Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2017 TOUR Championship

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2017 TOUR Championship

2017 TOUR Championship Fantasy Sleeper Preview

The FedExCup is all over bar the shouting, and we find ourselves watching on as five players duke it out for the handsome paycheck and the prize of being considered the outstanding player of the year.

That five is Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, and Marc Leishman, and while the stats all point to one of the big five winning the TOUR Championship – that’s how it’s panned out every year since 2010 – that’s not to say it’s impossible.

Punters should not give up hope just yet!

To guarantee their name on the trophy one of the five players named above must win at East Lake, and if they don’t then that opens the door for plenty of others in the field. Take Pat Perez, for example, who is a rank outsider at 80/1. But he will win the FedExCup if a) he wins the TOUR Championship, and b) the ‘big five’ all finish T7 or lower.

Pat Perez reacts to his birdie on the 18th hole during a continuation…

Pat Perez reacts to his birdie on the 18th hole during a continuation of the second round at the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on February 18, 2017 in Pacific Palisades, California. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

See, we told you it’s not impossible for one of the ‘lesser’ players to claim the spoils.

East Lake has hosted this event since the early 2000s, but it’s been welcoming golfers of all abilities to Atlanta, Georgia for more than a century. The original Donald Ross design has barely been tampered with, even if a Rees Jones ‘touch up’ in 1994 prepared the layout for the enhanced capabilities of modern day players and equipment.

It’s a fairly standard 7,300-yard Par 70, with just two Par 5s for the players to attack. The last three winning scores have been -12, -9 and -11, so this is not a track that is going to be blown away in a feast of low scoring. This week, Bogey Avoidance is as important a stat as Birdie Leaders.

With all of the above in mind, who are the sleepers and outsiders who could cause a huge shock and land the TOUR Championship this week?

[membership level=”0″]

2017 TOUR Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

You must be a Premium Member to view our exclusive fantasy golf picks.

Already a member?  Sign in Here.

[/membership]

[membership level=”1,2,3″]

The TOUR 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.

Charley Hoffman – Vegas Odds 55/1 – Hoffman’s T27 finish at Conway Farms was bizarre in its ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ style quality; his return featured rounds of 64-71-67-73 – talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous!

But what was key was his form with irons in hand, ranking third for SG: Tee-to-Green and first for SG: Approach. As we’ve mentioned countless times, these are the key statistics when determining how well somebody is truly playing.

It was a cold week with the putter, but that’s nothing new for Hoffman and he’s won four times on the PGA TOUR in the past.

Daniel Berger – Vegas Odds 66/1 – It didn’t quite work out for Dan Berger last week at Conway Farms, and in all honesty we expected him to do better than finish T33.

In our BMW Championship preview we noted that Berger has a habit of playing well at the same courses year after year, and we offered plenty of stats to support that assertion. His form at East Lake – 15-12 – highlights another track at which he performs well consistently.

The 24-year-old is strong from tee to green and possesses a nice touch around the green, and may pundits suspect that Berger is the next to join the likes of Justin Thomas and Hideki Matsuyama in the regular winner’s club. What a time and place to start!

Pat Perez – Vegas Odds 80/1 – The foundation of Pat Perez’s game is being short and tidy off the tee and accurate in and around the greens, and that approach should serve him well at a track he is yet to experience.

Six of Perez’s last eight rounds have been in the 60s and five have been 67s, so it’s no wonder he has finished T6 at the Dell Technologies and T12 at the BMW.

The Arizonan boasts a top-10 success rate of 25% this season (6 in 24 starts), and while it would be a huge surprise if he won in Atlanta he has got the game to do just that.

Jason Dufner – Vegas Odds 100/1 – With a pair of top-ten finishes to his name at East Lake, we’re hoping for a bit of magic from the Duf-Man that belies his current lack of form.

It’s not been a stellar FedExCup campaign from the Memorial winner so far, but Dufner has a habit of turning it on at courses that he really enjoys.

Tidy off the tee and excellent with irons in hand, Dufner’s formline is often misleading in that he is not the longest off the tee and so is not a good fit for all courses. But for the ones that do suit his profile, Dufner has a habit of repeat good performances.

Kyle Stanley – Vegas Odds 140/1 – According to the bookmakers, Stanley is the rank outsider for the TOUR Championship, but that’s slightly misleading given he’s one of the most improved players on tour this season and is outstanding off the tee.

The 29-year-old ranks first for Greens in Regulation and second for Total Driving, and so it’s no surprise to note that he plays well at harder courses – he’s won at TPC Potomac this season and finished T4 at Sawgrass in the Players’ Championship.

It didn’t quite click for Stanley last week at the BMW Championship, but we quite fancy that East Lake will be a good fit for this excellent ball-striker.

[/membership]

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

Cover photo via Instagram