Sleeper Picks: Northern Trust Open

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Feb. 2, 2010

The PGA TOUR heads to sunny L.A. for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club. Here's how the PGATOUR.COM experts sized up the top contenders:

EXPERT PICKS
How it works: Our experts from PGATOUR.COM select the player they think will win this week's event. By using a draft process, no two picks can be the same. The player who wins the previous week picks last the following week. Click here
SLEEPER PICKS
Of the players who didn't make the cut for our top picks, which have the best chance as sleepers? Here's how our experts see it.
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Sleeper picks: Northern Trust Open

Expert	Pick order	Player selected
Ryan Smithson			K.J. CHOI. Yep, he's fallen to Sleeper Pick status, but his game is starting to come around. His ballstriking this year is back to his 2007 levels. He just needs to get hot with the putter. Tied for third at Riviera last year.
Brian Wacker			ADAM SCOTT. I'm reaching deep into the sleeper bag on this one, but time away from golf may have been the best thing for Scott, who is making his season debut in L.A. Plus, he feels comfortable at Riviera, where he won a rain-shortened event in 2005.
Helen Ross			FRED COUPLES. He's played in 27 tournaments at Riviera and has 13 top-10 finishes, including two wins, three seconds and a tie for third last year. Two weeks ago, he finished second on the Champions Tour and went 51 holes without a bogey.
Lauren Deason			RICKIE FOWLER. After a dismal start to the season, Fowler finally got back on track last week with a T5 at Torrey Pines. He will win soon on the PGA TOUR, and there's no better stage than L.A. for this flashy young star to make his winner's circle debut.
Mike McAllister			JEFF QUINNEY. He finished second at Riviera two years ago, and tied for ninth the year before that. He started this year with a couple of top-30 finishes before last week's missed cut, so maybe he finds some consistency this week.
John Swantek			RYO ISHIKAWA. Sleeper steal after dropping out of the top 30 in WGR. Clearly unintimidated by the bright lights after his Presidents Cup performance and figures to be very dangerous this week.
Nick Zaccardi			CHAD CAMPBELL. Swantek can have his sleeper steal. I'd rather take a safer pick in Campbell, who has made the cut at Riviera every year since 2003 (granted he has missed the cut at the Bob Hope and Sony).

Standings after Week 3

LAST WEEK: Lauren Deason moved from last to first in the standings thanks to Brandt Snedeker's T2 at the Farmers Insurance Open, while John Swantek and Mike McAllister both had sleepers finish T9:
Position	Name	Wins	Top-5s	Top-10s	Top-25s	FedExCup points
1	Lauren Deason Editorial Coordinator, PGATOUR.COM	-	1	1	1	214.33
2	Mike McAllister Managing Editor, PGATOUR.COM	-	-	1	2	149.33
3	Helen Ross Chief of Correspondents, PGATOUR.COM	-	-	1	1	119.5
4	Brian Wacker Site Producer, PGATOUR.COM	-	1	1	1	100
5	John Swantek Host, PGA TOUR Today	-	-	1	1	83.83
6	Nick Zaccardi Associate Site Producer. PGATOUR.COM	-	-	-	-	30.5
7	Ryan Smithson Site Producer, PGATOUR.COM	-	-	-	-	29.92