The Greenbrier Classic Recap: Schauffele is the X-Factor

Before we begin, we'd like to express empathy for our editor charged not only with spell-checking "Xander Schauffele" throughout this story, but finding a photo of him in the RotoWire vault (pretty sure there wasn't a photo of Schauffele in the RotoWire vault until 20 minutes ago).

The lesser tournaments of the PGA Tour season often lend themselves to surprises, but they've got nothing on the Greenbrier Classic. For the sixth time in the seven editions at the Old White TPC, a golfer outside the top 100 in the world captured the title. The latest is Schauffele, a rookie largely unknown to even many gamers just a month ago.

This was only the 23rd PGA Tour event for Schauffele – 21 this season. Until his out-of-nowhere tie for fifth at the U.S. Open, of all places, Xander Schauffele was a better Scrabble option than lineup consideration.

Since the T5 at Erin Hills in his very first major, the 23-year-old San Diegan tied for 14th at the Travelers and 35th at the Quicken Loans to impressively give him straight made cuts. But this past week constituted quite a leap for a golfer who less than two years ago was in Web.com Tour Q school and last season missed nine of 23 cuts on the secondary circuit.

Schauffele, who was ranked outside of the top 350 in the world just last month, jumped 77 spots with his win and is now No. 82, ahead of Jim Furyk, Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley, to name only a few.

So where does Schauffele go from here in the world of fantasy golf? Surely into the higher-rent district in the world of DraftKings, Fan Duel and FantasyDraft. But that doesn't translate into value, as we often see golfers skyrocket in price only to spectacularly under-deliver (some examples below in the Monday Backspin). It certainly will be easier to overreact to Schauffele's victory than it was to anticipate it.

We'll next see Schauffele at Royal Birkdale in two weeks for the Open Championship. He wasn't even entered in this week's John Deere Classic, so at least he didn't have to embarrass tournament officials by withdrawing following his life-altering moment.

(To close the loop, the one golfer to win the Greenbrier from outside the top 100 in the world was Angel Cabrera, who was 90th at the time of his 2014 win at the Old White.)

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Jon Rahm

Before we review others in the Greenbrier field, let's head overseas for the biggest development in golf in the past week: the return of Jon Rahm. Rahm didn't really go anywhere, other than some early trips to the airport after missing the cut in his two most recent PGA Tour starts, at the Memorial and the U.S. Open. On Sunday, he completed a bludgeoning victory at the Irish Open that carried him back into the top 10, at No. 8. Like Schauffele, keep in mind that Rahm is a rookie (and with even fewer PGA Tour starts than Schauffele, though Rahm is more prominent internationally). We've come to expect the best golfers to never have a bad week, never miss a cut. As Schauffele's victory reinforced, there is incredible depth in golf, and winning and success is more spread out than ever before. Rahm tied for 10th at the French Open two weeks ago before winning in Ireland, and what was most important to us was that both events had good fields. He had shown some weakness when going up against the very best: T27 at the Masters, T72 at The Players, MC at the U.S. Open. The Irish Open field cannot compare to the one at the Open Championship, so it will be telling to see how Rahm does at Royal Birkdale.

Rory McIlroy

McIlroy missed the cut in Ireland, where he was the tournament host. And while we just detailed how depth in golf makes it hard to be toward the top every week, No. 4-ranked McIlroy's troubles go deeper. He's spent much of the year injured, with only nine worldwide starts. McIlroy has some top-10s, but he really hasn't been close to a victory in months. He'll surely be among the favorites at Royal Birkdale, but it's hard to see why.

Robert Streb

Back to the Greenbrier, where Streb had one hand on the trophy before a fatal unplayable-lie double bogey on the par-4 13th. He was looking for his second career win, following the 2014 McGladrey, and for a return to prominence after falling hard last season. Even though the lost chance at victory surely stings, Streb had bigger issues: He was in danger of losing his card. But his runner-up zoomed him from 137th to 68th in the point standings, ensuring he'll be around next season. But that doesn't mean Streb is all of the sudden a better lineup consideration.

Sebastian Munoz

Munoz would've been a wonderful story. He led the Greenbrier wire to wire into the back nine on Sunday in only his 12th PGA Tour event. He wound up tied for third, but he never had had so much as a top 25. Munoz was so far back in the point standings, this result moved him only to 140th, still well outside the top 125. But with a fourth straight made cut, he may have turned a corner, after missing five of eight to start his PGA Tour career.

Jamie Lovemark

Lovemark was on the fringe of vying for the title on Sunday. He certainly was the most accomplished golfer at the very top of the leaderboard, though that isn't saying much. Lovemark didn't play poorly outside of an opening double, but he just didn't do as much as playing partner Schauffele. He's 41st in the point standings and amid his best season on Tour. But he'll rue what was a golden chance at his first win in his 113th event.

Ryan Blaum

The rookie tied for 10th to notch his first top-10, to go along with four other top-25s. Blaum has played decently in his first season on Tour, and the Greenbrier result pretty much assures he'll keep his card, moving him from 119th to 99th in the point standings. Still, he's no more than a long-shot lineup consideration, albeit one who could pay off from time to time, as we saw at the Greenbrier.

Nick Taylor

Taylor was in the mix for a second straight week – and for a second straight week, he went backward after fast starts. Taylor opened with a 64 and was within two strokes of the lead on the back nine on Sunday before three bogeys in four holes dropped him to T9. He also opened with a 66 at the Quicken Loans but wound up T29. These results do not ensure that one of these times Taylor will complete the job. We'll see how a second straight letdown affects him this week at the John Deere.

Davis Love III

Love opened with a 63 and garnered most of the Thursday headlines. But it wasn't to be for the 53-year-old, who was still on the first page of the leaderboard until a 5-over 75 on Sunday. No real fantasy value, just a nice story.

David Lingmerth, Charles Howell III

These two rocketed up in price for the Greenbrier, but both didn't come close to paying off. Lingmerth moved into the rare stratosphere of five figures – he was valued at $10,000. That was for a guy who had been playing well recently but who still had had only one top-10 all season, albeit just last week at the Quicken. There's a reason he was 91st in the point standings. That price was crazy, and a lot of gamers jumped on it. Lingmerth tied for 64th. Howell was almost as high, at $9,700, which was a $2,700 jump from his very-friendly $7,000 the week before. Howell was runner-up at the Quicken and, like Lingmerth, shot up. He tied for 45th. Very rarely do those big jumps in price pay off. Almost always steer clear.

Ollie Schniederjans

Any time a golfer messes up his scorecard, as Jason Day did a few weeks back, we wonder where his head is at. Schniederjans was disqualified from the Greenbrier after inverting the scores on Nos. 5 and 6 on Friday from 3-4 to 4-3. He didn't shave any strokes, so there was no intent and he would've missed the cut anyway. But clearly he was not focused. Schniederjans is back at it this week at the Deere. We shall see.

RotoWire Value Picks

Last week: Three top-5s, seven top-25s, six missed cuts.
This week: Four top-10s, seven top-25s, two missed cuts, one WD

We didn't have anyone close to winning, perhaps outside of Russell Henley's share of fifth, but it was a good collective effort, with only three of the 16 golfers missing the weekend. And one of those, Grayson Murray, was a bad-break WD with an illness on Thursday morning. That said, Tier 1 was a bust, with Bill Haas tying for 37th, Kevin Kisner missing the cut and Phil Mickelson tying for 20th. The five-man Tier 2 was rock solid, with Henley at T5, Tony Finau at T7, Danny Lee and J.B. Holmes both at T9 and Kevin Streelman at T29. In Tier 3, besides Murray, also solid: Bryson DeChambeau was T14, Graham DeLaet was T20 and Harris English was T29. As for the long shots, meh. Trey Mullinax and Seamus Power tied for 50th, Matt Jones was T64 and Ricky Barnes missed the cut. Serves us right for picking Barnes.