Fantasy Sleeper Report – 2015 Northern Trust Open

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2015 Northern Trust Open

Event Preview

The “West Coast Swing” finishes up at Riviera Country Club this weekend when the players head to Pacific Palisades for the Northern Trust open.  Six of the top-25 players according to the OWGR will be participating in this year’s installment of the long running tournament, as one of ten player’s attempt to be the first to have multiple wins on the year.

Joining the field will be one of the better European players in No. 7 Sergio Garcia, who will be making his first PGA start in the 2015 calendar year.  The top golfer, in terms of ranking, will be No. 3 Bubba Watson, who will also be playing as the defending champion here and is looking to become the first multiple winner this season after taking the WGC-HSBC Champions back in November.  He will need to fend off a host of solid competition though, with there being an influx of rookie talent this year and more players coming in from overseas as the stretch leading up to the Masters is now underway.

In last year’s installment of this tourney, Bubba Watson was able to put together two consecutive 64’s on the weekend, holding off Dustin Johnson by just two strokes with his score of 15-under par—the best showing since Steve Stricker shot 16-under back in 2010.

This event should be wide open with veteran Mike Wier and Fred Couples being the only two golfers hitting the course with more than one victory here in the past; but both are well past their prime and likely won’t be competitive come Sunday.

The par-71, 7,298 yard course has given participants some trouble in previous years with its length, and players who are longer off the tee will typically be able to navigate the course a little easier.

With another exciting tournament surely on its way, let’s take a look at a few sleepers and long-shots for the 2015 Northern Trust Open, each of who has a chance to put up some nice scores despite not being considered among the elite.

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The Sleeper Report

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The Sleeper Report

In an effort to continually provide our Premium Members with the best fantasy content anywhere on the web, this week we’ve added a bonus “Sleeper Report” to help you identify the undervalued, long-shots that can help you score some bonus fantasy points this weekend.  Mix and match these players with your usual rosters (or play them separately) to get the most out of your picks this week.

• Bernd Wiesberger – 55/1: Wiesberger is mostly an unknown commodity in the states, but the Austrian born player has risen to 38th in the OWGR after putting up four straight top-six performances to start out the year on the European Tour.  Over the past three years, the 29-year-old has totaled a mere eight events on U.S. soil, missing the cut in half of them, but also coming off a strong 15th place showing at the PGA Championship back in August, where he shot 68-68-65 before falling apart with a 74 on Sunday.  Wiesberger has two European Tour victories under his belt, both coming back in the 2012 season, but has put up a scoring average of 68.19 this year (3rd on European Tour), good enough for first on the PGA TOUR, behind a 78.13% GIR (11th on European Tour).  Wiesberger has a good shot to impress some this week and it wouldn’t even be all that surprising to see him with a top-five finish.
• Francesco Molinari – 80/1: The 32-year-old Italian has been a solid competitor in all of his events played this year with a top-25 placing in each of the past two tourneys on the PGA TOUR and a strong sixth-place performance in his one stop on the European Tour (Alfred Dunhill Championship).  His best showing on the year was at the Humana Challenge when he shot a blistering 19-under par, good enough for 10th in the field, after posting an even more impressive 64 to open the tournament on Thursday.  Molinari has hit at least 73% of GIR in each of the three PGA events he’s participated in this season and had a driving accuracy of 85.7% in his last outing at the Waste Management Open.  He still hasn’t had a PGA win despite having seven career top-10 finishes but could parlay his recent successes into a solid showing this week.
• Max Homa – 125/1: This year has been all about rookies tearing it up as the likes of Nick Taylor, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Daniel Berger, and Zac Blair all rank among the top-50 in the FedExCup standings—and Homa, who is not considered a rookie, blends right in with the next wave of youngsters.  His powerful drive (296.6 yards per, 44th on tour) has allowed him to make 5-of-9 cuts this year and he’s finished in the top-30 at three of the last five tourneys played.  There are some holes in his game, so a 70+ round is certainly likely over the four days of an event, but he has a scoring average of 68.25 in his last three events where he made the cut.  Overall Homa is nice youngster to keep an eye on moving forward.
• Andres Gonzales – 175/1: Gonzales has never been much of a factor on the tour as his best year in terms of earnings was back in 2011 when he made $189,847 and was 209th in the FedEx Cup standings.  However, something must have recently clicked for the 31-year-old, as he has already more than tripled those earnings from 2011 and is currently 33rd in the FedEx Cup standings after making 7-of-8 cuts and grabbing two top-10 finishes this year.  One of those top 10s came last week at Pebble Beach when his score of 15-under par allowed him to finish tied for 10th as he hit 80.56% of GIR and drove the ball with force (298.3 yards per).  Gonzales was not on anybody’s radar at the beginning of this year and it will be interesting to see if this is a flash in the pan type of deal or if he has staying power, but either way be sure to take notice of this sleeper.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions?  Check out our full fantasy preview for this week’s 2015 Northern Trust Open here.

(Cover Photo Credit)