Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2019 Farmers Insurance Open

2019 Farmers Insurance Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

It’s sports betting Valhalla: landing that 500/1 shot that has come from nowhere.

Adam Long, surely the most unlikely winner of a PGA TOUR event in decades, took the spoils at last week’s Desert Classic despite boasting a previous best of T63, with seven cuts made in his last eight starts.

If you saw that one coming, congratulations!

We’re not expecting a winner at quite those Vegas odds this week at the Farmers Insurance Open, where the cream has tended to rise to the top. Tiger Woods (x7), Phil Mickelson (x2), Jason Day (x2), John Daly, Jose-Maria Olazabal….these are all major champions that have won at Torrey Pines.

Other victors – Brandt Snedeker, Jon Rahm, Nick Watney – these are all class acts, and so it’s quite likely that a top-notch talent will get the job done in La Jolla this week.

Brandt Snedeker of the United States plays his shot from the first…

Brandt Snedeker of the United States plays his shot from the first tee during the final round of the Sony Open In Hawaii at Waialae Country Club on January 13, 2019 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

With the weather set fair that theme should continue, and that’s largely down to the complexity of the South Course, which really is a difficult layout for the players to navigate.

Supremely long at 7,698 yards, the fairways are also unfairly narrow, and that puts a real premium on the Total Driving side of things. The Poa Annua greens are large in size and super-fast, and well protected by bunkers. Rees Jones, who redesigned the layout in 2001, was perhaps in a bad mood at the time….

The South Course hosts three rounds of the event, and the other – either Thursday or Friday – is played out at the North Course.

This is a much more forgiving layout, playing at roughly two strokes lower on average than its counterpart. Shorter, easier and with receptive Bentgrass greens, the players will be looking to make hay on the day they are drawn at the North.

Incidentally, each of the last eight winners played the South Course on Thursday, so that might be an angle worth following.

Otherwise, we’re looking at classy operators able to grind out a score, rather than take a course apart.

As such, here is a quintet of sleepers that might just take care of business at the Farmers Insurance Open.

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The Farmers Insurance Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The Farmers Insurance Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

Brandt Snedeker – Vegas Odds 50/1 – We’ve mentioned the importance of course form at Torrey Pines, and Tiger aside few can boast the record of Brandt Snedeker at this tricky layout.

A two-time champion here, Snedeker has also finished second on two occasions and with a pair of other top-10s to his name, it’s a surprise that the 38-year-old hasn’t set up home in this part of California.

There is a rich heritage of major winners doing the business at Torrey Pines, and while Snedeker isn’t a member of that particular family you have to file a nine-time PGA TOUR winner under the category of class act.

How’s his current form looking? Within his last four starts on American soil, Sneds has finished T2 at the Safeway Open and will reflect on the Hawaiian swing (T22 in the Tournament of Champions, T16 in the Sony Open) as a decent warm-up for another tilt at the title.

Keegan Bradley – Vegas Odds 50/1 – It’s a course that suits his natural game, so we’re happy enough to ignore Keegan Bradley’s recent malaise.

That said, he bounced back to something like his best form with a top-30 at the Sony Open, and his long straight driving are perfect for Torrey Pines; no coincidence, then, that he has finished inside the top-five here on each of his last pair of visits.

The 32-year-old is a major winner, of course, so he wouldn’t look out of place on the Farmers rollcall of champions, and if that putter behaves there is no reason why he can’t contend here as well.

Abraham Ancer – Vegas Odds 50/1 – There is something of an X Factor about the game of Abraham Ancer, and only time will tell if he is a major champion in waiting, as many suspect.

For now, the Mexican can reflect on a year in which he has won a decent title – the Australian Open – and established himself as a key player on the PGA TOUR.

Go back a year and this event yielded Ancer’s first top-20 of 2018; although there were plenty more to come.

In fact, he’s banked a quartet of PGA TOUR top-five finishes in the past six months alone, and a T18 effort at the Desert Classic last week promised so much more given his round scores of 66-67-73-66.

J.B. Holmes – Vegas Odds 80/1 – It would be dangerous to pack your drafts and betting picks with first-timers to Torrey Pines, and it is one of those weeks where course history does hold greater than normal relevance.

When a player like J.B. Holmes has course form reading 4-33-6-2, you know what the challenge ahead will be: smoke it long off the tee and make some putts.

He lost in a four-way play-off here to Jason Day in 2015, and there are few in the field who can boast as many sub-70 rounds as the Kentuckian at Torrey Pines.

Holmes started the season with solo ninth at the Safeway Open, and you just know he will relish a return to one of his favorite courses on the circuit.

Luke List – Vegas Odds 80/1 – Answers on a postcard as to why Luke List saves his best golf for the harder golf courses on the PGA rotation.

Maybe it’s because he is more circumspect in his approach, rather than simply dropping (wayward) bombs off the tee?

Whatever the reason, respect goes to a man who lost in a play-off at last year’s Honda Classic, and who also showed up well in the Valspar and Wells Fargo Championships.

T12 here last year, List’s current form – MC-4-MC-4 – will get you excited or anxious, depending on your attitude to life!

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for The The Farmers Insurance Open here.

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2018-2019)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”3.78%” bar_text=”2 out of 53 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent=”15.09%” bar_text=”8 out of 53 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”41.51%” bar_text=”22 out of 53 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”9.09%” bar_text=”1 out of 11 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”9.09%” bar_text=”1 out of 11 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”69.81%” bar_text=”37 out of 53 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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Cover photo via Instagram