This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
With one major per month now on the schedule from April through July, the in-between events can feel a little less captivating after the displays Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka put on during their primetime victories this season. This especially rings true when names like Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau and even Jon Rahm all fail to advance to the weekend as original favorites at Colonial CC. Peeking over at the Charles Schwab Challenge leaderboard, it's not all a disappointment as you'll find Jordan Spieth hovering near the top as he continues to drain every putt he stands over no matter the distance. We'll now take a look at several fantasy trends around the PGA Tour along with a few disappointing injury developments down in Fort Worth.
VALUE RISING
Heading into the Charles Schwab Challenge this week, Piercy had compiled a 68.67 scoring average over his previous 12 rounds, which included a 76 at the difficult Bethpage Black. He followed back-to-back top-3s at the RBC Heritage and AT&T Byron Nelson with a T41 at the PGA Championship, ascending to 18th in the FedExCup standings. Piercy ranks eighth on Tour in GIR percentage, 17th in driving accuracy, 21st in putting from inside 10 feet and 27th in birdie average.
Dating back to a top-5 result at the Masters in April, Simpson has been humming along with four consecutive top-30s. He's gained an average of 4.3 strokes tee-to-green over his last 10 tournaments while he also ranks
With one major per month now on the schedule from April through July, the in-between events can feel a little less captivating after the displays Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka put on during their primetime victories this season. This especially rings true when names like Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau and even Jon Rahm all fail to advance to the weekend as original favorites at Colonial CC. Peeking over at the Charles Schwab Challenge leaderboard, it's not all a disappointment as you'll find Jordan Spieth hovering near the top as he continues to drain every putt he stands over no matter the distance. We'll now take a look at several fantasy trends around the PGA Tour along with a few disappointing injury developments down in Fort Worth.
VALUE RISING
Heading into the Charles Schwab Challenge this week, Piercy had compiled a 68.67 scoring average over his previous 12 rounds, which included a 76 at the difficult Bethpage Black. He followed back-to-back top-3s at the RBC Heritage and AT&T Byron Nelson with a T41 at the PGA Championship, ascending to 18th in the FedExCup standings. Piercy ranks eighth on Tour in GIR percentage, 17th in driving accuracy, 21st in putting from inside 10 feet and 27th in birdie average.
Dating back to a top-5 result at the Masters in April, Simpson has been humming along with four consecutive top-30s. He's gained an average of 4.3 strokes tee-to-green over his last 10 tournaments while he also ranks top-6 on Tour in both par-4 scoring and scrambling.
On the heels of back-to-back missed cuts at the Zurich Classic and Wells Fargo Championship, Kang rebounded in a massive way by notching his maiden victory on the PGA Tour at the AT&T Byron Nelson. But he didn't stop there, Kang then posted a solo-seventh finish at the PGA Championship, marking his best ever result in a major. He's now up to 15th in the FedExCup standings and will make his next appearance at the upcoming Memorial Tournament.
VALUE FALLING
Notching mediocre scores of 71-71-72 through the first three days at Colonial this week, Grace has now failed to break 70 in seven of his last eight rounds dating to the AT&T Byron Nelson. The South African's past six showings in a stroke-play setting have included unsatisfactory results of MC-T63-T61-T58-MC-T72, and although he made the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge, Grace still has some work to do in order to produce just a top-50 finish.
The 31-year-old has fallen outside of the top-300 in the OWGR due to three straight missed cuts from the RBC Heritage through the AT&T Byron Nelson, but he's also failed to collect a single top-25 in 17 events played this season. Constantly living in the shadows of his late grandfather, Saunders is losing strokes in every Strokes Gained metric and is hitting the fairways at a clip of just 55.71 percent.
With a two-day total of 12-over-par at the Charles Schwab Challenge, Steele was just two spots away from finishing dead last on the way to missing the 36-hole cut by 10 shots. He's now missed nine cuts in 16 events this season as he ranks 164th in the FedExCup standings. Steele has finished no worse than 70th in this metric since the 2011-12 campaign, though he's also fallen to 188th in the OWGR.
INJURY UPDATE
Casey was well on track to at least making the cut at Colonial CC after a first-round 69, but a bout with the flu forced him to withdraw while his DFS owners groaned in unison. The Englishman is not listed in the field for next week's Memorial Tournament, so he'll have plenty of time to return to full health before returning in June at either the RBC Canadian Open or the U.S. Open.
Perez was unable to finish 27 holes at the Charles Schwab Challenge as the calf injury that kept him out for over a month earlier this spring resurfaced. He's still listed in the field for the upcoming Memorial Tournament, but his situation should be monitored in the days leading up to Round 1 at Muirfield Village.
At this point, Oosthuizen simply might not be worth the heartbreak in DFS formats if he's just going to keep withdrawing due to random neck or back injuries whenever he feels like it. He was a WD again this week just after lineups locked, though he made the decision before his tee time so an alternate could join the field late. It's common knowledge that Oosty needs his own special mattress to accompany him around the world, so hopefully he gets a few good nights of sleep before the Memorial Tournament and doesn't bail at Muirfield as well.
