Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2022 PLAYERS Championship

2022 PLAYERS Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

On these very pages we spent many a word wondering aloud when Scottie Scheffler would break his PGA TOUR title drought.

Immensely talented, Scheffler had tripped himself over in contention a few times before prevailing at the Phoenix Open – signaling the start, perhaps, of a catalogue of victories.

But even he must have been surprised by how quickly win number two came around – and especially given the circumstances.

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Scheffler posted a steady -5 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational – not the kind of score you would necessarily expect to win in a non-major.

But as the conditions toughened, with the already slick-greens playing ultra fast, Scheffler found a way to minimize his own errors while taking full advantage of those from the likes of Talor Gooch, Viktor Hovland, Billy Horschel and Gary Woodland – all of whom had a sniff of the Sunday lead at one time or another.

But was we’ve seen countless times before, winning breeds incredible confidence – and a rock-solid two putt from more than 60 feet on the final hole would, in the end, prove more than enough for Scheffler to bank a second winner’s check in barely a month.

Could he make it a hat-trick at THE PLAYERS Championship? Stranger things have happened out on the golf course, and certainly at TPC Sawgrass.

If you are a seasoned golf bettor already, you probably know about this Ponte Vedra track already – Pete Dye’s masterwork, with severe doglegs, no two holes playing consecutively in the same direction and, if our data is to be believed, more gallons of water hazard in play than on any other standard rotation layout on the PGA TOUR.

There’s plenty of bunkers too, and a fierce breeze is expected to blow this week – although the forecast thunderstorms and rain may just help to slow the greens down a tad, which will be to the relief of many in this field.

And what a field it is. Defending champion Justin Thomas leads the way, with Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay all hoping to get their hands on a maiden PLAYERS title. Rory McIlroy and Webb Simpson, already winners of golf’s ‘fifth major’, will be hoping they can double up, while Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele will be keen to serve up a reminder of their credentials.

It’s a high-class field at a top-notch layout, and that usually lends itself to a sublime week of golf. Whether or not a long-shot outsider can get the job done remains to be seen, although given the depth of the field there are some elite operators available at odds of 50/1 and even longer.

So who makes the grade in our PLAYERS Championship 2022 sleeper shortlist?

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2022 PLAYERS Championship Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

Joaquin Niemann – 50/1 – Many golf bettors have a bias against backing those that have won recently.

But as Scheffler proved last week, it’s still possible for many to go deep so close to a prior success, and given the prestige – and the prize money – on offer at THE PLAYERS, we can only assume that Joaquin Niemann will be very much up for the scrap.

The Genesis Invitational champion is a sublime ball-striker who can shape the ball both ways off the tee, and his strong tee-to-green game is tailor-made for the test provided by Sawgrass.

T29 here in his sole visit to date, the Chilean will be looking for a hefty improvement on that this week.

Adam Scott – 55/1 – One of the concerns about Adam Scott is that he relied so heavily on the flats tick for T26 at Bay Hill last week.

But the Aussie was in supreme ball-striking form at the Genesis, and his improvement with the flat stick – allied to an ability to keep his ball out of trouble – should stand him in excellent stead.

How about this for a record at Sawgrass – nine consecutive cuts made, with a top-10 and four other top-15 returns, is as good as anything you are likely to see around this treacherous stretch.

Webb Simpson – 80/1 – What we’re getting here for 80/1 is an elite player who hasn’t played competitively since January.

So backing Webb Simpson represents a gamble in all senses of the word, but having witnessed him almost lap the field on his way to winning at Sawgrass in 2018, he is pretty hard to resist at such meaty odds.

Simpson has won twice more since his PLAYERS triumph, and at tracks where there’s a premium in grinding out par he continues to be a force to be reckoned with….when he decides to enter a tournament or two, that is.

Jason Day – 80/1 – We could pretty much copy and paste our Webb Simpson blurb for Jason Day.

That said, the Aussie has been slightly more busy of late, and you may recall that he was right in contention at the Farmers Insurance Open before settling for a T3 finish.

No matter where his game is at, Day has a habit of coming up with the goods at TPC Sawgrass – 35-8-5-60-1 is his most recent return, even when his swing has been in the doldrums – and so in seemingly better heart these days, he has to be worth chancing.

Alex Noren – 120/1 – A former winner at Wentworth, another heavily tree-lined and doglegging layout, Alex Noren heads to Sawgrass in good spirits.

The Swede has finished T5 at the Honda Classic and T6 at the Phoenix Open within his last three starts, and his grinding game and knack for avoiding bogeys should see plenty of return at Pete Dye’s masterpiece.

Noren will be making his fifth trip to Sawgrass, and while he has missed two cuts he also has T10 and T17 finishes to his name.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for THE PLAYERS Championship here.

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2021-2022)

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