This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
Preparation for Augusta National will begin this week for a majority of the game's top talent who won't be staying in the Lone Star State following the conclusion of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but the Valero Texas Open is the final chance for a last-minute hero to join the Masters field with a win at TPC San Antonio. Only seven of the top-25 point earners in the current FedExCup standings will be in attendance at the Valero, but we'll now take a look at several trends around the PGA Tour from a fantasy perspective with the season's first major less than 10 days away.
VALUE RISING
The newly 21-year-old's brilliant rookie campaign continued at the Corales Championship last week where he posted his fifth top-10 of the season and third in his last four starts. He's top-20 on Tour in both SG: Tee-to-Green and FedExCup points, but will need a win at the Valero Texas Open in order to qualify for the Masters after falling just shy of the top-50 cutoff in the Official World Golf Ranking. Im has gained strokes tee-to-green in a whopping 12 consecutive measured events dating back to the Shriners Open in early November.
Also adding a top-10 in Punta Cana last week, Trahan fired a final-round 66 at the Corales Golf Club that included seven birdies to just one bogey. He's now finished T18 or better in three straight showings since the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, jumping to 497th in
Preparation for Augusta National will begin this week for a majority of the game's top talent who won't be staying in the Lone Star State following the conclusion of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but the Valero Texas Open is the final chance for a last-minute hero to join the Masters field with a win at TPC San Antonio. Only seven of the top-25 point earners in the current FedExCup standings will be in attendance at the Valero, but we'll now take a look at several trends around the PGA Tour from a fantasy perspective with the season's first major less than 10 days away.
VALUE RISING
The newly 21-year-old's brilliant rookie campaign continued at the Corales Championship last week where he posted his fifth top-10 of the season and third in his last four starts. He's top-20 on Tour in both SG: Tee-to-Green and FedExCup points, but will need a win at the Valero Texas Open in order to qualify for the Masters after falling just shy of the top-50 cutoff in the Official World Golf Ranking. Im has gained strokes tee-to-green in a whopping 12 consecutive measured events dating back to the Shriners Open in early November.
Also adding a top-10 in Punta Cana last week, Trahan fired a final-round 66 at the Corales Golf Club that included seven birdies to just one bogey. He's now finished T18 or better in three straight showings since the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, jumping to 497th in the OWGR after beginning the 2019 calendar year at No. 939. Through 11 measured rounds at the PGA Tour level this season, he's seventh in GIR percentage, 18th in SG: Off-the-Tee and 19th in SG: Approach.
Falling to Francesco Molinari in the third-place match at the WGC-Dell Technologies Championship, Bjerregaard still picked up his first top-5 result since the Euro Tour's Turkish Airlines Open in November. He consequently ascended from 52nd to 43rd in the OWGR, while he also hasn't missed a single cut worldwide since last July in Scotland. He'll make his TPC San Antonio debut this week before heading to Augusta for the Masters.
Luiten missed several months last summer with a wrist injury, but has finished T27 or better in all but one of his nine starts since returning in October. Most recently the Dutchman notched results of T6-T10-T12 from the Euro Tour's Saudi International through the Oman Open, just a few weeks after a solo-third at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. He fell from 80th to 109th in the OWGR during his absence with the injury in 2018, but Luiten is back up to No. 67.
VALUE FALLING
Laird hasn't made a cut since the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in early February, missing out on the weekend in three straight starts from the Genesis Open through the PLAYERS Championship. Luckily for Laird the Valero Texas Open has treated him quite nicely in past years, highlighted by a win at TPC San Antonio in 2013 to go along with a trio of additional top-20s. Nonetheless, he's lost an average of 2.3 strokes tee-to-green over his past five tournaments.
Barely hanging on to a spot just inside of the top-100 in the OWGR, the 99th-ranked player in the world has finished MC-MC-T58 in three appearances dating to the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Hossler ranks outside of the top-150 on Tour in both SG: Approach and SG: Tee-to-Green this season, two key statistics no matter the venue. The former Texas Longhorn will look to rebound in San Antonio this week.
After a promising start to his rookie season that included five consecutive made cuts and a T5 at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Albertson has been in a major slump with seven straight MCs from the Farmers Insurance Open to the Corales Championship. He's fallen to 124th in the FedExCup standings and 146th or worse in total driving and birdie average, losing strokes off the tee in six straight showings as well.
INJURY UPDATE
Spaun recently revealed via his https://twitter.com/JJSpaun/status/1108162248290299907">personal Twitter account that knee pain had hindered his performance throughout March, culminating with a withdrawal at the PLAYERS before pulling out of the Valspar Championship prior to his opening round. The issue doesn't appear to be anything too serious or long term and he'll give it a go this week at the Valero Texas Open, but gamers should proceed cautiously. He's finished no better than a tie for 50th in seven appearances since the Desert Classic.
