Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2016 Quicken Loans National

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2016 Quicken Loans National from Bethesda, MA

The 2016 Quicken Loans National Fantasy Sleeper Preview

Coming off a week in which Dustin Johnson was finally able to stave off the demons that had held him back from a major championship—taking down the U.S. Open at Oakmont—will be the Quicken Loans National.  This event is one of the newer additions on the TOUR, as it was first established in 2007 and has been played at this year’s venue, Congressional Country Club, in six out of the last nine occasions.  The Blue Course at Congressional will feature a long 7,659 yards of par-71 golf, which has led to some great finishes in the past.  Of course the setting, being in Bethesda, Maryland, sits right near the U.S. Capitol and is the perfect spot for a tournament with the Fourth of July just around the corner.

The field this week will be cut down to 120 players with the invitational status, and there will certainly be some big names out there to watch.  Leading the way will be a trio of top-20 golfers in the Official World Golf Rankings, with No. 6 Rickie Fowler, No. 13 Patrick Reed, and No. 19 Jim Furyk.  Fowler will be looking for some redemption this season after coming in as the runner-up by three strokes to 2015 winner Troy Merrit at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

Also heating up is Furyk, who after missing a majority of the season with injuries, went to Pennsylvania last week and tied for second thanks to a Sunday 66.  Some names for the future will also look to begin their journey to stardom with continued success this week as the top amateur from the U.S. Open, Jon Rahm, makes his professional debut and will look to outshine another young, hot name in Bryson DeChambeau.

As mentioned above, it was Troy Merritt who was able to put up a monster week last year to earn his first and only PGA TOUR win.  He did it in style as well, throwing up a score of 18-under-par, a record for this tournament, as only two players—Rickie Fowler and David Lingmerth—were within four strokes of the then 29-year-old.  He became the sixth American in the nine years of the event to win, matching Bill Haas (2013) and K.J. Choi (2007) with the largest margin of victory in the process.  The last time this tourney was played at Congressional it was Justin Rose taking home the trophy for the second time, with his first coming home with him in 2010.  That week finished in the first playoff as he ousted Shawn Stefani in extra holes.

The field has a few heavy hitters leading the way, but there are plenty of names out there that will be able to jump up the leaderboard despite their less than impressive odds.  Just last week, in an event littered with elite names, the likes of Scott Piercy and Daniel Summerhays were able to jump into the top 10, and every week there are a few surprises.  Below are a few of the “sleeper” players who could go out and accomplish that this week.

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The 2016 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.

Adam Hadwin – Vegas Odds 60/1 – Although Canadian Adam Hadwin has not been lights out this year as evidenced by his FedExCup ranking of 83^rd, he has been one of the most consistent golfers out there since mid-April and comes into this week on the heels of seven consecutive made cuts.  He’s improved in each of his last three outings as well, and is coming off his second-best performance of the year as he carded a score of 11-under at the Memorial Tournament, good enough for a tie for 11^th.  The 28-year-old was one of the top golfers on the Web.com TOUR in 2014, raking in two victories and finishing second in the finals.  Now that he is seeing his performances translate to the big stage of the PGA, he will be able to take his fantastic putter (0.715 strokes gained putting, 5^th on TOUR) and compete for a his first career victory.

Kevin Streelman – Vegas Odds 66/1 – Although Streelman has not played in this event or at this course at a professional level since 2012, he should be geared up and ready to go this week as he comes off consecutive finishes in the top 13 at some tough events.  The 37-year-old first came away with a tie for eighth in the Memorial Tournament and then earned a tie for 13^th just last week in the tough confines of Oakmont at the U.S. Open.  Overall, he has six top 25’s on the year, and nearly grabbed his third career PGA TOUR victory with a third at the Farmers Insurance Open back in late January.  His last two visits here came in 2012 and 2009, and were completely different with an 11^th in the earlier outing and a missed cut just a few years ago.  He will look to improve on those performances as he hits both Greens In Regulation (69.26%, 17^th on TOUR) and Fairways (64.16%, 53^rd on TOUR) with regularity.

Ben Martin – Vegas Odds 70/1 – It has certainly not been Martin’s year in 2016, as the 28-year-old, who earned his first career victory and finished 35^th in the FedExCup standings last year, now sits in 123^rd, and has made it in to the top 25 a mere three times over 18 events.  This could be his time to turn it around, though, as he heads back to a course where he had plenty of success in 2014 with a third place.  That year he hit 71.43% of fairways and managed to gain 0.929 strokes on the field with his putter.  He continues to be better than average with the flat stick this year (0.172 strokes gained putting, 70^th on TOUR) and has hit more than 65% of GIR in two of his last three times out.  If there is a time and place that Martin is poised to breakout, it is this week, so watch out for the former Clemson graduate to come out swinging at Congressional.

Jon Rahm – Vegas Odds 75/1 – Rahm hails from Spain, but has made a name for himself as a member of the Arizona State Sun Devils golf team under the tutelage of Tim Mickelson; brother to 42-time PGA TOUR winner Phil Mickelson.  There he was the two-time winner of the Ben Hogan Award, an honor bestowed on the top college golfer in the country, and was the first ever to do so in back-to-back years.  He’s had no issues taking his game to the big stage, and in four career PGA TOUR starts as an amateur, is three for four in cuts made with two top 10’s.  He really showed his talent last week with a gutsy appearance at the U.S. Open, finishing 23^rd thanks to two rounds of par or better.  In his two outings this year, both in the top 25, he has putt the ball an average of 1.695 strokes better than the field and if he can continue doing that this week.  If that level of play keeps up he should see his name near the top of the leaderboard this week.

Vijay Singh – Vegas Odds 175/1 – There is no questioning that Singh is not playing like the player who, over his career to this point, has topped the leaderboard 34 times and made nearly $70 million since 1992, but he is still competitive and comes into the week with 10 cuts made over 15 outings.  Only one of those ended in a top 10, but he has been under par in three of his past four tournaments and has made it to the weekend in each of his five events since the Masters.  He is certainly a long shot to really have a top five finish this week, but he should be a solid option to play all four rounds with an outside chance of more.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions?  Check out our full fantasy preview for the 2016 Quick Loans National here.

Cover photo via Flickr