Each week on GolfChannel.com, we’ll examine which players’ stocks and trends are rising and falling in the world of golf.
RISING
Rod Pampling (+7%): Three years away from the senior circuit, his impressive victory in Vegas should inspire the aging warriors who wonder whether they’re still good enough to battle today’s young stars.
Thunder Bear (+5%): Thorbjorn Olesen is still wildly inconsistent on a week-to-week basis, but that’s three consecutive years with a Euro Tour victory.
Jay Monahan (+4%): Welcome to the most important job in golf. The next few years should be revealing.
Aaron Wise (+2%): The real deal, he top-tenned in just his fifth Tour start. The 20-year-old NCAA champ will spend his one – and only – year on the Web.com in ’17, unless, of course, he keeps this up.
Phil (+1%): He produced some of the best golf of 2016 … all while playing with an outie belly button/umbilical hernia that required him to push it back in “every minute or so.” Gross.
FALLING
Lydia Ko (-1%): There’s never a good time for a slump, but the end of the season, in the midst of a tight Player of the Year race, is a very bad time, indeed.
Keith Pelley (-2%): The energetic Euro Tour boss had an up-and-down week. The good: He said the tour will consider a much-needed change to Ryder Cup qualification, after complaints from some of his top players. The bad: He’s likely to bend the membership rules, again, after world No. 8 Patrick Reed fell short of his required tour starts.
Jimmy Walker (-4%): He has beaten a total of three players over his past three starts. That’s … not good.
Fallout over Rory’s WD (-5%): Whether he didn’t feel safe in Turkey because of recent terrorist activity or he simply didn’t have the desire to play after claiming the $10 million FedEx bonus earlier this fall, it doesn’t matter – McIlroy (and any other player) is free to tee it up where he wants, when he wants.
Danny Willett (-7%): That green jacket must feel heavy on the Englishman’s shoulders. Mired in a miserable, months-long slump, he admitted that he doesn’t want to play golf right now after another woeful showing in Turkey. Problem is, he still has to.
