Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – Sentry Tournament of Champions

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2018 Sentry Tournament of Champions

The 2018 Sentry Tournament of Champions Fantasy Sleeper Preview

The halls have been well and truly decked with boughs of holly, and the final strains of Auld Lang Syne have been sung.

That means the Christmas and New Year period is over (boo!), but on the plus side it means a return for consistent, high quality golf courtesy of the PGA TOUR (hooray!).

The 2018 schedule commences, as has become tradition, with the Hawaiian Swing; an enjoyable couple of weeks which takes in the Sony Open (next week) and this week’s date: the Sentry Tournament of Champions, which will once again be hosted by Kapalua and played on their Plantation Course.

Russell Henley hits out of a bunker on the 16th hole during the…

Russell Henley hits out of a bunker on the 16th hole during the second round of the FedEx St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind on June 10, 2016 in Memphis, Tennessee. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

The event’s name says it all, really. The 34-man field is made up of players who entered the winner’s circle during 2017; bringing together major champions such as Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka with those who triumphed in rather more auspicious surroundings (here’s looking at you Jonas Blixt and D A Points).

Four of the last five winners of this event have won a major, and so while instinct suggests this trip to Hawaii is one to get some sun on the back and gently dust off the cobwebs in salubrious surroundings, the truth is that the cream rises to the top here more often than not.

Fans of sleeper plays have been warned!

Happily, the weather forecast for Maui this week at least hints that the outsiders might give us a decent run for our money. Wind speeds are expected to reach 22 mph at times, and that of course if often golf’s great leveler. If the weathermen and women are correct, the TOC could turn into something of a grind – even accounting for the Par 73 mark at which the action unfolds.

Yes, you read that correctly: this Plantation track is the PGA TOUR’s only regular Par 73 jaunt. Just three par threes will test the players’ short game this week, and while that may instinctively have you racing out to back the wild bombers hold your horses: the rollcall of former winners here includes Jordan Spieth, Zach Johnson and Geoff Ogilvy, so length off the tee is not a prerequisite for success.

Indeed, the landing areas are wide – both off the tee and on approach, and so the sum equation for glory this week is simply get the ball as close to the pin as possible; by hook (quality iron play) or by crook (scrambling). Either way, these greens (Bermuda, 10 on the stimp) won’t keep the players up at night.

So, can a mid-tier pick or an outsider earn the Tour’s first big prize of 2018? Here are our best bets to do so:

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2018 Sentry Tournament of Champions Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The 2018 Sentry Tournament of Champions Fantasy Sleeper Report

Mix and match these players with your usual rosters (or play them separately) to get the most out of your picks this week.

Russell Henley – Vegas Odds 50/1 – Given his undoubted talent, you could make a case that says that Russell Henley doesn’t get into contention enough – a possible sign of mental weakness. That said, we’re not willing to give up on him just yet.

The Houston Open champion has proven his mettle, finishing T11 at the Masters and T3 at the Tour Championship in 2017, and you really do get the impression he is a fraction away from converting in a big tournament.

We wouldn’t necessarily call the Tournament of Champions a big event as such, but it is one where players can lay down a marker. Henley has performed well at the Sony Open in the past, and so he will be looking to enhance his Hawaiian claims yet further with a strong showing this week.

Brendan Steele – Vegas Odds 50/1 – For Brendan Steele, read Russell Henley. Here’s another guy capable of outstanding golf, but he’s also somebody who hasn’t entered the winner’s circle enough – certainly in recent years.

His win at the Safeway Open was confirmation of his talent, and now Steele has to resist the notion that he is nothing more than a ‘flat track bully’ – succeeding in weak field events only.

He finished T6 here 12 months ago, and bagged T6 and T13 returns at THE PLAYERS Championship and US Open respectively, so perhaps Brendan is ready to show some, erm, steel at the sharp end of high quality events at last.

Bryson DeChambeau – Vegas Odds 80/1 – Patrick Reed is a former Tournament of Champions winner, and that suggests that a bit of magic around the greens can go a long way at Kapalua.

The flat-capped one proved himself to be something of a bubble or bust player in 2017; at one stage he missed eight straight cuts before an improving run of form reading 14-17-26 culminated in his first PGA TOUR victory at the John Deere Classic. The good news is that Bryson has bagged three top-20s in his last trio of starts.

Time has a funny habit of making fools of us all from time to time, but in 2018 we expect DeChambeau to show he is one classy customer inside 150 yards to the flag.

Austin Cook – Vegas Odds 80/1 – It’s early days in the PGA TOUR career of Austin Cook, but the signs already are very good indeed.

The 26-year-old’s form has improved exponentially from outing to outing; culminating in his triumph at the RSM Classic in just his fourteenth career start at this level.

The most eye-catching aspect of his game is that dynamic touch around the green, and chip-and-putt contests like this are sure to be Cook’s favorite dish moving forward.

Patton Kizzire – Vegas Odds 90/1 – Kizzire was probably one of the few people on Planet Earth who didn’t want Christmas to come!

His form prior to the festive break was electric: he bagged a top-ten at the Sanderson Farms Championship, a top-five at Shriners and then finally broke his PGA TOUR trophy drought at the OHL Classic shortly after.

It only takes a small spark to light a fire, and you wonder what trajectory the 31-year-old’s career will take from here.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the 2018 Sentry TOC here.

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2017-2018)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”0%” bar_text=”1 out of 35 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent=”14.28%” bar_text=”5 out of 35 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”40.00%” bar_text=”14 out of 35 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”0%” bar_text=”0 out of 7 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”0%” bar_text=”1 out of 7 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”56.67″ bar_text=”17 out of 30 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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Cover photo via Instagram