Fantasy Golf: Quicken Loans National Preview
Published:
This week the PGA Tour heads to Washington DC for the Quicken Loans National as Billy Hurley III attempts to defend last year’s title.
Last week’s winner Jordan Spieth produced one of the shots of the year to beat Daniel Berget in a play-off, and we’re honestly still reeling. But although Spieth is taking a week off, the field is still full of big name players getting prepared for the Open in a few weeks time.
Tiger Woods, the tournament host, has confirmed he will be absent from the event – which comes as little surprise given that he announced his currently seeking professional help to manage his medication as he continues to recover from his fourth back surgery.
But who should be in your fantasy golf team this week? We’ve crunch the numbers for you to see who is in with a good shot to win the Quicken Loans National.
Fantasy Picks: Quicken Loans National Preview
Former Champions in the field: Billy Hurley III (’16), Troy Merritt (’15), Justin Rose (’14), Bill Haas (’13), Nick Watney (’11), KJ Choi (’07)
Rickie Fowler: Fantasy Price £14.5m
After his near-miss at the US Open, Rickie Fowler comes in to the Quicken Loans National as the highest ranked player and the clear favourite. In his last 10 events he’s had a victory, three top 5s, three top 15s and two missed cuts. He leads the Tour in both scoring average and sand saves, is 2nd in strokes gained, 4th in birdies and 7th in putting. A really solid pick this week.
Patrick Reed: Fantasy Price £14.5m
Reed comes in to this event with a T5 finish at the Travelers Championship, a string of much needed good results that have come after a dip in form. He doesn’t boast any particularly good stats this season, but his last few tournaments give an indication of how he’s playing. Prior to last week he’d been T13 at the US Open, and had two top 15s and a top 20 in seven appearances.
Justin Thomas: Fantasy Price £14m
Thomas stormed in to contention with his record-breaking 63 at the US Open, but had a disappointing Sunday to end up T9 and missed the cut last week. With that out of his system, we predict it to be back-to-business for Thomas. He’s already shot a 59, won twice in 2017 and had four other top-5s. in addition he leads the stats in birdie average, eagle average, number of top 10s this season and is second in scoring average.
Marc Leishman: Fantasy Price £12m
Leishman is a man not to be overlooked this week. He hasn’t finished worse than T27 (at the US Open) in his last five events, and he won the Arnold Palmer invitational earlier this year. He also boasts the 6th best scoring average on tour and is ranked 10th for strokes gained.
Brendan Steele: Fantasy Price £10.5m
He followed up a T6 at the Players and a T13 at the US Open with a T14 at the Travelers Championship, so we reckon Steele is a good shout this week. Steele is in Top 20 for stats within Scoring Average, Birdies and Scrambling.
David Lingmerth: Fantasy Price £10.5m
In six of his past seven events Lingmerth has finished well inside the top 26, so he’s a pretty steady pick if you’re looking for someone with consistency. There’s not much to write home about when it comes to Lingmerth’s stats, but he is 7th for putting which may well come in handy this week.
Kevin Chappell: Fantasy Price £10m
Kevin Chappell finally achieved his long await maiden PGA Tour victory at the Valero Texas Open, and the way he’s playing we wouldn’t be overly shocked if he made it two this season. A 7th place at the Masters was followed by a T23 at the US Open two weeks ago, and immediately before that he was 4th at the FedEx St.Jude. 1st for scrambling from the fringe and putting within 3 feet.
Danny Lee: Fantasy Price £10m
With a third-place finish at last week’s Travelers Championship, Danny Lee moves firmly on to our potentially contenders list this week. He also finished 6th at the Dean & Deluca and T5 at the AT&T Byron Nelson, making three Top 6 finishes in five starts.
Grayson Murray: Fantasy Price £7.5m
Murray is no longer trending on twitter for the wrong reasons and is instead headed in the right direction on the golf course – and for a low fantasy price he’s worth a bet this week. He finished T26 at the Travelers and was T18 the week before… with T35 being his worst finish in his last four starts. He’s yet to break in to the top 10 in a tournament this year, but we do think he’s pretty close.
Graham Delaet: Fantasy Price £7.5m
Delaet is another man who looks ready to make a score this week. His past two starts? T26 and T10.
