2014-2015 McGladrey Classic Fantasy Sleeper Picks

The PGA Tour moves away from the west coast briefly this week for the McGladrey Classic held at Sea Island, Georgia on the Sea Island Golf Club. This week it’s all about ball strikers and golfers from Georgia. Players from Georgia have historically done well here and as we saw last year players from the University of Georgia were in a league of their own.

Also, great ball strikers are the golfers you are going to want this week. Bombers aren’t needed here at Sea Island, just players who are going to hit fairways and hit greens on a consistent basis.

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It’s also worth noting that the weather forecast is calling for some pretty significant wind all week long. Wind should be consistently 10-15 MPH for all four rounds and a on Sunday we may see some rain as well. Something to keep in mind as you are making your picks this week.

With that said, here are my McGladrey Classic fantasy sleeper picks to keep an eye on this week.

Hudson Swafford– Hudson Swafford is a young player just playing in his second year full time on the PGA Tour. He was very inconsistent last year missing a lot of cuts, but the talent is there. This year, he’s gotten off to a great start finishing T-18 at the Frys.com Open and T-8 at the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open.

The big bugaboo is the second round. If he can have a quality second round, he usually does pretty darn well. Take for example this year, after shooting open rounds of 70 and 69 at Frys and Shriners respectively, he followed that up with a 69 and 67. He wasn’t doing that last year. At McGladrey’s last year, he shot a 68 for his opening round he followed that up with a 75 and ended up missing the cut. At the OHL Classic at Mayakoba he shot an opening round 69, but followed that up with a 74 to miss the cut. At the Farmers Insurance Open he shot a solid opening round of 70, but followed it up with a 78 to miss the cut.

It’s all about that second round for Swafford. He’ll typically open up with a good first round, but have a terrible second round. After two tournaments so far this year, he has put up quality second rounds and has some great results to show for. Being from the University of Georgia he obviously has the talent as that has been the hot bed for golf recently and he’ll look to put on a good showing in his backyard this week.

Scott Brown– Scott Brown isn’t as much of a sleeper pick as I was hoping for, but nonetheless, given where he’s at he still has a lot of value. Last year, Brown finished T-4, and in 2012: T-20. Plus, Brown is on form after two tournaments thus far in the year. At Frys he finished T-12, and at Shriners he finished T-10. Brown is striking the ball well, he’s on form and I look for him to be right in the thick of it once again this week.

Feb 16, 2014; Pacific Palisades, CA, USA; Brian Harman (USA) hits on the tenth hole during the fourth round of the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Fielding-USA TODAY Sports

Brian Harman– Like Brown, Harman’s pricing surprised me. I would have thought that Harman would have been extremely cheap, but he’s pretty fairly priced. I believe he’s still a great value pick, but not as much as I would have hoped for.

The last two years here at the McGladrey Classic, Brian Harman finished T-27 and last year T-10. Given that Harman is from the University of Georgia and he strikes the ball really well, it’s no surprise he has had a lot of success here at Sea Island. In fact, don’t be surprised to see him win this week.

He captured his first career PGA Tour title last year at the John Deere Classic and typically when someone wins their first PGA Tour title, the second one is right around the corner. Harman is an absolute steal this week.

Cameron Tringale– Now, Cameron Tringale is my prototypical sleeper pick. He’s below the salary cap average and has a lot of value. Tringale is a great golfer and should get that first career win eventually; he’s too good not to have a win yet. This maybe the week he finally gets it.

Tringale is a great striker of the ball and has had some up-and-down success here at the McGladrey Classic. Last year, he finished T-27, then an MC, then a T-26, and a MC.

The pattern doesn’t bode well, but I’m not going to put too much stock into that as I believe Tringale is getting better, may have figured something out last year, and his game fits Sea Island.

John Huh– My flyer pick for this week is John Huh. John Huh doesn’t have any course history here at Sea Island, but he has the game to potentially compete. Huh doesn’t hit the ball far, but again, as we keep hammering on that doesn’t matter much this week.

Huh strikes the ball well consistently well from tee-to-green and has the talent. Considering that he has never played the McGladrey Classic, I would say proceed with caution, but Huh may end up being worth the risk. After two tournaments, we’ve gotten off-the-wall winners in Sang-Moon Bae and Ben Martin; John Huh could be the out of left field winner this week.

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