This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
Regardless of your taste buds' affinity for Pimento Cheese or Georgia Peach Ice Cream Sandwiches, golf aficionados everywhere can agree that Masters Week is truly unlike any other tradition in sports. Stepping onto the grounds at Augusta National is a stroll through time as concession prices drop drastically and cell phones disappear, but the level of golf is at its best with the entirety of the Official World Golf Ranking's top-50 in attendance. The par-3 contest has concluded with Matt Wallace taking home the crystal trophy over Sandy Lyle in a playoff, so we'll now take a look at several fantasy trends around the PGA Tour heading into Thursday's first round.
VALUE RISING
Hoffman's short game was horrendous during a stretch of three consecutive missed cuts from the Genesis Open through the PLAYERS Championship, but he gained a collective 9.3 strokes putting en route to top-20s at the Valero Texas Open and Valspar Championship. Improvements with the flat stick led to runner-up honors at TPC San Antonio last week, though he also gained 9.6 strokes tee-to-green. The 42-year-old is beginning to round into form just in time for the Masters, where he's always a candidate to at least cash a first-round leader bet.
Conners had missed the cut in five of six starts leading up to his win at the Valero Texas Open, but ball striking was never his issue during the recent slump. The last two events that Conners managed to gain strokes putting, he
Regardless of your taste buds' affinity for Pimento Cheese or Georgia Peach Ice Cream Sandwiches, golf aficionados everywhere can agree that Masters Week is truly unlike any other tradition in sports. Stepping onto the grounds at Augusta National is a stroll through time as concession prices drop drastically and cell phones disappear, but the level of golf is at its best with the entirety of the Official World Golf Ranking's top-50 in attendance. The par-3 contest has concluded with Matt Wallace taking home the crystal trophy over Sandy Lyle in a playoff, so we'll now take a look at several fantasy trends around the PGA Tour heading into Thursday's first round.
VALUE RISING
Hoffman's short game was horrendous during a stretch of three consecutive missed cuts from the Genesis Open through the PLAYERS Championship, but he gained a collective 9.3 strokes putting en route to top-20s at the Valero Texas Open and Valspar Championship. Improvements with the flat stick led to runner-up honors at TPC San Antonio last week, though he also gained 9.6 strokes tee-to-green. The 42-year-old is beginning to round into form just in time for the Masters, where he's always a candidate to at least cash a first-round leader bet.
Conners had missed the cut in five of six starts leading up to his win at the Valero Texas Open, but ball striking was never his issue during the recent slump. The last two events that Conners managed to gain strokes putting, he finished with a win at TPC San Antonio and T3 at the Sony Open. The Canadian has gained an average of 4.5 strokes tee-to-green over his last 10 tournaments and the Valero victory will do wonders for his long-term outlook, as he won't need to Monday qualify for the next couple years.
The 27-year-old Korean unfortunately missed out on qualifying for the Masters by just a few spots in the OWGR, but An picked up his second top-10 of the 2018-19 season at the Valero last week and he still hasn't missed a cut on Tour since the FedEx St. Jude Classic last June. He ranks second among his peers in SG: Tee-to-Green and has been sneaky long at ninth in driving distance. An has gained strokes tee-to-green and around-the-green in each of his measured starts in 2019.
Vegas also won't be in the field at Augusta National this week, but he added his fifth straight top-30 at last week's Valero Texas Open where he gained four strokes off-the-tee. He's risen to a comfortable ranking of 52nd in the FedExCup standings thanks to his recent form, which was sparked by a T10 in February at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. On the season, Vegas is ninth in SG: Off-the-Tee, 26th in scrambling and 27th in par-3 scoring.
VALUE FALLING
Betting against Koepka in a major championship might be considered far from brilliant, but he looked uninspired en route to a winless record in pool play at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and his last two stroke-play appearances include results of T56-MC. He's yet to return to full strength since losing over 20 pounds in preparation for ESPN's Body Issue, and he actually lost strokes off-the-tee at the PLAYERS Championship. Koepka is obviously good enough to bounce back in a timely fashion, but there's better value out there for his price in the short term.
Despite valuable experience with 17 career starts at the Masters, Cink is essentially unpickable this time around with no finish better than a T50 in his last six events and three straight missed cuts from the Arnold Palmer Invitational through the Valspar Championship. He's lost at least 4.2 strokes tee-to-green in three consecutive performances and is forced to rely on the flat stick at 45 years old. Age has certainly played a role in Cink dropping to 208th in SG: Off-the-Tee and 162nd in the FedExCup standings.
Landry's title defense effort in San Antonio at the Valero Texas Open was quite a disappointment as he missed the cut by two shots, carding only four total birdies in 36 holes while losing strokes with the putter and on approach shots. He's remained outside of the top-100 in the OWGR throughout 2019 and hasn't notched a top-40 finish since the Desert Classic in January. Landry could have a tough time figuring out Augusta National's intricacies during his Masters debut if the short-game issues remain, as he ranks outside of the top-150 on Tour in SG: Around-the-Green and SG: Putting.
INJURY UPDATE
The king of withdrawals will finally take an extended period of time away from the Tour in order to heal his nagging back injury after failing to make it through Round 1 at TPC San Antonio last Thursday. Murray managed to finish T12 recently at the Corales Championship against opposite-field level talent, but the back injury has persisted since last fall and forced him to fall outside of the top-300 in the OWGR. Expect Murray to return at some point in October following the conclusion of the 2018-19 campaign.
