Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2018 TOUR Championship

2018 TOUR Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

After eleven months of blood, sweat, tears and Tigers, the final 30 of the FedExCup playoff series are known.

Most of the usual suspects are here, with the notable exception of Jordan Spieth, who misses the TOUR Championship for the first time in his career.

As things stand, all 30 men in the field at East Lake can be crowned FedExCup champion, although it would require a bizarre twist of fate for number 30, Patton Kizzire, to land the big bucks.

He would need the current number one, Bryson DeChambeau, to finish absolute last to have any shot of being crowned the unlikeliest of champions.

DeChambeau, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Tony Finau and Justin Thomas will win the FedExCup loot should they triumph at East Lake, while others in the mix need a certain set of circumstances to go their way. Tiger Woods – what a joy it is to see him playing elite-level golf again – could take the spoils if he wins the TOUR Championship, Bryson finishes T15 or worse and Justin Rose finishes T5 or lower. It’s certainly possible.

Tiger Woods plays his tee shot on the 17th hole during the weather…

Tiger Woods plays his tee shot on the 17th hole during the weather delayed final round of the BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club on September 10, 2018 in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

For the uninitiated, East Lake is another Donald Ross design – similar to Aronimink for the BMW Championship – which rewards accurate approach play. Many fairways are lined with thick tree coverage, so stray at your peril, with water in play on six holes.

There’s only a pair of Par 5s on this Par 70 layout that weighs in at 7,385 yards, and with a winning score of just creeping into double figures likely, making par is often the name of the game on some of these tricky Par 4s.

The fairways are Zoysia grass, that strain typically found in the southern hemisphere, while on the greens we make a rare switch to Bermuda at this time of the year.

The last six TOUR Championship winners can all be described as ‘class acts’ to some degree, with names like McIlroy, Stenson, Snedeker, Horschel and last year’s champion, Schauffele, all engraved on the trophy.

As such, it might be hard to get a sleeper pick over the line, but the five we’ve outlined below all have a shot at the title.

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The TOUR ChampionshipFantasy Sleeper Report

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The TOUR ChampionshipFantasy Sleeper Report

Bubba Watson – Vegas Odds 50/1 – Bubba is something of a Bentgrass specialist, but a switch to Bermuda won’t necessarily hurt a guy who won the Genesis Open at Riviera earlier in the year.

With a pair of top-fives at East Lake, including a T5 in 2015, this is a course that suits his eye, and visually at least it does draw comparisons to Riviera with the thick tree-lines and fairly narrow fairways.

The three-time winner this season gained strokes on the field in all areas at Aronimink, and he would love nothing more than to add a fourth – and season-defining – trophy to his collection on Sunday.

Keegan Bradley – Vegas Odds 50/1 – Given how well he played at Aronimink, why wouldn’t we consider Keegan Bradley at this sort of price?

As we know, it is only a putting stroke lacking in confidence that separates him from the winner’s enclosure on a more regular basis, and that appeared to be solved last week as he sank almost everything thrown at him in a stunning display with the flat stick.

It’s been a while since Bradley played at East Lake, but let’s face it: he showed plenty of aptitude for Donald Ross based golf at the BMW Championship!

Kyle Stanley – Vegas Odds 66/1 – The 30-year-old opened with a round of 64 here 12 months ago, and while he couldn’t capitalize from there he did at least show some aptitude for the layout.

He found life tough at Aronimink last week, but look at the shining light of positivity: he gained strokes on the field on approach.

Putting problems prevented Stanley from enjoying anything other than a mediocre return at the BMW Championship, but perhaps a week off and a switch to Bermuda will help on that front.

Stanley has long been talked of as one of those talented young guys who could eventually sit at golf’s top table, and victory at East Lake would certainly propel him towards that aspiration.

Aaron Wise – Vegas Odds 80/1 – The foundation of Wise’s game is his brilliant driving, and so it was noteworthy to say the least the he gained strokes both with irons and putter in hand at the BMW Championship.

Indeed, but for a seven in his final round, we could be talking about a fifth top-10 finish of the season for a 22-year-old in his maiden PGA TOUR campaign.

He looked comfortable on the Donald Ross layout at Aronimink, and he’s already won on a Zoysia/Bermuda set-up at Trinity Forest in 2018.

Kevin Na – Vegas Odds 80/1 – If we scrub a missed cut at the Dell Technologies from the record, nine of Na’s last twelve rounds have been in the 60s; and seven at 67 or lower.

It’s a continuation of the fine form he showed in winning the Greenbrier in August, and without sounding hyperbolic it’s easy to say that Na is playing the best golf of his life right now.

Perfectly eye-catching was that round of 62 at Aronimink – the joint lowest of the week – and so everything in the 34-year-old’s game is working nicely at the moment.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2017-2018)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”2.38%” bar_text=”5 out of 210 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent=”10.00%” bar_text=”21 out of 210 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”25.71%” bar_text=”54 out of 210 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”2.38%” bar_text=”1 out of 42 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”4.76%” bar_text=”2 out of 42 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”67.14″ bar_text=”141 out of 210 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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