Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – The Sony Open

2019 Sony Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

The new calendar year might only just be creaking into life, but already we have seen a round of golf worthy of any end-of-year awards.

A 62 might not sound overwhelmingly impressive, but when you consider it was made at a Par 73 layout we can safely say that Xander Schauffele delivered something monumentally impressive on Sunday at the Tournament of Champions.

It secured him his fourth title in 18 months, which combined with some success on the European Tour and a bevy of strong showings in majors confirms the youngster, ranked sixth in the world now, truly is one of the best in the game.

Xander Schauffele of the United States celebrates with the trophy…

Xander Schauffele of the United States celebrates with the trophy after winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club on January 6, 2019 in Lahaina, Hawaii. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Schauffele will head off for a well-earned break but the PGA TOUR sticks around in Hawaii for another week. The Sony Open has been a mainstay of the Tour for more than 50 years, and the players simply love coming back to Waialae, a slice of Hawaiian paradise.

The conditions this week could be more dream-like than ever, with minimal winds according to the early forecast backed potentially by some rain on Wednesday; who doesn’t enjoy breeze-free ball striking and soft greens to land on.

The wind is actually a key defense for this course, because when it doesn’t blow all hell can break loose; Justin Thomas won this event at a canter in -27 back in 2017.

Otherwise, it’s all about peppering these small Bermuda greens with precision approaches before making some putts; shoot low or go home is the message at Waialae.

And this track is an all-inclusive affair too, with even short hitters like Fabian Gomez, K.J. Choi and David Toms having enough in the locker to get over the finishing line.

That might make this week’s Sony Open sound like something of a free-for-all, and with an eclectic rollcall of former winners here there may be an element of truth to that. Fabian Gomez, the 2016 champion, was backed at Vegas odds of 500/1!

And so sleeper-based punters have plenty to be excited about ahead of Thursday’s first tee. With that said, let’s get to our picks:

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The The Sony OpenFantasy Sleeper Report

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The Sony Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

Kevin Tway – Vegas Odds 60/1 – They say that life begins at 30, and Kevin Tway went some way to proving that ideology by landing his maiden PGA TOUR title shortly after turning that milestone age.

And that has led to him treading new ground by automatically being invited to take part in the Tournament of Champions, where in among some of the best in business he absolutely did not look out of place in his T11 finish.

Compare Tway’s 2018 stats to those of the 2019 campaign so far. It’s a hideously small sample, but the son of Bob has added roughly 10% to both the number of fairways he is finding and thus his GIR count has benefited.

You may suggest that is unsubstantiated by a meaningful body of evidence – time will tell as the tighter tests roll around, but even so here at Waialae Tway can drop bombs and still get back in the game if his iron play and scrambling are on point.

And why wouldn’t they be? Here’s a guy that has been playing well for the past six months or so.

Si-Woo Kim – Vegas Odds 60/1 – Do you ever have that thing at the start of a new year where you think: this is going to be my time?

You wonder if Si-Woo Kim has been experiencing similar feelings. Here’s a young guy with all the talent in the world, and yet he remains frustratingly inconsistent.

Perhaps the focus of a new year could be the difference, particularly as the Korean has been enjoying a decent enough spell of late.

T10 at the CIMB Classic, T15 at the Shriners and T26 in the Mayakoba Classic is all good stuff, and for a player who narrowly lost out in a play-off at the RBC Heritage in 2018 the conditions at Waialae should appeal.

Brian Harman – Vegas Odds 66/1 – In our preview of the Tournament of Champions, we wondered how winning the QBE Shootout would impact upon Patton Kizzire’s confidence levels.

That team-based format, in rather informal surroundings, provided a springboard for Kizzire to secure a top-10 finish in the competitive T.O.C last time out, and so perhaps some of the magic dust will have rubbed off on his triumphant QBE partner, Brian Harman.

The leftie is showcasing a similar formline to the reigning Sony Open Champion: some excellent rounds of golf punctuated by the odd mistake. For example, at the RSM Classic in his last strokeplay start, Harman recorded rounds of 66-68-73-64 in a T31 effort; again, we are left to ponder what might have been but for that Saturday meltdown.

No matter, because this week we follow him to a track where he has finished no lower than T20 in his last four visits; the best coming last year where he ended up in T4 after sitting just one shot back with a round to play.

Danny Lee – Vegas Odds 80/1 – It’s not always pretty, the way that Danny Lee goes about his business, for the past few months it has been mighty effective.

His game was shot to pieces in 2018 before an out-of-nowhere finish of T7 at THE PLAYERS Championship, and he’s kicked on nicely from there with eight consecutive cuts made and a solo second finish at the Mayakoba Classic last time out.

Tests where driving is not all important tend to suit, and indeed Lee has a habit of bringing his best to shorter Par 70 tests where low scores are the order of the day; he ranked 30th for Par 4 Birdie or Better Leaders last season, which is a tremendous effort when you consider his woes for the first half of the campaign.

Andrew Putnam – Vegas Odds 80/1 – Could a red hot putter be the difference between the winner and the rest of the field this week?

If so, perhaps Andrew Putnam is the answer, given that he ranked second for Strokes Gained: Putting on the Bermuda greens of Kapalua last time out at the Tournament of Champions.

It’s been a great few months for the world number 67. He duked it out with Dustin Johnson at the St Jude Classic, banked a top-ten at the Canadian Open and then went and won the Barracuda Championship.

He showed his versatility by banking T4 (WGC HSBC Champions) and T17 (Dunlop Phoenix Tournament) in China and Japan just before Christmas, and served up three rounds under par in Maui last week.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2018-2019)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”2.32%” bar_text=”1 out of 43 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent=”16.27%” bar_text=”7 out of 43 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”48.83%” bar_text=”21 out of 43 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”11.11%” bar_text=”1 out of 9 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”0%” bar_text=”0 out of 9 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”81.40%” bar_text=”35 out of 43 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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Cover photo via Instagram