Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2024 Black Desert Championship

2024 Sanderson Farms Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Kevin Yu, ranked 144 for the season for SG: Putting, putts the lights out, gains more than two strokes on the field with the flatstick, and wins his maiden PGA TOUR title at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Golf, eh?

If you saw Yu’s incredible improvement on the greens coming, fair play to you. But, once again, the Sanderson Farms Championship was proof that if you think you’ve seen it all in golf, you need to think again.

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Yu and his closest rivals in Jackson, Beau Hossler and Keith Mitchell, will head north-west to Utah for the brand-new Black Desert Championship this week.

Hossler, who would lose in the playoff to Yu, and Mitchell, who had two putts to either win or join them on the extra holes, both have previous form to call upon at TPC Scottsdale and TPC Craig Ranch.

Why’s that relevant? Well, those two courses were designed by the late, great Tom Weiskopf, who was also on design duty for this week’s host venue, the Black Desert Golf Resort.

Set against the remarkable backdrop of the red lava rocks of Greater Zion, the Black Desert course combines the incredible natural landscape with Weiskopf’s love of Links golf. 

Hence, there’s no trees on the real estate, while artificial lakes and water hazards have been kept to a minimum. Instead, Weiskopf has let nature take its course, with undulations informing the fairways and the Bentgrass greens. 

Native grasses have also been left to grow wild in the rough, although given how wide the fairways are at Black Desert – this is a resort course that is open to members of the public – its doubtful that many of the pros will be too inconvenienced this week.

Like the Procore Championship and Sanderson Farms that have come before it, the Black Desert Championship is likely to be something of a putting contest once again, especially with such a benign weather forecast in the area.

Indeed, the switch from Bermuda to Bentgrass greens could prove to be the key difference-maker this week.

The FedEx Fall is blighted with weak fields, and the Black Desert Championship is no different – the likes of Mitchell (16/1), Kurt Kitayama (25/1), and Chris Kirk (28/1) the shortest-priced runners as per the sportsbooks.

So is there a chance of a long odds winner this week? Absolutely. But who will it be? Well, that’s the tricky part. 

But even so, we offer up our Black Desert Championship sleeper shortlist, with five picks that have what it takes to win in Utah.

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Harry Hall – 50/1 – Although he’s seemingly disappeared from the radar, those who follow the DP World Tour will know that Harry Hall has been keeping busy on European soil.

The Brit, who won the ISCO Championship in July, has since followed up with T12 in the British Masters and T18 in the BMW PGA Championship, where he tied the score of Si-Woo Kim and Byeong Hun An and finished just one shot adrift of the likes of Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry.

Fairly long off the tee, Hall’s approach play has improved immeasurably since the summer – and that’s an intriguing combination given that his short game, and Bentgrass putting in particular, are so strong.

Doug Ghim – 50/1 – When Doug Ghim works out how to putt, the rest of the PGA TOUR will be put on notice.

The other elements of his game are excellent; in fact, Ghim hasn’t lost strokes to the field on approach since March.

So he’s setting up plenty of birdie looks….without necessarily taking them. Reasons to be positive? He has some form on Bentgrass greens, as well as top-20 finishes at two key Tom Weiskopf designs in TPC Scottsdale and the CJ CUP Byron Nelson.

When it clicks on the greens, Ghim will surely contend.

Matt McCarty – 66/1 – Although his is a name that might be new to some golf fans, Matt McCarty has just served up an all-time season on the Korn Ferry Tour.

He’s won three times on that tour since July, in amongst five other top-five finishes, so it would be fair to say that McCarty is one of the most exciting KFT prospects in some time.

It can take some time to adjust when stepping up in grade, admittedly, but given how weak this field is, how good McCarty is, and the fact that he was T2 at the Utah Championship as recently as August, there’s plenty of converging trends that support the left-hander’s chances this week.

Ben Kohles – 75/1 – You might recall the CJ CUP Byron Nelson back in May.

It was the scene of Taylor Pendrith’s maiden PGA TOUR title, but it might have been the site of Ben Kohles’ first win too but for some mistakes that you might expect a maiden to make.

He’s delivered some impressive approach play numbers in the FedEx Fall so far, and the fact he managed to finish T16 at the Sanderson Farms whilst posting negative SG: Putting numbers confirms how well he’s striking the ball right now.

So can Kohles turn heartbreak at a different Weiskopf layout into glory at another?

Hayden Springer – 80/1 – Hayden Springer has three top tens to his name on the PGA TOUR since the end of June – each coming at a bomb track in which he’s been able to lean on his driver.

Two of that trio came on Bentgrass greens too, where Springer’s flatstick – inconsistent for the most part, but excellent when things are flowing nicely – has popped.

A round of 59 at the John Deere Classic highlights his ability to hang in low-scoring shootouts – another of which we might expect this week, and – if nothing else – this two-time winner on the Canadian Tour in 2023 knows how to get business taken care of.

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

Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2024-2025)

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