Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2023 BMW Championship

2023 BMW Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Between January and the start of June, Glover played in 13 events, missed eight cuts and enjoyed a best finish of T36.

Between June 11 and Sunday at the St. Jude Championship, Glover has played eight times, recorded six top-20s and won twice.

A new putter is the physical, tangible reason for his uptick in fortunes, but the truth – alluded to by the former U.S. Open champion in interview – is that he has shaken off the psychological demons that bring with them the yips and various other gremlins.

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Glover asserted control on the field early at TPC Southwind, betrayed few nerves or finishing line fears and, even when confronted by the fast-finishing Patrick Cantlay, remained resolute in his approach.

In truth, Cantlay rather tossed away their playoff, hitting his drive on the first extra hole into the drink. But Glover remained unmoved – his recent granite-like form guiding him to a second PGA TOUR title in as many weeks.

He could have the week off and still contest next week’s TOUR Championship, but that’s not the done thing so all 50 of the FedEx Cup leaders will tee it up at Olympia Fields for the BM,W Championship.

What awaits the players is as much a mystery to them as it is to us, with the North Course at Olympia Fields hosting this event in 2020 and various other men’s, women’s, seniors and amateur majors in years gone by.

In 2020, it was very much a major test again with only five players finishing under par – Jon Rahm eventually getting the better of Dustin Johnson, via a 66ft winding putt no less, in a playoff.

The muscular nature of that duo will not have gone unnoticed, and the North Course is a brute at 7,300+ yards for its Par 70. That leads to a number of long Par 3s and 4s plus a pair of Par 5s measuring 600+ yards – a three-shot deal for the vast majority in this field. 

Tight lines off the tee, plus dense bunkering around the heavily-contoured greens, explains why Olympia Fields has been hand-picked for majors in years past. Plotters will be punished by a lack of length on rain-softened surfaces, while bombers will be bedeviled by juicy rough should they miss the fairway by far.

It is, then, quite a puzzle to try and solve for bettors. While Glover has obliged at long odds in recent weeks, the concern is that the stiff test provided by Olympia Fields will ultimately play into the hands of the thoroughbreds at the top of the betting market.

But so deep is the field that there are some handy sorts priced at 50/1 and longer, so there’s optimism that a sleeper pick or two can contend. But who are these mystery men? Let’s take a look in our 2023 BMW Championship sleeper shortlist.

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Wyndham Clark – 50/1 – With troubling lurking off the tee, the big old bombs of Wyndham Clark are always likely to be in danger at TPC Southwind if he doesn’t rein his natural instincts in.

He should enjoy fractionally more slack at Olympia Fields, and that will please a player in the midst of his breakout year no end. Clark has won twice since May, of course, backed by approach play numbers that are almost off the chart in terms of improvement.

Already a reliable short game operator, Clark is fast becoming the complete, modern golfer – now he just needs even more silverware to prove it.

Sam Burns – 50/1 – Although it would be easy to write off Sam Burns as a bomb-and-gouge merchant, this is a guy with wins at Colonial and Innisbrook – two tight, doglegging tracks that take some getting.

Olympia Fields is very much in that lineage, and so Burns – with the requisite length needed – should enjoy the assignment.

Off color at the St. Jude Championship, Burns has combined top-20s in decent company at the Wyndham Championship and Scottish Open in the past month, so he’s certainly no forlorn hope in Illinois.

Cam Davis – 65/1 – Talk about finding your form at the right time!

At one point, it didn’t even look as though Cam Davis would make the FedEx Cup playoffs, but here he is now having played his way into the top-50 – three consecutive top-10 finishes at the St Jude, Wyndham and 3M Open to thank for that.

Suitably long off the tee with the necessary ball-striking and scrambling chops, Davis needs another big performance to force his way into the TOUR Championship – who would wager against him achieving exactly that this week.

Keegan Bradley – 65/1 – Cold, oh so cold was Keegan Bradley on the greens at TPC Southwind.

These things can happen, and there’s no fear of something more untoward for a player who has gained strokes on the field putting in five of his previous seven completed outings.

Long and straight off the tee, Bradley has thrived at layouts like Innisbrook and TPC River Highlands, so shot shaping comes naturally to a player that should enjoy similar requirements at Olympia Fields.

Si-Woo Kim – 75/1 – Although not the longest in the field, Si-Woo Kim still proved he could send it at the U.S. Open, where he drove the ball further than the field average on his way to a decent top-40 finish.

His approach play remains exemplary, gaining strokes on the field with wood, iron and wedge in all seven of his completed finishes since the start of May, so the basic tenets of a trophy run are in place.

T14 at the St Jude was his best finish in a while, and a player with previous of putting well on Bentgrass greens will require little encouragement to improve in Illinois.

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

Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2023-2023)

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