Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2025 RSM Classic

RSM Classic Fantasy Sleeper Report

Adam Schenk served up a timely reminder in Bermuda that all bettors can take heed from: form is temporary, class is permanent.

He’s had an awful year by his own admission, with just a pair top ten finishes and, on two separate occasions, missing six cuts in a row.

Quite what the solution was only Schenk knows – putting one handed in Bermuda perhaps partly the elixir, but it all came together for a man that had, prior to the trip to the island, had gone 242 PGA TOUR starts without a win.

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However, in a low-quality field and in treacherous conditions, Schenk found something – keeping his ball in play while others around him were coming unstuck.

As if to prove the point, he made 16 pars on Sunday… and still that was enough for him to land his maiden PGA TOUR win at the Bermuda Championship.

We shouldn’t forget that Schenk has posted top-20 finishes in The Masters and PLAYERS Championship, as well as a T24 at the U.S. Open. He’s led a series of TOUR events after 54 holes, and lost in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge in 2023.

He’s a quality operator that has knocked on the door a few times before; when handicapping low-class fields and placing our bets, we could all do with remembering that long-term class trumps short term form more often than you might think.

Maybe we’ll get another exhibition of that at the RSM Classic this week. There’s plenty of class at the head of the betting market – Harris English, Brian Harman, Si-Woo Kim, J.T. Poston, Daniel Berger etc – but they haven’t exactly been busy lately. Can they shake off the cobwebs and win on their return to action?

And then there’s impressive maidens, like Michael Thorbjornsen, Rico Hoey, and Denny McCarthy. Could Schenk’s win inspire another first timer to victory?

Variance is added into the mix by the presence of two host courses; each of which has different characteristics. The Seaside Course welcomes the field for one of their opening two rounds, before taking up residence as solo host over the weekend.

His is a short but tight Par 70, where finding fairways and greens isn’t always that easy – especially as the track is exposed to the coastal conditions. The Seaside Course had a scoring average of 69.94, so it plays as a firm but fair test of golf.

The Plantation Course, meanwhile, is anything but. This is a scorable Par 72, protected from much of the breeze by trees, with so many birdie opportunities waiting – rounds of 63, 64, and 65 are commonplace. 

So who will see out 2025 in style? And can we sign off for the season with a win? Let’s take a look in our RSM Classic sleeper shortlist.

Bud Cauley – 60/1 – Ordinarily, preference is for players that have been active, putting some competitive miles on the clock.

So the fact that Bud Cauley has only teed it up competitively once since August is a concern, but his class – and a generous price with the sportsbooks – allows for that general rule to be bypassed.

In 2025, Cauley has finished third, fourth, fifth, and sixth on the PGA TOUR, with two of those coming in classy fields at the PLAYERS Championship and Charles Schwab Challenge.

Confidence should not be in short supply then ahead of a trip to the RSM Classic, where Cauley has a best of T8 and who, after five years away, finished a more-than-respectable T25 here 12 months ago.

Sami Valimaki – 60/1 – At the correlating WWT Championship a couple of weeks ago, Sami Valimaki played beautifully to finish second only to Ben Griffin.

It continues a fine run that dates back to August, where the Finn racked up top-ten finishes in consecutive weeks on the DP World Tour.

Valimaki finished T18 in Bermuda, with only three players shooting lower than his 67 on Saturday. He’s striping it right now, and a fourth PGA TOUR top ten finish of 2025 – or better – could well be in the offing.

Patrick Rodgers – 60/1 – Adam Schenk’s maiden win in his 242nd start on the PGA TOUR was perhaps a reminder that we shouldn’t write off classy types just because they haven’t gotten over the line before.

Patrick Rodgers has posted numerous top tens on the PGA TOUR, including three in the RSM Classic and more at the somewhat correlating Farmers Insurance Open and RBC Heritage.

Rodgers has the tools to win at this level, and given how well he generally putts, you sense he’s just one solid ball-striking week away from contending again.

T6 in his penultimate outing at the correlating WWT Championship, maybe – just maybe – Schenk’s long-awaited win in Bermuda will prove inspirational.

Victor Perez – 66/1 – Given the volatile conditions in Bermuda and the draw bias they created, we can perhaps overlook Victor Perez’s missed cut there.

Instead, let’s consider the positives. He was T11 at the Sanderson Farms and T21 at the correlating WWT Championship within his last four starts, and has a nice fit for the RSM Classic – accurate off the and classy with irons and wedges in hand, setting up the classic birdies-and-greens profile that tends to work well at Sea Island.

At 108 in the FedEx standings, it’s make or break for Perez this week – hopefully a big performance follows accordingly.

Max McGreevy – 75/1 – There might be a feeling of opportunity missed in the Max McGreevy camp, given that he was right there on Sunday and playing beautifully.

He had to settle for T3 in the end, but nobody hit more greens than McGreevy for the week in a continuation of his fine form, having finished T11 at the Bank of Utah Championship in October.

Three wins worldwide in 2024 confirm that McGreevy knows how to get the job done, and as an accurate sort the RSM Classic looks to be right up his street – a best of T16 here certainly whets the appetite. 

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

Cover photo via Instagram