Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2022 TOUR Championship

2022 TOUR Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

After eleven long months, the 2021-22 PGA TOUR season comes to an end at the TOUR Championship this week.

It’s fascinating to think that Patrick Cantlay has gone through that span of time without a win to his name, and yet victory at the BMW Championship last week gives him a great chance of becoming the first back-to-back FedEx Cup winner in history.

He showed trademark poise under pressure on Sunday, seeing off the threat of Scott Stallings, Xander Schauffele and co with a textbook showing of Cantlay resilience – four birdies, two bogeys, twelve pars….and he had successfully defended his BMW Championship title.

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It means that he will start the action at East Lake on -8, two shots behind Scottie Scheffler on the staggered start leaderboard. That has been determined by the players’ form throughout the campaign, and culminates in a starting leaderboard that will look like this:

• -10 – Scottie Scheffler
• -8 – Patrick Cantlay
• -7 – Will Zalatoris
• -6 – Xander Schauffele
• -5 – Sam Burns
• -4 – Cameron Smith, Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Sepp Straka, Sungjae Im
• -3 – Jon Rahm, Scott Stallings, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick
• -2 – Max Homa, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Joaquin Niemann, Viktor Hovland
• -1 – Collin Morikawa, Billy Horschel, Tom Hoge, Corey Conners, Brian Harman
• E – K.H. Lee, J.T. Poston, Sahith Theegala, Adam Scott, Aaron Wise

It’s the kind of week where you should really embrace sportsbooks that offer each way places in their golf betting – if you don’t have this at your disposal, you really should consider it for the TOUR Championship as backing players in this way really is the smarter way to wager under these unique conditions.

The season will be seen off in fitting style at East Lake, a venue that offers an all-round challenge of golf – from tough-to-find fairways to small, super-fast greens, this is an examination of tee-to-green golf.

And it doesn’t end there either. These Bermuda greens run at around 12 on the stimpmeter – albeit slightly slower if the predicted rain shows up, and with lots of difficult contours to read and shaved run-offs, East Lake is far from being a picnic. The perfect curtain call, then.

Depending on your sportsbook of choice, there are two ways to bet on the TOUR Championship. You can opt for the traditional method – that is, betting on what would be a standard 72-hole score market….this will likely be offered under ‘without starting strokes’ or a similar heading.

Alternatively, we can just dive right into the TOUR Championship winner category, which uses the starting leaderboard as a jumping-off point for its odds. Remember, many sportsbooks offer each way prices for both these options….and those are the genesis for our picks this week.

We’ll highlight which market we are taking each player in, so without further ado let’s launch into our final column of the 2021-22 season – here’s our sleeper picks for the 2022 TOUR Championship.

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Viktor Hovland – 75/1 (TOUR Championship winner). When it comes to each way wagering on the TOUR Championship winner market, sportsbooks are paying either four or five places this week.

So Viktor Hovland is giving away three or four shots to the field in that regard, but the manner in which the Norwegian wrapped up his showing at the BMW Championship – five birdies, just one bogey and a hole-in-one – suggests he has plenty in hand.

Some observers regard East Lake as a ‘second shot’ course, and there are few better approach players on the planet than Hovland – if he gets on a roll, as he did on Sunday, those each way places could become a distinct possibility.

Sahith Theegala – 80/1 (without starting strokes). With this bet, we’re backing Sahith Theegala to win or finish inside the places off a hypothetical scratch start. 

That will be some ask, but here’s a player that has defied expectations all-season long – five top-10 finishes in his rookie season is some going.

Theegala has the all-round, tee-to-green game to thrive at East Lake, and his putting has improved beyond all measure since the TOUR switched to Bermuda greens – these are good omens indeed.

K.H. Lee – 100/1 (without starting strokes). Given that Hovland’s round of 65 at Wilmington CC on Sunday was boosted by an ace, we could argue that K.H. Lee’s score of the same mark was therefore the best of the day.

The Korean fired seven birdies in testing enough conditions to power up the leaderboard, and he’s another with the propensity to shoot low numbers at any given time.

An excellent driver of the ball, Lee also possesses a reliable short game – it’s his approach play where he is often lacking. But in ranking 13th for SG: Approach in a quality BMW Championship field, he showcased much improved confidence in that department.

Scott Stallings – 125/1 (TOUR Championship winner). Here’s some extraordinary disrespect being shown by the sportsbooks.

Scott Stallings will start the TOUR Championship in T12 position following a fine end to the campaign, and so for him to be available at three-digit quotes in the ‘to win and each way’ seems a flaw in the bookies’ plan.

Nobody hit their approaches better than Stallings at the BMW Championship, and as one of the finest Bermuda putters in the business according to our tracker, he should be shown more respect this week.

Sepp Straka – 150/1 (TOUR Championship winner). Again, this is one of those picks where you’re hoping an elevated leaderboard position will count for plenty.

It’s highly doubtful that Sepp Straka will win the TOUR Championship, but if you can catch a 150/1 bet in the each way places you’ll do very nicely indeed out of it.

Straka sets off at East Lake on a score of -4 – that puts him T6 straight off the bat, and if he can improve just a little bit on that he will hit a handsome payout for his backers. A noted performer on Donald Ross layouts, with a strong showing at Memorial Park to his credit, it’s not beyond the pail that the Austrian will achieve what we want him to. 

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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 (2021-2022)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”2.92%” bar_text=”6 out of 210 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “13.65%” bar_text=”28 out of 210 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”20.00%” bar_text=”41 out of 210 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”7.31%” bar_text=”3 out of 42 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”2.44%” bar_text=”1 out of 42 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”50.73%” bar_text=”104 out of 210 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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Cover photo via Instagram