PGA Championship: Fantasy Golf Picks
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The PGA Championship heads to Quail Hollow for the first time this week as the fourth major of the year is played in August for the penultimate time.
It was reported on Monday that after much speculation the PGA of America’s flagship event will be moving back to it’s May position in 2019 at Bethpage Black in New York – meaning this will be one of the last times the event is staged in August.
There are several huge storylines in the making this year, with Open Champion Jordan Spieth bidding to become the youngest player in history to complete the career grand slam. Spieth however, is tipping Rory McIlroy – who holds the course record and has won at Quail Hollow twice before.
“I would say Rory’s probably the guy to beat at this point next week,” Spieth said after playing the WGC Bridgestone Invitaitonal at Firestone.
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“I played with him the first two days, and the way that he is driving the golf ball, if he continues to do it there he just has a massive advantage over the field at that point.”
WGC Bridgestone Invitational winner Hideki Matsuyama is hoping to become the first Japanese player in history to become a major champion – and is already the highest ranked male player the country has ever produced.
Meanwhile, World No.1 Dustin Johnson is hoping to win his second major title, having failed to build on his impressive start to the year after falling down the stairs of his Augusta rental – which ruled him out of The Masters at Augusta.
Elsewhere, Matt Kuchar very nearly shook off his ‘best player never to have won a major title’ at The Open but was beaten by a phenomenal final five holes by Jordan Spieth. He, along with others like Rickie Fowler and Lee Westwood, will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Henrik Stenson, DJ and Sergio Garcia to get rid of that unwanted accolade.
So who should you be picking for your fantasy golf team this week?
PGA Championship: Picks
Past Champions in the field: Jimmy Walker (’16), Jason Day (’15), Rory McIlroy (’14,’12), Jason Dufner (’13), Keegan Bradley (’11), Padraig Harrington (’08), Phil Mickelson (’05),
Jordan Spieth: Fantasy Price £15m
With three victories in 2017 already at The Open, Pebble Beach and the Travelers Championship, there’s no doubt Jordan Spieth could be a real contender this week. Spieth has 13 top 25 finishes in his last 18 events and is ranked 1st for approaches to the green, 1st for both scoring and birdie average and 4th for greens in regulation. The World No.2 could make history as the youngest player ever to complete the career grand-slam this week.
Rory McIlroy: Fantasy Price £15m
The Northern Irishman struggled with a series of missed cuts before his Open showing of 4th, but having split with his caddie of nine years, McIlroy returned to the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and finished 5th. Jordan Spieth has tipped him this week, and given that he’s got the course record and won at Quail Hollow twice, AND has two PGA Championship titles – we wonder if it is time for a hat-trick.
Henrik Stenson: Fantasy Price £15m
Although he started with a 2nd place finish in Dubai in January, the defending Open champion hadn’t had the best start to 2017. But despite five missed cuts (all in the US) in 15 events, he’s gained a lot of momentum from good results in Europe leading up to the WGC and seems to be hitting a stride. His last four events? T10 at the BMW International Open, T26 at the Scottish Open, T11 at The Open and T17 at the WGC.
Dustin Johnson: Fantasy Price £15m
The World No.1 had hit a bit of a dip in form before a T8 finish at the Canadian Open, and a final four-under round that left him T17 at last week’s WGC will give him a lot of confidence as he targets his second major title. He’s won three times already (including both WGC’s) in 2017 and is ranked first in strokes gained for off-the-tee and tee-to-green, so we won’t be ruling him out!
Hideki Matsuyama: Fantasy Price £14.5m
WGC Bridegstone Invitational winner Matsuyama is having a wonderful season. He came close to challenging Koepka on the final day at the US Open in June before briefly claiming the World No.2 spot in the process to become the highest ranked Japanese player in history. The current World No.3 was 14th at The Open, and with four victories in the 2016/17, it’s very likely there could be time for the first ever Japanese major champion.
Rickie Fowler: Fantasy Price £14.5m
Fowler has already had a win at the Honda Classic this year and has been pretty consistent all season in every part of his game – with eight top 10 finish in 16 starts (including T6 at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational last week). Still looking for his first major, but it feels like he’s getting close. Fowler is ranked third for total driving, 2nd for scoring average, and 1st for strokes gained putting, sand save percentage and scrambling from the fringe.
Paul Casey: Fantasy Price £13.5m
Casey has knocked on the door plenty of times this year already, particularly in the US Open and The Open, before having at least one really off day. He hasn’t finished worse than 26th in his last nine starts, which includes five top 10s. Last week’s T5 at the WGC Bridgestone Invitaitonal was a confident showing from Casey, and it could definitely be his week.
Matt Kuchar: Fantasy Price £13m
Kuchar suffered a dizzy spell a couple of weeks ago that had everyone worried, and yet he still followed his disappointing T2 at The Open with a T36 in Canada and T17 at the WGC. He seems to like the big stage, shown by his top 5 finishes at both the Masters and at Royal Birkdale, and given that he hasn’t missed a cut in February, we wouldn’t be surprised if Kuchar finally wins that major this week.
Alex Noren: Fantasy Price £13m
With five wins in the past year, Noren has moved to World No.9 in the rankings and has been a formidable player when on form. He’s a brilliant player on his day, shown by the fact he was barely noticed during The Open and yet still ended up with a top 10 finish. His form this year has been a bit up and down, shown by his past eight results (T28-T6- CUT-T10-T31-CUT-T15-1st). Could go either way.
Zach Johnson: Fantasy Price £12.5m
Zach Johnson has really hit his stride in the past couple of weeks, recording top 5s at both the John Deere Classic and WGC Bridgestone last week, with an impressive T14 display at The Open sandwiched in between. Johnson is a multiple major winner, so with the form he seems to have discovered, there’s a good chance he could come out on top this week.
Thomas Pieters: Fantasy Price £11.5m
The World. No 23 has been pretty inconsistent this season and hasn’t played a lot, but that didn’t stop him finishing 4th at the WGC Bridgestone – the same position he finished at the Masters. It’s definitely a risky bet, but this might be the momentum shift Pieters has been waiting for. His last six results? 4th – T44- CUT- T13 – CUT – T14 – 4th
Tommy Fleetwood: Fantasy Price £10.5m
The Royal Birkdale hometown favourite and World No 15 didn’t quite get over the line at The Open, finishing T27, and he followed that with a T28 at last week’s WGC. Fleetwood has already won twice on the European Tour already in 2017 – the last of which came at the Open de France in the first week of July. He’s had four other top 5s, including a 4th place finish at the US Open and second in the WGC Mexico, so we say he’s a great middle value fantasy pick.
Charley Hoffman: Fantasy Price £10.5m
Hoffman has been a danger man in each of the opening rounds of the year’s majors, and he backed that up with a T2 at the Canadian Open followed by a T3 finish last week at WGC Bridgestone Invitational. He’s looking for his first major title, and with three top-fives and a top 10 finish in his last six starts, Hoffman could be a real danger man this week. And given that he told his caddie on Sunday he was fed up of finishing second – we think he’ll be really be going for it.
Xander Schauffele: Fantasy Price £7.5m
He was a fairly unknown entity until he lifted his first PGA Tour title a few weeks ago, but Schauffele has been consistently up there in contention this year and is a great bet if you’re low on fantasy cash. The 23-year-old followed up his win at the Greenbrier Classic with a T20 at The Open and T13 at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. His worst result in six starts?
