Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – The Sentry

2023 The Sentry Fantasy Sleeper Report

Welcome to 2024; a year we hope is littered with big odds golf winners for our followers!

With more and more big guns being tempted away by the Saudi dollar of LIV Golf, with Jon Rahm the latest to make the switch, it certainly feels that there’s going to be more opportunities for sleeper picks to have their moment in the sun on the PGA TOUR.

But will they start as they mean to go on in 2024? There’s some chance at the Tournament of Champions – or The Sentry as it has been rebranded, with a stacked field offering plenty of chances further down the betting.

Gone are the days of the previous season’s event winners being the exclusive invitees of this event to the Kapalua Resort in Hawaii, with the top-50 from the FedEx Cup standings also getting their notice in the mail. It has beefed up the field – 59 will take to the first tee this week, and added quality at the top too.

Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau and Collin Morikawa are just some of those heading out to Maui, with the latter perhaps still stinging from his defeat here 12 months ago – a nine-shot swing on the Sunday saw Rahm catapult up the leaderboard and Morikawa snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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There’s quality everywhere you look in this field, and they’ll enjoy a leisurely stroll around Kapalua – an expansive Par 73 that, while not overly long when you factor in fairway undulations and downhill holes, still has plenty of grass for the players to work with.

Thankfully after weeks without competitive golf, the fairways are nice and wide and the Bermuda greens, far from lightning fast, are also generously proportioned, so our occasional foray into resort-style golf means we’re looking to those who can knock their approaches close and make some putts.

Oh, and birdies. Lots of birdies. Cameron Smith took apart the rain-softened Kapalua in 2022, posting a remarkable winning score of -34, while Rahm’s -27 a year ago was not too shabby either. Break par or go home (or stick around for the Sony Open a week later).

It’s steady away – we don’t know how hard the players have been grinding over the festive break, but with a profile of player in mind that has previously thrived in this event, here’s our sleeper shortlist for the 2024 Sentry.

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Wyndham Clark – 50/1 – Of all of golf’s big talking points in 2023, the improvement in Wyndham Clark’s game was pretty low down the pecking order.

But victories at the Wells Fargo and then the U.S. Open woke everyone up to his talents, as he slipped into the top-10 of the world rankings and made his Ryder Cup debut.

Huge leaps forward in his iron and wedge game mean that this bomber can now compete anywhere, and as a reliable putter and birdie maker extraordinaire Clark has to be on the team at such lofty odds. 

Sepp Straka – 66/1 – The past 18 months have been a whirlwind for Sepp Straka.

In the summer of 2022, he picked up his maiden PGA TOUR title at the Honda Classic, while in 2023 he won the John Deere Classic and finished T2 at the British Open.

Last time out Straka was leading the field behind Scottie Scheffler in the Hero World Challenge, so this is a young man whose game is very much on the up – his skillset of knocking approaches close and making some putts works well anywhere, but especially so at Kapalua.

Sahith Theegala – 70/1 –It was in the Fall that Sahith Theegala clinched his maiden PGA TOUR title, and he’ll be hoping that there’s plenty more to come in 2024.

A veritable birdie machine, Theegala has emerged as one of the most reliable putters on TOUR, and in ‘easy’ conditions where making birdies is at a premium, that’s a weapon he can wield with some success at Kapalua.

With top-fives at the RSM Classic and RBC Heritage, coastal conditions tend to be a friend to Theegala.

Adam Hadwin – 100/1 – Although he’s already a PGA TOUR winner, it’s been a long time between drinks for Adam Hadwin – the 2017 Valspar his sole foray into the winner’s circle.

In the meantime, he’s seen countless friends and Canadians win on the TOUR, so he’s perhaps made a resolution to himself to end his own drought in 2024.

He finished runner-up twice in 2023 – including last time out at the Shriners, which backs up the idea that Hadwin is very much close to landing that long-awaited second title.

Andrew Putnam – 110/1 – Stat merchants have been mightily impressed by the performances of Andrew Putnam over the past 12 months. 

In 2023, he ranked 25th and 12th respectively on the PGA TOUR for SG: Approach and Putting – a combination he might have expected to afford him more success.

A lack of length off the tee is Putnam’s major drawback, but historically that hasn’t been a major problem at Kapalua – and as a veritable Sony Open fanboy, with two top-fives there, he’s definitely a lover of golf in Hawaii too.

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

Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2023-2024)

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