ludvig Aberg 15 10T 15 14 5
9 Collin Morikawa 13 23T 18 8 4
10 Xander Schauffele 23 3 2
11 Sam Burns 10T 18 21 22 11
12 Keegan Bradley 9 10T 19 12 11 25
13 Corey Conners 10 7T 17 24
14 Justin Rose 8 16T 10 12
15 Cameron Young 22 13
16 Ben Griffin 24 2T 6 8 17
17 Robert MacIntyre 21 10T 8 14 9
18 Sepp Straka 16 10T 10 7 13
19 Hideki Matsuyama 2X 22 22 16 7
20 Sahith Theegala 8
21 Wyndham Clark 6
22 Sungjae Im 10
23 Maverick McNealy 18 7T 21 16 19
24 Matthew Fitzpatrick 20 16T 19
25 Viktor Hovland 23 23 15 13
26 Jordan Spieth 23T 15 15
27 JJ Spaun 17 10T 7 5 7
28 Shane Lowry 3X 11 20 23 16
29 Brian Harmon 23T 24 23
30 Lucas Glover 12 16T
31 Harry Hall 16T 5
32 Nicolai Hojgaard 12
33 Byeong Hun An 18
34 Kim Joo-hyung
35 Max Homa
36 Will Zalatoris
37 Jon Rahm 1 21
38 Bryson DeChambeau 4X 19 18 3 20
39 Aaron Rai 24
40 Cameron Young 14 7T 20
41 Billy Horschel 17
42 Chris Gotterup 23T 14
43 Thorbjm Olesen 13
44 Alex Smalley 16
45 Kurt Kitayama 23T 17
46 Andrew Novak 16T 19
47 Adam Scott
48 Tony Finau
49 Jason Day 5X 23T

The 2026 FantasyDrafthelp.com mock draft will be be conducted shortly with these FDH contributors: FDH Managing Partner Rick Morris, FDH Contributor Phil B, FDH Lounge Dignitary Jon Adams, FDH Lounge Dignitary Jeff Maslanich, FDH Golf Editor Tom Denk, FDH Lounge Dignitary Bob Benak, FDH Lounge Dignitary Bob Glassman and FDH Contributor Bob Jesitus.

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