Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational from Firestone CC

The 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational Preview

The third leg of the WGC series will commence in Akron this week as the top players from around the world compete in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.  The event first began back in 1999—along with the other two WGC tourneys that have already taken place this year—and has been played at this par-70, 7,400-yard course in all but one installment.

The field will consist of golfers from the most recent President’s Cup and Ryder Cup teams, players ranked in the top-50 of the Official World Golf Rankings (both a week and two weeks ahead of the event) and selected winners from tours the PGA TOUR of Australasia, Sunshine Tour, Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.

Plenty of late additions were made to the group and are highlighted by Troy Merritt who jumped from 180th in the OWGR to 99th with his victory in the Quicken Loans National after a Saturday round of 61 which vaulted him to his first PGA TOUR win and a first visit to a WGC event.  The only two players from the top-50 that will not be making the trip this week are No. 1 Rory McIlroy, who is dealing with his ankle injury, and No. 22 Chris Kirk, who is out with an injured hand.

Speaking of McIlroy, he was the winner here last year with a score of 15-under-par, shooting eight-under over the weekend as he was joined by just Sergio Garcia (-13) and Marc Leishman (-12) in double-digit numbers under par.  It was Garcia who had a three-shot lead late on Sunday in the event, but the Spaniard carded a 71 on the final day and allowed McIlroy to win his second consecutive WGC event.

Since the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational’s inception in 1999, Tiger Woods has won the event an amazing eight times (most recently in 2013), but will not earn a chance this season as he did not qualify.

There will be plenty of opportunities to score on this course as evidenced by the winners here going 10-under-par or better in every year but 2005 and 2007, while Tigers Woods, to nobody’s surprise, holds the tournament record with a score of 21-under back in 2000 when he defeated the runners-up, Justin Leonard and Phillip Price, by an astounding 11 strokes.

Let’s now go through the players and find some sleepers that could stand out among this strong field when the dust settles at Firestone.

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The 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The WGC-Bridgestone Invitataional 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.

• Branden Grace – Vegas Odds 66/1: Grace may not have a win when playing in a PGA TOUR event, but he does have plenty others under his belt, taking home six trophies on the European Tour and five on the Sunshine Tour out of South Africa.  Branden has become a name to know for many golf fans recently with his tie for fourth at the tough U.S. Open and has been solid when in the majors over the last few years, going 9-for-14 in cuts made with three top-25s.  Grace also did well in the last WGC event, making it to the round of 16 in the Match Play Championship and netting a 23rd last year at Firestone.  The 27-year-old grabbed two of his European Tour wins earlier in 2015 and comes in playing well, with a finish no worse than 20th at his last five outings between the WGC events, majors, and Scottish Open since March.  Grace’s spot in the top-30 of the OWGR is no mistake and another solid outing this week should vault him even higher.
• Marc Leishman – Vegas Odds 66/1: Leishman has been establishing himself as a force in the golf world over the last couple of years as he continues to put up big efforts under the lights of majors and WGC events.  He is fresh in most memories after making it into a playoff, but eventually losing out to Zach Johnson, at St. Andrews a few weeks ago, but that was not his first great showing at such an event as he had a fifth at the 2014 installment of the Open Championship and also has three top-10s at the past four WGC outings.  One of those was a third-place finish at Firestone last season when he was one of three players to reach double-digit numbers under par behind 17 birdies (the most in the field).  Leishman is one of those players who seem to always be around, but is unable to get it done.  This week may change that as he uses his momentum from the British Open to vault him into contention.
• Robert Streb – Vegas Odds 100/1: Streb will be making his debut in a WGC stroke play event when he tees off at Firestone this week after winning the McGladrey Classic earlier this year as he also jumped into the top-50 of the OWGR this week.  Each tournament recently has seen Streb’s name toward the top of the leaderboard and over his last seven outings he has just one finish worse than 19th place.  In that time he also just missed out on his second win of the year with a runner-up showing at the Greenbrier Classic, and proved he could compete with the best with a score of eight-under at St. Andrews—a mark that put him in a tie for 18th.  Streb is among the top-50 golfers on Tour in penty of statistical categories, but seems to excel best at hitting greens (70.61% GIR, 10th on TOUR) and makes the most of those situations with 0.404 strokes gained putting (28th on TOUR).  He should be feeling good after competing with the best in the world at the Open and could put up another great effort in Ohio this week.
• J.B. Holmes – Vegas Odds 100/1: Holmes has had a very impressive 2015 season, making 14-of-19 (74%) cuts while owning a victory (Shell Houston Open) and two runner-up finishes (including one at the WGC-Cadillac Championship).  He also did very well at the Match Play Championship with a ninth-place and since has two top-25s in five events while finishing strong in the U.S. Open (27th).  He played for the first time here last season and put together a nice week with a tie for 26th despite a final round 73 after driving the ball for an average of 326.8 yards and putting 1.715 strokes better than the field.  Holmes isn’t known for his ability to perform in majors, but he does seem to do well in WGC events, and it would be a surprise if he did not perform well at Firestone CC.
• Anirban Lahiri – Vegas Odds 200/1: Lahiri is a hidden gem in the golf world who has quietly moved up to 52th in the OWGR while ranking 10th in the Race for Dubai thanks to two wins each on both the European and Asian Tours.  His success has also begun to translate onto the bigger stage as he posted his best finish (30th) in a major at the Open Championship and has made the cut in 7-of-10 PGA TOUR sanctioned events.  Lahiri has seen his putting improve in each of the last four years overseas as he currently is averaging a career-best 29.47 putts per round on the European Tour after hitting 71.07% of greens in regulation.  Following his solid performance at the Open, Lahiri was able to carve out a fifth-place in the Omega European Masters last week and is running hot entering this event.

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 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational here.

Cover photo by Penn State Turfgrass on Flickr