Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2022 Farmers Insurance Open

2022 Farmers Insurance Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

For all the brilliant work of the PGA TOUR’s statistics, there’s one metric they cannot quantify – intestinal fortitude under pressure.

In his (now) three victories on the TOUR, Hudson Swafford has shown plenty of that, and it’s a skillset that has earned him a pretty penny and a shiny new trophy courtesy of the American Express last week.

Within striking distance of the 54-hole leaders heading into the final round, Swafford started ice cold – bogeying the first – before getting very hot, very quickly….seven birdies on his next eleven holes played will fire you up any leaderboard.

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More bogeys followed at 13 and 15, so Swafford dipped into his well of fortitude and up popped an eagle at 16 – an astonishing effort given what had just happened and his lead evaporating.

In the end, he glided swan-like to the finishing line, triumphing by two shots from Tom Hoge in second. Plenty of notebooks were marked – Swafford is a man for the occasion whenever he gets a sniff of the lead.

Whether that happens at the Farmers Insurance Open this week we can only guess, but Swafford joins a high-quality field hoping to dethrone Patrick Reed at Torrey Pines.

He won by five here 12 months ago, delivering a masterclass in redemptive short game play, while Jon Rahm also triumphed at Torrey Pines South – the host of the 2021 US Open.

The Spaniard leads the way this week alongside the likes of JT, Brooks, Bryson, Xander and Hideki, and a quality field is matched by a golf course that is a joy to watch the action unfold on.

Well, mostly, that is. One of the opening two rounds is played at Torrey Pines North – a nondescript 18 holes that offers some comfort from the trickery of the South layout.

With tight fairways, no trees to speak of, an ocean breeze to contend with and small, razor-fast Poa Annua greens, you can see why the USGA chose Torrey Pines South to host the US Open. It will play slightly easier this week, of course, but even so the basic characteristics of tough golf are in place – Reed was the only man to get to double digits under par here a year ago.

So who are we looking at in our 2022 Farmers Insurance Open sleeper shortlist? Let’s crank open the vault and take a look.

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2022 Farmers Insurance Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

Patrick Reed – 50/1 – We were pleasantly surprised to see Reed opening at 50/1 with the sportsbooks, because you feel his chances of winning are a lot stronger than that.

The defending champion has been battling ill health and a loss of confidence over the past few months, and so his season-long stats look horrendous on paper.

But Reed is starting to return to his better form, he’s making plenty of birdies (40th on TOUR for Birdie Average) and has that magic in his short game that almost goes beyond numbers.

Forget the lottery of the American Express – Reed was T3 at the Hero World Challenge in excellent company and closed 64-66-68 at the Tournament of Champions. He’s on his way back to the big time.

Lanto Griffin – 70/1 – There was an excellent return to form for Lanto Griffin at the American Express, and at one point on Sunday he was just a single stroke off the lead.

A more concerted title push didn’t come, but it sets him up nicely for a tilt at a venue where he finished T7 last year.

There’s no doubt that the combination of West Coast golf and Poa Annua greens is the one that suits Griffin best, and his game is built around hitting irons close and making putts – that was a formula that worked for Leishman here on his way to the trophy in 2020.

Ryan Palmer – 70/1 – The Texan has a happy knack of playing decent golf on the West Coast, and he’s another for whom the switch to Poa Annua greens might bring about an upturn in putting form – the club that has been his achilles heel so far this season.

There’s no doubting his ball-striking – Palmer was in imperious form at the Sony Open, where he book-ended his effort with rounds of 64 and 65, and he will surely be relishing a return to a layout where his formline reads 2-13-21-2.

An excellent wind player, Palmer is primed to perform this week no matter what the weather.

Maverick McNealy – 80/1 – Long touted as a likely, rather than possible, PGA TOUR event winner on the West Coast swing, Maverick McNealy will be hoping the omens are true in the coming weeks.

Torrey Pines may not be the most likely of the rota to offer him genuine trophy chances, but McNealy has proven versatile in his approach already in his youthful career, and some high-quality ball-striking at the Sony Open will travel no matter the unique conditions in San Diego.

The Stanford youngster, born and bred, clearly loves life on Poa Annua greens, and he really does look the sort likely to make his breakthrough into the winner’s circle sooner rather than later.

Keegan Bradley – 80/1 – Some golfers return to a certain venue year-after-year, and the fact that Keegan Bradley has missed only one visit to Torrey Pines in a decade tells you all you need to know about his reverence for the club.

And why not, when you consider he has two top-fives and four other top-25 returns to his name in that run. For a player as notoriously tough to read as Bradley, that’s as close to consistency as you are likely to see.

His game looked in good order at Waialae, with two rounds of 65 on his way to T12, so there’s plenty to like about Keegan’s chances this week.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2021-2022)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”4.61%” bar_text=”3 out of 65 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “21.50%” bar_text=”14 out of 65 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”26.15%” bar_text=”17 out of 65 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”7.69%” bar_text=”1 out of 13 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”7.69%” bar_text=”1 out of 13 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”53.84%” bar_text=”35 out of 65 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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