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Sleepers: Valspar Championship
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March 08, 2016
By Rob Bolton , PGATOUR.COM
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Andrew Loupe already has a career-high in top-10 finishes (three), and the season isn't even half over. (Harry How/Getty Images)
PGATOUR.COM Fantasy Columnist Rob Bolton lists five against-the-grain fantasy selections to consider for this week's Valspar Championship.
Cameron Tringale ... Horse for a course in need of a friendly pasture. Since a T14 at PGA WEST, he’s 1-for-4 with but a T68 at Riviera. However, he’s placed third, T25 and T17 in the last three editions of the Valspar Championship at Copperhead. It’s one of three tracks (Houston and TPC Louisiana are the others) where he almost always connects despite form upon arrival.
Andrew Loupe … Hasn’t played Copperhead in competition yet, but that was also the case two weeks ago at PGA National where he placed T14 to extend his career-best consecutive cuts made streak to five. That was sparked by a T3 at the CareerBuilder Challenge. Arguably best known as one of the PGA TOUR’s longest hitters – he owns the fastest measured clubhead speed this season at 125.75 mph, which is higher than any season leader since data was first collected in 2007 – the 27-year-old co-led the field in par-3 scoring at PGA National. Currently 17th overall in strokes gained: putting and T14 in birdie-or-better percentage.
George McNeill … A tournament mainstay since his rookie season of 2007, the Fort Myers resident likes Copperhead so much that he attended its reopening following the restoration in December. His record here includes a six-way T2 in 2008 and a solo seventh two years ago. He might need to tap into all of the positive vibes as his 2015-16 has been lackluster. That said, the 40-year-old opened The Honda Classic with a sparkling 67, more than five strokes better than the field average for the round. He didn’t sustain the form and finished T53, but it’s a hint that he may be turning a corner. His next cut made will be the 150th of his career that includes 18 top 25s in the last two seasons.
Luke List … While he’s just 4-for-10 this season, he’s shown a sense for the leaderboard with a T6 (CareerBuilder), T20 (Northern Trust) and T10 (Honda) in the last seven weeks. Distance off the tee has proven handy at the first two tournaments in that set, but PGA National demands a full bag’s worth of talent. He ranked second that week in distance of all drives, T9 in greens hit and T8 in scrambling. Sits 21st on TOUR in strokes gained: tee-to-green and 47th in adjusted scoring despite extreme results.
Sam Saunders … The 28-year-old has made strides with his putting, but maybe all he needed was a return to the comfortable Bermudagrass of Florida two weeks ago. He ranked 15th in strokes gained: putting en route to a T14 at The Honda Classic, just his second cut made in nine starts this season. While sharing 24th place in his debut at Copperhead last year, he finished sixth in strokes gained: putting and co-led the field in par-5 scoring.
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