Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2015 Quicken Loans National

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2015 Quicken Loans National

The 2015 Quicken Loans National Preview

The PGA TOUR now heads to Gainesville, VA for one of the fresher tournaments on TOUR, the Quicken Loans National (formally the AT&T National), which has been held annually since the 2007 season.  The event is one of five during the year with “invitational status” and will feature 120 participants as Tiger Woods and his Tiger Woods Foundation host at the par-71, 7,385-yard course which has been the site of four President’s Cup tourneys between 1994 and 2005.

The field this year is very top-heavy with three top-15 players in No. 7 Justin Rose, No. 8 Rickie Fowler, and No. 14 Jimmy Walker making the trek to Virginia.  They are joined by No. 30 Bill Haas from the top-30 in the Official World Golf Rankings.  Also making his way to the course will be Ollie Schniederjans who is making is pro debut after being the No. 1 amateur in the world and finishing in 12th with an impressive score of nine-under-par at the Open just a few weeks ago.

As with most of the non-major PGA events, plenty of Americans have won here in the past with Tiger Woods winning his own tournament on two separate occasions (2009, 2012).  Most of the other installments of this event have finished with a fairly low score, the best outing being a score of 13-under twice—once by Tiger Woods (2009) and once by Nick Watney (2011).  The outlier here is Englishman Justin Rose, who took down the trophy twice, including last year when he won with the lowest score (-4) since the inception of the tournament.  He won in a playoff over Scott Piercy in what was obviously a hard-played event with a mere 10 golfers posting red numbers at week’s end.

As the FedExCup season begins to near its end, it’s more important than ever for players to perform if they want to be in the top-125 at the conclusion of the regular season in four weeks.  So let’s take a look through the field at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club to see which “sleepers” see who has a chance at cashing a big check.

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The 2015 Quicken Loans National Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The Quicken Loans National Fantasy Sleeper Report

Mix and match these players with your usual rosters (or play them separately) to get the most out of your picks this week.

• John Senden – 50/1: It isn’t so much the entire body of work that Senden has put together this year that gets him a spot here, but rather his consistent play as of late which has earned him a visit to the weekend in six of the last seven events; ranking in the top-15 three times during that stretch.  His experience will also aid him against a pretty weak field this week as the two-time TOUR winner most recently won in 2014 and has proven he can still be among the best in the game with a 14th place finish at the U.S. Open, an eighth at THE PLAYERS, and a tie for fifth at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championships.  Senden does not have the length off the tee (288.3 yards per, 107th on TOUR) that others do, but his accuracy (67.5%, 33rd on TOUR) and ability to hit greens (68.1% GIR, 55th on TOUR) should allow him to do well at this Robert Trend Jones course.
• Stewart Cink – 66/1: Cink has found something over the last two times out, ranking 20th at the Open Championship just a few weeks ago before his best finish of the year at the Canadian Open where he finished in a tie for fifth behind a 13-under-par score.  His talents have led him to six PGA TOUR wins since joining the tour 20 years ago and he has secured a spot in the FedExCup playoffs in seven of the eight years since it began.  Cink is hitting tons of GIR (72.5%, 4th on TOUR) and has done better (75% or more) in three of the last six events.  At the Canadian Open, the 42-year-old was able to shoot 12-under-par on the par-fives over the week and his average driving distance (304 yards per) was huge when added to gaining 0.739 strokes putting on the field.  Cink is feeling it right now, and that combined with his history will give him an edge on the field.
• Cameron Tringale – 80/1: At the age of 27, Tringale has yet to earn a win on the PGA TOUR, but his moderately successful career includes finishing in the top-100 of the FedExCup standings during each of the past five seasons.  Last year was his bid to date, finishing 20th in the standings, and he has continued the solid performances in 2015 with one runner-up and three other top-25s while making 16-of-23 cuts (70%).  The Georgia Tech alum consistently puts balls in the fairway (67.7%, 29th on TOUR) and is better than most with a sand save percentage of 53.4% (65th on TOUR).  Tringale will have his time in the limelight someday, and this type of event is perfect with the field being less than stellar, so look for him to do well after making it to the weekend.
• Stephen Gallacher – 100/1: Although Gallacher has fallen off as of late with missed cuts at both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, he still knows how to win as evidenced by his three European Tour career victories and his recent jump up to 67th in the OWGR.  He is hitting the ball further (299.9 yards per) than he has since 2011, and although his accuracy (55.2%) has taken a hit, he makes up for it with 1.68 putts per hole.  At the age of 40, Gallacher is certainly a long shot to grab his first PGA TOUR win, but his odds do not reflect his talent and the Scottish player should have no issues outplaying plenty of the youngsters heading to Gainseville this week.
• Vaughn Taylor – 125/1: Taylor is probably one of the most obscure names on TOUR to own two victories as they came in back-to-back years (2004, 2005) at the same tournament; the Reno-Tahoe Open.  He has played most of his last two seasons on the Web.Com Tour, but has made it made it back to the TOUR and performed at a high level in 2015, making 8-of-9 cuts while placing in the top-25 on five occasions.  In his last four times out, he has posted rounds of 69 or better in 10-of-16 chances and had his second top-10 of the year at the Barbasol Championship when the world’s top players were at St. Andrews.  Taylor’s driving accuracy and GIR both sit at better than 65% while he putts 0.405 strokes better then the field and he has a great shot at keeping up his solid play with a deep weekend finish here.

Need a few more options to fill up your roster?  Remember to check out our new fantasy predictions stats page for Golficity Predicted Fantasy Points, Price Per Fantasy Point, and more info on every player in this week’s field!

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions?  Check out our full fantasy preview for the 2015 Quicken Loans National here.

Cover photo by @frenchie8625 on Instagram