Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2015 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2015 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open

2015 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Fantasy Sleeper Preview

The new golf season started as many usually do, with a new name sitting atop of the leaderboard as 23-year-old Emiliano Grillo took down the Frys.com in impressive fashion.  It was his second time getting into a playoff at the TOUR level, as Grillo failed to get seal the victory at the 2015 Puerto Rico Open, but with the victory the rising Argentine star looks to see great results in the coming year—he was also the winner of the recent Web.com TOUR Championship and will be joined by all but one of the top-35 Web.com TOUR graduates this week.

Now, the PGA TOUR heads to the “Entertainment Capital of the World” for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada.  The scores have always been huge in this exciting part of the country with the victor here going 20 strokes under par or better in each of the past five installments of the event.

Last year, it was Ben Martin who topped the leaderboard after the final round, marking the fifth consecutive American to win the tournament behind a score of 20-under while holding off a strong Sunday push by Kevin Streelman.  Just like it was for Grillo at the Frys.com Open last week, 2014 marked Martin’s first PGA TOUR victory and with fields being fairly weak in the early going, this is often a common theme in the Fall Series.

It is difficult to imagine a scenario where Martin is able to pull off a second consecutive victory at this course as Jim Furyk (1995, 1998, 1999) is the only player to have won here multiple times since the tournament’s inception in 1983.

This week, just seven of the top-35 players from the Official World Golf Rankings will be in attendance at the par-71, 7,255-yard desert course which makes its way through the rough Nevada hills.  The top name will be world No. 5 player Rickie Fowler as he makes his first start of the season after being part of the President’s Cup winning American team.  Also joining him from that group will be No. 17 Jimmy Walker and rounding out the other five top-35 is 2011 champion Kevin Na, No. 12 Brooks Koepka, No. 30 Brandt Snedeker, No. 34 Kevin Kisner, and No. 35 Charley Hoffman.

With so many young players making their way into the sport through the Web.com TOUR, there is a great chance that a new name will grab a trophy for the first time this week.  So let’s look through some of those fantasy sleepers and see who is ready to take the next step.

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2015 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

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2015 Shriners Hospitals for Children 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.

Chez Reavie – Vegas Odds 75/1: Reavie has had a tough ride back to the PGA TOUR, but the 33-year-old looks poised to have a successful future after a great showing on the Web.com TOUR.  He has done well in this position before, and ranked 10th in the FedExCup standings as recently as 2011 when he pocketed nearly $2.3 million in earnings.  His only career victory came in 2008, but he showed promise in his starts last year, ranking 15th in GIR (69.94%) and he started off the 2016 campaign with a solid 17th-place finish at the Frys.com Open.  Look for this former Arizona State golfer to be near the top once again this week.

Hudson Swafford – Vegas Odds 80/1: Swafford showed nice improvement between his rookie and sophomore seasons, making it to the weekend in 18-of-30 (60%) events played while making it into the top-25 six times in 2015.  The 28-year-old possesses one of the longest drivers on the TOUR, going for 298.9 yards per off the tee in 2015 (which is good for 29th on TOUR), and in the Frys.com Open was able to torch the ball for an average of 322.8 yards (second in field), en route to a tie for 17th.  He seems to do well when the field is on the weaker side, starting last year with an eighth at the Frys.com Open, 18th at this event, and 12th at the McGladrey Classic.  Swafford has not yet shown that he has the ability to take down a PGA TOUR event, but should have a shot at some solid fantasy points this week, especially with his impressive length off the tee.

Stewart Cink – Vegas Odds 90/1: The former Open Championship winner (1999) who spent more than 40 weeks in the OWGR top-10 has largely fallen from grace as he is now 42-years-old and has just one year with over a million dollars in earnings since 2010.  Still, last year he was able to make the cut in 15-of-23 (65%) tourneys and he put his name up in the top-10 once in 2015.  He also has shown some recent strong efforts and since mid-summer has a 20th at the Open Championship, 5th at the RBC Canadian Open, and a 9th at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship overseas.  The six-time TOUR winner certainly has his best days behind him at this point, but the veteran may still be able to sneak in a strong performance in Las Vegas this week.

Fabian Gomez – Vegas Odds 125/1: Gomez may be a virtual unknown in the States, and if it wasn’t for his victory at the FedEx St. Jude Open back in June, may have nobody even looking at him.  But the 36-year-old has had a tremendous career in his home country of Argentina and has a total of 11 victories on professional tours.  Last year was by far his best year as a professional, though, as he used his one win to finish 64th in the FedExCup standings behind 16-of-26 cuts made (62%) and was the third player on this list to tie for 17th last week in California.  In that event, he hit 72.2% of GIR and averaged a solid 1.750 putts per hole, which should give him some momentum moving forward.

Smylie Kaufman – Vegas Odds 175/1: The LSU graduate came right out of college and put up an explosive, yet inconsistent, year on the Web.com TOUR.  In 2015, he made a mere 10-of-20 cuts, but had one win, a runner-up finish and another three top-10s when he made it to the weekend.  He certainly has the length off the tee to compete at the highest level, ranking sixth on the Web.com TOUR last year in driving distance, and pounding the ball for 303 yards per drive in his 10th-place effort at the Frys.com Open.  Early season events such as this one are often a hotbed for players like Kaufman who are looking to begin their PGA TOUR career with a bang, and Smylie should have no problem fitting the bill.

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 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open here.

Cover photo by @shrinersopen via Instagram