Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2017 Wyndham Championship

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

The 2017 Wyndham Championship Fantasy Sleeper Preview

It’s always fitting when a player who has had the year of their life tops it off by landing a major, and that’s exactly what Justin Thomas did at the PGA Championship on Sunday.

Often living in the shadow of his close friends Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, JT stepped out into the light earlier in the season with a barnstorming run of three wins in five starts propelled him into the wider consciousness.

And victory at Quail Hollow, where he overcame the likes of Kevin Kisner, Hideki Matsuyama, and Francesco Molinari on a pulsating Championship Sunday, confirmed his status as not only one of golf’s rising stars, but also one of its most accomplished ball-strikers.

Thomas will presumably put his feet up, enjoy the moment, and look forward to taking his place in the FedExCup playoffs, which kick off with the Northern Trust Open a week on Thursday.

In the meantime, there is this Wyndham-sized meat in the sandwich. A tournament that dates back nearly 80 years, the Wyndham Championship is both hampered and buoyed by its place in the PGA TOUR schedule.

Davis Love III congatulates Ryan Moore after Moore holed out for…

Davis Love III congatulates Ryan Moore after Moore holed out for birdie from off of the green on the 17th hole during the final round of the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club on August… Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Most of the big guns are having the week off in preparation for the big bucks shootout starting next week, so this week’s field very much has that calm before the storm feel to it.

Nevertheless, there’s plenty to play for, with FedExCup points still up for grabs as well as the need to find some form in readiness for an assault on the riches in these final few weeks of the campaign.

The action will unfold once again in North Carolina – raincoats and umbrellas very much in order, as we move on to Greensboro and more specifically to Sedgefield Country Club, which has hosted this event for the past decade after a lengthy hiatus between 1977 and 2007.

There’s nothing really distinctive or unusual about Sedgefield, and the general consensus is that it is an easy Par 70 that does not favor any particular style of player. The last four winners here have been Si-Woo Kim, Davis Love III, Camilo Villegas, and Patrick Reed, and if you can spot any similarities between that quartet of golfers then you have done very well.

The fairways are easy enough to find, and while the greens are on the small side holding your ball in situ will be less of a problem if the forecast rain does its work. So, it’s your standard find-the-fairway-and-flush-an-iron-close style short course that usually sorts the quality ball-strikers from the rest.

So who is very much a hot pick as we head into the exciting climax of the PGA TOUR campaign?

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The Wyndham Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The Wyndham 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.

Bud Cauley – Vegas Odds 50/1 – This young buck will be expecting his maiden PGA TOUR title to come along sooner or later, and this kind of weak field event naturally offers his best chance of doing just that.

With five top-10s to his name this term Cauley is god enough to secure a ‘W,’ no question, with one of those coming at our correlated event at Byron Nelson.

T12 at the John Deere Classic, followed by two rounds of par or better at the PGA Championship, suggest Cauley remains hot, and this metronomic tee-to-green machine is primed to get over the winning line. Will it be this week?

Kyle Stanley – Vegas Odds 55/1 – The 2016 edition of this event rewarded quality ball-striking, and they don’t come much better in that field than Kyle Stanley.

The 29-year-old has enjoyed his coming-of-age season on the PGA TOUR, landing a long overdue second title but adding an element of consistency to his game: nine top-25s and five top-10s testament to that.

Stanley gained +1.71 strokes on the field from tee-to-green here last year, finishing T14, and ranks 10th and 11th respectively on tour for SG Approach and T2G. The guy is a machine – can he claim a second title of the campaign here?

Kevin Streelman – Vegas Odds 55/1 – Kevin Streelman has won on a Donald Ross track in the past at the Travelers Championship, and has been playing really well over the past few months that he has barely left our radar.

A run of seven consecutive cuts made features four top-20 finishes, including a T8 at the Travelers that he loves so much.

Accurate off the tee, Streelman’s tee-to-green stats have been exceptional of late, and he gives himself every chance of shooting low numbers with his ball-on-a-string routine. Without a win since 2014, is he overdue another?

Chez Reavie – Vegas Odds 65/1 – Flick through the SG: T2G stats from the PGA Championship and all of the usual suspects are there, although one name might just surprise you.

Chez Reavie ranked third for this metric – only Koepka and Oosthuizen performed better – ad that continues a strand of Reavie’s game of late where he is outstanding from tee to green but his putting is hideous.

If putting is easier on softer Bermudagrass greens, then that is one obstacle circumnavigated for the 35-year-old, and he really ought to cash in.

He’s missed his last three cuts here but has two top-10s to his name at Sedgefield, and don’t forget that messrs Moore, Love III, and Atwal all missed the cut the year before winning the Wyndham.

Graeme McDowell – Vegas Odds 70/1 – A big performance is needed this week from McDowell to propel himself into the top 125 of the FedExCup rankings, and on a course where his sole return yielded a T5 finish he will be confident of doing just that.

Short and accurate has been where GMac has made his money down the years, and so Sedgefield is set up perfectly for the Ryder Cupper.

He’s missed his last three cuts – that’s the bad news, but the silver lining is that in his prior 13 starts McDowell had finished in the top-30 at least in ten of them. That suggests good form is just within touching distance at a track that suits.

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

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