Sleepers: Northern Trust Open

text size
Increase Text Size
Decrease Text Size
Email This Story Print This Story RSS
Feb. 18, 2009

The PGA TOUR travels south from Pebble Beach to L.A. this week for the Northern Trust Open. Here's who the PGATOUR.COM experts selected as sleeper picks:

SLEEPER PICKS
How it works: Our 10 experts from PGATOUR.COM select any player who isn't ranked in the top 20 of the FedExCup rankings, the top 30 of the Official World Golf Rankings and hasn't won that season. By using a draft process, no two picks can be the same.
EXPERT PICKS
Who do our experts think will capture the Northern Trust Open title? Here's who they've picked to win. Click here
Sleeper picks: Northern Trust Open
Expert
 
Pick order Player selected
 
Lauren
Deason
LUKE DONALD How can you pass up Donald when he qualifies as a sleeper? This two-time TOUR winner tied for third at Riviera last year and, after taking off the second half of 2008 to recover from wrist surgery, has kicked off 2009 with three top-25 finishes.
Mark
Spoor
RORY SABBATINI. He has two top-15 finishes in his first three TOUR events of 2009. If he's in contention Sunday, look out. He's fourth on TOUR in final-round scoring average.
Win
McMurry
JEFF QUINNEY. He has a great record here, is from the West Coast, and is bound to break through soon.
Ceri
Mobley
CHARLES HOWELL III. He's made it into a playoff twice here -- one of which ended in a W. He hasn't showed me anything great since the Sony Open, but I can't ignore him just for that.
Mike
McAllister
RYO ISHIKAWA. That's right, I'm jumping on the bandwagon early (OK, maybe too early). But if he's half as good as the hype, he'll at least make the cut. And just how much fun will it be on Sunday if the kid's in contention?
T.J.
Auclair
MARK CALCAVECCHIA. Calc is coming off a tie for fourth at Pebble Beach after two missed cuts to start the season. Something is finally clicking for Calc. He won at Riviera 20 years ago this week. Can you put the magic together again?
Helen
Ross
ROCCO MEDIATE. It's good to have Rocco back. His knee may be a question mark, but not his heart. He's well acquainted with Riviera where he's got a tie for ninth and 13th in two of his last four starts.
Ryan
Smithson
CHAD CAMPBELL. If he wins this week, I will document the number of times websites and newspapers use "Mmm, mmm, good" in a headline. Time to retire that one.
John
Swantek
TIM CLARK. Doesn't bomb it but doesn't need to at the Riv. Needs to shed label as one of the best players without a "W".
Brian
Wacker
CHARLIE WI. This is a total momentum pick, but Wi has also shown that dedicating himself to fitness is paying off. The journeyman from South Korea finished T14 at the rain-shortened AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last week and was T14 in L.A. last year.

LAST WEEK: Ryan Smithson's sleeper pick again helped him move up the standings when Retief Goosen tied for third last week. Each week, we'll update the standings based on the FedExCup points accumulated by the players selected by our experts. Here's how it stands after Week 6:

Standings after Week 6
Pos. Expert Wins Top 5s Top 10s Top 25s FedExCup points
1 Helen Ross
Chief of Correspondents, PGATOUR.COM
- 1 1 1 440.5
2 Ryan Smithson
Site Producer, PGATOUR.COM
- 1 1 2 417.75
3 Mike McAllister
Managing Editor, PGATOUR.COM
- 1 1 2 231.25
4 Win McMurry
Host, PGA TOUR Today
- - 1 1 214.5
5 Brian Wacker
Site Producer, PGATOUR.COM
- - - 2 211.60
6 Ceri Mobley
Associate Producer, PGATOUR.COM
- - 1 1 181.5
7 John Swantek
Fantasy Insider, PGA TOUR Productions
- - - 2 172.5
8 Mark Spoor
Coordinating Producer, PGATOUR.COM
- - - 1 169.42
9 Lauren Deason
Editorial Coordinator, PGATOUR.COM
- - - 3 156.5
10 T.J. Auclair
Interactive Producer, PGATOUR.COM
- - - 1 93.99
Email This Story   Print This Story   RSS   Bookmark and Share
SHOP.PGATOUR.COM

Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM

FAN ZONE

Fan Zone
Kodak Challenge
© 1995-2009 PGA TOUR, Inc. | Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved. PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, Nationwide Tour and the swinging golfer logo are registered trademarks.
TurnerPGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network