This article is part of our The Reshuffle List series.
When Peter Malnati tapped in for par on the 18th hole at the Sanderson Farms Championship on Monday -- and then waited as the last several groups came in before being crowned champion -- he continued a streak of five first-time winners to begin the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. While a nightmare for Augusta National Golf Club and its yearning for a small field at the Masters, it's been a crazy year for the young guns, with a Reshuffle List that's ever changing.
Here's an update, with two events remaining in the 2015 portion of the schedule and playing opportunities in the spring on the line.
Different Category Graduation
We want to touch on Emiliano Grillo here. Although he won the most money during the Web.com Tour Finals -- and thus is not on the Reshuffle List for this season -- he is familiar to many of those reading this column. His win in a playoff against Kevin Na at the Frys.com Open made waves in multiple countries - he's now in line to represent Argentina in next year's Olympics for example, and will add to an already international-heavy Masters field - but also by showing that this 23-year old with so much promise is legit ... and now has a win and job security to prove it. En route to victory at the Frys, his stat line featured one of the largest strokes gained discrepancies anyone can ever remember -- first in tee to green, 61st in putting --
When Peter Malnati tapped in for par on the 18th hole at the Sanderson Farms Championship on Monday -- and then waited as the last several groups came in before being crowned champion -- he continued a streak of five first-time winners to begin the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. While a nightmare for Augusta National Golf Club and its yearning for a small field at the Masters, it's been a crazy year for the young guns, with a Reshuffle List that's ever changing.
Here's an update, with two events remaining in the 2015 portion of the schedule and playing opportunities in the spring on the line.
Different Category Graduation
We want to touch on Emiliano Grillo here. Although he won the most money during the Web.com Tour Finals -- and thus is not on the Reshuffle List for this season -- he is familiar to many of those reading this column. His win in a playoff against Kevin Na at the Frys.com Open made waves in multiple countries - he's now in line to represent Argentina in next year's Olympics for example, and will add to an already international-heavy Masters field - but also by showing that this 23-year old with so much promise is legit ... and now has a win and job security to prove it. En route to victory at the Frys, his stat line featured one of the largest strokes gained discrepancies anyone can ever remember -- first in tee to green, 61st in putting -- and that's something he'll have to work on over time. But rest assured, Grillo is for real.
Reshuffle List Graduation
Smylie Kaufman - Sunday 61's will help your score; they help your life when they lead to a win. That's what happened to Kaufman in Las Vegas, where he came home in 29 to post two hours ahead of the leaders and then wait to see what happened. It ended with his first PGA Tour victory, earning a trip down Magnolia Lane, and essentially three seasons of job security since he won so early in the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season. For the week he was T1 in birdies, 11th in strokes gained-tee to green and eighth in strokes gained-putting. Keep an eye on this kid -- he's not the kind of guy who will contend every week, but he's got the game to go super low when he does.
Peter Malnati - Those who read our stats column will find these three tweets familiar but Malnati's win to graduate from the Reshuffle List at the Sanderson Farms Championship was so good they must be told again:
Putts made from 10 feet or more @SandersonPGA ...
Field average: 4.56.
Peter Malnati: 16. pic.twitter.com/60AuH067M3
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 10, 2015Following up: Peter Malnati made 495 feet, 7 inches of putts this week. Made a putt of 32 feet or longer in every round. Unholy roller.
— Steve Elling (@EllingYelling) November 9, 2015Strokes gained-putting this week:
1. Peter Malnati, +11.64 strokes
2. Baddeley, +8.18
3. Toms, +5.93
That's some serious rock rolling.
— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) November 9, 2015It's a dynamite performance for someone on his second go-around on the PGA Tour. He doesn't get into the Masters but is going to Hawaii, the PGA Championship, The Players and has the nearly three-season job security blanked. Where he goes from here is to be decided down the line, but with the ability to putt that good, never count him out if he gets into contention.
Biggest Gainers
With the five-first time winners and guys coming from all over the place to win this fall, the Reshuffle List standings are all over the place.
Tyrone Van Aswegen, +27 spots - Van Aswegen rise from 29th to second if the reshuffle happened today is due to his third place finish at the Frys.com Open, where he finished one shot out of the playoff. For the week in Napa he ranked eighth in strokes gained-putting and T9 in greens in regulation. Arguably more important, he made the cut in his next two starts, guaranteeing money and FedEx Cup points. T56 and T54 isn't flashy, but for someone desperately needing a good start, it's exactly what the doctor ordered.
Mark Hubbard, +26 spots - Hubbard contended briefly in Vegas after opening with 64 but failed to break 70 the rest of the week. Still, his combination of a T30 finish at Frys and T35 finish at Shriners, coupled with a T54 last week in Mississippi was enough to lift him up the list as he'd be fifth if the reshuffle happened today. He ranks 42nd in strokes gained-putting and 41st in scrambling in the early going.
Anirban Lahiri, +21 spots - Showing the upheaval elsewhere on the list, Lahiri finishes T21 at CIMB and T40 in Shanghai were enough to bump him up 21 spots from to sixth if the turnover happened today. Big things are thought of from the 41st ranked player in the world, but this start, which has him ranked 59th in FedEx Cup points, isn't much to go crazy over.
Brian Davis, +21 spots - Davis, who has yet to win on the PGA Tour in his career, finished T28 in his only start of this 2015-2016 PGA Tour season. A 65 put him toward the top of the leaderboard after the first round at the Sanderson Farms Championship, and his remaining rounds of 69-71-73 gave him a top-30 finish to begin the season.
Biggest Losers
Sam Saunders, -31 spots - Saunders has failed to make a cut so far in 2015 - breaking 70 just once in his two starts, the Frys.com Open and the Shriners Hospital for Children Open. Why? He currently ranks 232nd in driving accuracy, 268th in greens in regulation, and 175th in strokes gained - tee to green. Ouch. If the reshuffle happened today he'd fall from eighth to 39th on the Reshuffle List.
Martin Piller, -31 spots - Piller, the husband of Solheim Cup hero Gerina Piller, would fall to 33rd if the reshuffle happened today. He's finished T81-T62-missed cut in his first three PGA Tour starts, with just one round in the 60s. He fell to the secondary cut at the Frys.com Open and only registered three rounds there. His issues are with all facets of his game, as he's 171st in strokes gained-tee to green and 136th in strokes gained-putting.
Tom Hoge, -26 spots - Hoge would fall from 11th to 37th. He's earned just under four FedEx Cup points, with finishes of MC-T67-T70 to start his season, featuring just two rounds in the 60s. All aspects of his game also seem to be culprit, as he currently ranks 118th in strokes gained - tee to green and 174th in strokes gained-putting, losing an average of .737 shots to the field per round. That doesn't seem like a lot, but if the field is the average, that adds up over four days, and it robs you of any chance of contention and a quality finish.
Dicky Pride, Rhein Gibson, -26 spots - We group these players together because they tell the same tale: they've yet to make a cut and thus register a FedEx Cup point this year. They also happened to start the year next to each other on the FedEx Cup points list, with Pride and Gibson ranked 14th and 15th respectively. Pride has been especially poor with his ball striking, hitting just 62.04 percent of his greens (that has him ranked 254th), while Gibson is having trouble with his accuracy, hitting just 42.86 percent of his fairways. He sits 268th in that category. It's early in the season, but with only two events left in this reshuffle cycle, these players better pick it up.
