By Andy Lack

Hi folks! The calendar golf season is right around the corner, and it’s time to get ready for our drafts. Season long fantasy golf is a concept that Rick and remain extremely bullish on, and I broke down on Monday all of the reasons why we believe it’s a completely untapped ecosystem. The most fun part about fantasy sports is the draft, and in the absence of golf tournaments until the first week of January, I will countdown each week by big board from 100-1. Here’s the upcoming schedule.

• 12/8//2022 (Thursday): Big Board breakdown (100-81)
• 12/12/2022 (Monday): Big Board breakdown (80-61)
• 12/14/2022 (Wednesday): Big Board breakdown (60-41)
• 12/19/2022 (Monday): Big Board Breakdown (40-21)
• 12/21/2022 (Wednesday): Big Board Breakdown (20-11)
• 12/26/2022 (Monday): N/A
• 12/28/2022 (Monday): Big Board Breakdown (10-1)

So without further ado, let’s dive into my rankings 80 through 61.

80. Chris Gotterup (OWGR: 394)

• L12 Months True SG: N/A
• 2022 Money List Rank: N/A
• The Good 
  • This may be way too high for someone who is ranked 394th in the world, as Chris Gotterup is the only player on my big board outside of the top 300 in the OWGR. The University of Oklahoma product is also the only non LIV player on my big board to not have full status on the PGA Tour, but don’t look at me, I wasn’t the one betting him at 25/1 to win the Barbasol.
  • Gotterup earned exemptions to some of the weaker tournaments last year via a seventh-place finish at the Puerto Rico Open in his first ever PGA Tour start. Since then, he’s played 11 more times on Tour, and highlights include a 43rd at the US Open, and a fourth at the John Deere Classic. He opened the 2022-2023 season with three straight made cuts at the Fortinet, Shriners, and RSM Classic, despite none of those courses being particularly good fits for his game.
  • While we have a very limited data on Gotterup, his swing reminds me a ton of Brooks Koepka. The Maryland native generates effortless power, and the fact that he gained +3.8 strokes off the tee at the John Deere and +6.4 off the tee at the Rocket Mortgage Classic is worth noting. Similar to other players in this range, the 23-year-old is someone you are going to want on your team when we get to Bent-gras birdie-fest season. His most impressive feat yet is gaining 5.9 strokes ball-striking against the strongest field in golf at the US Open in his third PGA Tour start of his career. Gotterup finished 43rd because he lost 6 strokes putting, which is certainly forgivable.
  • Admittedly, I am taking a big risk on an extremely unproven player, but just like my strategy in fantasy football, I’m not playing for second place.
• The Bad 
  • The risk is well-documented, and Gotterup’s application for Team No-Putt is pending. Still, he did gain three strokes putting at the Travelers, and started this season with three straight positive putting weeks.
  • Ultimately, the 23-year-old is  talented as hell, but extremely raw. He’s going to make mistakes, but the talent is undeniable. I’m getting serious Matt Wolff winning the 3M Open in his fourth PGA Tour event vibes. They both dress the same way, absolutely destroy the ball of the tee with a homemade swing, and are Oklahoma guys. Unlike Wolff, hopefully Gotterup stays the course and bets on himself.

79. Jhonattan Vegas (OWGR: 126)

• L12 Months True SG: 81st
• 2022 Money List Rank: 114th
• The Good 
  • I’ve always been a believer in Jhonattan Vegas, and it’s good to see him healthy again, as the Venezuelan missed a full month between April and May. In 9 starts since his return, Vegas has made 6 cuts, with just one top-15, so it’s hard to feel too excited about his current form. Still, that will be baked into his ADP, and I would not be surprised if Vegas goes un-drafted in some leagues, as he has failed to record a top-10 in a regular PGA event since his T2 at the 3M Open (his only two top-10s of 2022 came at the Corales Punta Cana, an alternate event, and the Saudi International).
  • Still, Vegas will always carve out a role for himself on the PGA Tour because of his ball-striking. 2022 was a real down season for him, and he still ranked top 50 in the world in both true strokes gained off the tee and true strokes gained approach.
  • The three-time PGA Tour winner was 11th on Tour in driving distance last year, and 17th in Par-five scoring, although Vegas ranked towards the bottom of the top 150 players on the PGA Tour in true strokes gained around the green and true strokes gained putting.
  • The two-time Canadian Open champ continues to be a massive threat on long, wide open, driver heavy, often easy golf courses, such as TPC Craig Ranch, TPC Deere Run, Memorial Park, and PGA West
• The Bad 
  • I’d be surprised to see the 38-year-old in any of the majors next year, and even if he qualifies, Vegas has been absolutely dreadful in these events, with zero top-20s in 15 major championship starts.
  • Vegas comes with some injury risk, but he’s also won three times on the PGA Tour, far more than most other players in his range. He’s also put together seven straight seasons with a positive strokes gained number. I will not be looking to specifically target Vegas, but I’ll be pleased if he falls to me in one of the last two rounds,

78. J.T. Poston (OWGR: 55)

• L12 Months True SG: 55th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 31st
• The Good 
  • JT Poston is a golfer I tend to avoid at all costs, but he is coming off his best tee to green season of his career, which includes a win at the John Deere Classic where he gained 8.5 strokes ball-striking
  • A lot of what was said about Denny McCarthy can be said about “The Postman.” He’s a bona fide elite putter, but he also deserves credit for his ability to spike with his irons. My nickname for Poston is “The Microwave,” because he is extremely hit or miss, but when he gets hot, he gets really hot. The Western Carolina University product only made 15 of 29 cuts last year, but in the 13 starts to end the regular season, Poston had 7 top 25s, 4 top 10s, a 3rd and a win. There will likely be a stretch of the regular season, likely during the dog days of the summer, where Poston gets hot. If you can get six Top-15s, three top-fives, and a win out of anyone in the mid to late rounds of the draft, your doing well.
• The Bad 
  • Poston’s win at the John Deere will get him into at least half the majors, and he’s right on the bubble of the top 50 in the OWGR. Still, I have zero confidence that he could compete at majors even if he was qualified. The 29-year-old failed to finish better than 40th in 8 appearances at the majors.
  • This is a worthy spot for him, but Poston is a little too inconsistent and reliant on his putter for me. When it comes to players like Poston, Denny, Kuchar, Hubbard: Poston provides the most upside but the least consistency,

77. Mackenzie Hughes (OWGR: 50)

• L12 Months True SG: 103rd
• 2022 Money List Rank: 58th
• The Good 
  • In September, Mackenzie Hughes broke a 6 year winless streak with a victory at the Sanderson Farms. It was a typical Hughes stat-line, where he actually lost almost a stroke OTT, gained 5.4 on APP, +3.4 ARG, and +3.7 putting. We’ll get to the off the tee struggles soon, but it was good to see Hughes get back on the right track, as 2022 was not kind to him. The Canadian made just 16 of 26 cuts with two top-fives last fall swing, but only one top-10 the rest of the season (a 9th at the Wells Fargo).
  • The reason why I like Hughes is that he still finds a way to compete on some of the bigger golf courses, as we are talking about a player who held the 36-hole lead at the US Open at Torrey Pines. Yes, major championships are often execution tests that reward the best ball-strikers in the world, but just like Patrick Reed, Hughes is able to hang around because he’s 9th on Tour in putting from 4 to 8 feet and 29th in SG: ARG.
• The Bad 
  • Over the last year, Mackenzie Hughes ranks 140th in OTT out of the top 150 players in true strokes gained. The irons really aren’t that much better, as he ranks 135th over that same time period. The good news is that he’s trending in the right direction, as over the last three months, he’s 108th in off the tee and 60th in approach. The two-time PGA Tour winner is still a below average ball-striker, but as we’ve seen, it’s not enough of a liability to prevent him from winning at this level.
  • I hate players who are short and inaccurate, and while Hughes has actually picked up distance, he still ranked 111th in Driving Distance and 134th in Driving Accuracy. As a result, he’s failed to gain over a stroke OTT in 16 straight starts. Obviously, this has not been a death sentence for Hughes, but it does put him at a disadvantage in some of the bigger events.

76.  Taylor Moore (OWGR: 123)

• L12 Months True SG: 120th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 75th
• The Good 
  • Taylor Moore is the type of player that I really endorse for this format. While he’s far from consistent, the high-end upside is there. Between 2017 and 2022, the 29 year-old has recorded 47 top-25 finishes across the Korn Ferry and PGA Tours.
  • Last year was his first full season on the PGA Tour, and highlights include an 8th at the RSM Classic, a 16th at Pebble Beach, a 21st at Riviera, a 4th at the Zurich Classic, a 24th at the John Deere, a 21st at the Barbasol, a 6th at the Rocket Mortgage, a 5th at the Wyndham Championship, a 12th at the Zozo, and a 23rd at the CJ Cup. What this basically tells me is that the University of Arkansas product can rack up a ton of birdies, and beats up on weaker competition. With a win at the Memorial Health Championship in 2021, Moore found himself a full member of the PGA Tour, and he proved that he is too good of a player to be toiling away on the KFT anyway.
• The Bad 
  • I have some legitimate concerns about Taylor Moore’s ball-striking.  is a bit of a statistical anomaly. He is never going to look great in a model because he’s extremely inconsistent.. Figuring out when and where he’s going to show up has been a challenge, and for this reason, I played very little of the University of Arkansas product last year. Moore ranked 165th last year in strokes gained off the tee, but he gained over 1.5 strokes off the tee in five straight measured starts earlier this summer, capping it off with a fifth at the Wyndham where he gained 5.2 strokes off the tee. Same deal with the irons. He gained +6.4 on approach at the Rocket Mortgage, +1.4 at the Wyndham, +3.1 at the FedEx St. Judes. Then disaster struck at the BMW Championship where he lost 6.5 on approach, before bouncing back with a +4.8 at the Sanderson Farms. His short game might actually be the most consistent aspect of his game, and he enters January gaining around the green in 9 of his last 10 starts. The putting has been solid as well, and he ended the season last year gaining in 11 of 13 starts with the flat-stick, including +5.1 at the BMW Championship
  • Ultimately, Taylor Moore is a worthy start at any of the easy, weaker field tournaments on the PGA Tour, and who knows,I wouldn’t be shocked if he stole a Rocket Mortgage or John Deere. We have a fairly large sample size now of him feasting on benign setups.

75. Justin Suh (OWGR: 119)

• L12 Months True SG: 112th
• 2022 Money List Rank: N/A (Rookie)
• The Good 
  • Justin Suh turned pro in 2019 along with Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, and Viktor Hovland as part of a famed rookie class. Many believed at the time that Suh was the best of that foursome. The San Jose native was the number one ranked amateur in the world after all.
  • The start to Suh’s PGA Tour career did not go as planned, and the San Jose native missed his first 11 cuts on the PGA Tour. He spent 2022 regaining form on the KFT, and put together a standout season, winning the 2022 KFT Championship and finishing the season first in the season long points race
  • Suh has now played 7 times this fall swing, making 4 cuts, with zero finishes better than a 29th at the CJ Cup. It’s far too small of a sample size to make a judgment call about Suh, or really attempt to define him as a player. Over the fall swing, he ranked 92nd in strokes gained off the tee, 161st in strokes gained approach, 208th in strokes gained around the green, and 107th in strokes gained putting. His results on the Korn Ferry Tour last season were incredibly encouraging, but the former USC standout is still raw.
• The Bad
  • Suh has all the pedigree in the world as a collegiate standout who rose to the top of the Amateur ranks, and he was one of, if not the best player on the KFT last season. With that being said, his results on the PGA Tour just haven’t been there. I still believe that he should be drafted and that patience will be rewarded. We’ve gotten spoiled with players such as Morikawa and Hovland essentially rising to super-star status right out of the gates. Suh is still only 25-years-old, and he has a long season ahead of him in which I expect him to play upwards of 25 times.
  • The best advice I can give is to balance your team. If you already have a Chris Gotterup or other unproven on your roster, it might be prudent to play it safe. Yet if your team is packed with Troy Merrit’s, Suh is absolutely worth a flier.

74. Mark Hubbard (OWGR: 164)

• L12 Months True SG: 112th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 110th
• The Good 
  • Mark Hubbard is a tough player to evaluate. The Colorado native always looks great in models because he is one of the best short iron to middle iron players on Tour, ranking 46th in proximity from 100-125 yards, 13th in proximity from 125-150 yards, 27th from proximity 150-175 yards, and 33rd in proximity from 175-200 yards.
  • He made 20 out of 26 cuts last year, and highlights include a 15th at the Honda, 13th at the John Deere, 3rd at the Barbasol, 4th at the Barracuda, 21st at the Fortinet, and 5th at the Sanderson Farms where he had a legitimate chance to win on Sunday.
  • The 33-year-old has some upside with his irons (+6.4 at Byron Nelson, +7 at the Barbasol, and +7.2 at the Sanderson Farms), and while there are many courses where Hubbard simply can’t compete, he’s definitely worth looking at the later rounds of your draft
  • Hubbard will always remain a solid option at easy, wedge heavy courses, and I feel pretty good rolling him out at the AmEx, John Deere, Byron Nelson, Pebble Beach, Rocket Mortgage, the Travelers, Wyndham, Sony, etc. but I wouldn’t expect too much more than that.
• The Bad
  • Hubbard is a liability off the tee. Over a year long sample size, he ranks 136th out 150th players in the top 150 in true strokes gained. He almost falls into the short and inaccurate category, but he does have the ability to hit fairways (55th in driving accuracy). 177th in driving distance, 148th in total driving, and 138th in SG: OTT is an absolute killer though. He’s probably good enough to steal a win at a Pebble Beach or an American Express, but we know exactly who Hubbard is at this point. Homeless Hubs is a good bench stash who can make cuts at shorter courses cuts at shorter courses, but do not expect some giant leap from what you saw last year

73. Troy Merritt (OWGR: 96)

• L12 Months True SG: 91st
• 2022 Money List Rank: 72nd
• The Good
  • Troy Merritt is a pretty standard, run of the mill PGA Tour pro. He keeps his card every single year, isn’t particularly elite at anything, but isn’t particularly terrible at anything either. Two to four times a year, he’ll pop his head out and find himself in contention. Over the last year, he’s been the 91st best player in the world, and at 37-years-old, what you see is pretty much what you get with Troy Merritt. Last year, the Idaho native gained 0.55 strokes per round, good for Merritt’s best season since 2019, and the second best of his entire career. He does find himself on my big board because 2022 was the best tee to green season of his career, and his best off the tee (58th) season of his career as well.
  • It’s good to see the driver coming around, as where Merritt really makes his money is with the flat-stick. He did get a little lucky last year, leading the Tour in putting from greater than 25 feet.
  • Another positive with the Boise State Product is that he plays a lot of golf and and he makes a lot of cuts (21/27 cuts). Highlights include a fourth at the AT & T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a fourth at the Valero Texas Open, and a 14th at the Rocket Mortgage. Point being, he makes a lot of cuts, and there are going to be two to four tournaments every year where he’s in the mix. While he doesn’t contend much, he’ll also cash you a lot of checks with some uninspiring weekend performances. Merritt is coming off a third at the Mayakoba to end the fall swing, so hopefully he can keep the momentum going into the new year.
• The Bad
  • Merritt has never finished inside the top-40 of a major in 12 appearances, and as of now, his best chance of getting into one would be the PGA, where he finished 41st last year. The journeyman is never going to be an elite ball-striker, but if you can get a top-20 putting season out of him (he was 43rd last year), he will absolutely pay off his draft price and then some.

72. Matthew NeSmith (OWGR: 98)

• L12 Months True SG: 73rd
• 2022 Money List Rank: 86th
• The Good 
  • Matthew NeSmith took another step forward this year, making 19 of 28 cuts and experiencing what it feels like to truly be in contention for the first time. The University of South Carolina product was firmly in the mix until late on Sunday afternoon at the Valspar Championship. He spoke with a great deal of #perspective after blowing it on Sunday, and this was clearly a positive learning experience for him. At 29 years old, NeSmith’s best golf is ahead of him, and he started off the fall swing with a bang, finishing ninth at the Sanderson Farms, second at the Shriners, and ninth at the Zozo. While we do not have strokes gained for the Zozo, NeSmith gained over 6.3 strokes on approach in both starts, which encpsulates the strongest aspect of his game.
  • If forced to choose one skill-set for any of my golfers to possess, I would take iron play. Specifically for courses on the PGA Tour, I would chose mid to short iron play. NeSmith ranks ninth on the PGA Tour in proximity from 125-150 yards. For what it’s worth, the South Carolina native is one of the more accurate drivers (44th) of the ball on Tour as well.
• The Bad
  • NeSmith’s short game and putting still leaves a lot to be desired (124th in 3 Putt Avoidance, 169th in Average of distance of putts made, 179th in One Putt Percentage, 163rd in Putting Average, 162nd in Putting from greater than 25 feet, 123rd in putting rom 10-15 feet, 159th in putting from 15-20, 122nd in putting 20-25 feet, 152nd in putting from 4-8 feet, 164th in Sand Saves, 143rd in Scrambling, 179th in Scrambling from 30+ yards, 118th in SG: ARG, and 145th in SG: Putting.) There’s not much to be excited about on that front, but we players turn it around in these categories all the time. Tom Hoge is a good example of another great short iron player that left a lot to be desired on around the greens. Very slight improvements in these categories elevated him into a borderline top-30 player. A Hoge-esque trajectory for NeSmith is not unreasonable,

71. Callum Tarren (OWGR: 165)

• L12 Months True SG: 115th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 122nd
• The Good 
  • There really is a lot to like about Callum Tarren. He bombs it off the tee, ranking 15th in driving distance last year, and he can putt too, especially from mid range. Tarren ranked third in putting from 20-25 feet, and 18th in putting from 15-20 feet last year, two ranges that will make you a ton of money on the PGA Tour.
  • The Englishman is a bit of a late bloomer. At 32 years old, he just completed his rookie year on the PGA Tour. Tarren missed 7 cuts in a row to start the season, before finishing fifth at the Puerto Rico Open. There were some incremental improvements over the year, and he randomly popped his head up at the U.S. Open, opening with a 67 to sit one stroke behind Adam Hadwin after round 1. He did his best to hang around before fading to a 31st, but he followed that up with a sixth at the John Deere where he gained 9.6 ball-striking, 20th at the Rocket Mortgage where he gained 4.7 strokes putting, and a 27th at the Wyndham where the ball-striking fell off a cliff, but he gained 7.1 strokes putting. Tarren didn’t miss a beat in the new season, finishing 13th at the Sanderson Farms and second at the RSM where he gained 5.7 strokes on approach. Tarren is the type of player that I love. He’s shown elite upside in all four of the major statistical categories, particularly the ball-striking and putter. He just hasn’t found a way to time it up on the same week, but I would not be the least bit surprised if he won this season.
• The Bad
  • His statistical profile is extremely similar to Wyndham Clark. Tarren has all the distance in the world, but the fact that he ranks 181st in driving accuracy mitigates his ability to truly dominate in this category.
  • The consistency isn’t there yet either. He made 29 starts last year but only made 16 cuts. At least we can count on him to play a lot of golf.
  • At 32 years old, it’s hard to call him a breakout candidate, but Tarren is showing all the signs I look for leading into a win.

70. Nick Hardy (OWGR: 184)

• L12 Months True SG: 99th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 142nd
• The Good 
  • Nick Hardy is a player I continue to keep an eye on. Over the last 12 months, he’s been the 99th best player in the world via true strokes gained. Over the last 6 months, he’s ranked 71st in true strokes gained, and over the last 3 months, he’s been the 64th best player in the world via true strokes gained. The biggest reason for his improvement has been the iron play, which is exactly what I love to see. A small sample size indeed, but over the last 3 months, he’s been the 13th best iron player in the world. Since the start of the new season, Hardy has gained +3.7 on approach at the Fortinet, +7.4 on approach at the Sanderson, +2.8 on approach at the Shriners, and +1.3 on approach at the RSM. In his two unmeasured starts, Hardy finished 23rd at the Butterfield Bermuda and 21st at the World Wide Technology at Mayakoba.
  • 2022 was the Illinois native’s first full season on Tour after a pretty solid 2021 on the Korn Ferry Tour. Hardy has still yet to win at any level, but he’s getting close. The fifth-place finish at the Sanderson Farms where he gained 7.4 strokes on approach was incredibly encouraging, but probably the most impressive result he’s had thus far is a 14th at the US Open. Sure, he did gained 9.4 strokes putting, but it still took a lot to hang around in that tournament. Hardy is far from over-reliant on his putter anyway, ranking 28th on Tour last year in Tee to Green. The University of Illinois standout is still only 26 years old, and he has breakout candidate written all over him. You’ll be happy with this pick come Bent-grass season.
• The Bad 
  • Outside of the US Open, it’s unlikely that Hardy will have much of a chance to play any of the majors or elevated events. Still, he’s a well-rounded player that has shown real flashes on approach and should come in at a reasonable ADP.

69. J.J. Spaun (OWGR: 87)

• L12 Months True SG: 70th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 39th
• The Good 
  • I will always have a special spot in my heart for J.J. Spaun after he came through for me at the Valero Texas Open (210/1!), good for the biggest outright hit of my life.
  • After years of toiling away on the bottom fringes of the PG Tour, J.J. Spaun leveled up last season. I picked him at the Valero because the signs were there. Most winners on Tour are incredibly hard to predict, but Spaun seems to tell us when he’s starting to get going.
  • The 32-year-old went through an extremely understandable slump after his breakthrough win in Texas. Yet he turned it on again for the FedEx Cup playoffs, and entered the final round in Memphis tied for the lead. His Sunday ejection was one for the ages, and when it was all said and done, the Los Angeles native wasn’t even in the top-40. After a few weeks off, Spaun picked up right where he left off with three top 25s in four starts this fall swing.
  • The San Diego State product is not elite at any particular skill, but he’s not a liability either, ranking between 60th and 100th in all four major stat categories. Spaun made 20 of 29 cuts last year, and he has a relatively high floor given the well rounded nature of his game.
• The Bad 
  • At 32 years old, Spaun is not quite a journeyman, but 2022 was his best season of his career. Did he turn a corner, or was this past year an anomaly? My guess is the former, as Spaun is still plenty young, starting to pick up some distance, and lacks any major flaws in his game. He’s certainly one of  the safer options on the board once we start getting into the seventh and eighth rounds.

68. Wyndham Clark (OWGR: 166)

• L12 Months True SG: 83rd
• 2022 Money List Rank: 85th
• The Good 
  • There’s actually a lot to like about Wyndham Clark. He’s a top 50 driver of the ball in the he world over the last year, and in the last 6 months, he entered the top-30. The biggest reason for his dominance off the box is effortless power. The Colorado native ranked fourth on Tour last season in driving distance. 177th in driving accuracy percentage is a bit of a problem, but that’s teachable. If he can find a way to incrementally improve his accuracy, Clark has the ability to be an elite driver of the ball. In nine of his last 13 starts, his gained over 1.5 strokes off the tee, including +5.3 in a good field at the CJ Cup, +4.9 at the Rocket Mortgage, and +4.6 at the Houston Open. He’s really not far off.
  • It should also be noted that Clark is an awesome putter. Las year, Hhe ranked 10th on Tour in putting from four to eight feet, arguably the most important putting metric. Whopping totals such as +7.8 stoke gained putting at the Fortinet, and +10.9 at the at the Canadian Open highlight the upside. His short game isn’t bad either.
  • Ultimately, Clark’s ability off the tee allows him to compete anywhere. You can roll him out at Torrey Pines or Muirfield Village, and he can also club down and compete at spots like PGA National and Colonial.
• The Bad 
  • The 29-year-old is still held back by his iron play, ranking 173rd in strokes gained approach. Clark needs to improve this aspect of his game to be a great player. He ranks outside of the top-50 in every proximity bucket from 50 to 250 yards. If he can clean up the irons, I do believe he can win at this level. Even if not, bombers who can putt will always be valuable given the style of courses that the PGA Tour tends to travel to.

67. Matt Kuchar (OWGR: 82)

• L12 Months True SG: 38th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 63rd
• The Good 
  • At the tender age of 44-years-old, Matt Kuchar is clearly on the back end of his career. Once golfers hit 40, they often decline at a precipitous rate. It usually happens abruptly and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Kuchar is an interesting case. He is clearly not the player that he was from 2009 to 2017 where he gained over a stroke per round. It appeared that Kuchar hit the cliff in 2020, but over the last 12 months, the nine-time PGA Tour winner has experienced a bit of a renaissance. Via true strokes gained, Kuchar is still the 38th best player in the world, and he’s got the number one short game in the entire the world as well. If we shrink the sample size to the last 3 months, he’s still been a top-20 player from tee to green.
  • Kuchar’s great play of late has gone completely under the radar. He’s been piling up a ton of top-30 finishes, highlighted by three very quiet top-seven finishes (7th Sony Open, 2nd Valero, 3rd Heritage). Last year he ranked second on Tour in one putt percentage, 13th in putting inside 10 feet, 19th in putting from 10-15 feet, fifth in putting from 20-25 feet, third in sand save percentage, second in scrambling, 11th in Scrambling from greater than 30 yards, first in SG: ARG and 11th in SG: Putting. While the ball-striking has faded, the short game and putter remain as sharp as ever.
  • There are still 12 courses on the PGA Tour schedule where Kuchar gains three quarters of a stroke per round. Kuchar is getting drafted late enough where specific course fits matter. He still makes a fine start at Harbour Town, TPC San Antonio, TPC Craig Ranch, TPC Scottsdale, Sedgefield, Waialae, TPC River Highlands, PGA National, & TPC Sawgrass.
• The Bad 
  • I’d be remiss not to mention that Kuchar has become a real liability off the tee, and over the last 12 months, he ranks 131st out of the 150 best players in true strokes gained off the tee. The Georgia Tech product gained over a stroke OTT only twice in 20 measured starts last year. He’s comically short (287.9 yards off the tee, 178th on Tour), and he no longer possesses elite accuracy either (50th).
  • I would like to see him to play a little more than 20 times per year, but at least he made 15 cuts. I have to imagine that for Kuchar to win at this level, he needs to gain around six or seven strokes putting and at least be neutral off the tee. He gained 7.4 strokes putting at the Valero and finished runner-up, and 7.3 strokes putting at the Heritage and finished third. That just might be his ceiling.

66. Denny McCarthy (OWGR: 80)

• L12 Months True SG: 44th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 41st
• The Good 
  • Denny McCarthy has quietly emerged as a top-50 player in the world over the last calendar year. In the last six months, he’s entered the top-40. We know that Denny is an absolutely elite putter, but the reason why 2022 was the best season of his carer is because it was the first time in his career where he was an above average (barely) tee to green player (+0.02).
  • In 29 starts last year, Denny made a whopping 24 cuts, with 12 top-25s, and 4 top-10s, including a sixth at the American Express, a fifth at the Memorial, a seventh at the US Open, and a sixth at the John Deere Classic. The Memorial and U.S. Open represent two of the hardest courses on Tour against the best players in the world, while the American Express and John Deere Classic are track-meet style birdie-fests. It’s good to see that Denny can produce on both.
  • Entering the year, I did not believe his ball-striking was strong enough to compete at major championships and elevated events, but any player that finishes top-seven at the Memorial and US Open in back-to-back starts deserves respect. As you could imagine, across those two top-seven finishes, Denny gained a combined 18.7 strokes short game and putting. With that being said, the fact that he recorded three starts where he gained over 4 strokes ball-striking is a solid step forward.
  • Ball-striking will never be the strength of his game, and it really doesn’t have to be when the putter is that reliable. Last year, Denny ranked second in average distance of putts made, 10th in one putt percentage, fourth in putting inside 10 feet, 10th in putting from greater than 25 feet, second in putting from to four to eight feet, fifth in total putting, and second in strokes gained putting. This wasn’t even his best putting season either!
• The Bad 
  • The ball-striking has improved, but he’s also gotten better at timing his best putting weeks with his best ball-striking weeks. He still ranked 165th in driving distance, 164th in long iron proximity, outside of the top 80 in all proximity buckets from 100-200 yards, and 131st in green regulations percentage.
  • If Denny McCarthy can take a page out of the Patrick Reed (and to a lesser extent, Mackenzie Hughes) playbook and find a way to start competing on a more consistent basis at longer and harder courses, the 29-year-old will have no problem paying off his draft position. We know there’s going to a week when Denny can finally pair an elite putting performance with a good ball-striking one, right?

65. Kevin Kisner (OWGR: 31)

• L12 Months True SG: 68th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 25th
• The Good 
  • You’d think Kevin Kisner is a top-20 player based on the amount of attention he gets, but this spot is more than fair for the University of Georgia product. Kisner rebounded slightly in 2022 after a bad 2021, where he had a negative strokes gained per round for the fist since 2013. The 38-year-old does appear to be past his prime. From 2014 to 2020, he gained between 0.2 and 0.8 strokes per round. As a mid round draft pick, the 2022 version of Kisner (68th in True SG) will do.
  • Don’t get me wrong, Kisner can still thrive on his courses (third at the Sony Open, fourth at the Players, Runner-up at the Match Play, sixth at the Travelers, eighth at the Sentry) and he remains rock solid on and around the greens. Kiz ranked 16th last year in putting inside 10 feet, 11 in putting from 15-20 feet, 22nd in putting from 20-25 feet, 23rd in SG: ARG and ninth in SG: Putting.
• The Bad 
  • The negative is that his true strokes gained is heading in the wrong direction, and so is his OWGR. Not that he will likely to give you too much in the majors to begins with, but he is currently not qualified for the PGA and Open Championship.
  • Similar to Webb, Kisner is likely entering the part of his career where he’s only going to play the events that suit his game. That’s fine when you deliver, but making only 13 of 21 cuts last year is far from ideal.
  • The driver remains a liability, and despite featuring top-30 accuracy last year, he ranked 171st in driving distance and 141st out of the top 150 players in true strokes gained off the tee. He lost strokes off the tee in 16 out of 21 starts last year.
  • Unless he gains a bajillion strokes putting, Kisner is pretty much dead on arrival at the big boy courses. He ranks outside the top 140 in driving distance and approach from 200 yards plus, and he’ll be the first to tell you this. The four-time PGA Tour winner’s wedges also need to improve to get some consistent production, even on the shorter courses. Ultimately, this format doesn’t reward match play prowess, but he’s enough of a grinder to notch a few top-10s this year and maybe even a win.

64. Will Gordon (OWGR: 135)

• L12 Months True SG: 126th
• 2022 Money List Rank: N/A (Rookie)
• The Good
  • Admidedly, this is more of a play on talent than it is his current on course results. Just a few weeks after securing his PGA Tour card via a win at the Albertson Boise Open, Will Gordon debuted with a 36th at the Fortinet. He arrived on the scene immediately, gaining over six strokes ball-striking, including 3.6 OTT. Gordon just kept rolling. In 7 starts this fall swing, he’s made every single cut, with a 15th at the RSM Classic, and a third at the Mayakoba. The Mayakoba finish is particularly impressive given that El Camaleon does a terrible job of accentuating his biggest strength: the driver. Through seven starts this year, Gordon ranks fifth on Tour in Total Driving, 28th in SG: OTT, 44th in Driving Distance (he’s longer 308, just wait for a bigger sample size). The 26-year-old is quite accurate too for how long he is. Just these last three months, Gordon has inserted himself as a top-15 driver of the ball in the world (25th in distance, 39th in accuracy), and he ranks inside the top 100 in all three other major statistical categories as well.
• The Bad 
  • We do not have enough of a sample size to really make a judgment call on what type of player Will Gordon is. We know that he bombs it off the tee, but it’s a pretty big leap of faith to draft such an unproven player. My advice would be to assess your roster and figure out if it’s time to take a risk. If you already have a roster filled with steady veterans, Gordon is an option that can provide some serious upside. I don’t have the balls to rank him above Taylor Montgomery, but they should not be drafted so far apart.

63. Hayden Buckley (OWGR: 31)

• L12 Months True SG: 135th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 99th
• The Good 
  • Hayden Buckley continues to make solid strives forward. Over the last 12 months, the 26-year-old ranks 135th out of the top 150 players in true strokes gained, while still being a top 20 driver of the ball in the world. When we shrink the sample size to the last 6 months however, he’s 75th in true strokes gained, and over the past 3 months, he’s 60th in true strokes gained, and a top-10 driver of the ball in the world.
  • The University of Missouri product made his way up from the McKenzie Tour to the Korn Ferry Tour where he won the LECOM Classic in February of 2021, earning a spot on the PGA Tour in 2022. His rookie season was up and down, but at least he played a ton of golf. Buckley made 30 starts, with just 16 appearances on the weekend, which is not ideal. He kicked his career off with a bang, finishing fourth at the Sanderson Farms and eighth at the Shriners in his second and third start. He failed to record another top-10 for the rest of his season, but he did finish 14th at the US Open where he gained strokes across the board and was somewhat relevant in the tournament, at least through Thursday and Friday. When the season flipped over to 2022-2023, Buckley started really rolling (19th Sanderson Farms, 20th Shriners, and fifth Zozo), making five cuts in a row. The reason why Buckley continues to improve and needs to be drafted is because he has already proven himself to be one of the best drivers of the ball in the world. Buckley has gained strokes off the tee in 17 straight measured starts! Even more impressive, he’s getting it done with average at best distance (99th in driving distance— although that has moved up to 79th in 2023). Buckley checks the box of a player that has one really bankable skill-set, which is absolutely what we should be looking for in the middle to later rounds of the draft.
• The Bad 
  • Ranked 203rd in the world, his roadmap to get into the 2023 majors will not be easy.
  • Buckley is still pretty raw, and he did miss a ton of cuts last year. Still, he a has a singular skill-set that has the potential to make him a really strong player over the course of his career.

62. Chris Kirk (OWGR: 86)

• L12 Months True SG: 63rd
• 2022 Money List Rank: 54th
• The Good 
  • It’s been nearly eight years since Kirk’s last PGA Tour victory, and I continue to hold out hope. The 37-year-old remains a cut making machine who can never quite cross the finish line. Kirk is coming off another solid season, where he ranked 63rd in true strokes gained, including eighth in true strokes gained around the green.
  • The University of Georgia product made 18 of 25 cuts, with 11 top 30s, including a seventh at the Honda Classic, a fifth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a fifth at the PGA Championship, and a seventh at the Canadian Open. We might be getting a bit of a discount, as he ended the season on a low note, failing to record a top-20 in his last nine starts.
  • Still, Kirk never veers too far from productivity. We know exactly what we are getting from the former four-time PGA Tour winner. He’s a solid driver of the ball (35th in Off the Tee), a great wedge player (7th in Proximity 50-125 yards), and he’s got an awesome short game (10th in Around the Green).
• The Bad 
  • The concern with Kirk, and the reason why he continues to fail to find the winner’s circle, is the lack of his ability to spike in any category. Kirk is a rock solid driver of the ball, but he hasn’t gained over four strokes off the tee since 2016. He’s a solid iron player, but he’s only gained four strokes on approach once last year. The short game is great, but he only gained over four strokes around the green once last year, and that isn’t winning you any tournaments either. Most importantly, he’s a solid putter, but he’s doesn’t spike enough to ever win a tournament, gaining over five strokes putting just once last year. Kirk is a solid option, and he should be drafted, but there are other players in this range that provide far more upside.

61. Patrick Rodgers (OWGR: 153)

• L12 Months True SG: 69th
• 2022 Money List Rank: 96th
• The Good 
  • Patrick Rodgers is actually playing some great golf right now. Who knows whether or not he can keep it going, but it does deserve recognition. The 30-year-old played seven times this fall swing, and failed to miss a cut, with six top-30 finishes, including a third at the Bermuda Championship and a 10th at the RSM Classic. Are these weak fields? Absolutely, but even if you look at true strokes gained, which takes field strength into account, Rodgers has been a top-40 player over the last three months. Other critics may cite the sample size, but even if you increase the time period to 12 months, Rodgers is still a top-70 player in the world. He made 20 of 28 cuts last year, including a 10th at the Mexico Open, and a handful of other top-40s, highlighted by a 31st at the U.S. Open. Rodgers did a fine job making the weekend last year but struggled on Saturday and Sunday. The former Stanford standout already has more top-20s this fall swing than he did all of last year. Even considering that, last year was the best season of his career (+0.52 SG), and he’s already at +1.3 SG this season. It’s unlikely that he keeps this up, but gaining a stroke per round puts you close to the top-30 in the world.
  • The reason for improvement? Rodgers is finally starting to turn his iron play around. Rodgers’ approach has long held him back, and he lost strokes on approach every year from 2014 to 2021. Last year was the first season of his career that he gained strokes on approach (+0.06), and he’s already doubled that this year. It may be even getting better, and he ended the season with back to back starts where he gained over 2.7 strokes on approach.
  • Rodgers is already one of the longer players on Tour (30th in Driving Distance) and he’s always been a great putter as well, ranking 30th in Strokes Gained Putting, and 22nd in Putting from four to eight feet. His short game is passable too. Iron play has always been the missing link.
• The Bad 
  • Let’s not get carried away, Rodgers has gone through stretches before where he’s reminded us why he was a standout collegiate golfer at Stanford, winning 11 times, which tied Tiger Woods’ record. Rodgers won the illustrious Ben Hogan award, and was once the number one Amateur in the world. While bombers who can putt certainly have their role on Tour, Rodgers needs to become a better wedge player to take the next step. His numbers are up from last year, but he’s still outside the top-90 in all proximity buckets from 100-175 yards.
  • As awesome as his stats are, Rodgers is still outside of the top-150 in the world with little path to qualify for the majors or elevated events. I will be looking to draft him because I love what I saw this fall swing. Still, he’s unusable at the bigger events, which may or not matter depending on the depth of your team.