Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – Wells Fargo Championship

2018 Wells Fargo Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

It feels like an eternity ago when Andrew Landry sunk the winning putt at the Valero Texas Open, and while the Zurich Classic is a fun if rather overblown distraction, it does feel good to be back to the serious business this week.

The Wells Fargo Championship is one of the most-loved non-majors on the circuit, with a fantastic host in Quail Hollow and a rich history of quality winners (and some surprise ones, too).

We could see a shootout between Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler this week, which will be fun, although a decent quality field will have plenty to say about that.

Justin Thomas of the United States plays his shot from the first tee…

Justin Thomas of the United States plays his shot from the first tee during the third round of the 2018 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 7, 2018 in Augusta, Georgia. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Quail Hollow is a super-long track; indeed, it’s one of the longest on the Tour at a shade under 7,600 yards for its Par 72. It reverted to Par 71 for last year’s PGA Championship, with a trio of holes lengthened to boot. No wonder Thomas had to grind out the win at -8! Only 12 players finished under par there, but we’re expecting conditions to be slightly easier this time around in a non-major setting.

If you enjoy betting on the outsiders then you are in luck: they have had plenty of joy around here, with James Hahn’s play-off win over Roberto Castro in 2016 the tip of the iceberg; both went off at Vegas odds in excess of 150/1.

And so that brings us nicely to this week’s edition of the Wells Fargo, and five long-priced sleepers who could well claim the ‘W’.

Kevin Kisner – Vegas Odds 50/1 – Kisner and his good buddy Scott Brown went hard at the Zurich Classic; leading after 54 holes, they eventually succumbed to T15.

But it’s a continuation of decent form recently, with a surprise second at the WGC Matchplay backed by a strong effort at The Masters and T7 a week later at the RBC Heritage.

That’s a happy trendline ahead of a trip to a Quail Hollow layout at which he has notched top-10s in two of his last four starts.

Tony Finau – Vegas Odds 50/1 – If you were in any doubt as to the talents of Tony Finau, surely a top-ten finish on debut in The Masters has put those to bed!

When he’s not becoming an international celebrity for dislocating his ankle when celebrating a hole-in-one, Finau plays a mean game of golf and yet he has one solitary PGA TOUR title, the low-class Puerto Rico Open, to call upon from 2016.

But you suspect he will win again sooner or later, and a course like Quail Hollow, where he is afforded plenty of room off the tee should suit.

The 28-year-old has already finished second twice this season, and you suspect he is only a hot putter away from going one better.

Ryan Moore – Vegas Odds 50/1 – Moore has finished inside the top-20 in four of his last six visits to Quail Hollow – two of those being top-10s, and that is handy information given that he heads to North Carolina in fine fettle this week.

Four top-10s in his last nine starts tells you all you need to know about Moore’s confidence levels, and like a few others on Tour if he can drop a few putts you suspect he’s not a million miles away from the winner’s enclosure.

Not the longest on Tour, the good news is that Moore can still mix it here even with the added length; he was a more-than-respectable T13 at the PGA Championship here in 2017.

Chesson Hadley – Vegas Odds 66/1 – It might not be long before Chesson Hadley wins another PGA TOUR event, so punters are advised to back him at these sorts of prices while they still can.

It’s four years since Hadley last won on Tour, and after a spate of bad form and low confidence he disappeared a rung or two down golf’s professional ladder.

But now the 30-year-old is back, and he’s up to 19 in the FedExCup standings after a consistently good campaign.

A brilliant start gave way to a sloppy middle, but now Hadley is back and looks ready to get into the mix once more. A strokeplay run of form reading 18-7-20 was backed by a T4 return at the Zurich Classic, so he is trending nicely.

A little run of 11-20 in his last two starts at Quail Hollow sets the tone nicely.

Sean O’Hair – Vegas Odds 100/1 – The Texan rounded out a tilt at his home title with rounds of 65 and 66 at the Texas Open two weeks ago, and that’s a handy look-in ahead of an event he has won in the past.

Good memories can only get you so far, of course, but the truth is that O’Hair has been playing well for a while now: T7 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational followed T12 at the Valspar Championship.

It’s been seven years since O’Hair won a strokeplay tournament on the PGA TOUR, but this event does have a habit of surprises – Derek Ernst beating David Lynn in a play-off in 2013, for example – so maybe he can spring a shock result on the more likely winners in the field.