PGA DFS: Korn Ferry Tour Power Rankings & Preview: 1-50

#10-Hank Lebioda 

Bio & Season Outlook: Hank played a pivotal role down the stretch for some, including myself a little bit, in their fantasy lineups. He had a stretch where he was making the cut every week, at basically a min price! Still, all those cuts made couldn’t get him into the top 125, but it did net him over 650K. Even with expenses, that’s a darn good year.

2019 Performance: After missing the cut at the first KFT final event, Hank made back to back cuts at the final two, placing in the top 20 in both of them as well.

Statistical Preview: Hank only struggled with his putter last year, gaining in the other three categories, with his strokes gained in the approach his best stat, ranking 48th on tour.

Model Rank: NA

#9-Tyler McCumber  

Bio & Season Outlook: Back to back Tyler’s hit the board, ok maybe I did that purposely, but I’d say their upside is relatively the same. Duncan has shown us he can compete on the PGA Tour, while the other Tyler has had a great two years of golf, rising through the Mackenzie tour starting back in 2018.

2019 Performance: McCumber got off to a great start to the season, notching back to back top 5’s and a tie for 7th in three of the first four events. He added another top-five later in April, and four other top 25’s placing him 22nd on the regular-season money list.

Statistical Preview: 11th in driving distance is what Tyler hangs his hat on, he also hits over 71 % of his greens, good enough for 30tgh on the tour last year. Ball striking wise, he finished 13th on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Model Rank: 8

#8-Maverick McNealy 

Bio & Season Outlook: Certainly not playing for money McNealy the 23-year-old son of the former owner of SunMicro Systems (bought out for 7.4 Billion by Oracle in 2010) Scott McNealy. He wasn’t able to gain his PGA Tour card thru sponsor exemptions last year, but he was able to qualify for the KFT where he found enough success to earn him a PGA Tour card.

2019 Performance: Although he had no wins, he made 15/21 cuts, 6 of those finishes ended up top 25 finishes, with three in the top 10, and two inside the top 3.

Statistical Preview: Drive for show and putt for dough was Maverick’s go to last year, ranking 21st in driving distance and thrid in putting. He’ll need to improve his iron game if he wants to make hay on the PGA Tour.

Model Rank: 13

#7-Beau Hossler 

Bio & Season Outlook: A near-win in Houston 17 months ago was the pinnacle of his career at this point. Since then, it’s been tough sledding. Losing his card this year, only to get it right back through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. He is only 24, so plenty of time to regain form in the big leagues and secure his job a little better than this past year.

2019 Performance: H tied for second in the first Finals event on the Korn Kerry, securing his card, and getting his job back in the process.

Statistical Preview: The strength of Beau’s game ahs always been his putter, but this year he was so bad with his irons, and around the green, that it negated his good putting ranked 10th on tour. He was marginal off the tee gaining .048 per round.

Model Rank: NA

#6-Tom Lewis 

Bio & Season Outlook: An exciting scenario here as the worlds #63, a 28-year-old from England was able to secure playing status in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals through three tournaments! His T11 at The Open, his T24, and T65 at the two WGC events. Sometimes all you need to do is give a talented golfer a chance, and he didn’t let us down.

2019 Performance: Lewis decided to skip the first two events of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, playing instead in Europe, but decided to roll the dice and play in the KF Tour Championship, and what a decision it was! He ended up winning by a healthy margin, 5, and in the process get himself a PGA Tour. He plays most of his golf on the European Tour where he was enjoying a decent season with a couple of top 10’s and top 5s.

Statistical Preview: On the Euro Tour this year Lewis ranks 47th in SG: off the tee, 45th in approach, 167th around the green, and 139th in putting.

Model Rank: NA

#5-Robby Shelton 

Bio & Season Outlook: After turning pro in 2016, Shelton got status on the Mackenzie tour, finishing second in the order of merit, making all eight cuts, and finishing in the top 10 in six of them. That gave him Korn Ferry Tour Status for 2018, where he got his feet wet at least, and finishing 62nd on the money list. The breakthrough year was this year for the 24-year-old from Alabama.

2019 Performance: Robby had an incredible year with two wins, three other top 5’s and seven other top 10’s!

Statistical Preview: A great putter (2nd), and a good ball striker (25th) is a good combination to have on the PGA Tour, and certainly a recipe or success. He is rather short off the tee, ranking 85th on the year, so that may hold him back on some of the longer courses. His true strokes gained was just over one stroke per round, on average at 1.09.

Model Rank: 6

#4-Kristoffer Ventura 

Bio & Season Outlook: One of the most interesting stories of all fifty golfers on this list, Ventura Monday qualified into the Valero Texas and made the cut. Then nine weeks later he did again for the Korn Ferry event and finished third. That instantly got him status, where he won just three weeks later. Then after two missed cuts, he won AGAIN. Two wins in a six-week span, with bookend third-place finishes to boot. It’s been an incredible three months for this  24-year-old from Norway.

2019 Performance: I kind of just give it away in the last section, but three wins and to other third-place finishes in only ten events. Wow.

Statistical Preview: He played in so few events they don’t even have full stats on him! But, he averaged 313 off the tee, wow, and hit just about 70 % of his greens. Pretty good.

Model Rank: 5

#3-Doug Ghim 

Bio & Season Outlook: If you’ve followed me for the last year or so, you’ve likely heard me mention this guy’s name. He’s shown us that he can compete on the PGA Tour, but couldn’t make enough money in his six sponsor exemptions to get his PGA Tour card. So, he had to go to the Korn Ferry Tour to try and do that, and boy did he save the best for last.

2019 Performance: After having a decent, but not a great season, with three top tens in 20 starts, Ghim came in 52nd on the money list. Then the Finals came, and he made the cut in the first two finishing in a T23 and a T37, needing a Top 20 or better to secure his card, Ghim sat in a tie for 19th heading into 18. He hit his approach shot long into the back bunker, leaving a tough up and down. He put his bunker shot to about 14 feet and DRAINED the putt, that he knew he needed to get his PGA Tour card. Awesome stuff.

Statistical Preview: Doug ranked inside the top 80 of all the stats this year on the KFT, but will need to improve his iron play on the PGA Tour if he wants to stay there for a while. His best attribute was scrambling, he finishing 18th on the season.

Model Rank: 30

#2-Scottie Scheffler 

Bio & Season Outlook: An immediate impact player, to steal a Football term, Scheffler is one of the few from this class that I’d consider such. I mean I guess you’d have to throw in Morikawa and Wolff, which added with Scottie, actually now makes a fabulous foursome with Hovland. So, I redact my “few” comment and give this class a fighting to chance to become the next great “class” of golfers. JT, Spieth, Schauffele & Cantlay or these four?

2019 Performance: Scottie dominated the Korn Ferry Tour this year, winning twice making 16 of 20 cuts, with 10 of those 16 starts winding up in top 10’s, with two other second-place finishes. Wow.

Statistical Preview: Scheffler does everything well, 15th in DD, 53rd in DA, 5th in GIR, 45th in scrambling and 12th in putting. Yea he will win in the fall swing. 

Model Rank: 1

#1-Viktor Hovland 

Bio & Season Outlook: If it weren’t for some silly rule that has since been changed, Hovland wouldn’t have even had to go to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to get status. This potential breakout star will be an immediate impact, and for the most part, has already been an impact in his seven starts that he was playable this year. He didn’t miss the cut in any of them, two of which included The Masters & The U.S. Open.

2019 Performance: Vik showed up for the first two events of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and came in 11th and third, and that was it, and likely the only time he’ll ever have to play in a Korn Ferry event.

Statistical Preview: In 29 measured rounds, this is going to be super impressive, he gained an average of 1.058 strokes off the tee and .947 on his approaches. That’s winning numbers, something I don’t feel is very far away at all. In fact, he could also join Scheffler in winning in the fall swing.

Model Rank: N/A