McGladrey Classic Recap: Fall Still Equals Small

We're midway through the six-week fall season, and if you had Robert Streb, Ben Martin and Sang-Moon Bae qualifying for the Masters, well, you deserve a pimento cheese sandwich.

Streb won the McGladrey Classic in a playoff over Brendon deJonge and Will MacKenzie on Sunday for his first career win. That followed Bae taking the season-opening Frys.com Open and Martin capturing last week's Shriners Open. Streb was 177th in the world rankings, 10 spots better than Bae was at the time of his win. Martin was the best of the bunch, 88th in the OWGR.

Things are still sorting themselves out in the PGA Tour's wrap-around season, both in real and fake golf. But after watching Jimmy Walker race out to such a fast start last year in the format's inaugural go-round, more big names were expected to partake in these events. That hasn't happened, opening the door for the likes of Streb and Martin to break through for their maiden victories, while Bae won for the second time.

So as the PGA Tour heads to Asia and Mexico before vacationing until the new year, the first few weeks of the 2014-15 season have failed to offer gamers strong indications of how to navigate the new schedule. Last year, when the wrap-around season was completely foreign, Walker, Webb Simpson and Chris Kirk won the first three events, providing at least some form with bigger names coming out on top.

All three of them ended up at East Lake. Does anyone think Bae, Martin and Streb will be there this year?

MONDAY TAKEAWAY

Will MacKenzie

Come Sunday night, if 68 is your worst score of the tournament, you'd certainly expect to hoist the trophy. But after a 65-68-65-68, MacKenzie only found himself in a playoff, and he was eliminated after one hole of what turned out to be a two-hole sudden death. Still, it's a good start as a follow-up to his best season tour, and an encouraging sign after the way last season ended for MacKenzie. Having racked nine top-25s by the end of March, Mackenzie went on to miss eight straight cuts and 11-of-14 to end his season.

Andrew Svoboda

The second-year PGA Tour golfer had the lead entering the final round, and even during the back nine on Sunday. But three bogeys in a four-hole stretch sunk Svoboda's chances, leaving him tied for eighth. Shooting 1-over 71 will not cut it, especially with Streb blistering Seaside for a 63. As a rookie last season, Svoboda was runner-up at the Zurich Classic. Even though Sunday didn't go as he would have liked, perhaps the 25-year-old New Yorker is showing signs of taking the next step in his career.

Tony Finau

The rookie is one of the early eye-openers of the season, with top-15s in each of the three events. The former "Big Break" participant and cousin of NBA player Jabari Parker closed with a 66 on Sunday to finish T14 at the McGladrey. That follows T12 at the Frys and T7 at the Shriners, and suddenly the Web.com Tour graduate is looking at a potentially outstanding season.

John Peterson

Big things were expected of the rookie out of LSU last season – at least bigger than 179th in the point standings. But after three events, Peterson is 3-for-3 in cuts, with top finish of T22 at the McGladrey that featured a Sunday 64. He still doesn't appear ready to win, but with already almost half as many FedEx points as he totaled all of last season, Peterson certainly is starting to look like an option in deeper leagues.

Derek Ernst

After winning the Wells Fargo in May 2013, Ernst made only 11 of his next 36 cuts, with zero top 25s. He surely looked like one of the biggest aberrations to win a PGA tournament in some time. But beginning with the Greenbriar in July , Ernst closed last season by making five straight cuts, then opened this season 3-for-3, including T54 at the McGladrey. He still doesn't have a top 25 in his career outside of that win, but there's something to be said for making eight straight cuts.

Roberto Castro

It was quite a fall for Castro, who went from the Tour Championship in 2013 to losing his card after last season. Not even participating in the Web.com Tour Finals could save him. So Castro now has conditional status, and got into the McGladrey as the fifth alternate. He made the cut, made the secondary Saturday cut and finished T69. Baby steps.

Harris English

English is approaching the one-year anniversary of his second PGA Tour win, in the OHL Classic. The victory did not serve as the expected springboard for the Georgia Bulldog, at least the bounce befitting a sweet swinger with two wins in his first three seasons. So we were keeping a close eye on him entering this season. English has missed two of three cuts, including the McGladrey, sandwiching a T16 at the Shriners.

Max Homa and Sam Saunders

Two of the bigger names coming of out the Web.com Tour graduating class have found tough sledding so far on the PGA Tour. Both missed the cut at the McGladry. That gave Homa two MCs after a season-opening T39 at the Frys. For Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer, he made the cut in his first two starts, but nothing inside the top 30. This was the portion of the season in which they could've made some inroads before bigger names start filling fields, but they were unable to do so.

Richard Sterne

The South African was not a typical Web.com graduate, having won six times on the European Tour before turning his attention to the States. But Sterne has found the going even tougher than Homa and Saunders, missing the cut in all three starts. We may have overestimated on Sterne.