Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2016 Wells Fargo Championship

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2016 Wells Fargo Championship

2016 Wells Fargo Championship Fantasy Sleeper Preview

The stars will be out in big numbers this week at the Wells Fargo Championship following a couple of weeks with the fields being rather thin.  As the players head to Quail Hollow Club, a 7,575-yard, par-72 course in Charlotte, North Carolina, many will be looking to gain an edge on future events like the PGA Championship (2017) and President’s Cup (2021)—both of which will be held here at Quail Hollow.

This tournament is one of the newest on the TOUR, starting up in 2003 as the Wachovia Championship, and then taking on Wells Fargo as the title sponsor in 2009.  As always with this course, much of the success over the week will come from how the golfers adjust to the “Green Mile,” the venues’ final three holes which are often considered one of the toughest stretches of golf played throughout the year.

As mentioned previously, the field will be stacked with name after name of top-tier golfers, most notably being the No. 3 player in the world according to the Official World Golf Rankings; Rory McIlroy.  Not only is he the top ranked player among the large field, he has also won here twice (2010, 2015) and he destroyed the 72-hole scoring record last season.  Aiming their sights at him will be another seven players from the top-15 including Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, and Hideki Matsuyama as well as world No. 86 Webb Simpson who calls this course home and has shown plenty of past success here in the past.

Last year, McIlroy put on quite a show when he teed it up at Quail Hollow, dominating every aspect of the club en route to a massive score of 21-under-par; a course record which beat out the next best score by Anthony Kim in 2008 by five strokes.  His score was able to go so low thanks to an incredible Saturday 61 in which he birdied six of the final nine holes.  The victory made him the first multiple time winner in this event while he left runners-up Patrick Rodgers and Webb Simpson seven strokes back.  Despite last year’s huge win, this tourney is typically close, and in its 13 years of existence, there has been six playoffs and another two conclusions determined by a single stroke.

The last couple of weeks have seen Charley Hoffman and Brian Stuard take home trophies, but with all the big-time players going to Charlotte it is going to much harder for an underdog to beat out the field.  With that said, let’s now feature a few names that could accomplish this tough feat and come out with an unexpected high standing at the challenging Quail Hollow.

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2016 Wells Fargo Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

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2016 Wells Fargo 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.

Patton Kizzire – Vegas Odds 66/1: Kizzire is making the most out of his first full pro season after winning twice on the Web.Com TOUR in 2015.  Thus far, he has made it to the weekend in 12-of-15 (80%) opportunities and done plenty with those chances; earning five top-10s and a runner-up performance at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.  He also comes into the week off a nice showing in the rain-shortened Zurich Classic where he shot 11-under in the three rounds; good enough to get him in a tie for eighth.  Kizzire has a little more experience than most rookies as he is 30-years-old, and he should be able to combine that with an amazing putting stroke (0.743 strokes gained putting, 5th on TOUR) to continue putting up low scores (70.158 scoring average, 11th on TOUR) and target his first career victory.

Luke Donald – Vegas Odds 75/1: Donald is no longer the player who once reached No. 1 in the OWGR, but he has made some adjustments to once again become a solid week-to-week threat on the TOUR.  He’s making the cut at an 83% clip this season (10-for-12) and nearly grabbed his sixth career victory with a runner-up performance just a few weeks ago at the RBC Heritage.  Donald has placed 26th or better in four of his last five outings and has shot under par in six of his last eight rounds.  The 38-year-old Englishman has never played at this course, but he is ranked in the top-50 in total strokes gained (1.031, 27th on TOUR) and scrambling (67.79%, 6th on TOUR) which should allow him to steadily move up the leaderboard this week.

Martin Kaymer – Vegas Odds 100/1: Just like Donald, Kaymer is not playing at the level he once did, but unlike Donald, he plays very few events on the PGA TOUR.  The two-time major winner has only five PGA tournaments under his belt this season, going 4-for-5 in cuts made with his sole top-25 coming at the WGC Match Play Championship.  Although he is not quite the threat he once was, Martin does have 14 career victories between the PGA and European TOURs and is coming off a tie for sixth in his most recent event overseas.  The German-born golfer also has solid efforts in this event and most recently posted a tie for eighteenth here back in 2014.  Kaymer is still a young man at just 31-years-old and at these odds he should be considered a discount going into the week.

Emiliano Grillo – Vegas Odds 100/1: Grillo has made quite an impression in his first taste of PGA TOUR competition, rattling out a victory at the Frys.com Open to start the season and following that up with another three top-25s in his 12 outings.  He has failed to play on the weekend just twice during this campaign and can thank his driver for much of his success.  His overall driving is ranked the best on TOUR as he backs up some great distance (292.6 yards per, 63rd on TOUR) with amazing accuracy (70.92%, 6th on TOUR) off the tee.  Thanks to that drive he has also hit greens in regulation at a 68.61% clip (34th on TOUR).  Coming into this week, the 23-year-old has made his last six cuts dating back to early February and is coming off a tie for seventeenth at the first major of the year; the Masters.  Grillo is certainly playing better than his experience and age would suggest, and he should begin getting more recognition as he continues to put up solid performances.

Robert Streb – Vegas Odds 150/1: Streb broke out with a huge 2015 season, raking in nearly four million dollars in earnings behind nine top-10s, including his first career victory and a runner-up showing, over 30 events.  Unfortunately, he has reverted back to his less than stellar play this year and has already missed more cuts (6) during his first 15 events than he did all of last year.  He has also failed to get into the top-10 in 2016, with his best finish being a tie for 18th at the Farmers Insurance Open in January.  Despite all of this, he is going back to a course where he has been very successful and it may prove to be a platform to springboard him towards a better finish to the 2016 season.  After missing the cut here in 2013, he managed a 23rd in 2014, and nearly won it in 2015 with a score of 12-under-par; earning him a tie for fourth.  There are a lot of areas that Streb will need to improve in order to climb the leaderboard this week, but if last year was any evidence of what he can do, there should be a breakout performance very soon.

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 report for the Wells Fargo Championship here.

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