Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2022 US Open

2022 US Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

For those golf fans that like to see the best in the game suffer, there’s no week on the calendar that’s quite as satisfying as U.S. Open week.

The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts is shaping up to be a classic addition to the annals of U.S. Open hosts too. Home to the U.S. Amateur in 2013 (won by Matt Fitzpatrick, for those interested), the venue has undergone an extensive overhaul since courtesy of Gil Hanse, who isn’t shy about making life difficult for the top pros.

He’s changed the shape and contours of the greens, and while some feature unique shelves and run-offs, it’s their elevated position that will make them toughest to hold.

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The fact that some could be hitting their irons regularly out of the longest, thickest rough imaginable – simply peruse your favorite social media platforms for more evidence of that – due to the tightness of the fairways confirms that The Country Club will be the ideal U.S. Open venue.

This Sunday is likely to be very different to the last then, where Rory McIlroy out-birdied the likes of Tony Finau and Justin Thomas to win the RBC Canadian Open – adding an incredible 21st PGA TOUR title to his collection. His final round of 62 was an epic reminder that the finest players in the world go and get the win….they don’t wait for it to come to them.

The Irishman has now leapfrogged the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm as the sportsbook favorite for the event, and while his outstanding driving will be diminished somewhat by The Country Club’s stingy fairways, he is hitting his irons as well as he has done in years….he will be the major danger this week, you fancy.

The quality of the field might have been diminished somewhat had the USGA decided to ban the LIV Golf Tour rebels from competing, but they have a different agenda to the PGA and so the likes of Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau are likely to take up their invites – they could get a tough time from the galleries, you suspect, but for someone like Reed that will surely only add further fuel to the flame.

The U.S. Open has generally been the playground of the classiest players in world golf in recent years, but there are exceptions – think Gary Woodland his 75/1 triumph at Pebble Beach in 2019, so there are outliers to be savoured.

In that spirit, who has made the cut for our 2022 U.S. Open sleeper shortlist?

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Corey Conners – 55/1 – It’s very rare that players that are out-of-form just turn up at the U.S. Open and win from out of nowhere.

The history books show us that form is key heading into such a tough event, and so Corey Conners has to be of interest as a result.

Trace the Canadian’s formline back to The Masters and you’ll note he finished T6 at Augusta, and he’s served up three top-20s and a T21 since – all very positive stuff.

Accurate off the tee and an excellent iron player, Conners has the skillset to thrive at The Country Club.

Mito Pereira – 66/1 – We could copy and paste the write-up for Conners here for Mito Pereira as well – another young stud who is in the flush of fine form.

The Chilean almost won his maiden PGA TOUR title at the PGA Championship – a catastrophic final round of 75 ending those hopes, but time is a great healer and we expect Pereira to actually have benefitted from that experience.

Since then he has finished T7 at the Charles Schwab Challenge and T13 at the Memorial Tournament, so Pereira isn’t down in the dumps by any means – in fact, he probably fancies a slice of redemption instead.

Abraham Ancer – 75/1 – Ranking third on the PGA TOUR for Driving Accuracy, and rock solid on approach in that 150-200 yard category, Abraham Ancer has the game to succeed at The Country Club.

Whether this frustratingly inconsistent performer actually brings his A-game to Massachusetts remains to be seen, but his top-10 return from the PGA Championship was proof positive that the Mexican can hang with the best of them.

He’s gained strokes on the field with putter in hand in four of his last six starts too, so if Ancer can bring all of the elements of his game together he can be a contender at the U.S. Open this week and in years to come.

Louis Oosthuizen – 75/1 – Here’s an odds-based pick that makes plenty of sense.

Louis Oosthuizen has nine top-three finishes in majors to his name – a remarkable record, and one that confirms that even when his form doesn’t look to be strong on paper, he can still find something on the biggest of stages.

A pretty likable guy, Oosthuizen will perhaps avoid much of the flak for playing in the LIV Golf Tour event, and as he homes in on his 40th birthday the South African will be thinking that another major will be the ideal gift.

Webb Simpson – 100/1 – Conditions like those expected at The Country Club are very much to the liking of Webb Simpson, whose no frills game gives him an edge when hitting fairways and making par are the dish of the day.

His old nemesis the flat stick has been a pain again of late, but Simpson was much better on the greens in decent efforts at the PGA Championship (T20) and Charles Schwab Challenge (T27) recently.

A former U.S. Open champion, Simpson knows what it takes to grind out a winning score in this unique setting, and it wouldn’t be a huge shock if he did likewise again this week at three-figure odds.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2021-2022)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”3.125%” bar_text=”5 out of 160 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “16.25%” bar_text=”26 out of 160 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”21.25%” bar_text=”34 out of 160 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”6.25%” bar_text=”2 out of 32 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”3.125%” bar_text=”1 out of 32 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”55.00%” bar_text=”88 out of 160 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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