This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
The PGA Tour heads back to California after TPC Scottsdale's Waste Management Phoenix Open drew a record attendance of over 700,000 spectators throughout the week, culminating in a playoff victory for Gary Woodland over Chez Reavie. Pebble Beach -- one of the favorite stops on Tour for many pros -- plays host to the Pro-Am event this week, featuring the likes of Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day to name the key entrants. We'll take a look at several trends and subsequent fantasy implications as the Tour enjoys its West Coast swing.
VALUE RISING
Brendan Steele
Up to third in the FedExCup standings and a career-high 35th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Steele has finished no worse than 29th in his last six starts dating back to a win at the Safeway Open. He's on the positive side in each Strokes Gained category this season, while ranking 10th in SG: Off-the-Tee, 17th in SG: Tee-to-Green and 10th in birdie average. At the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Steele posted consistently low scores of 68-67-67-67 en route to his T3 finish.
James Hahn
Hahn, who finished runner-up at the Sony Open in mid-January, hasn't missed a cut in nine consecutive starts. He added his second top-15 of the season at last week's WMPO, where he carded 21 birdies and regularly found the fairways off the tee. Hahn will return to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this week, having finished T3 at the event in 2013.
Beau
The PGA Tour heads back to California after TPC Scottsdale's Waste Management Phoenix Open drew a record attendance of over 700,000 spectators throughout the week, culminating in a playoff victory for Gary Woodland over Chez Reavie. Pebble Beach -- one of the favorite stops on Tour for many pros -- plays host to the Pro-Am event this week, featuring the likes of Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day to name the key entrants. We'll take a look at several trends and subsequent fantasy implications as the Tour enjoys its West Coast swing.
VALUE RISING
Brendan Steele
Up to third in the FedExCup standings and a career-high 35th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Steele has finished no worse than 29th in his last six starts dating back to a win at the Safeway Open. He's on the positive side in each Strokes Gained category this season, while ranking 10th in SG: Off-the-Tee, 17th in SG: Tee-to-Green and 10th in birdie average. At the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Steele posted consistently low scores of 68-67-67-67 en route to his T3 finish.
James Hahn
Hahn, who finished runner-up at the Sony Open in mid-January, hasn't missed a cut in nine consecutive starts. He added his second top-15 of the season at last week's WMPO, where he carded 21 birdies and regularly found the fairways off the tee. Hahn will return to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this week, having finished T3 at the event in 2013.
Beau Hossler
The former collegiate standout at the University of Texas has certainly appeared comfortable in his transition to a full schedule on the PGA Tour. Earlier in the season, he posted back-to-back top-10s at the Sanderson Farms Championship and Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. More recently, he's placed T17-T35-T20 at the WMPO, Farmers Insurance Open and CareerBuilder Challenge against much tougher competition than was offered by the fall series. The 22-year-old should have no issues with reaching at least the top-200 in the OWGR by early spring.
VALUE FALLING
Adam Scott
Scott will be making his 2018 debut this week at Pebble, but expectations for the 37-year-old should be tempered after a disappointing 2017 campaign ended in poor form. He even missed the cut in his last start of the year back home at the Australian PGA Championship, while his 2016-17 PGA Tour season ended with a missed cut at the Dell Technologies Championship.
Russell Henley
Henley has made only five starts since the end of the FedExCup playoffs, but his performance has underwhelmed as he finished a mediocre 17th at the Sentry Tournament of Champions before missing the cut in his last two starts at the WMPO and Sony Open. He currently ranks 204th out of 206 on Tour in SG: Around-the-Green, so his wedge play could definitely use improvements. Looking ahead to Pebble Beach, Henley owns an uninspiring track record with a missed cut and T52 in two career appearances at the tournament.
Shane Lowry
Lowry appears to still be shaking off some rust following his winter break, as a T65 at TPC Scottsdale was preceded by a missed cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in his first two starts of 2018. It's not quite time to hit the panic button, however, given the fact that he finished his 2017 campaign with finishes of T12-T8-T12 before a runner-up result at the Euro Tour's DP World Tour Championship.
INJURY UPDATE
Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama was forced to withdraw from the Waste Management Phoenix Open due to thumb and palm injuries during his quest for a third consecutive title at the event, but an MRI revealed no structural damage as he avoided any sort of long-term issue. According to the Golf Channel's Tim Rosaforte, the world's sixth-ranked player could return for next week's Genesis Open at Riviera CC, or opt to wait until at least the WGC-Mexico Championship in early March. Either way, expect Matsuyama to be at 100 percent in time for the first major of the year at the Masters in April, barring any potential setbacks.
