Russell Knox

Knox has floated around as being a mid-level Tour pro for the last few years but hasn't seriously contended recently, with his last top-3 finish coming over five years ago. Knox relies on his driving accuracy and iron play for success, which he does really well (top-25 on Tour in both) but is well below-average everywhere else. That should still be good enough for several top-25s this season.

Knox will enter the season outside of the top 200 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since 2013 after failing to record a top-5 finish last season. Never a long-hitter by Tour standards, he dropped from 106th to 155th in driving distance and relies on precise iron play to make up for a mediocre short-game. Knox can still contend on shorter courses but his days of competing with the best in the game appear to be behind him.

Knox barely missed out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs after finishing T72 at the Wyndham Championship - the first time he's failed to qualify for the postseason since 2013. Knox hasn't finished inside the top 10 on either the PGA or European Tour since June 2019 and his Official World Golf Ranking has dipped all the way to 199 as a result. An alarming trend is that it's the fourth straight year that Knox has finished worse in SG: Off-the-tee.

Since rejoining the PGA Tour in 2014, Knox has been a very productive player on the PGA Tour. He's finished inside the top-100 on the FedEx list in five of the past six seasons and he's earned over $1 million in each of the past six seasons. The aberration was his 2016 season when he won twice and nearly cracked $5 million in earnings. At that point, it looked like he was about to up his game going forward, but in the three seasons since, he hasn't come close to matching those numbers. He still holds a bit of value in salary cap formats however because the upside is very high.

Knox busted-out in a big way in 2016 when he picked-up two wins on the PGA Tour and nearly $5 million in earnings. He fell back to Earth the season after, but many expected a rebound last season; a rebound that never came. Since rejoining the PGA Tour in 2014, Knox has four seasons where he earned between $1.4 million and $1.9 million. The evidence is building that his 2016 season was a fluke and what we've seen in four of the past five seasons, is actually who he is. With that in mind, he's just a good, but not great salary cap option this season. He does have added value in the salary cap format however because of that one spectacular season and his enormous upside.

Knox cleaned-up during the fall portion of the 2016-17 season, racking up three top-10s and four top-20s in all, but the 2017 portion of the season didn't go quite as smoothly. During that portion of the season, Knox managed only one top-10 and he missed more cuts than he made. It's tough to get a clear reading on Knox because he earned nearly $5 million during the 2015-16 season, which means his performance last fall could merely have been a continuation of his hot play during the previous season. That said, Knox proved his ceiling is really high and spending more than $1.6 million, might not be a bad idea this season.

Knox was a very productive player in the two seasons leading-up to last year, but no one saw his performance from last season coming. Knox earned $1.5 million in 2014 and $1.9 million in 2015, but those numbers came without the benefit of a win. He remedied that last season, by winning not once, but twice. In addition to his two wins, he also earned two runner-ups. A great season for Knox for sure, but he set the bar impossibly high for the upcoming season for salary cap purposes. In draft leagues he'll likely be a 2nd-round selection.

Talk about a huge jump up; Knox who had failed to crack the $600k mark in his first two seasons on the PGA Tour, surpassed all expectations last season by earning just over $1.5 million. Knox is fairly new to the professional golf scene, so there's no telling where his ceiling lies. The problem of course is that he set the bar awfully high last year. Again, with so many unknowns, it's hard to justify paying such a high price for a guy who hasn't exactly been there and done that. In draft leagues he should go near the 7th round.

If healthy the 21-year-old can absolutely play. If given enough opportunities, Knox should shine this season on PGA Tour.

In just his first full-season on the Nationwide Tour, Knox played extremely well and earned his way onto the PGA Tour. Knox started his 2011 season with a runner-up finish, but he didn't let complacency set in. He went on to win his first title in July and only missed one cut after that win. Knox could be a sneaky sleeper this year as he'll come in well under the radar.