Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – RSM Classic

2019 RSM Classic Fantasy Sleeper Report

The second coming of Brendon Todd has been spectacular to say the very least.

Coming out of nowhere to win the Bermuda Championship, the 34-year-old is certainly making up for lost time right now.

We should have known better than to let him lie in the Mayakoba Classic. Yes, there is always the risk that he will suffer a winner’s hangover, but odds of 120/1 about a man who won just seven days prior at a similar layout are madness really. The clues were certainly there.

And now Todd has the chance to become the first player to win three weeks in a row since Tiger Woods back in 2006 – a remarkable turnaround for a player suffering so badly with the yips until very recently.

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That opportunity will come at the RSM Classic this week, where he will take his place in another surprisingly mediocre field given that this is the last standard PGA TOUR event of 2019.

It’s our annual pilgrimage to St Simons Island to take in the sights and sounds of the Sea Island Golf Club, where once again the players will take in two distinct courses.

The Seaside track is a short Par 70 played along the coastline, with plenty of wind buffeting the players as they attempt to land their drives on thin fairways before attacking small, fast Bermuda greens.

The Plantation layout is further inland and a bit more tree-heavy, but the same basic principles apply. The rough isn’t all that penal but these are tough greens to find and hold when the conditions are dry – as they will be, more or less, this week on the island.

The list of recent winners in this event doesn’t give much away: Charles Howell III is our defending champion, and he follows in the footsteps of the likes of Austin Cook, Mackenzie Hughes and Kevin Kisner.

None of those guys particularly share any attributes apart from occasionally going on birdie runs fired by streaky putting, which doesn’t give much away.

So, sticking with players who have shown some kind of form lately and who should excel in the conditions is the only way to go.

As a result, here’s a quintet who could go well to form our RSM Classic sleeper shortlist.

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RSM Classic Fantasy Sleeper Report

Zach Johnson – 55/1 – A hometown tournament for the two-time major champion, Zach Johnson appears to have finally gotten a handle on this layout with a pair of top-10s in his last two trips, and having shown some positive signs last week maybe he could go even better this time around.

A winner in Texas, Hawaii and at St Andrews, ZJ is a notable wind player who can grind out a winning score on Sea Island if he’s feeling good, and a decent enough turn in Mexico suggests he has reason to be confident.

Th 43-year-old opened up with a 64 before slipping down the leaderboard, but a late rally secured a T23 finish and that is the perfect platform for him to build on when returning home this week.

Denny McCarthy – 55/1 – When we talk about ‘streaky’ putters then Denny McCarthy immediately springs to mind, and this could be an event where he really comes to the party.

He’s no mug from tee-to-green either, ranking 39th for Greens in Regulation, and this veritable birdie machine can hang should this event descend into a shootout.

A former winner of the as-it-was-known-then Web.com Tour Championship, McCarthy clearly has the character to get the job done and five top-10s on the PGA TOUR show he is capable of getting into the mix.

Joel Dahmen – 75/1 – There was a notable return to form for Joel Dahmen in the Mayakoba last week, with a T6 return franked by a closing round of 65.

That’s welcome for a player who is notably at his best on Bermuda, and who tends to thrive in these short, wind-tinged assignments: there’s also T12 at Punta Cana and T16 at the RBC Heritage on the ledger.

In an event where surprise winners have abounded in recent years, at least Dahmen has the form and the pedigree in these kinds of conditions to succeed – it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he was to add to the lineage of unlikely champions on St Simon’s Island.

Ryan Armour – 80/1 – The veteran tends to thrive at this time of the golfing year, simply because he has an abundance of choice when it comes to short, wind-affected tests of ball striking.

He tends to play well annually at El Camaleon – he was T33 last week, to go with his T8 at the Bermuda Championship just prior to that. Previous returns from Pebble Beach (T9), the Honda Classic (T12) and the Panama Claro on the Korn Ferry Tour (winner in 2016) confirms Armour prevails when the wind is up.

His lack of length won’t be a factor this week, and indeed his ability to find even the tightest of fairways should deliver plenty of reward.

Chris Stroud – 200/1 – The ultimate in below-the-radar sleeper plays, Stroud has recorded top-10 finishes in the Alfred Dunhill Links, CIMB Classic, Corales Puntacana, RBC Heritage, AT&T Pebble Beach and Mayakoba Classic.

What does that tell us? Clearly, he thoroughly enjoys being beside the seaside.

His T18 return at the Mayakoba last week, somewhat out of the blue, confirms the theory, and he will surely relish a return to the Island this time out as a result.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2019-2020)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”0%” bar_text=”0 out of 45 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “2.22%” bar_text=”1 out of 45 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”33.33%” bar_text=”15 out of 45 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”0%” bar_text=”0 out of 9 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”0%” bar_text=”0 out of 9 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”57.80%” bar_text=”26 out of 45 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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