Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2015 Wyndham Championship

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2015 Wyndham Championship from Sedgefield CC

The 2015 Wyndham Championship Fantasy Sleeper Preview

The final stop of the PGA TOUR’s regular season will be in Greensboro, North Carolina this week as the players tee it up at Sedgefield Country Club on Thursday afternoon.  This tournament was first established in 1938 and has taken place at Sedgefield for each of the previous seven seasons.  The event is notorious for last minute jockeying as the players who are not currently in the top-125 of the FedEx Cup standings get a final attempt to make it into the playoffs.

The par-70, 7,130-yard course has given way to plenty of scoring since moving to Sedgefield, as the venue has yielded a winning score of 14-under or better each season—including a tournament record aggregate score of 259 by Carl Pettersson in 2008.

Plenty of non-American golfers have been able to take down the trophy here in the last seven years, with four of winners coming from outside of the United States.  The most recent of the bunch was Camilo Villegas who ended a four-year winning drought with a come-from-behind win in 2014, outlasting Bill Haas and Freddie Jacobson by posting 63s on both Thursday and Sunday.

In the 2014 installment of the event, only one player (Sangmoon Bae) moved into the top-125 with his performance here and plenty of men will be looking to do that once again this week.  Scott Langley (126), S.J. Park (128), the aforementioned Villegas (129), and Ryo Ishikawa (130) stand the best chance of punching their ticket to The Barclays this week as they currently sit on the bubble.  On the other hand, there will be some big names attempting, but likely missing, to get to the playoffs as K.J. Choi (147), Martin Kaymer (149), Graeme McDowell (156), Ernie Els (170) and Tiger Woods (187) are all long shots.

The field will feature just one top-15 player from the Official World Golf Rankings in No. 12 Adam Scott and will have another eight from the top-30, including No. 16 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 17 Brooks Koepka, South African No. 20 Branden Grace, and a couple of Europeans in No. 21 Martin Kaymer and No. 27 Paul Casey.  Many of these players are running hot after a solid showing at the PGA Championship last week where Grace and Koepka finished in the top-five and Kaymer, Brandt Snedeker and Billy Horschel grabbed top-25s.

Although there are plenty of big names at the top of this entrant list, a few sleepers will surely come to the top of the leaderboard and compete for a win this week, so let’s take a look at a few names that could really excel on this Donald Ross course over the four days.

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The 2015 Wyndham Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The Wyndham Championship 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.

• Nick Watney – Vegas Odds 66/1: Watney has not had the best of seasons in 2015, making 15-of-24 cuts (62.5%), but has still nearly made it into the top-50 of the FedExCup standings thanks to seven top-25s, three top-10s, and a runner up finish.  His second-place came at the AT&T National back in February as he narrowly missed grabbing his sixth career PGA TOUR victory.  Watney is coming in on the heels of a solid showing at the PGA Championship last week, where after opening with a poor Thursday 78, he bounced back and shot 10-under-par in the next three days, ending with a score for four-under behind hitting 73.61% of greens in regulation.  He hits the ball far enough (293.3 yards per, 67th on TOUR) and has managed to rank 51st in strokes gained from tee to green, so he has the ability to score on this course and should add to his top 25s by week’s end.
• Boo Weekley – Vegas Odds 80/1: Weekley may not be one of the sexier names to pick, but at these odds he is actually a strong candidate to put up big numbers.  Over the past three years he has made it to the weekend in 54-of-72 attempts (75%) and already has six top-10s, including a second and a third in his 2015 campaign.  This three-time PGA TOUR winner has made the cut in each of his last seven outings, ranking in the top-16 three times during that stretch, and showed he can still be competitive among the best last week when tied for 37th at the PGA Championship behind a Saturday 65.  Weekley may not have done too well in previous years at this course, but with his recent strong play and a top-50 ranking in both strokes gained from tee-to-green (39th) and ball striking (46th), should make getting to the weekend and being competitive possible.
• Tim Clark – Vegas Odds 125/1: Clark has missed four of his past five cuts, but will be heading to The Barclays next week nonetheless thanks in part to his runner-up performance at the WGC-HSBC Champions event earlier in the season.  He will look to get back on track at a course where he has plenty of success of the past few years, getting into the top-26 in both 2013 and 2014 and coming up just short with a second in 2013.  That year he shot 16-under for the tournament and was an incredible six-under-par on the short holes, but could not keep pace with Sergio Garcia who defeated him by two strokes.  The 39-year-old South African has two victories and 13 career runner-ups, so he knows how to compete on the PGA TOUR, and while his length off the tee (276.7 yards per) may hurt his chance at a victory, he is likely to end his recent struggles with a nice showing at the Wyndham Championship.
• Vaughn Taylor – Vegas Odds 125/1: Taylor has been very impressive over his 11 PGA TOUR events this year, failing to make the cut in just one instance (91%) and has finished in the top-25 a total of six times.  He’s also made it to the weekend at each of his last six outings, and had one of his better finishes of the year during that stretch with a tie for 10th at the Barbasol Championship where he nailed 77.8% of fairways and 80.4% of GIR while shooting 12-under-par.  This is Taylor’s best season since 2010 and there is no reason why he cannot do well against a field such as this one.
• Matt Every – Vegas Odds 200/1: Every is a very interesting player, the man has two career PGA TOUR wins, including one this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and has made over a million dollars in each of the past four seasons.  But Every still remains at the bottom of the pack in terms of odds thanks to his spotty overall play.  He has withdrawn of failed to make the cut in seven of his last eight times out and the only tournament where he made it to the weekend was a WGC event, where he finished 74th in a format that does not have a cut.  He is certainly a long-shot, but could be a great player to put in your lineup or drop a unit on as he can come out and win when he is on.  It’s also worth noting that Every finished in a tie for fifth the last time he was here in 2013.

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 Wyndham Championship here.

Cover photo by Jerome Carpenter on Flickr