Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2017 PGA Championship

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2017 PGA Championship

2017 PGA Championship Fantasy Sleeper Preview

So here we go then: the fourth and final major of the year. So far 2017 has witnessed Sergio Garcia finally join the Green Jacket brigade, Brooks Koepka translate potential into reality at the US Open, and Jordan Spieth….well, he just did what Jordan does over at Royal Birkdale.

The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational has set the scene rather nicely for the PGA Championship, with Hideki Matsuyama ploughing through the field with an outrageous round of 61 to take the honors ahead of Zach Johnson and Charley Hoffman.

The theme at Firestone was long, straight hitting and coping well with the ever-changing weather conditions, and judging from the early forecasts the same could well be true this week at Quail Hollow.

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan hits his approach shot on the ninth hole…

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan hits his approach shot on the ninth hole during the second round of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club on May 6, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Have you heard that name before? Followers of the PGA TOUR will have, as this has been the host venue for the Wells Fargo Championship for the stretch between 2003-2016. The watchwords at this famous stretch are hit it far, hit it straight, and hit those greens – a recipe that has witnessed the likes of Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, JB Holmes, and Lucas Glover take the honors here in the past.

That format has been tweaked yet further thanks to a series of course renovations overseen by Tom Fazio. The aim of the remodelled Quail Hollow is to test the players’ all-round game, and so holes have been lengthened – the course is now up to 7,600 yards despite dropping from Par 72 to 71 – and extra bunkers added. Some greens have even been moved so that they straddle water features and sand traps; this should be a test worthy of a major.

We say ‘should’ because the likes of Rory and JB have taken this course to the cleaners in the past, but we expect the difficulty tariff to have been increased somewhat by Fazio’s work.

The best protection for many courses is the weather, and that could well be the case this week with plenty of rain expected. That will play a double-hand: lengthening the course artificially (fairways won’t run, elevation changes will become less marked as a result), but also softening these Bermudagrass greens to make them more approachable. That will be news to the ears of the players, for whom hybrid and long iron approaches are the norm at Quail Hollow.

So, a tough test is expected this week to bring the curtain down on the year’s majors. Outside of the favorites, who is expected to show well in North Carolina? Let’s take a look.

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PGA Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

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PGA 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.

Paul Casey – Vegas Odds 50/1 – Casey just always seems to play well in majors; in his last seven starts, he has recorded four top-25 finishes with three of those being top-10s.

He doesn’t win often as we know, but then neither does Matt Kuchar and it took a miraculous performance from Spieth to deny Kooch his first major. Casey CAN win the PGA Championship if he plays his very best and others flounder under the pressure.

He played well at the WGC-Bridgestone last week, finishing T5 and ranking fifth for Greens in Regulation and seventh for Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green.

Most pleasing is his brilliance from mid-range: Casey ranks thirteenth and fifth for Approaches from 150-175 yards and 175-200 yards respectively.

Thomas Pieters – Vegas Odds 60/1 – If there were any lingering doubts about Pieters’ quality, he all but tossed them aside with another strong showing at the WGC-Bridgestone. He finished solo fourth after leading through 36 holes, and happily ranked second for SG: T2G – important for a player who isn’t always the most disciplined off the tee.

The Belgian is prodigiously long off the tee, and that will give him a headstart on many in the field in wet conditions. The early suggestion is that the rough isn’t too penal at Quail Hollow, so it’s a case of bombs away for a number of long hitters on show.

If Pieters can string four good rounds together, he’s got a chance.

Tony Finau – Vegas Odds 100/1 – Edging closer to a second PGA TOUR title is Tony Finau, and he’s shown enough in two starts at Quail Hollow to suggest this is a course that could serve him well through the years.

A solid 28th last year came on the heels of 16th a year prior, and the lengthening of the track won’t faze a man who ranks sixth on tour for Driving Distance one iota.

There’s more to Finau’s game than just outright brutality though: he ranks 41st and 24th on Tour for Approaches from 150-175 and 175-200 yards respectively.

Francesco Molinari – Vegas Odds 150/1 – For a prolific winner on the European Tour, it’s somewhat surprising that Molinari has never quite made the grade Stateside.

He’s a quality ball striker who ranks 11th on Tour for Total Driving, and his closing round of 65 at the WGC-Bridgestone will have given him plenty of confidence ahead of the trip to North Carolina.

A T17 return from his last trip to Quail Hollow suggests a decent run this week is in the offing; can Molinari finally cash in on US soil?

James Hahn – Vegas Odds 200/1 – The selection of Hahn at quotes of 200/1 is a no-brainer given that he is the last man to win at Quail Hollow.

That was in the Wells Fargo Championship of 2016, where he gained +1.707 strokes on the field from tee to green and prevailed ahead of the likes of Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, and Rory McIlroy.

The form is in place for another Quail Hollow challenge, with three top-20s in his last five starts at the Memorial (T6), the Greenbrier (T20), and the Canadian Open (T10).

Steve Stricker – Vegas Odds 200/1 – He’s not getting any younger, but Steve Stricker is still plying fantastic golf.

He’s enjoyed a fine year on the Champions Tour, with a T3 at the 3M Championship last week the latest in a long line of quality performances, and his return from majors this term of 16-16-37 suggest he can still cut it with the young guns.

Has he got the length to challenge here? Only time will tell, but he continues to get the job done at Augusta, and his approach play from 150-200 yards is so good that he can play catch up effectively.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the PGA Championship here.

Cover photo via Instagram