Listen up, folks! The 103rd edition of the PGA Championship is upon us this week. The big hitters down there at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island in South Carolina to vie for the Wanamaker Trophy and for the largest cut of the purse. Surely, most people’s eyes will be on them, the favorites. But you shouldn’t be sleeping on some players who could surprise the field. Let’s check out three of these sleepers below.
The 31-year-old Finau has a knack for putting up solid performances in major tournaments, as shown in his recent trips to such events over the past few years. He had a T5 at the Masters Tournament in 2019, a solo fifth finish at the US Open in 2018, a solo third at the 2019 The Open Championship, and a T4 at the 2020 PGA Championship. Finau hasn’t been playing particularly well of late, as he has a pair of missed cuts in his last three starts, but again, he can show up in his best form when the lights are the brightest. Finau has six top 10s in 16 starts this season.
Fitzpatrick is still searching for his first win of the season. He didn’t come anywhere close to achieving that goal last week when he was cut at the AT&T Byron Nelson, but prior to that, he was looking as though he was zoning in on that elusive victory. He went 7 of 7 in the prior seven starts, and during that span, he had four top 10s, including a T5 at The Genesis Invitational and a T4 at the RBC Heritage. Fitzpatrick’s best finish in a major tournament was a T7 back at the 2016 Masters Tournament.
Fleetwood skipped the AAT&T Byron Nelson, but before that, he bounced back from a missed cut at the RBC Heritage by finishing with a T14 at the Wells Fargo Championship. Fleetwood has two top 10s in 12 starts this season, having finished with a T10 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and a T5 at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Fleetwood is a five-time European Tour winner. He is also currently ranked 28th in world.
