Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2016 CareerBuilder Challenge

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2016 CareerBuilder Challenge

2016 CareerBuilder Challenge Fantasy Sleeper Preview

The players head back to the continental United States this week as they begin the West Coast Swing of the 2016 schedule with a visit to multiple courses in the Coachella Valley of California for the CareerBuilder Challenge—formally the Bob Hope Classic and more recently the Humana Challenge.  This unique event will be played at three par-72 courses; PGA West Stadium Course, PGA West Palmer Course, and La Quinta Country Club, while featuring one of the better pro-am events on the schedule.  The tourney was first established in 1960 and has seen the likes of Bing Crosby and Dwight D. Eisenhower break out the clubs for the fun.

Recently, the aforementioned courses have allowed for a very close finish during each of the last six installments of the event with the winner having a margin of victory of two strokes or fewer since 2010; including twice going into a playoff (2011, 2013).  Each of the past four seasons the tourney has been sponsored by Humana, and during that stretch it was an all American winner’s circle with each man topping the leaderboard during that time being from the States and 9-of-11 runners up also coming from the U.S.

Last year it was Bill Haas winning here for the second time after putting up a score of 30-under-par in 2010 which netted him a mere single stroke victory over the likes of Tim Clark, Matt Kuchar, and Bubba Watson.  His score in 2015 (-22) was not quite as impressive, but he did need to fend off five other players (Charley Hoffman, Matt Kuchar, Park Sung-joon, Brendan Steele, and Steve Wheatcroft) in order to take home the trophy.

The field will have some impressive names with veteran Phil Mickelson kicking off his season while being joined by OWGR No. 20 and two-time runner-up here, Matt Kuchar.  The man to beat in terms of ranking will be No. 10 Patrick Reed who has been on a tear recently with three top-10s and a 12th over his first four outings of the new season.

A couple of youngsters, 24-year-old Smylie Kaufman and 23-year-old Emiliano Grillo, will seek to become the first multiple-time winners of the new year as they usher in a new core of youth into the sport.

The names that have gone home with the win in this event have rarely been huge and with the crazy amount of scoring that will be done across the three courses, many different players will have the opportunity to get their name etched on the trophy.

Let’s preview a few “sleeper” names who may not have the best odds this week (all have Vegas odds of 50/1 or greater), but could easily outperform their expectations in California.

2016 CareerBuilder Challenge Fantasy Sleeper Report

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions?  Check out our full fantasy preview for the 2016 CareerBuilder Challenge here.

Cover photo via Instagram