Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – Valero Texas Open

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2017 Valero Texas Open

The 2017 Valero Texas Open Sleeper Preview

With his victory at the RBC heritage, Wes Bryan was the latest Web.com Tour graduate to confirm his status as a player for now, rather than tomorrow.  Close on a couple of occasions already this season, Bryan finally got home on Sunday and with the added pressure of playing in front of his hometown supporters.  He gets a tick in a couple of boxes for the manner in which he took down the field in South Carolina.

So could this week’s event, the Valero Texas Open, offer up an opportunity for another young star to emerge?  A list of the last three winners – Charley Hoffman, Jimmy Walker, and Steven Bowditch – suggests that experience could be key in the windy climes of San Antonio, Texas.

The eponymous San Antonio GC is our host venue this week, and it happens to be one of the toughest on the PGA TOUR; in fact, in 2015 no non-major course played harder.  Hoffman may have delivered a more than respectable winning score of -12 last year, but he was just one of eleven players under par by the end of the week.

It is of moderate length (7,435 yards) for its Par 72, with thin fairways and hard-to-hit greens.  The dancefloors run at around 11 on the stimpmeter, with Bermudagrass fairways and Bentgrass greens offering a unique blend of challenges.

Charley Hoffman will try to defend the title he won 12 months ago, and with a bizarre two weeks in which he contended for The Masters before missing the cut at the RBC Heritage the jury will be out as to whether he can do just that.  According to the sportsbooks, his most likely source of competition will come from the likes of Matt Kuchar, Branden Grace, Ryan Moore, and Jimmy Walker.

There are plenty of subplots to consider too.  Kevin Chappell, T4 here 12 months ago, appeared to find his best form at Augusta, as did Moore and – to a lesser extent – Brooks Koepka.

Texans have a fine record in this event – Walker is a native while Bowditch is a homeowner in the area, and last year Patrick Reed, another proud Texan, finished one shot shy of Hoffman in the final reckoning.  He will be desperate to get back to his best on home soil.

Maybe a young star will announce themselves to the wider golfing community, much like Wes Bryan did last week.  Ollie Schniederjans has a number of top-20 finishes to his name this term and is a Texan born and bred, could this be his time?

With the likes of Bowditch and Martin Laird triumphing here in recent years, we are happy to consider some betting longshots this week in an event where they could prosper.  That said, here are five of the best fantasy sleepers to consider this week:

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2017 Valero Texas Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The Valero Texas Open 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.

Keegan Bradley – Vegas Odds 66/1 – Bradley has gotten pretty close to some big performances this term, with 50% of his starts yielding a top-25 finish at the very least.  Three of those were top-10s, while in his penultimate start he got very close at the Houston Open with two rounds of 67.

Excellent from tee to green, if Keegan can get his flatstick going he really could win one of these events one day.  Honestly.

Anirban Lahiri – Vegas Odds 70/1 – We’re on record as saying we think it is only a matter of time before Lahiri makes his breakthrough on the PGA TOUR, and in conditions familiar to him – red hot from his Indian upbringing, windy from his time playing on the European Tour – this could be the right time.

Yet to play at San Antonio, at least Lahiri comes here in good form: on both the PGA and European Tours, five of his last eight outings have ended in a top-25 finish.

Not many in this field will have won seven times worldwide like Lahiri, and who knows how important that could be come Sunday.

Harold Varner III – Vegas Odds 80/1 – One of these weeks, Varner III is going to connect three or even four good rounds and go on to win a maiden PGA TOUR title.  He landed the Australian PGA Championship earlier this year, but his best effort on Tour this term is a T15 at the Safeway Open.

But eleven of his last sixteen rounds have been under par, and that is fired by a Total Driving ranking of 34th.  This week?  You just never know with HVIII….

Sung Kang – Vegas Odds 80/1 – The Korean is one of these guys who, like HVIII, if he could string four decent rounds together could certainly go close.

He finished T42 here 12 months ago but nobody could match his round of 76 on the Friday, and recently he has been up to his old tricks: you may remember his round of 63 at the Houston Open (an event which he really should have won) and which he backed with a very respectable T11 at the RBC Heritage.

He also ranks 14th on tour for Total Birdies, which suggests he is ready to go low once again.

Bud Cauley – Vegas Odds 100/1 – Inconsistency continues to dog Cauley’s game, but a pair of top-10s this season – including T9 at Harbour Town last week – confirms that he is capable.

Indeed, fourteen career top-10s is proof of that, and we particularly like this San Antonio test as ideal for Cauley: he is long off the tee and gains plenty of strokes from tee to green.

He spoke very confidently during the RBC Heritage and we like to see that from young up-and-coming talents: Cauley has got game.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the Valero Texas Open here.

Cover photo via Instagram