This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
Wesley Bryan won the RBC Heritage on Sunday for his first career title and he is zooming past other American golfers. All of a sudden, he is No. 37 in the world, ahead of Kevin Kisner, Gary Woodland, Bill Haas and J.B. Holmes.
Bryan may run out of time to qualify for this year's Presidents Cup team, but captain Steve Stricker surely has taken notice.
The key to Bryan's game is his wedge play – his scrambling. He's really quite average, or worse, in other areas. He's 143rd in accuracy off the tee, 168th in greens in regulation and 59th in strokes gained putting. But Bryan is 12th on Tour in scrambling and was first for the week on a Harbour Town course that demands scrambling acumen. Other golfers rave about Bryan's wedge mastery, and it makes sense, since he first made a name for himself as a trick-shot artist.
Bryan may be a rookie on Tour, but he's already 27 – just a year younger than Rickie Fowler. We're not by any means saying he's in the same Zip code as Fowler just yet, but Bryan has a bit more mileage and experience than many other rookies.
The big tournaments ahead will be an interesting litmus test for Bryan. In a few weeks, it's The Players Championship, and TPC Sawgrass is a track that also demands strong wedge play. It might be a bit much to expect a high finish in such an elite field. On the other hand,
Wesley Bryan won the RBC Heritage on Sunday for his first career title and he is zooming past other American golfers. All of a sudden, he is No. 37 in the world, ahead of Kevin Kisner, Gary Woodland, Bill Haas and J.B. Holmes.
Bryan may run out of time to qualify for this year's Presidents Cup team, but captain Steve Stricker surely has taken notice.
The key to Bryan's game is his wedge play – his scrambling. He's really quite average, or worse, in other areas. He's 143rd in accuracy off the tee, 168th in greens in regulation and 59th in strokes gained putting. But Bryan is 12th on Tour in scrambling and was first for the week on a Harbour Town course that demands scrambling acumen. Other golfers rave about Bryan's wedge mastery, and it makes sense, since he first made a name for himself as a trick-shot artist.
Bryan may be a rookie on Tour, but he's already 27 – just a year younger than Rickie Fowler. We're not by any means saying he's in the same Zip code as Fowler just yet, but Bryan has a bit more mileage and experience than many other rookies.
The big tournaments ahead will be an interesting litmus test for Bryan. In a few weeks, it's The Players Championship, and TPC Sawgrass is a track that also demands strong wedge play. It might be a bit much to expect a high finish in such an elite field. On the other hand, Bryan started his recent surge in February at Riviera, which was about as strong a field as there will be in a regular Tour event. Bryan finished T4 there, and added another T4 (Honda) and a T7 (Valspar) before coming out on top on Sunday in his native South Carolina.
Then come the Opens – U.S. and British – and it might be a bit much to expect much of Bryan in those tournaments. On the other hand, if he does do well at either Erin Hills or Royal Birkdale, well, then sky's the limit.
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Luke Donald
It's hard not to feel for Donald, the annual Harbour Town bridesmaid who finished second again, a shot back. That's Donald's fifth runner-up at Hilton head since 2009 (along with two other T3s). Donald is 39, a former No. 1 now toiling away as an also-ran. Harbour Town is annually his best shot to get back to Augusta, a Masters qualifying tournament, if you will. The second-place showing moved Donald from 96th in the world to 69th. Which means he'd need to move up only 19 spots by year's end to qualify for the Masters that way. The thing is, he was 68th after his RBC runner-up last year and couldn't break through. The last time Donald was in the top-50 was after, yes, the 2015 RBC. Really, his whole year hinges on this tournament. That's not to say that Donald doesn't have fantasy value – he has lots, but only in select tournaments. Maybe one of them is this week at the Valero Texas Open, where Donald tied for 13th last year in his first foray to San Antonio.
William McGirt
McGirt was one of 34 golfers who made the trek from Augusta to Hilton Head. He was the only one of them to record a top-10, as he tied for third. That's pretty impressive considering he played meaningful golf at the Masters deep into the weekend. So did Charley Hoffman, but he had nothing left in the tank and missed the cut. Just as well, since he now gets time to recover before defending his Texas Open title. As for McGirt, he loves Harbour Town, with a number of high finishes and, interestingly, he also does well at another RBC-sponsored tournament – the Canadian Open. More importantly, McGirt is now a full-fledged fantasy chip, especially on courses where putting isn't the be-all and end-all.
Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay also tied for third and now is up to a career-best 131st in the world. That's not Bryan territory, or even Donald, but considering Cantlay began the year at 1,866th, that's not too shabby. He's played only four tournaments after missing more than two years with a back injury. Cantlay has made the cut in all four, with a runner-up at the Valspar and now this T3. He's 40th in the FedEx points race and pretty much already locked up his card for next year. Neither of those fields was strong, but there will be a lot of mediocre fields in the weeks and months ahead where Cantlay surely should be a roster consideration.
Ollie Schniederjans
If Schniederjans could scramble on a course that mandates good scrambling, he could've won. Instead, he finished in a three-way tie for third, two shots behind Bryan – and that was while finishing 53rd in scrambling on the week. The four golfers ahead of him or tied with him all were top-7 in scrambling. Schniederjans, like Cantlay, is another guy who'll continue to be a good mid-priced option for DraftKings play. The T3 was Schniederjans' best career finish and moved him to the brink of the top-100 in the world, at 102.
Graham DeLaet
DeLaet was in the mix all weekend until a dagger-like triple-bogey 7 on the eighth hole on Sunday. He's now played 160 career PGA Tour events without a win (don't feel bad for him, he's made more than 10 million). He settled for a T6, his fourth top-10 in a season in which he's upped his game. It had to be a bit hard for DeLaet to watch fellow Canadian Adam Hadwin win his maiden tournament earlier this season, while DeLaet has been toiling way for years. But he and his fantasy backers should be buoyed by all his high finishes of late.
Sam Saunders
Saunders got in on a sponsor exemption and made the most of it with a T11 (an 11-way tie). In the two tournaments before that, he was T20 and T5, so clearly something is happening. It all started after Saunders missed the cut at Bay Hill, an emotional time for Arnold Palmer's grandson. But perhaps in an odd way he used it as a springboard. We'll see how Saunders follows it up this week in San Antonio.
Ian Poulter
Poulter was near the top of the leaderboard until fading into the big group at T11. It may really cost him, as he's down to one final tournament to secure his card while playing under a medical extension. Poulter will need to earn $30,624 this week at the Texas Open or his playing privileges will be swiftly curtailed.
Matt Kuchar
Kuchar played important golf deep into last Sunday at the Masters but he always seems to do well at Harbour Town. So he was in the weekly value picks. He certainly didn't back up his top price in the field. On the other hand, he zoomed up the leaderboard on Sunday with a final-round 64 for a spectacular backdoor top-15 (T11).
Jim Furyk
Furyk missed the cut at a tournament he won the last time he played it, in 2015. He was injured a good chunk of last season and he hasn't been his usual steady self this season. Furyk has only one top-25 – a T6 at the RSM Classic in November – and this was an event we were watching to see where his game is. Furyk is now the Ryder Cup captain for 2018, so it will take up a chunk of this time. It's hard to say whether that's played a part in his sub-par season.
Billy Horschel
This was a tournament well-suited for Horschel. But he shot 70-78 to miss the cut. He had a good excuse. He left the tournament on Tuesday to return home to Florida for the birth of his second child, then drove back to South Carolina on Wednesday evening. Some guys are elated after the birth of a child and play well; some guys are exhausted. Until we see otherwise, we'll still consider Horschel in tournaments where putting isn't critical.
RotoWire Value Picks
Last week: Two top-10s, seven top-25s, one MC, one DNS
This week: Winner (Bryan), runner-up (Donald), six top-25s, four missed cuts.
As usual, 16 picks. Only we faded a lot of the top-priced guys in favor of extra mid-price picks. It paid off. In Tier 1, we had just Kuchar (T11) and Kisner (T11). In Tier 2, we had both Bryan and Donald. Also, Adam Hadwin (T11), Jason Kokrak (a disappointing MC) and Horschel (MC). In Tier 3 were five of our favorite plays this season. Four made the cut, but we didn't hit a homerun. Webb Simpson tied for 11th, Chad Campbell tied for 22nd, Lucas Gloved tied for 32nd, and Kyle Stanley tied for 59th. Luke List missed the cut. In the long shots, three of four made the cut but without a high finish: Zac Blair (T32). Hideto Tanihara (T39), Boo Weekley (T44) and Herman (MC).
We didn't cash in our DraftKings game, finishing 40th out of 57. Horschel and Herman both missed the cut, so we were dead in the water by the weekend. We also had Donald, Kuchar, Kisner and Blair for a disappointing 326 points. If only we had taken our own advice to avoid the top-priced guys.
