Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – The Masters Tournament (2015)

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for The Masters Tournament from Augusta National

Event Preview

The first major of the year is finally here as the best golfers from all corners of the world unite for the Masters; one of the most well known events in all of sports.  The hallowed grounds of Augusta Golf Club has hosted this event for the past 81 years and has seen its share of legendary victories—Jack Nicklaus has the most at six.  Other top names such as Tiger Woods (4), Phil Mickelson (3) and Bubba Watson (2) have multiple wins here and will be fairly high up on the Vegas odds once again this week.

Players from outside of the U.S. have been taking over much of the golf spotlight lately as evidenced by taking a look at recent winners here with four of the past seven victors hailing from somewhere other than the U.S.

Despite Augusta being a challenge for anyone who tees it up here players have always stepped up their games for this event.  Proof if this fact is in the numbers as we’ve seen the winner score in double-digits under par at four of the past six events with three of those going into a playoff.

Last year, Bubba Watson earned his second green jacket behind a four shot swing with Jordan Spieth that occurred over holes eight and nine as he went on to finish with a score of eight-under.  Only seven players were under par in the tournament, making Watson’s three rounds at better than 70 that much more impressive.

The PGA TOUR has seen some tremendous golf leading up to this week with four of the past five victors are among the top-12 golfers in the Official World Golf Rankings.  Last week, it was J.B. Holmes who defeated both Jordan Spieth and Johnson Wagner at the Shell Houston Open with a score of 16-under-par behind an amazing Sunday when he shot a 64, including just 29 strokes on the front nine.

Even though there aren’t many players in this event that would be considered a “sleeper,” let’s look through some of the golfers who have higher odds and see if we can find some players who can put up an unexpected performance on the biggest of stages.

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The Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The Fantasy Sleeper Report

In an effort to continually provide our Premium Members with the best fantasy content anywhere on the web, this week we’ve added a bonus “Sleeper Report” to help you identify the undervalued, long-shots that can help you score some bonus fantasy points this weekend.  Mix and match these players with your usual rosters (or play them separately) to get the most out of your picks this week.

• Keegan Bradley – 66/1: Bradley already has one major victory in his back pocket as he won the 2011 PGA Championship, so he knows what it takes to win on the big stage.  He hasn’t done particularly well at Augusta, doing no better than 27th in three attempts, but Keegan has made two cuts and is coming off a solid fifth-place in Houston this past week.  He’s a streaky player and the momentum of that top-five could vault him up the leaderboard this week as he brings his 12th ranked driver (302.8 yards per) and solid ability to gain strokes from tee-to-green (1.082, 13th on Tour) into the first major of the year.  Getting back to using the short putter has certainly hampered his ability once on the greens, but he’s becoming more comfortable with it the season goes on and if he can find his groove with the short stick he could be a factor coming down the stretch.
• Brooks Koepka – 66/1: Long-ball hitters typically fair well at Augusta and Koepka does just that with his drives going for 307.8 yards per (4th on tour), leading to a scoring average of 69.90 (8th on tour).  Not only has he been hitting the ball a mile, Brooks has shown finesse with 0.518 strokes gained putting (22nd on tour) and draining 79.8% of his putts from 4’-8’ (2nd on tour).  He already has one win this year and has made all seven of his cuts but did need to withdraw from the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a rib injury.  All indications are that he will be fine for this week and is looking forward to his Masters debut after getting a top-15 finish in two of the last three majors—including fourth at the U.S. Open.  The rib injury could scare a few people away, but as long as he is out there, his threat of power off the tee and precision on the greens should have him perform well at Augusta.
• Ian Poulter – 80/1: It’s well known that Poulter typically is a better golfer during match play, but he has done very well at the Masters over the years, getting a top-25 finish in six of the last eight years and missing the cut just once.  He has also shown up in a few of the PGA events this year with strong performances, failing to get the win, but earning five top-25s in just seven starts.  Unlike the first two players on our list, Poulter is not a power golfer, but is solid in most categories as he hits a bunch of fairways (63.5%, 62nd on tour), putts well (0.280 strokes gained putting, 54th on tour) and can get out of the sand with efficiency (58.2%, 38th on tour).  At some point Poulter is going to break out in a big event and why should that not be at the major in which he has had tons of previous success.
• Chris Kirk – 125/1: The University of Georgia alum has played in just one Masters Tournament over his seven-year career, and that came last season when he placed 20th while shooting one-under following an opening round 75.  He’s been in the top-30 at three of the past four majors and played very well in the horrible conditions of the Valero Texas Open, finishing eighth with a score of one-under.  Kirk is one of the better golfers when tasked with getting it up and down, successfully doing so 67.7% of the time from the sand (5th on tour) as he ranks in the top-50 in scrambling (61.9%, 49th on tour).  His putting is hit-or-miss, but when he gets to the fourth round he is averaging a mere 26.38 putts on Sunday (4th on tour) and if he can get there this week he could be one of the few players who can handle the pressure despite not being there before.
• Steve Stricker – 150/1: Stricker will make his season debut this week and will be way off the radar for most people, but despite his very poor odds heading into Augusta, he has made the cut here in his last six visits and has three top-20s in that period.  His last tournament was the U.S. Open back in August and there he was able score a 69 or better each day, eventually landing in seventh place for the event.  The 48-year-old does not have too much power left in the tank, but he is a great putter and with this being his 15th time in this event, he should be able to harness some of his experience to overcome the tough obstacles of the course.  The veteran has 12 career PGA wins, so he knows what it takes to win, and should be there on Sunday to compete for the top spot.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions?  Check out our full fantasy preview for this week’s Masters Tournament Here.

Cover photo by Dan Perry on Flickr