Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – PGA Championship

2019 PGA Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Finally, we’ve got good reason to get excited about the PGA Championship again.

The fourth major was swept away in a sea of apathy for so long in its September timeslot, with the FedExCup, the Ryder Cup and the Olympic Games all taking priority in the hearts and minds of the players and fans of the sport alike.

But the new scheduling makes sense: THE PLAYERS Championship gets a nice early slot in the diary, and the PGA Championship now feels like a major again as it falls almost equidistant between The Masters and the US Open.

Events like the PGA Championship live or die by the choice of host venue. Some editions pass by without a flicker when played at uninteresting layouts or those which offer supremely low scoring, and so the hope is that the selection of Bethpage Black as host this time around will give the tournament its intrigue back.

Francesco Molinari of Italy plays a shot during a practice round…

Francesco Molinari of Italy plays a shot during a practice round prior to the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 13, 2019 in Bethpage, New York. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

We’re not anticipating the kind of challenge that this stretch provided the entrants to the US Opens of 2002 and 2009 where breaking par was a challenge in itself, but nor are we expecting anything too drastic as far as scoring is concerned either.

And it’s worth getting familiar with the recent weather patterns in Farmingdale, Long Island too: there has been days and days of rain during the spring and in recent weeks too, and for all the sterling work of the ground staff we would still expect the course to play soft this time around.

And that’s less than ideal for the short hitters, who already have a 7,468 yard Par 70 behemoth to try and conquer. Yes, it’s one of those weeks where the longer hitters have an immense advantage.

As if the sheer sale of the track wasn’t enough, the A.W. Tillinghast design is also heavily bunkered with thick tree lines contouring many of the fairways. The rough isn’t said to be as dramatic as it could be, but staying out of the second cut and the thicker stuff – particularly if wet – is still a good idea.

Another slice of good news for the players is the benign weather forecast. It will be cool, it has to be said, but rain should be at a minimum and wind speeds of 9-11 mph aren’t enough to frighten the best players in the world.

We’ve used all of this information to inform our shortlist of sleeper plays for the PGA Championship, and here are five we are hoping can contend at Bethpage Black this week.

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PGA Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Sergio Garcia – Vegas Odds 50/1 – Bethpage Black was set up differently for the Barclays of 2012 and the US Open of 2009….but that didn’t matter to Sergio Garcia, who delivered top-10s in both of those tournaments.

That is proof positive that this is a layout that suits his eye, no matter of its specifics, and from a betting perspective it makes sense to back a man that has already won a major – he’s a proven performer under the harshest of pressure.

Eleven starts in 2019 have yielded seven top-10 finishes, and the most recent of those came in his last start at Quail Hollow for the Wells Fargo Championship. Ranking fifth for Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, that’s a performance that catches the eye as a handy dress rehearsal for this week’s second major of the year.

Patrick Cantlay – Vegas Odds 55/1 – Here’s another young talent with stacks of good form this season. Cantlay has also delivered seven top-10 finishes in his last eleven appearances, including hugely impressive T3 and T9 turns in his last pair of starts at Harbour Town and Augusta.

In among the positivity has been some fine showings on Poa Annua, while the youngster has also shown up nicely on the East Coast in the past couple of years.

Cantlay played very nicely for his T8 the last time that the PGA TOUR took in a Tillinghast layout at Ridgewood at the tail-end of last season, and there’s no reason why he can’t come up with the goods at another of the designer’s tracks this week.

Paul Casey – Vegas Odds 55/1 – You can tie yourself up in knots backing Paul Casey, one of the best players never to win a major.

The Englishman has all the tools at his disposal to take down the big tournaments apart from, arguably, one of the most important: mental fortitude.

But this is a man who has won twelve times worldwide, won back-to-back editions of the Valspar Championship, and somebody who heads to New York in good heart: after a bit of a meltdown at Augusta, Casey bounced back with a strong T4 at the Wells Fargo Championship immediately after.

You wouldn’t want to be in the trenches with Casey, but he’s more than capable of going low on Sunday and winning from off the pace.

Adam Scott – Vegas Odds 55/1 – Maybe it’s because he doesn’t play all that much these days, but Adam Scott remains one of the most reliable and consistent performers in majors around.

Stacks of top-10s in the big tournaments were added to with solo third at the PGA Championship in September, and lest we forget he was the co-leader at the halfway stage of the Masters before falling away to T18.

Fourth at Bethpage at the 2016 Barclays, Scott still plays consistently good golf when he turns up, and nobody would be overly surprised if he added another major to his collection in Long Island.

Bubba Watson – Vegas Odds 66/1 – Long, tree-lined tracks tend to bring the best out of Bubba, and it’s no coincidence then that he has thrived at Bethpage with a formline of 13-10-18 from his last three visits to the venue.

He’s also comfortable playing in the eastern half of the country, and also seems to enjoy hooking up with his old pal Poa Annua too.

Going under the radar, Bubba’s last two strokeplay starts have yielded T4 at the Valspar Championship and T12 at The Masters, and boy how he would love to add a third major title to his haul this week. He’s got the game and the form to do exactly that.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2018-2019)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”5.47%” bar_text=”7 out of 128 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent=”14.84%” bar_text=”19 out of 128 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”34.37%” bar_text=”44 out of 128 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”3.84%” bar_text=”1 out of 26 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”19.23%” bar_text=”5 out of 26 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”64.06%” bar_text=”82 out of 128 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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Cover photo via Instagram