This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
Australian Marc Leishman notched his first win in just over a year at last week's CIMB Classic during the first leg of the PGA Tour's Asian Swing, dominating his way to a five-stroke victory in Malaysia. A stronger field will tee it up on Korea's Jeju Island, however, as Brooks Koepka, defending champ Justin Thomas and Jason Day highlight the list of notable entrants in the 78-man field. We'll take a look at several fantasy trends as the Tour heads to the highly rated Club at Nine Bridges.
VALUE RISING
Gary Woodland
Woodland has improved in every event since a T48 at the Northern Trust, collecting four top-25s in as many starts from the Dell Technologies Championship through the CIMB Classic. He held a share of the 54-hole lead with Leishman at TPC Kuala Lumpur before faltering down the stretch, but Woodland figures to maintain momentum after finishing top-25 in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach and SG: Tee-to-Green last season.
Austin Cook
Cook will look to take advantage of weaker competition during the fall series after excelling throughout the early portion of the 2017-18 season as a rookie, which included a win at the RSM Classic. Cook has veteran caddie Kip Henley on his bag and the former has finished top-30 in each of his past two starts.
J.B. Holmes
Holmes' underwhelming 2017-18 campaign was rescued by a pair of top-3s at the FedEx St. Jude Classic and Travelers Championship, having nearly tied his career high in missed cuts with 10
Australian Marc Leishman notched his first win in just over a year at last week's CIMB Classic during the first leg of the PGA Tour's Asian Swing, dominating his way to a five-stroke victory in Malaysia. A stronger field will tee it up on Korea's Jeju Island, however, as Brooks Koepka, defending champ Justin Thomas and Jason Day highlight the list of notable entrants in the 78-man field. We'll take a look at several fantasy trends as the Tour heads to the highly rated Club at Nine Bridges.
VALUE RISING
Gary Woodland
Woodland has improved in every event since a T48 at the Northern Trust, collecting four top-25s in as many starts from the Dell Technologies Championship through the CIMB Classic. He held a share of the 54-hole lead with Leishman at TPC Kuala Lumpur before faltering down the stretch, but Woodland figures to maintain momentum after finishing top-25 in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach and SG: Tee-to-Green last season.
Austin Cook
Cook will look to take advantage of weaker competition during the fall series after excelling throughout the early portion of the 2017-18 season as a rookie, which included a win at the RSM Classic. Cook has veteran caddie Kip Henley on his bag and the former has finished top-30 in each of his past two starts.
J.B. Holmes
Holmes' underwhelming 2017-18 campaign was rescued by a pair of top-3s at the FedEx St. Jude Classic and Travelers Championship, having nearly tied his career high in missed cuts with 10 through 24 starts. The 2018 fall series has treated Holmes well, however, as the long-hitting 36-year-old finished T13-9 at the CIMB Classic and Safeway Open. He'll tee it up at the CJ Cup in Korea as the eighth-ranked player in the FedExCup standings through two events.
VALUE FALLING
Sung Kang
Kang has endured a disappointing spell of poor play since a third-place finish at the Quicken Loans National, having failed to notch any result better than a T53 from the John Deere Classic through the Safeway Open. Kang's positioning in the OWGR continues to slip, which isn't a promising sign for someone who has yet to qualify for a single 2018 major.
Brian Harman
You'll have to go all the way back to June to find Harman's last top-45 finish, placing T48 or worse in seven consecutive events. During his 2017-18 campaign, Harman lost strokes tee-to-green and finished outside of the top-125 in par-5 birdie or better percentage.
Anirban Lahiri
Lahiri began the calendar year at 66th in the OWGR, but has since fallen to 128th with only two top-10s in 23 starts during his 2018 campaign. He's missed three cuts in his last five starts while posting no result better than a T63 during this span of frustration.
INJURY UPDATE
Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama bailed from his original plan of heading to Malaysia for the CIMB Classic due to an undisclosed injury, but he's already back in action at this week's CJ Cup. He'll look to avoid any additional injury concerns moving forward as he rides a streak of five straight top-15 finishes.
