Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2021 TOUR Championship

2021 TOUR Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

After nearly a year of big-time PGA TOUR action, the curtain will fall on the 2020-21 season with the TOUR Championship this week.

The scene was set at a dramatic BMW Championship, where Patrick Cantlay’s playoff victory over Bryson DeChambeau was enough to see him installed as the leaderboard topper at East Lake.

He and Bryson made the very most of highly scoreable conditions at Caves Valley, and they went toe-to-toe in a fascinating duel on Sunday. In the end, they could not be separated, and it took six extra holes to find a winner – Cantlay, in making birdie on the re-played eighteenth, getting over the line.

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It was his third win of the calendar year, and that success has propelled him to the top of the FedExCup standings. He will take a two-shot lead over Tony Finau to East Lake, with Bryson lurking three shots back on -7. The rest will know that it will take a quality performance to get into contention, but that’s the nature of this new scoring format for the seasonal finale.

The interesting thing is that East Lake Golf Club is not somewhere that low scoring is the order of the day, however a poor week from tee-to-green from Cantlay could see him comfortably usurped all the same.

Designed by Tom Bendelow, East Lake has since been renovated by the likes of Donald Ross and Rees Jones, and the result is a fantastic layout that is the fitting location to see off the season.

It’s ball striking all the way, with quality driving – at 7,319 yards for its Par 70, East Lake isn’t short – matched by laser-like iron play into fast greens with shaved edges. And, to win an event in this quality company, you’re going to need to sink some putts on these Bermuda greens.

With some dense tree lines, East Lake truly is a fantastic test and will see the winner getting over the line with a score of, probably, the low teens under par. That will be the order of the day in the strokeplay sense, but for the revised FedExCup leaderboard can anybody catch Cantlay come the end of Sunday?

Note that, depending on your sportsbook of choice, there will be two sets of odds to explore – the 72-hole scoring (basically, the lowest score wins) and the FedExCup leaderboard, which takes into consideration the advantage of Cantlay, Finau and co.

Below, we have picked out our sleeper picks for the TOUR Championship, with both the 72-hole and FedEx standings explored.

So who makes the cut for our final sleeper pick selection of the season?

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2021 TOUR Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Collin Morikawa – 50/1 – It’s going to take an elite performance for somebody to win off the pace, but if anybody can then Collin Morikawa could be the man.

Starting seven shots adrift of Cantlay, that gap could easily be wiped out in one or two rounds, with Morikawa’s fairway finding ability and top-tier iron play ideal foils for East Lake.

He’s had a lean couple of weeks, but what would you expect – he won the British Open and just missed out on a medal at the Olympic Games, all within the space of a few weeks.

If this was a standard strokeplay event, Morikawa would be very much on the radar – at 50/1, he is a must back.

Kevin Na – 70/1 – Here’s an important note: Kevin Na is available at 70/1 in the 72-hole betting. Maybe don’t take him in the FedExCup market….

Why is Kevin Na value from a scratch start? Because he will find a lot of fairways at East Lake, which is always a handy start, and tends to hit long range approaches well, so a lack of distance may not be the biggest hindrance to him.

His short game is strong as we know, and with East Lake testing all-round golf Na is somebody who does have the raw ingredients to succeed.

Hideki Matsuyama – 110/1 – It will take an extraordinary player to win the FedExCup from this far back, but as we know Hideki Matsuyama is an extraordinary player.

When all of the elements of his game come together, Matsuyama is capable of incredible things – note his victory at The Masters this year. He just missed out on a medal at his home Olympics too, which shows his ability to shoulder pressure, but as we know the best players can thrive when the spotlight is off….as it will be this week.

Excellent from tee-to-green at the St Jude, there is enough quality form in the rear view mirror to suggest that Matsuyama can mount an unlikely assault on the title this week.

Joaquin Niemann – 175/1 – Once again, Joaquin Niemann was in fine ball-striking form at the BMW Championship.

That will hand him an edge at East Lake, where his iron play in particular can shine, and we’re expecting the Chilean to climb the leaderboard.

Can he win the whole thing? That seems unlikely, but for bettors that have the each way option available to them a top-five finish is not beyond the realms of possibility.

Daniel Berger – 200/1 – For Joaquin Niemann, read Daniel Berger – a sublime ball striker who may be too far out of the picture to win the FedExCup, but for whom a top-five finish is a possibility.

He always seems to be at his best on Bermuda, and Berger always seems to be on the brink of an epic tee-to-green performance.

Top tens at the British Open and WGC St Jude show he isn’t far away, and Berger will be desperate to end his season on a high.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2020-2021)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”2.86%” bar_text=”6 out of 220 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “10.00%” bar_text=”21 out of 220 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”23.23%” bar_text=”49 out of 220 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=4.76%” bar_text=”2 out of 44 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”7.14%” bar_text=”3 out of 44 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”61.43%” bar_text=”129 out of 220 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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