Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2022 PGA Championship

2022 PGA Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

There’s no place like home, and K.H. Lee must be thinking about packing up his family and moving to Dallas full time.

It’s the city in which two best moments in golf have come – namely, winning the 2021 AT&T Byron Nelson and then successfully defending his crown just this past week.

With less than a handful of top-10s to his name on TOUR in the past year, times have been tough for the Korean, but he found some form at just the right time at the TPC Craig Ranch venue he clearly loves, and his sublime final round – one eagle, seven birdies, zero bogeys -was always going to take some beating.

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Plenty tried – Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama and Texas king Jordan Spieth were there or thereabouts, but new dad Lee was not to be denied at what has very much become his ‘happy place’. 

Whether Lee and the rest of the PGA Championship field are as enamoured with Southern Hills Country Club this week remains to be seen, as the early signs suggest they are in for a tremendous battle with the elements.

Measuring a whopping 7,546 yards for its Par 70, Southern Hills has been renovated by Gil Hanse with the aim of stripping it back to its original ideals laid out by designer Perry Maxwell. 

So while fairways have been widened and trees removed, grass has been shortened to bring more of the bountiful water hazards and bunkers into play, while Hanse has gone to town on the Bentgrass greens – shaving edges, creating false fronts and exacerbating the already steep contours that some of the putting surfaces have. 

With just two Par 5s that will play around 630 years, scoring chances are at a premium at Southern Hills – it could be one of those weeks where making par on certain holes is a real result.

With the weather forecast for Tulsa, Oklahoma also suggesting that strong winds could be in play, the conditions may well act as a leveller – perfect for a sleeper play or a long odds selection to outlast the field when the going gets tough.

And so, in that spirit, here’s our 2022 PGA Championship sleeper shortlist – featuring those players well placed to keep things simple and keep big numbers off their cards.

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Daniel Berger – 60/1 – One of the reasons that Daniel Berger is a fine player in the wind is that extraordinarily low-ball flight, which has seen him triumph twice at TPC Southwind (the clue is in the name) and at Pebble Beach too.

A fantastic iron and wedge player, Berger might be on the short side for what we might consider an ideal Southern Hills candidate, but he ranks first on TOUR for approaches in the 200-225 yard range – that shows that he can get it done on the longer stretches.

A rock-solid scorer that is generally competent in keeping bogeys off his card, Berger is made of the right stuff to challenge for the title this week.

Tony Finau – 60/1 – When you think of the classiest operators that are currently plying their trade without a major to their name, Tony Finau has to be in the conversation.

He’s long, a first-class ball striker and is happy to grind out par with the best, but a suspect short game is what will always hold him back you feel.

What’s interesting about Finau is that he’s a better putter, relatively speaking, from longer distances than he is close up, and given the contours and ledges on the greens at Southern Hills that might just be of interest if three-putts are on the cards for some.

Corey Conners – 66/1 – In his last six strokeplay starts, Corey Conners has served up a formline of 21-12-6-35-26-11.

So the Canadian is very much knocking on the door of PGA TOUR win number two, and given that he ranks inside the top-20 on TOUR for both SG: Tee-to-Green and Scoring Average, he is as well equipped as many for what Southern Hills will throw at him.

Putting is the main area of concern for Conners, but with a stack of decent showings on Bentgrass greens to his name, we have to expect exponential gains in that department from him this week.

Max Homa – 75/1 – This is an excellent price on a player with a recent PGA TOUR victory close in his rear view mirror.

We talk about ball-striking a lot on these pages, but with Homa it really is the ingredient that makes him a potential winner – he peppers fairways and greens, and has developed his putting stroke to the point that he now ranks inside the TOUR’s top-30 putters.

His Wells Fargo victory came on Bentgrass greens just a few weeks ago, so the omens are strong for another quality showing.

Jason Kokrak – 100/1 – The greatest strengths of Jason Kokrak’s game are his long drive and his reliable putting stroke – both useful attributes to have when playing golf anywhere on the planet.

But his approach and around-the-green stats were much better than usual at the Byron Nelson, and so suddenly we have a player that is hitting the ball well in all departments.

Factor in his fondness for Bentgrass greens, and the fact that he tends to be found higher up on leaderboards in difficult conditions, and Kokrak is a worthy candidate to round out our squad of sleepers this week.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2021-2022)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”2.80%” bar_text=”4 out of 140 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “16.42%” bar_text=”23 out of 140 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”20.00%” bar_text=”28 out of 140 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”3.57%” bar_text=”1 out of 28 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”3.57%” bar_text=”1 out of 28 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”55.00%” bar_text=”77 out of 140 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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