This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
The exclusive Sentry Tournament of Champions is in the books with a full-field event finally on tap for this week's Sony Open. The PGA Tour wraps up its Hawaiian Swing at Honolulu's Waialae Country Club, a historic par-70 that has hosted the Sony Open since 1965. We'll take a look at several fantasy trends as the schedule ramps back up stateside following a brief winter break, though Euro Tour action won't resume until next week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
VALUE RISING
Louis Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen found the winner's circle for the first time since 2016 at December's South African Open on home turf, but he's also racked up a quartet of top-7 finishes worldwide since the CIMB Classic. He's up to 25th in the Official World Golf Ranking and leads the PGA Tour in GIR percentage through 144 holes played this season.
Cameron Champ
The 23-year-old has exhibited a much more diverse skill set than just power off the tee on his way to four results of T11 or better in six starts. Champ's win at the Sanderson Farms Championship also has the rookie positioned inside of the top-10 in the FedExCup standings. Furthermore, the Texas A&M product ranks third on Tour in birdie average and fifth in SG: Off-the-Tee.
Xander Schauffele
Schauffele has won twice in four starts to reach a career-best sixth in the OWGR, a stretch highlighted by his final-round 62 at the TOC to win by one. The 2017 Rookie of the Year now has just as
The exclusive Sentry Tournament of Champions is in the books with a full-field event finally on tap for this week's Sony Open. The PGA Tour wraps up its Hawaiian Swing at Honolulu's Waialae Country Club, a historic par-70 that has hosted the Sony Open since 1965. We'll take a look at several fantasy trends as the schedule ramps back up stateside following a brief winter break, though Euro Tour action won't resume until next week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
VALUE RISING
Louis Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen found the winner's circle for the first time since 2016 at December's South African Open on home turf, but he's also racked up a quartet of top-7 finishes worldwide since the CIMB Classic. He's up to 25th in the Official World Golf Ranking and leads the PGA Tour in GIR percentage through 144 holes played this season.
Cameron Champ
The 23-year-old has exhibited a much more diverse skill set than just power off the tee on his way to four results of T11 or better in six starts. Champ's win at the Sanderson Farms Championship also has the rookie positioned inside of the top-10 in the FedExCup standings. Furthermore, the Texas A&M product ranks third on Tour in birdie average and fifth in SG: Off-the-Tee.
Xander Schauffele
Schauffele has won twice in four starts to reach a career-best sixth in the OWGR, a stretch highlighted by his final-round 62 at the TOC to win by one. The 2017 Rookie of the Year now has just as many PGA Tour victories (four) as Rickie Fowler.
Romain Langasque
Langasque's 2018 campaign culminated with three straight top-25s on the European Tour, just a matter of weeks after winning the Challenge Tour's Hopps Open de Provence. The French 23-year-old has already qualified for the 2019 Open Championship and recently attained a top-200 ranking in the OWGR for the first time since June of 2017.
VALUE FALLING
Michael Kim
Kim tied for dead last at Kapalua last week thanks in part to a third-round 80, which included three doubles and four bogeys. The rough performance came on the heels of back-to-back missed cuts at the RSM Classic and Shriners Open, so Kim will have some searching to do in Honolulu. He ranks outside of the top-225 in both GIR percentage and SG: Off-the-Tee.
Trey Mullinax
Mullinax displayed brief flashes of upside last season with three top-10s, including runner-up honors at the Valero Texas Open en route to finishing 95th in the FedExCup standings. However, he missed three cuts to begin the 2018-19 campaign before a ho-hum T65 at the RSM Classic. Mullinax will be in the field at the Sony Open, though his track record at the event is lousy.
Curtis Luck
Luck earned his PGA Tour card for the 2018-19 season thanks to a trio of top-8 finishes in his last five starts at the Web.com level, but he's missed four consecutive cuts from the Shriners Open through the Australian PGA Championship. The 22-year-old has earned just five total FedExCup points through five events played this season, hitting less than 55 percent of his fairways in regulation.
INJURY UPDATE
Kevin Na
Na made an effort to potentially play in the Sony Open by logging several practice sessions at Waialae with a splint limiting the damage, having originally given himself a four-week return timetable from his fractured pinky finger. The news came Wednesday that he's chosen to withdraw, however, which is likely a good choice in the long run. Na's pain tolerance will be put to the test if he ultimately elects to tee it up next week at the Desert Classic.
Grayson Murray
Murray still appears to be hampered by the back injury that forced him to withdraw from three of his last five starts prior to the turn of the calendar year. He also prematurely removed his name from the field for this week's Sony Open and will remain outside of the OWGR's top-250 as a result. Murray has not posted a single top-25 performance since April's Valero Texas Open.
