Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2024 Procore Championship

2024 Procore Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

The absolute folly of the TOUR Championship format was nearly exposed at the end of August when Scottie Scheffler, on the back of a year in which he’s won six times and banked more than $60 million in prize money, looked like he might not win the season-long FedEx Cup race.

Fortunately, the Texan found a way and had PGA TOUR chiefs breathing a sigh of relief that he was able to do just about enough to win the TOUR Championship and thus the FedEx Cup; it would have been red faces all-round had anybody else pipped Scheffler to the post.

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How much we’ll see of the world number one in the weeks ahead remains to be seen. He’ll play in the Presidents Cup, of course, but his involvement in the Fall Swing will likely be limited at best – who can blame him, with a young child and wife waiting for him at home?

For others, the Fall Swing will be vital to shaping their golfing destiny. The eight events that will take us through to the end of the calendar year will hand out two-year exemptions onto the TOUR for winners, plus invitations to Signature Events in 2025 for those who finish at the head of the FedEx standings.

Those ranked inside the top 125 will hang on to their PGA TOUR cards too; those outside will be left cap in hand hoping for invitations and Monday qualifications just to play in standard events next season.

First up, the Procore Championship. You may know it as the Fortinet Championship. Or the Safeway Open. Or the Frys.com Open. Either way, it’s off to Napa in California we go to the North Course at Silverado Country Club.

This is a curate’s egg of a course. Narrow fairways and smaller-than-average greens is a combination that doesn’t exactly hint at an easy, scorable layout, but that’s what the North Course is: Sahith Theegala winning with a score of -21 here a year ago.

The rough is so forgiving at Silverado to be barely distinguishable from the fairway, so the players will have few problems turning a low driving accuracy percentage into a much higher GIR count.

Even so, greens will be missed, and it comes as no surprise to learn that some excellent chippers and scramblers have performed very well here over the years – not least Theegala and the two-time champion prior to him, Max Homa.

Californians have also enjoyed the annual jaunt to this track with its Poa Annua greens, so it won’t shock you to learn that both Theegala and Homa are once again in the Procore Championship field this week, alongside fellow Presidents Cup protagonists Wyndham Clark, Corey Conners, Min Woo Lee, and Mackenzie Hughes.

So, destiny awaits for those who are playing for their PGA TOUR futures. Will one of those guys manage to prevail this week, or will one of the players that finished inside the top-50 of the FedEx Cup standings make their class tell?

Let’s find out in our 2024 Procore Championship sleeper shortlist.

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Beau Hossler – 50/1 – When you look at his performances on all surfaces, Beau Hossler is by far at his best on Poa Annua greens – not surprising for a Californian.

What’s interesting about Silverado is that it allows Hossler’s chipping and scrambling to shine too, because his ball-striking isn’t that great for a player that climbed into the top-30 of the world rankings earlier this year.

In his last four trips to Silverado, Hossler has finished no lower than T30 but without breaking into the top-10. Is this the year he finally takes that next step on home soil?

Mac Meissner – 50/1 – Although he’s the sort of guy that will fly under the radar most weeks, it should not be overlooked that Mac Meissner ranked 21st on TOUR for SG: Tee-to-Green during that main part of the season.

If nothing else, that shows how classy his game is, and it’s worth noting that he’s gained strokes on the field putting in three of his last five starts too – that reveals Meissner’s tremendous upside.

This will be his Silverado debut, but in T5 at the Colonial and T12 at Sedgefield this term, the 25-year-old has shown a favoritism for tight tracks; perhaps the North Course will be right up his street too.

C.T. Pan – 70/1 – If we look at C.T. Pan’s formline since the start of July, we have T2 at the John Deere Classic (excellent in every department) and T18 in the high-grade field of the Olympic Games.

He was striking the ball well at the Wyndham Championship too before withdrawing prematurely with a bad back.

Four weeks later, we have to assume that Pan’s back is better, and hope so too as his excellent chipping and scrambling – allied to a love of Poa Annua greens, thanks to having set up home in Washington where the grass is prevalent – gives him a fighting chance of matching his John Deere Classic heroics.

Although Pan’s record at Silverado is a mixed bag, he was T6 here in 2021.

Andrew Putnam – 80/1 – There’s always going to be an inconsistency to Andrew Putnam’s formline because he is so short off the tee, but at ‘gettable’ tracks he can deliver results.

Is Silverado one of those? Maybe, maybe not: he’s made the cut in four of his last five trips, finishing anywhere from T30 to T43.

The key thing is that he has a rock-solid short game, and when he’s producing quality approach play number – as he has been, by and large, of late – Putnam can overcome his shortcomings, if you’ll pardon the pun, off the tee.

And, as ever, as a Californian he has something of an edge on Poa Annua greens too.

Nick Taylor – 80/1 – Although he’s probably accepting of the decision, it still would have hurt Nick Taylor not to have been selected on the Presidents Cup team for the International side.

He might argue that he’s achieved more in his career than the likes of Mackenzie Hughes and Christiaan Bezuidenhout; not least in his Phoenix Open win earlier this year.

Whether that sparks the Canadian into better form now he has that motivation we’ll have to wait and see, but Silverado – where he has three career top-10s – is certainly a good place to start.

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

Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2024-2025)

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