Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2024 PGA Championship

2024 PGA Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Consider appetites to be well and truly whetted ahead of the PGA Championship.

Three of the big guns of world golf – Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, and Rory McIlroy – will head to the Valhalla club in Louisville, Kentucky having won on their last start.

In the case of McIlroy, that came courtesy of another win at Quail Hollow – one of his happiest hunting grounds in world golf – where he accelerated home on Sunday while Xander Schauffele put his own title charge into reverse.

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It was the Irishman’s fourth win in the Wells Fargo Championship, and despite the Signature Event status also one of his easiest – the five-stroke margin of victory even allowing for McIlroy to make a double-bogey at the 72nd hole.

Perfect prep for Rory then, who lest we forget won the PGA Championship the last time it headed to Valhalla in 2014.

Have they or haven’t they? That’s the question posed about the Schefflers, who have done excellently well at keeping news of their baby on the downlow. The assumption is that Scottie will play this week – buoyed, perhaps, by becoming a father for the first time.

And then we have Brooks Koepka, who was so impressive when winning the Liv Golf event in Singapore, and given his love of the PGA Championship – and the fact that Valhalla should play to his strengths – he too is an obvious contender in a heavyweight battle.

Sprinkle in a dose of Rahm, Morikawa, Schauffele, Aberg, DeChambeau, and many more besides, and you have the recipe for a fantastic tournament.

A word or two about Valhalla. This stretch has hosted the PGA Championship on three occasions and the Ryder Cup too, so it’s a layout held in high esteem by many.

And why not? It’s long – super-long, in fact – at around 7,600 yards for its Par 71, and with some rain in the forecast, softened fairways could see the layout play even longer.

There’s plenty of sand on the real estate, some thick tree-lines and stark doglegs, and length at every turn – five of the Par 4s weigh in at 480+ yards, three of the Par 3s are 190+ yards, and the fourth of the shorter holes could play up to 250 yards!

The Bentgrass greens are on the small side too, while the rough will be allowed to reach four inches – considering the forecast of rain and sunny spells, that could grow at a rapid rate too even in the space of a few days.

But there’s drivable Par 4s too, so it’s not all doom and gloom, with two of the three Par 5s likely to be two-shot holes for the longest hitters in the field.

So it’s tough but not wholly unmanageable, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see plenty of birdies made this week – interspersed with a stack of bogeys when the tiny greens are missed on the wrong side.

The majors are stacked with quality at the head of the field, but then there’s plenty of options for longshot backers at 50/1 and longer odds too – in that spirit, here’s our 2024 PGA Championship sleeper shortlist.

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Matt Fitzpatrick – 60/1 – It’s hard to get an accurate read on where Matt Fitzpatrick’s game is right now – perhaps that explains this lofty 60/1 price.

On the one hand, he wasn’t very good at the Wells Fargo Championship, losing strokes to the field on approach and on the greens.

But there’s plenty of impressive results in his rearview mirror, including solo fifth at the PLAYERS, T10 at the Texas Open, and a solid T22 at The Masters.

Fitzpatrick knows what it takes to win a major – that’s always a handy start when the pressure is on, and at his best he can beat the rest of this field. These 60/1 odds are generous, then.

Sahith Theegala – 66/1 – One of the tasks facing bettors this week is deciding how much importance they place on the Wells Fargo.

It’s the kind of event where players go through the motions when not in contention, happy to take home a decent paycheck and meet their TOUR management obligations.

So maybe we can forgive Sahith Theegala a quiet week at Quail Hollow, even if it wasn’t all bad – he gained strokes on the field with his ball-striking, continuing a long run of quality in that department, and instead had a tough time on the greens.

But Theegala is a classy operator with flat stick in hand, we know that, so there’s plenty of scope for an immediate bounce back this week.

Sungjae Im – 70/1 – Historically, Sungjae Im has come to the fore in tough conditions thanks to his solid all-round game. So if Valhalla does play tough, it could play into the Korean’s hands.

The archetypal Im performance sees him find plenty of fairways, hit greens, scramble well when he doesn’t and make putts – that blueprint swept him to T4 at the Wells Fargo, which was his best PGA TOUR performance in some time.

He will take confidence aplenty with him to Valhalla then, and don’t forget he has shown his class at a rain-softened major before – T2 at The Masters in 2020.

Corey Conners – 90/1 – We don’t know for certain how Valhalla will play, but if it is tough then simply doing the basics right, keeping out of trouble, and recording a high GIR count will certainly come in handy.

Corey Conners is amongst the best in the business when it comes to doing the simple things right from tee-to-green, and while his putting remains, a concern it is reassuring to know that Bentgrass greens have been responsible for some of his best flat stick shows.

The Canadian is one of those players who could take advantage if the big names don’t fire, and it’s worth noting that he has five major top-20s to his name since 2021 – he is able to hang in this elite company.

Nicolai Hojgaard – 150/1 – You don’t have to think too hard to recall Nicola Hojgaard troubling the top of the leaderboard at The Masters.

It was a reminder of the Dane’s fine talents, and proof that he could go on to become a multiple-time winner on the PGA TOUR.

He will be looking to harness his incredible length at Valhalla, where we hope he can remain straight enough to avoid what could be rather juicy rough.

If he does, Hojgaard has the other pieces of the puzzle in place to go close at a major once more – a slight improvement in his final round and the Dane would have posted a Masters top-10 just three starts ago.

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

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