Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2022 Masters Tournament

2022 Masters Tournament Fantasy Sleeper Report

All of the talk will finally come to an end on Thursday as The Masters gets underway.

Will Tiger tee it up? Will Rory complete the major grand slam? Just how heavy will the rain fall? These are just three of the narratives that will be discussed at great length in the build-up to the first tee.

Of course, this 92-man field (assuming Tiger starts) features dozens of players with realistic hopes of slipping into the green jacket, and they will be hoping that defending champion Hideki Matsuyama is slipping the 2022 garment onto their shoulders come Sunday evening.

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Whoever wins The Masters will have to achieve it the hard way you fancy. Just fire up the weather forecast for Augusta and you will see what we mean – cool temperatures, strong winds and lots of rain are expected in the area.

It will be interesting to see how that all affects the action, but remember the rescheduled November edition of The Masters in 2020 – in cooler, softer conditions, Dustin Johnson took the course apart on his way to -20. Could we see a repeat this week? Probably not, but Augusta will certainly be more amenable if it rains hard and there’s no sunshine to dry out these ordinarily rapid Bentgrass greens.

It’s worth noting that yards have been added to both the eleventh and fifteenth holes, and so now the yardage for his Par 72 track has gone through the 7,500 yard barrier – and, less we forget, the way the fairways grow laterally and back to the tee box in some cases mean that the venue plays even longer than that (and heavy rain would make it longer still!).

The fairways at Augusta are also generously proportioned, and with pine straw instead of thick grass gobbling up errant drives, there is less of a handicap for spraying it off the tee….as long as you have a sight-line into the green.

And that brings us back to the weather – even with the SubAir system, can the greens run at 13 on the stimp if its wet and cold? If they can’t, holding the greens on approach will be easier, and as such we expect scoring to be lower.

That mindset changes the sort of players that we might ordinarily bet on in The Masters, and it certainly creates a more wide-open feel to the event. Could we see a 50/1 or longer winner? The conditions certainly make that possible, so let’s dig into our Masters 2022 sleeper shortlist to see who could achieve the feat.

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Matt Fitzpatrick – 55/1 – With top-10s in the Valspar Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational lately, which we consider to be somewhat correlating with The Masters, the omens are good for Matt Fitzpatrick.

While he lacks some length off the tee, the Englishman actually can send it 300+ yards when there’s less of a premium on accuracy – which, to some extent, there isn’t at Augusta given how soft the fairways are likely to be.

Even at the age of just 27, Fitzpatrick has made seven trips to the home of The Masters, and has only missed one cut – with a best of T7. He shapes up as a potential winner of this event.

Sungjae Im – 66/1 – A lot of time has passed since Sungjae Im picked up his second PGA TOUR title back in October.

But the Korean remains uber-consistent, serving up seven top-25s already this term, and he has the rock-solid game that is ideally suited to Augusta….where he was T2 in the November 2020 edition of this event.

Ranking 13th on TOUR for SG: Tee-to-Green and 43rd for SG: Putting, Im is evidently elite – can he make that count at The Masters?

Joaquin Niemann – 66/1 – While he doesn’t possess a great record at Augusta (yet), there’s no doubt this is a layout that suits Joaquin Niemann.

An excellent shot shaper and ball-striker, it’s putting that remains a mystery for the Chilean – although that didn’t hold him back when winning the Genesis Invitational at the correlating Riviera Country Club a few weeks ago.

A player that comes to the fore on layouts with elevation changes, Niemann has the tools to prosper at Augusta….let’s hope this is the year where he cashes in on his undoubted potential.

Marc Leishman – 80/1 –A player with undoubted major pedigree is Marc Leishman, and it’s no surprise to see him on the first page of the leaderboard in these big events.

Like Im, there’s no weakness in his game – he ranks 47th for SG: Tee-to-Green and 16th for SG: Putting, and his occasionally errant driving isn’t too badly punished at Augusta, where he seems comfortable hitting off the pine straw.

T15 at the Genesis was a handy warm-up for Leishman, and he’ll head to Augusta with fond memories of three top-10s and a T13 at this historic layout within his last eight visits.

Talor Gooch – 125/1 – Talor Gooch has upped his game this season, and we were very pleased to see 125/1 available with the sportsbooks.

Absolutely rock-solid from tee to green and a reliable, if streaky, putter, Gooch has missed just three cuts in 15 starts this term.

More pertinently, he’s served up nine top-25s, four top-10s and his maiden PGA TOUR title at the RSM Classic, where he showed the poise of a multiple-time champion.

T7 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational a few weeks ago, Gooch is shaping up well. And while he makes his debut trip to Augusta this week, he has the quality to overcome the poor record that maidens tend to have here.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for The Masters Tournament here.

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2021-2022)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”3.60%” bar_text=”4 out of 110 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “17.27%” bar_text=”19 out of 110 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”20.00%” bar_text=”21 out of 110 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”4.54%” bar_text=”1 out of 22 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”4.54%” bar_text=”1 out of 22 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”54.54%” bar_text=”60 out of 110 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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