This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
The Florida Swing is drawing to a close as the PGA Tour heads to a challenging setup at the Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead Course, featuring a demanding three-hole closing stretch known as the Snake Pit. The Masters is now less than a month away, but the year's second WGC event appears on the schedule before then as Austin Country Club hosts the Dell Technologies Match Play next week. We'll now take a look around the Tour at a handful of players trending in value, along with several injury updates.
VALUE RISING
Returning to the top-100 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since August of 2017, Furyk has already racked up four top-15s this season and posted a solo-second at the PLAYERS Championship. The 48-year-old has gained strokes both tee-to-green and putting in four straight starts, looking to extend the streak at Innisbrook where he entered the weekend in a tie for 15th. Expect regression for Furyk on longer tracks, but he's leading the entire PGA Tour in driving accuracy.
Up to fourth on Tour in SG: Approach, 22nd in GIR percentage and ninth in SG: Tee-to-Green, Kokrak has gone 16 consecutive starts without a missed cut and owns five top-25s in 10 events this season. He's gained an average of five strokes approach through his past five tournaments and hasn't lost strokes tee-to-green since the Wyndham Championship in August. Kokrak's results could become even more impressive if he's able to figure things out
The Florida Swing is drawing to a close as the PGA Tour heads to a challenging setup at the Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead Course, featuring a demanding three-hole closing stretch known as the Snake Pit. The Masters is now less than a month away, but the year's second WGC event appears on the schedule before then as Austin Country Club hosts the Dell Technologies Match Play next week. We'll now take a look around the Tour at a handful of players trending in value, along with several injury updates.
VALUE RISING
Returning to the top-100 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since August of 2017, Furyk has already racked up four top-15s this season and posted a solo-second at the PLAYERS Championship. The 48-year-old has gained strokes both tee-to-green and putting in four straight starts, looking to extend the streak at Innisbrook where he entered the weekend in a tie for 15th. Expect regression for Furyk on longer tracks, but he's leading the entire PGA Tour in driving accuracy.
Up to fourth on Tour in SG: Approach, 22nd in GIR percentage and ninth in SG: Tee-to-Green, Kokrak has gone 16 consecutive starts without a missed cut and owns five top-25s in 10 events this season. He's gained an average of five strokes approach through his past five tournaments and hasn't lost strokes tee-to-green since the Wyndham Championship in August. Kokrak's results could become even more impressive if he's able to figure things out with the flat stick.
The Canadian picked up a top-15 at the Desert Classic before missing back-to-back cuts at the Farmers Insurance Open and Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but he regained momentum with a tie for runner-up honors at the Puerto Rico and just made his fourth straight cut at the Valspar. Sloan gained nearly six strokes tee-to-green en route to a top-25 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, so he's now inside of the top-75 of the FedExCup standings despite residing at just 259th in the OWGR.
VALUE FALLING
Reavie has been pushed out of the top-50 in the OWGR with disappointing results of MC-MC-T65-MC in four starts from the Genesis Open to the Valspar Championship. He missed the cut by two shots at Innisbrook on Friday, losing over two strokes tee-to-green as he hit just 18 of 36 greens in regulation. On the season, Reavie ranks 145th or worse in SG: Around-the-Green and SG: Putting.
Tway also missed the cut at Innisbrook this week despite gaining over four strokes approach in two rounds, entirely held back by a pitiful showing with the putter. He began the season with a bang by winning the Safeway Open on the way to five consecutive cuts made, but Tway is now in danger of falling outside the top-100 in the OWGR due to five straight missed cuts dating to the Waste Management Phoenix Open. He's just 139th in SG: Approach and 167th in driving accuracy.
A quality track record at Innisbrook's Copperhead Course didn't translate to success this time around, as Hadwin missed the Valspar cut by one with nine bogeys in 36 holes. The Canadian has now gone MC-MC-T33-75 since the Genesis Open, falling outside of the top-125 on Tour in SG: Tee-to-Green. Hadwin also is abnormally losing strokes putting.
INJURY UPDATE
The top-ranked rookie was forced to withdraw during Round 2 of the PLAYERS Championship with a back injury and elected not to tee it up at the Valspar as well. He's not listed in the field for the upcoming Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, either, so it'll be a multi-week absence for Champ. His next chance to return will now come at the Valero Texas Open if the back issue improves.
Na missed time earlier in 2019 with a broken pinky finger, but it was a neck injury that forced him to withdraw prior to Thursday's first round at Innisbrook. The issue doesn't appear to be too severe, however, as he remains listed in the field for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play that begins Wednesday. He tied for ninth at the event in 2017, but failed to make it to the Round of 16 last year.
A sports hernia kept Suri sidelined from the conclusion of November's Turkish Airlines Open through mid-March, but he returned to the Euro Tour this week at the Maybank Championship. He was able to shake of the rust in a timely fashion and made the cut with a cushion, so he'll enter Sunday's final round in a tie for 30th.
Harrington also made the cut at the Maybank Championship in his return from a lengthy absence, having broken a bone in his wrist during a fall in his home before the turn of the calendar year. The 47-year-old Irishman racked up six birdies in Round 3 of the Maybank and will head into Round 4 at two-under overall and T42.
