This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
Arnold Palmer's distinguished umbrella logo catches the eye on the PGA Tour schedule as Leg 2 of the Florida Swing is set to begin at Bay Hill, where an exclusive field of 123 invitees will tee it up while honoring golf's king. It's an exciting time with dreary winter months drawing to an end as the PLAYERS Championship looms in the near future as well. We'll now take a look at several current trends on Tour from a fantasy perspective, along with injury updates for various household names.
VALUE RISING
The top-ranked Chinese golfer resides at No. 35 in the Official World Golf Ranking with top-20s in his last three starts, including a runner-up finish to Dustin Johnson at the Saudi International where Li carded an incredible four eagles en route to a third-round 62. Li then posted a T19 at the WGC-Mexico Championship, ranking fourth among the field in SG: Around-the-Green and eighth in scrambling. He'll look to maintain momentum at Bay Hill before heading to the PLAYERS Championship next week.
Garcia is rounding into form just at the right time to make his second run at a Green Jacket in April, as he currently leads the PGA Tour in SG: Approach and ranks fourth in SG: Tee-to-Green. The Spaniard has finished top-10 in nine of his last 11 starts worldwide, but could become even more dangerous if he improves with the flat stick.
Brown is quietly humming along with three top-20s in
Arnold Palmer's distinguished umbrella logo catches the eye on the PGA Tour schedule as Leg 2 of the Florida Swing is set to begin at Bay Hill, where an exclusive field of 123 invitees will tee it up while honoring golf's king. It's an exciting time with dreary winter months drawing to an end as the PLAYERS Championship looms in the near future as well. We'll now take a look at several current trends on Tour from a fantasy perspective, along with injury updates for various household names.
VALUE RISING
The top-ranked Chinese golfer resides at No. 35 in the Official World Golf Ranking with top-20s in his last three starts, including a runner-up finish to Dustin Johnson at the Saudi International where Li carded an incredible four eagles en route to a third-round 62. Li then posted a T19 at the WGC-Mexico Championship, ranking fourth among the field in SG: Around-the-Green and eighth in scrambling. He'll look to maintain momentum at Bay Hill before heading to the PLAYERS Championship next week.
Garcia is rounding into form just at the right time to make his second run at a Green Jacket in April, as he currently leads the PGA Tour in SG: Approach and ranks fourth in SG: Tee-to-Green. The Spaniard has finished top-10 in nine of his last 11 starts worldwide, but could become even more dangerous if he improves with the flat stick.
Brown is quietly humming along with three top-20s in five starts since a T9 at the Farmers Insurance Open, ascending to 57th in SG: Total and 26th in proximity from 175-200 yards. He strolled to four straight scores of 70 or better at PGA National last week, gaining nearly four strokes tee-to-green as he hit 48 greens in regulation. Bay Hill has given him trouble the past two years, but Brown also owns a pair of top-30s throughout this career at the API.
VALUE FALLING
The Englishman and Twitter sensation has gone cold since a win at the Sky Sports British Masters in mid-October, failing to notch anything better than a T38 through his last four starts on the heels of a withdrawal at the DP World Tour Championship. With a minor back injury seemingly in the rearview mirror, Pepperell still missed the cut at the Saudi International before placing T67 out of 71 in Mexico, where he lost almost 12 strokes tee-to-green. He'll attempt to rebound during his Bay Hill debut, which is no easy feat.
There's no way to sugarcoat just how awful Grillo's short game has been this season. The Argentinian ranks 216th out of 220 in SG: Putting and 187th in SG: Around-the-Green, a debilitating combination that has Grillo scrambling at a rate of just 57.89 percent. Grillo missed the cut by five shots at the Honda Classic, racking up 12 bogeys in 36 holes as he lost five strokes putting. On the bright side he's 11th in SG: Approach and 28th in GIR percentage, so a turnaround is certainly possible thanks to quality ball striking.
The early portion of Spaun's 2019 campaign has included three missed cuts and no finish better than a T50 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, falling to 129th in the OWGR. He MC'd in his past two showings on the West Coast Swing at Pebble Beach and Riviera, now searching for better luck on bermuda grass in Florida. Unfortunately for Spaun, he's outside of the top-100 in both SG: Off-the-Tee and SG: T2G.
INJURY UPDATE
The most polarizing figure in golf has been playing through a neck strain that was kept secret in Mexico, but the issue has ultimately forced Woods to withdraw from this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational as he looks ahead to the PLAYERS Championship. Barring any setbacks, Big Cat expects to be ready for the PGA Tour's so-called fifth major at TPC Sawgrass where he's reached the winner's circle twice. Despite the minor neck injury, Woods ranks second in SG: Approach and has finished top-20 in three straight events to begin the 2019 calendar year.
Much less concerning than Tiger's neck, Gooch has withdrawn from Bay Hill due to a thumb injury sustained this week. He was on many experts' DFS radar as a sleeper for the API, but gamers must assess his health risk if he's able to tee it up at the PLAYERS Championship. Gooch has been wildly inconsistent this season with four top-20s to go along with a quartet of missed cuts.
A back injury forced Uihlein to withdraw during his second round of the Honda Classic, playing 27 holes in a collective 12-over-par before calling it quits. The 100th-ranked golfer in the world won't be in attendance at Arnie's place, but hasn't ruled out a return at the PLAYERS Championship.
