This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
The PGA Tour makes a roughly 8,000-mile journey from Napa, California to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this week following the season-opening Safeway Open, as the fall swing and 2018-19 season are now underway. The CIMB Classic will host a minuscule 78-entrant field while the European Tour's British Masters draws a great deal of attention across the pond as well. We'll take a look at several fantasy trends around the globe following the Safeway Open and Europe's rout of Team USA at the Ryder Cup.
VALUE RISING
Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood has racked up five consecutive top-25s since the start of the FedExCup Playoffs, but he most recently tied for second at the Euro Tour's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship just one week after winning all four of his Ryder Cup matches alongside teammate Francesco Molinari. Last season on the PGA Tour, Fleetwood ranked sixth in scoring average and fifth in birdie percentage.
Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton choked away what would have been a third consecutive title at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, having secured a hold of the 54-hole lead this past week. A disappointing T2 finish allowed him to jump from 26th to 23rd in the Official World Golf Ranking, however. The Englishman has finished no worse than T29 in six consecutive starts, adding a trio of top-12s during this span.
Sungjae Im
Im entered his rookie campaign with plenty of hype after leading the Web.com Tour's regular season money list wire-to-wire throughout the 2018 season, and he didn't disappoint with a T4
The PGA Tour makes a roughly 8,000-mile journey from Napa, California to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this week following the season-opening Safeway Open, as the fall swing and 2018-19 season are now underway. The CIMB Classic will host a minuscule 78-entrant field while the European Tour's British Masters draws a great deal of attention across the pond as well. We'll take a look at several fantasy trends around the globe following the Safeway Open and Europe's rout of Team USA at the Ryder Cup.
VALUE RISING
Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood has racked up five consecutive top-25s since the start of the FedExCup Playoffs, but he most recently tied for second at the Euro Tour's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship just one week after winning all four of his Ryder Cup matches alongside teammate Francesco Molinari. Last season on the PGA Tour, Fleetwood ranked sixth in scoring average and fifth in birdie percentage.
Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton choked away what would have been a third consecutive title at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, having secured a hold of the 54-hole lead this past week. A disappointing T2 finish allowed him to jump from 26th to 23rd in the Official World Golf Ranking, however. The Englishman has finished no worse than T29 in six consecutive starts, adding a trio of top-12s during this span.
Sungjae Im
Im entered his rookie campaign with plenty of hype after leading the Web.com Tour's regular season money list wire-to-wire throughout the 2018 season, and he didn't disappoint with a T4 result at the Safeway Open. He found success both off the tee and with the flat stick, remaining inside the top-100 of the OWGR.
Sam Ryder
Ryder is already nearly a quarter of the way to matching his earnings total from the 2017-18 campaign after placing T4 in the season opener last week. He ranked top-10 among the field in both SG: Approach and GIR percentage, two key forecasters of success at this week's CIMB Classic. Ryder now has three finishes of T7 or better in his last six starts heading into the second event of his sophomore season.
VALUE FALLING
Ollie Schniederjans
Schniederjans was two strokes away from finishing dead last at the Safeway Open following a brutal two-day performance, bringing his streak of consecutive missed cuts to three. His only top-25 since February's Waste Management Phoenix Open came at the Barracuda Championship, which isn't too impressive of a feat.
Joel Dahmen
Dahmen caught fire this summer with eight top-25s in 10 starts from the Wells Fargo Championship through the RBC Canadian Open, rising to 180th in the OWGR after beginning the 2018 calendar year outside of the top-500. He struggled throughout the FedExCup Playoffs, however, getting bounced after the second event with missed cuts at both the Northern Trust and Dell Technologies Championship. Dahmen posted a T46 at last week's Safeway Open, but finished outside of the top-30 among the field in every Strokes Gained category.
Shubhankar Sharma
Sharma vaulted as high as 64th in the OWGR earlier this year following a pair of wins at the European Tour's Joburg Open and Maybank Championship, but he also finished top-10 at the WGC-Mexico Championship and made the cut at the British Open. Sharma's momentum has reversed, however, missing the cut in four of his last five starts dating back to the PGA Championship, descending to 116th in the OWGR. He even missed the cut in his most recent appearance on the Asian Tour at the Yeangder TPC against an extremely weak field. Sharma is not yet qualified for a single major in 2019.
INJURY UPDATE
Bud Cauley
Cauley made it through to the weekend at the Safeway Open in his first start since the Memorial Tournament, having dealt with a handful of injuries stemming from a June car accident. The 28-year-old finished 122nd in the FedExCup standings this past season despite appearing in only 17 events, retaining his card as he won't need a medical extension.
