Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2015 British Open

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2015 British Open from The Old Course at St. Andrews

The 2015 British Open (The Open Championship) Preview

A visit to the 463-year-old St. Andrews course will bring about the third major championship of the year as players look to put their best foot forward at the Open Championship.

This is the oldest of the four majors, visiting some of Europe’s most famed and historic courses since 1860 (155 years), and will be played at the Old Course once again for the first time since 2010.  In that installment of this impressive event it was Louis Oosthuizen, this year’s runner-up at the U.S. Open, who dominated the field and was able to win by an impressive seven strokes over Lee Westwood after posting a score of 16-under-par.  He was part of six non-Americans to win this tournament in the last eight years and his score was second only to Rory McIlory in that stretch.

It was McIlroy’s 17-under that netted him his first British Open victory last year at Royal Liverpool when he outlasted both Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler by two strokes, but he will be unable to defend his win after a ruptured ligament in his ankle knocked him out of the event.

The field will obviously still be very strong with all of the top golfers attending and being led by world No. 2 golfer, Jordan Spieth, who is attempting to win his third major of the year after taking both the Masters and U.S. Open.  Only six other men in the history of the game have completed the first two parts of the major grand slam heading into the Open, but as of now, Ben Hogan is the only one of them to win the British Open after the first two victories.  The 21-year-old should be feeling good, not only because he has dominated on the biggest stages this year, but because he is also coming off a win just last week at the John Deer Classic.

In all, 78 of the top-80 players according to the Official World Golf Rankings will be in attendance with the only missing names being McIlroy and Alexander Noren.  Outside of the top-80, Tiger Woods sits all the way down at 241st in the world, but he will have some serious motivation after his early exit for the U.S. Open and will be returning to a course where he has taken down two of his three Open Championship wins.

The field is huge once again this week but it’s hard to imagine anyone outside of the top-100 really having a chance at this famed venue, still, let’s take a look through the player names to find some nice sleepers who could make their marks and contend for the top spot.

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The 2015 British Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The British Open 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 – 90/1: An is one of the newer names among the top golfers in the world as he has flown up to 53rd in the OWGR thanks to a win at the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour back in late May.  The 23-year-old looks to have a bright future as he has already proven to be a winner and owns a scoring average of 70.12 behind 72.61% of greens hit in regulation.  His drive has the distance (303.5 yards per) to play well on the Old Course and he should be able to build on his seven top-15 outings on the European Tour so far in 2015.
• Ryan Moore – 125/1: Moore dotted the top of leaderboards quite a bit at the start of the PGA TOUR season and he even grabbed his fourth career victory with a score of 17-under-par at the CIMB Classic at the start of the year.  He is currently 22nd in the FedExCup standings thanks to his eight other top-25s since the victory and he played quite well at the Masters where he tied for 12th with two rounds of 69 or better.  The UNLV alum will have no issues hitting these fairways (71.14% fairways hit, 11th on TOUR) and has gained 0.943 strokes (24th on TOUR) against the field this year.  His track record at the Open will not open too many eyes, but despite not being in the top tier of golfers, he has been able to notch three straight visits to the weekend in the event and is coming off his best career showing (12th) in the tourney.  It’s tough to envision Moore bringing home the trophy, but it is certainly not out of the question to see him notch a second straight top-15 finish.
• Ross Fisher – 150/1: Fisher is certainly not the best player from England showing up this week, but he has proven to be a force on the European Tour in recent years and has also performed well in past major championships.  Overall, he has five victories across the pond and he comes in with a nice recent stretch as he earned an 11th at the BMW Championship and tied for seventh last week in the Scottish Open.  The 34-year-old continues to be one of the more consistent players overseas with a stroke average of 70.60 and a ton of GIR (71.75%) to boot.  As long as he is able to keep up that consistency and make it through until Sunday afternoon, he should surprise many and rank higher than his odds suggest.
• Brendon Todd – 150/1: Todd falls way down the rankings in part due to his inexperience at the major championships, but he did do well in the 2014 installment of the Open Championship, finishing in a tie for 39th thanks to a Sunday 67.  He’s been consistent on TOUR this season, making 16-of-20 cuts (80%) and is playing his best golf right now with a top-20 in three of the last four tournaments—including a sixth in his last performance at the Greenbrier Classic.  Todd has shot a 69 or better in seven of his last eight rounds and should continue to do well with his accurate driver (71.75%, 7th on TOUR) and putter (0.644 strokes-gained putting, 4th on TOUR).  He does not quite have the firepower (275.0 yards per, 188th on TOUR) to put up the gaudy numbers to win, but as he sits in the fairway and makes more putts than most, he should make it late into Sunday.
• Russell Knox – 200/1: Knox will be playing in his own backyard as the Scottish-born player makes his Open Championship debut.  The 30-year-old has been impressing on American soil thus far in 2015, going 16-for-21 in cuts made (76%) and banking two third-place finishes.  He withdrew from the Travelers Championship, but had previously made the weekend in seven events and capped that stretch off with a great performance at the FedEx St. Jude Classic with a score of seven-under—good enough for a tie for eighth.  His solid ball-striking (0.823 strokes-gained tee-to-green, 23rd on TOUR) and accuracy off the tee (68.28%, 28th on TOUR) should allow him plenty of chances to get some nice numbers and a high finish for him may be in store.

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 2015 British Open here.

Cover photo by Evan Wilson on Flickr