Inside the Field: John Deere Classic

How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s WM Phoenix Open in this week’s edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create a team, click the “LEAGUES” tab. Then click on “FEATURED,” and then on the PGA TOUR Experts league that populates. SEASON SEGMENT

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Abraham Ancer … Let’s try this again. After securing an exemption into last year’s edition as Mexico’s highest-ranked golfer, he’s risen about 200 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking. Although he still needed the same exemption for the opportunity to improve on last year’s T52, the U.S.-born dual citizen has gone off for seven top 10s since his debut at Club de Golf Chapultepec, including a victory at the Emirates Australian Open three months ago. Currently inside the top 10 on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee, total driving, proximity to the hole and scrambling. If he breaks through, it’d be cause for a national celebration, but it’d also be a dandy birthday present. He turns 28 on the Wednesday following the tournament. Russell Knox … He’s back to doing Russell Knox things with three top 20s in his last four starts. That surge includes a T14 in his last appearance at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where he ranked T16 in greens in regulation and led the field in scrambling. For the season, he’s sixth on the PGA TOUR in proximity to the hole. Debuted at the Club de Golf Chapultepec in 2017 and settled for 70th place during what already was setting up as a slump. Byeong Hun An … Although based on the PGA TOUR on which he took advantage of starts in all three events on the Asian Swing in the fall, he’s added several starts on multiple tours before and since. Yet, the 27-year-old hasn’t let up, striking with five top 20s in eight starts over the last five months, including in his last two. Builds confidence with his power and precision, but he also stands over putts with a scorer’s mentality, so it’s just a matter of time before he’s celebrating his first TOUR victory. Returns to Mexico City since finished T48 in 2017 when he ranked T10 in total driving and fourth in proximity to the hole for the week. Richard Sterne … The veteran of 59 PGA TOUR starts and one membership card (2014-15) hasn’t connected for a top 25 on the circuit in 29 starts spanning five years. However, he’s opened 2019 strong with a runner-up finish in Abu Dhabi and a T13 in Saudi Arabia. Currently fifth on the European Tour in par-3 scoring and 17th in par-5 scoring. The 37-year-old from South Africa also isn’t inexperienced at Club de Golf Chapultepec where he appeared in 2017 (T72). Adrian Otaegui … The only first-timer at Club de Golf Chapultepec on this page is fresh off a runner-up finish at the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth, so the impact of fatigue and jet lag cannot be ruled out for the spry Spaniard even at 26 years of age. That result in Australia vaulted him to 64th in the Official World Golf Ranking and into this week’s tournament as the last man in the field, ironically leaving Super 6 champion Ryan Fox as the first man on the outside looking in. Otaegui finished 23rd in the 2018 Race to Dubai with the help of a victory last May. More recently, he’s recorded five top 25s in his last nine starts worldwide. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Max Homa has put a little more practice into his longer putts, and it’s paid off at the Valspar Championship. Homa holed five putts from outside 25 feet in the first two rounds this week. That matches the mark for the most putts made from outside 25 feet in the first two rounds of an event in the ShotLink era (since 2003). Homa made 202 feet, 3 inches of putts Thursday, making him just the second player in the ShotLink era to hole more than 200 feet of putts in a single round at Innisbrook. Homa, who shot 66-68, was tied for the lead after Friday’s morning wave. The winner of this season’s Genesis Invitational started the week ranked 18th in the FedExCup With a win, he’d join Bryson DeChambeau and Stewart Cink as the only multiple winners this season. RELATED: Full leaderboard He has made five of the eight putts he’s faced from outside 25 feet this week. That’s a make percentage of 62.5%. The TOUR has made 5.4% of such putts this season. “I typically putt it quite well, at least start it on my lines. I haven’t made very much most of the season, really, or most of my career outside of like 10, 12 feet,” Homa said Friday. “My inside 6 feet stats are really good, so you would think I would make more from longer. So we have just been putting a little more attention to that, so maybe that’s kind of where the boost has come in. Speed’s been really good, we’re seeing the lines, I feel like Joe (Greiner, his caddie) has been reading them really well and if you start the ball on line they got to go in eventually.” Homa gained more than 5.6 strokes on the greens in the first two rounds at Innisbrook. It’s the second-most strokes he’s gained on the greens in the opening two rounds of a tournament. The only time he gained more? At the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship, which he won. His 3-wood has been nearly as impressive this week. On Monday, he made the first albatross of his career. He almost added another one Friday. Homa hit his 261-yard second shot on the par-5 14th to 5 feet to set up an easy eagle. Though his impressive shot didn’t match his feat from earlier in the week, it was still an exceptional strike. According to ShotLink, Homa has never hit a second shot of more than 250 yards on a par-5 closer to the hole. The TOUR’s measuring system has captured 531 such shots in Homa’s career. He’s hit the green with 39 of them (7.3%) and this was just the third time he hit one inside 10 feet (0.6%). Homa was the first player since 2018 to eagle the Copperhead Course’s 14th with a putt inside 5 feet. He hit a 3-wood into the hole, the same club he used to hole his second shot on the 11th hole of Greystone Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama, the home course of his instructor, Mark Blackburn. “I’ve always hit my 3-wood quite well. It’s typically one of my favorite clubs,” he said Friday. “I know every caddie that’s ever worked for me has said it’s their favorite club, which means it probably should be my favorite club.” Homa couldn’t see his second shot on 14 but he got a thumbs up from the group ahead, so he figured he must have hit the green. He didn’t think it would be that close, however. Homa gained 1.3 strokes on the field with that stroke alone. Now he is contending at Innisbrook after missing the cut in all three of his previous appearances here. “I think I’m just better at golf now,” he said. It’s showing.

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