Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2022 Wyndham Championship

2022 Wyndham Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Tony Finau went five years without a win on the PGA TOUR….and now he’s triumphed three times in the past year!

The third of those came last week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic which, as eagle-eyed observers will have noted, came a week after his second at the 3M Open – becoming the first back-to-back winner on the PGA TOUR since Brendon Todd in 2019.

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There actually isn’t too much to say about his win in Detroit – Finau hit the front early, saw off the challenge of rookie Taylor Pendrith and then kept his composure with Patrick Cantlay and Cameron Young charging at him to win by a comfy five-shot margin. 

There’s a point of order for bettors to know this week – this is the final tournament of the regular PGA TOUR season. The top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings will splinter off to complete the campaign, with those outside the mark left twiddling their thumbs and worrying about their TOUR card status, depending upon their playing privileges. 

So there’s plenty to play for at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, and as such it doesn’t come as a surprise to note that sleepers have thrived in the Wyndham Championship – J.T. Poston (90/1) and Jim Herman (500/1) obliging here in recent years!

It’s funny, actually, because Sedgefield is a golf course we might ordinarily expect the classier sorts to enjoy the most. Designed by Donald Ross, the layout actually doesn’t have many of his usual hallmarks – there’s little in the way of bunkers, and the water is only a minor concern on six holes.

The greens are complex and undulating, however, and that’s why this feels like a second shot course – particularly when you consider that there are only two Par 5s to work with and yet the winning score regularly surpasses -20 here….meaning that making birdies on the Par 4s is key. 

There are some tougher holes – the stretch between 11-14 will probably play over par for the week, but for the most part the emphasis is on making birdies under the pressure of knowing your immediate future is at stake….even those comfortably in the top 125 are thinking about the top 50 and higher now.

But who will take giant strides towards that goal here? Let’s take a look in our Wyndham Championship 2022 sleeper shortlist.

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Christiaan Bezuidenhout – 50/1 – Excellent on approach from 200-225 yards, a decent scrambler and a proven putter on Bermuda greens, the basic ingredients are there for Christiaan Bezuidenhout to do the business.

Occasionally the South African is priced too short by the sportsbooks to be taken seriously, but we like him in this field and at Sedgefield too – admittedly, we wish he’d had one more than one prior visit, which yielded a T37 back in 2020.

In his last start on American soil, Bezuidenhout finished T2 at the John Deere Classic with an exemplary score of -18, so who knows maybe that maiden PGA TOUR victory is just around the corner?

Scott Stallings – 55/1 – For some reason known only to them, Scott Stallings is the same odds with the sportsbooks this week as he was last – that’s despite finishing T10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and ranking 11th for SG: Tee-to-Green!

Perhaps it’s his mediocre record at Sedgefield that’s to blame for the bookies’ reluctance, but this is a guy who has posted four top-10s in his last six PGA TOUR starts – there really aren’t many players that can say they have a better record than that right now.

Stallings is comfy on Bermuda greens and has performed well at the correlating TPC Craig Ranch, so there’s plenty to like about his chances.

Alex Smalley – 80/1 – In recent weeks the PGA TOUR has stopped by pretty open golf courses that generally put more of a bias on slick putters than premium ball striking ability.

But Sedgefield is more in the lineage of the second shot course, and to that end Alex Smalley has to be of interest.

In his last ten strokeplay starts, Smalley has gained strokes on the field in six of them off the tee and seven on approach – half-dozen of those at +0.75 or more.

If that sounds like statistical psychobabble, let’s put it another way – he’s playing very well, but just not able to convert birdies and better. But he will have an edge on many in the field at a layout like Sedgefield, and if he can just improve slightly with the flat stick then there’s a high ceiling for what Smalley can achieve.

Patton Kizzire – 125/1 – It won’t have escaped Patton Kizzire’s attention that he currently sits 124 in the FedEx Cup standings.

It means that he needs to perform this week, and while that builds pressure in its own way, it also means that the world number 168 won’t be short of motivation.

Kizzire has performed admirably at a number of our correlating courses, has finished T13 at Sedgefield and is a regular performer on Bermuda greens – can he follow in the footsteps of Scott Piercy and Charley Hoffman by rewinding the hands of time this week?

Charley Hoffman – 175/1 – Speaking of the devil….

While Piercy’s renaissance came completely out of the blue, Hoffman has actually been playing better than his slew of mediocre results suggests.

His ball-striking has been positive for a number of weeks, and his T10 in the Rocket Mortgage Classic was simply a continuation of that confidence.

Prior form at Waialae and Harbour Town suggests he can perform at Sedgefield, and make a mockery of the two missed cuts he has so far delivered at the venue.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2021-2022)

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