Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – WGC-Cadillac Championship

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2016 WGC-Cadillac Championship

The WGC-Cadilliac Championship Fantasy Sleeper Preview

Since the inception of the FedExCup, the WGC-Cadillac Championship has been a staple at Trump National Dural in early March.  As with all World Golf Classic events, the field will be filled with the best players from around the world as well as a few surprises in the mix.  The par-72, 7,461-yard course is the second event on the Florida swing and the players are coming here on the heels of a tough test last week in Palm Springs where Adam Scott jumped back into the OWGR top-10 behind an impressive victory.

Scott will join another 47 players from the top-50 in the Official World Golf Rankings which is headlined by the current “big three,” Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, and Rory McIlroy.  They will be contending with the rest of the top players in an attempt to take down the reigning champion and current world No. 8 golfer; Dustin Johnson.

Last year, Johnson was able to put his personal issues—which cost him six months of tournaments—behind him and take home a nice come-from-behind victory over J.B. Holmes.  It was the ninth PGA TOUR victory of his career, but he has been unable to get to the top of the leaderboard since.  DJ has however maintained his high ranking with top-sevens in three of the four majors and will once again be one of the heavy favorites this week.

Besides the top-three of McIlroy, Spieth, and Day (who are favored in that order this week), Bubba Watson will be a man on a mission as he has finished second twice at Doral (2012, 2014) and will be looking to ride the momentum of a victory in his last time out at the Northern Trust Open.

The course has proven to be more of a test to the top echelon of golfers in recent years as the winners over the past two seasons have combined to go a mere 13-under-par after the previous six victors had surpassed 16-under in each of their individual rounds.  To no one’s surprise, Tiger Woods holds the title of “top dog” at the Blue Monster as he was the winner here seven times; including getting six victories over eight tourneys between 1999 and 2007.  Since then, it has been mainly Americans taking home the trophy on Sunday with each of the last three, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, and Tiger Woods, all holding that distinction.  The last golfer from out of town walk away with the win was world No. 7 Justin Rose, who should also be considered a very serious contender again this week.

It is tough to really call any of these players here big time “sleepers” as they have all competed at a very high level to get here, but there also are certainly some large favorites, lesser known golfers, and top golfers from other tours out there.  Let’s take a look through the 75-man field and find some names that could be going unnoticed as the PGA TOUR hits Trump Doral.

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The 2016 WGC-Cadillac Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The WGC-Cadillac Championship 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.

Byeong-Hun An – Vegas Odds 60/1: An is one of the hottest young golfers going over in Europe right now, and even though he has only attended six events on the European Tour since last August, he has been in the top-eight five times over that stretch and put himself in the top-10 of the Race to Dubai.  The 24-year-old has totaled 74 strokes under par during that time, but is still looking for his second career win after taking his first at the BMW PGA Championship last year.  Across the board he has been impressive, swatting the ball for an average of at least 295 yards off the tee in both 2014 and 2015 while improving his putting with each successive season.  The experience he has on the PGA TOUR is minimal, playing seven times over the last three years with four made cuts, including possibly his best showing yet back in November when he tied for 19th at the last WGC event thanks to shooting 11-under over the first three days.  That breakthrough performance should vault him up the leaderboards as he looks to make a name for himself on a bigger stage against the best players in the world.

Zach Johnson – Vegas Odds 66/1: It is hard to see a 12-time PGA TOUR winner, including two majors, be placed so far down on a list of favorites this week.  But that is the case for Johnson who is currently ranked 17th in the world despite a less than stellar start to the new season.  The now 40-year-old has failed to see the weekend in two of his past three tournaments, but still has shown flashes of his stellar talent with three top-25s since mid-January.  Johnson has never been able to quite get a grasp on this course, but does have three top-24s since 2010 and is one of the more experienced players teeing it up this week.  What he lacks in distance off the tee (285.5 yards per, good for 163rd on TOUR), he makes up for in great ball striking which has led to getting it on the dance floor in regulation 72.5% of the time (23rd on TOUR).  There still looks to be a few wins left out there for Johnson and he could get one of them this Sunday.

Bill Haas – Vegas Odds 70/1: Haas is one of the more seasoned veterans visiting the Blue Monster this week as the 33-year-old has played 297 career PGA TOUR events with six wins to his name.  Plenty of his nearly $24 million in winnings have come from this particular event, also, as he has claimed a top-seven three times since 2010 with his most recent being a seventh last year behind a score of seven-under on the par-fives.  The one problem with Haas of late is his consistency, and while he has been able to knock out two top-10s in his six outings this year, he has also failed to make the cut in two of his last three events.  The former FedExCup champ should have no problem with the bigger pressure that a WGC event brings and as long as he continues to hit it straight off the tee (71.38%, 11th on TOUR), he will give himself opportunities on every hole.

Danny Willet – Vegas Odds 70/1: Willet has flown up the OWGR over the past few years and clocks in at number 15 heading into this event.  The English-born player has not only been impressive on the European Tour with four victories since 2012, but has also done well on the PGA TOUR with a visit to the weekend in 3-of-4 majors; including a tie for sixth at the Open Championship.  Willet is currently near the top of the Race to Dubai, ranking third behind the strength of a win at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and two other top-fives in his last five events.  Just before that he had a huge outing in the first WGC event of this season, raking in a tie for third at the HSBC Champions in November after throwing up a ridiculously good 62 on the final day.  The only real hiccup in his game is his accuracy off the tee (54.91%), but that has not held him back much as he is averaging a score of 69.81 on the European Tour and should be in solid contention at Doral.

Rafael Cabrera-Bello – Vegas Odds 125/1: The 31-year-old Spaniard has played a mere 21 events on the PGA TOUR since 2010, making 15 of those cuts (71%) with just one top-10.  Obviously those numbers are not the reason that he made it to our list; rather, it is because he has been tearing up European Tour events recently and currently ranks fifth in the Race to Dubai.  Cabrera-Bello has played four times since the calendar turned over, doing no worse than 36th in any and getting two runner-up showings at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.  His scoring average has decreased to an impressive 69.06 across the pond as he is hitting an incredible number of GIR (78.52%) and averaging under 30 putts per round (29.73) for the first time since 2011.  He’s never done well here, putting up a 65th and a 63rd in consecutive years (2012-2013), but his recent stretch should give him confidence to push for his second career PGA TOUR top-10.

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 WGC-Cadillac Championship here.

Cover photo via Flickr