Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2016 CIMB Classic

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

The 2016 CIMB Classic Fantasy Sleeper Preview

The PGA TOUR’s new season is officially underway with the conclusion of the first event; the Safeway Open.  Last year Brendan Steele was able to redeem himself in this tournament, winning by a single stroke after giving up the lead with a 76 on Sunday last year.

The players will now travel out of the country for the CIMB Classic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  This early season tourney is very young, first being played in 2010 while being co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour.  Golfers will be set with the task of overcoming the west course at Kuala-Lumpur Golf and Country Club; a par-72, 6,951-yard layout which first played host to this outing in 2013.

Since coming to this venue four years ago, players have been able to shoot very low scores, and last year saw the best golf with Justin Thomas taking home the trophy.  It was the youngster’s first career win as he managed to go a low 26 shots under par and hold off Aussie Adam Scott’s late surge by a single stroke.  In all, six golfers took advantage of the great conditions of the course and carded a final score of 20-under or better.

The player who earned a tie for tenth last year, Ryan Moore, probably left the week disappointed as he enjoyed victories in each of the first two visits to this course.  Over his last three attempts here, Moore has shot a combined 48-under-par and earned over $2.5 million in winnings.

With his past results, Official World Golf Rankings No. 30 golfer, Ryan Moore, will certainly be one of the top choices to win it, but he will have some stiff competition from the rest of the field.  Four players out of the top-13 in the OWGR will be in attendance with No. 6 Adam Scott leading the way after coming up a shot short of sending this one to a playoff last season.  He is followed by Ryder Cup hero No. 7 Patrick Reed, No. 12 Paul Casey, and No. 13 Hideki Matsuyama.

Of course last year’s winner, Justin Thomas, will also be expected to perform well again after such an incredible week in 2015.  Plenty of others will be fun to watch in the limited 78-man field as names like Kevin Chappell, Emiliano Grillo, Russell Knox, and Scott Piercy attempt to build on strong 2015-16 campaigns.

The early season outings tend to be the best time for some lesser known players to earn a victory, but this event seems to be different.  Despite the small field, there are plenty of accomplished professionals hitting the links in Malaysia this week and sleepers will be tough to come by.  With that in mind we’ve selected some of our top “sleeper” names that you should keep an eye on as they take on some of the best in the game.

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The 2016 CIMB Classic Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The CIMB Classic 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.

Tony Finau – Vegas Odds 55/1 – Finau has been able to slowly make his way up the OWGR and comes into this week in 78^th after a tie for 26^th in the Safeway Open.  He is one of those players that we feel is on the cusp of becoming a household name in golf, and recently has been able to show some consistency with eight made cuts over his last 10 events.  Not all of those were too impressive, though, with three finishing lower than 66^th, but he did get into the top-26 at the other five and four of those have come in his past five tournaments since the start of August.  His powerful drive (312.2 yards per) had him ranked third on Tour in distance last season while he gained the 25^th-most strokes (0.455) off the tee.  The past two seasons have seen Finau make it to the weekend on 41-of-59 (69%) of his opportunities and his recent stretch of solid finishes should put him in line to improve on his ninth place at this course a year ago.

Anirban Lahiri – Vegas Odds 66/1 – No player in the six year history of this event has come from anywhere but the United States.  The players out of Asia certainly would like to see that change with the tourney being played in Malaysia and Lahiri is talented enough to get it done.  He’s been part of the festivities here since 2012 and has an average finish of 36^th since the venue changed to Kuala-Lumpur Golf and Country Club.  Overall, Lahiri had a successful 2015-16 showing on the PGA TOUR, tallying his most starts (21) since his first event in 2012 and playing all four rounds 16 times (76%).  The 29-year-old will now attempt to turn his weekend visits into better results as he was able to get into the top-25 just twice; his best outing coming at the Dean and Deluca Invitational where he earned a tie for sixth.  His strength is shots from the 100-150 range as he ranked in the top-25 from this range and will likely see many again this week at this rather short course.  It will be tough to break through as the first non-American to win the CIMB, but Lahiri hopes he can add to his seven career Asian Tour victories in the coming event.

Alex Cejka – Vegas Odds 125/1 – At the age of 45, Cejka is well past his prime when he was able to grab four European Tour victories; three coming in 1995.  But he threw his name back in the winner’s circle last season at the Puerto Rico Open and enjoyed his second consecutive year with a finish in the FedExCup top-100.  He tied a career-high with nine top-25 finishes over his 22 events played and did so four times over the first five tournaments he played at the beginning of the year; including a tie for 17^th here.  The veteran has not played a PGA event since participating and coming in 21^st at the Rio Olympics, but previous to that he was playing some strong golf with a fifth at the RBC Canadian Open and an 11^th at the Travelers Championship.  You can expect to see him consistently hitting the ball close to the pin over the four days this week after ranking tenth in strokes gained in his approach to the green (0.626) during the 2015-16 season.  There’s definitely something left in the German’s tank and he could teach some of the younger players a thing or two in Malaysia.

Brian Harman – Vegas Odds 125/1 – It’s interesting that Harman has such low odds coming into this event as both his recent play and history at this course go in his favor.  He did miss the cut last week in the Safeway Open, but was coming off a strong finish to the previous season as he put up a trio of top-25s between The Barclays, Deutsche Bank Championship, and BMW Championship.  Last year when he made his visit to Kuala Lumpur, he carded a score of 19-under and came in a tie for 7^th behind 81.94% GIR and 75% driving accuracy.  Overall last year he made 21-of-31 cuts (68%) and made the most of them with 10 top-25s.  Harman should once again do well here with his solid putter which ranked 15^th in strokes gained putting (0.485) last year.

Jim Herman – Vegas Odds 140/1 – Herman is coming off a breakout campaign at the age of 38 and will look to build on his 42^nd in the 2015-16 FedExCup standings.  He finished off the year with three straight finishes in the top-35 before missing out on the TOUR Championship.  He also learned what it felt like to win at the highest level, shooting 15-under at the Houston Open while gaining 1.644 strokes with his putter on his way to a large paycheck.  Herman also did well in Malaysia last year, tying for 10^th and should once again put up a nice performance with a driver that ranked 14^th in total driving and the ability to hit greens in regulation with ease; doing so in 80.56% of his attempts last year.  In the 78 person field, we feel Herman is getting pretty poor Vegas odds and could be a surprise come Sunday.

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

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