This article is part of our Golf Barometer series.
Lee Westwood's revitalizing clinch of the European Tour's Race to Dubai at 47 years old provided 2020's story of golf a feel-good ending while the PGA Tour relaxed during its brief winter break. The 2021 schedule kicks off this week in Hawaii, where an exclusive contingent of 42 entrants enjoy a stay at Maui's Kapalua Resort with four guaranteed rounds on the Plantation Course awaiting.
Let's take a look at some other golfers whose value is trending one way or another early in the new year, and also check in on the health of the favorites at this week's Sentry Tournament of Champions.
VALUE RISING
Hovland notched his second career PGA Tour win at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in December, ultimately allowing him to join Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff as a top-15 member of the Official World Golf Ranking at just 23 years old. Hovland followed his victory in Mexico with a T3 in Dubai at the DP World Tour Championship where he finished just two shots shy of champion Matthew Fitzpatrick. The Oklahoma State product has gained strokes off the tee in seven straight measured starts, ranking 11th on Tour in this metric.
Conners has one of the smoothest swings on Tour with a Fred Couples-like ease of motion, and it's translated to the Canadian ranking 15th in driving accuracy, 28th in SG: Off-the-Tee, 29th in birdie average and 39th in GIR percentage so far this season. Dating back to a
Lee Westwood's revitalizing clinch of the European Tour's Race to Dubai at 47 years old provided 2020's story of golf a feel-good ending while the PGA Tour relaxed during its brief winter break. The 2021 schedule kicks off this week in Hawaii, where an exclusive contingent of 42 entrants enjoy a stay at Maui's Kapalua Resort with four guaranteed rounds on the Plantation Course awaiting.
Let's take a look at some other golfers whose value is trending one way or another early in the new year, and also check in on the health of the favorites at this week's Sentry Tournament of Champions.
VALUE RISING
Hovland notched his second career PGA Tour win at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in December, ultimately allowing him to join Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff as a top-15 member of the Official World Golf Ranking at just 23 years old. Hovland followed his victory in Mexico with a T3 in Dubai at the DP World Tour Championship where he finished just two shots shy of champion Matthew Fitzpatrick. The Oklahoma State product has gained strokes off the tee in seven straight measured starts, ranking 11th on Tour in this metric.
Conners has one of the smoothest swings on Tour with a Fred Couples-like ease of motion, and it's translated to the Canadian ranking 15th in driving accuracy, 28th in SG: Off-the-Tee, 29th in birdie average and 39th in GIR percentage so far this season. Dating back to a T8 at the ZOZO Championship, he's placed in the top-25 in five consecutive events despite merely average putting performances. Conners will certainly be a threat to return to the winner's circle in 2021 if he can find some consistency with the putter.
Bezuidenhout racked up back-to-back wins on his home turf at the European Tour's Alfred Dunhill Championship and South African Open in early December, adding to his string of four straight top-15s while climbing to a career-best 34th in the OWGR. He led the Euro Tour in average total strokes gained per round, while also ranking third among his peers in average putts per round and sixth in putts per GIR.
VALUE FALLING
An began 2020 comfortably inside the top-50 of the OWGR, but he ended the year 75th after missing five cuts in his last seven starts. His putting metrics would give anyone nightmares, as he lost an average of 4.4 strokes per event with the flat stick in five measured starts dating to a missed cut at the U.S. Open. Positive regression seems inevitable because it can't seemingly get much worse on the greens for An. From a ball-striking perspective, he's 32nd in SG: Approach and 23rd in SG: Tee-to-Green this season, but he's also just 154th in GIR percentage and 192nd in birdie average.
Through his first 17 measured rounds of the 2020-21 season, Hadwin is on the negative side of every Strokes Gained category aside from SG: Around-the-Green. He ranks outside of the top-150 in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach, GIR percentage and birdie average. Such poor ball-striking metrics have resulted in three consecutive missed cuts since the Masters, and he's failed to post a single top-25 since the Rocket Mortgage Classic in early July.
List became quite a fantasy asset back in 2018 when he racked up four top-10s and a trio of top-3 finishes, but he's missed the cut in half of his 50 total starts since the beginning of 2019. Most recently, List has missed the cut in five of six events dating to early October's Sanderson Farms Championship. The putter has always been a glaring issue for List, but he's also lost an average of 0.8 strokes per tournament on his approach shots over his past five measured starts. Throughout the early portion of the 2020-21 campaign, he ranks just 223rd in driving accuracy, 193rd in SG: Approach and 154th in scoring average.
INJURY UPDATE
A COVID-19 diagnosis left Schauffele feeling fatigued throughout the latter half of December, so he certainly hasn't been at full strength during his preparation for this week's Sentry Tournament of Champions. Having qualified for the event via the TOUR Championship rather than a 2020 victory, however, he should be motivated to pick up a win and validate his spot in the field with a fast start to the 2021 calendar year. Schauffele currently resides a career-best sixth in the Official World Golf Ranking, thanks in part to back-to-back top-5s at the U.S. Open and the CJ Cup during the fall series. He also posted the lowest 72-hole score at the TOUR Championship, but the new format doesn't credit Schauffele with an official win.
