Andrew Putnam

What a life to be a golfer on the PGA Tour. Putnam recorded one top-3 this past year, yet managed to earn almost $4.5 million this past season. Putnam reached that number by being extremely consistent. He recorded six top-10s and made over 75% of his cuts. Most of his top-10s were at elevated events, which never hurts. Though Putnam has proven to be a fairly reliable golfer, his number is set a bit too high for salary cap purposes this next season. As such, proceed with caution in salary cap leagues. In all other leagues, he's a nice player to have because he plays a lot and makes a lot of cuts.

After a disastrous rookie season in 2014-2015, Putnam turned his game around in year-2 and not only picked up his first win, but he also cracked the $2 million mark for the first time. He followed that up with another strong season in 2018-2019, but the wheels came off in 2019-2020 and he only started to get back on track this past season. He's trending the right way after earning $1.5 million in 2020-2021 and $1.9 million in this past season, but you have to wonder where his ceiling lies. Of concern in his MC percentage, while just over 50% over the past three seasons. Putnam should be able to improve his numbers this season, but how much is the question. Probably not enough to justify a salary cap selection this season.

Putnam made more than $2.3 million in 2017-18 and 2018-19 before a disappointing 2019-20 season where he did not make the playoffs. Putnam was better in 2020-21, but still only made 16 of 32 cuts. He was just far too inconsistent during summer. Ball-striking should be his primary focus heading into this season.

After a terrible rookie season on the PGA Tour, Putnam posted two very solid seasons prior to this past season, but the 2019-20 season was not kind to Putnam. Putnam made the cut in just seven of 16 starts and scored just one top-10. The only logical explanation for Putnam is that he struggled with the pandemic more than others around him. As such, he should bounce back this season, and at his current cap number, he figures to be an excellent value.

It's not often that a guy misses more cuts than he makes in the rookie season, earns less than $300k and finishes well outside the top-125 and then comes back the next year and makes over $2 million. That's how Putnam's first two years went on the PGA Tour and year three was even better than year two. With three years under his belt, and two solid seasons already, it's starting to look like his rookie season was just a fluke. Even is that is the case though, it will be hard to show a significant improvement on his numbers from this past season. Expect Putnam to hold steady this upcoming season.

Putnam's rookie season and his second season on the PGA Tour could not have been more different. Putnam's rookie season was a disaster. He missed more cuts than he made and earned only two top-25 all season. In total, he had less than $300k to show by the end of the season. His second season started like his first ended, with missed cuts and zero top-25s through his first five starts. He posted his first career top-25 at the Career Builder Challenge in January, but he didn't really get rolling until March. A top-5 at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship was the springboard for a nice run that would see him produce at a high- evel through the end of the season. The pinnacle was a win at the Barracuda Championship in August, but he also posted a runner-up at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Good things appear to be in-store for Putnam, but there's not enough of a track record to spend this type of money on him in a salary cap format. In draft leagues he'll have plenty of value though and he'll likely fall further than he should because he's not well known right now.

Putnam earns back his PGA Tour card after originally losing it due to a poor 2015 campaign in which he missed 13 of 23 cuts, falling to 182nd in the FedExCup standings. The 28-year-old's 2017 Web.com campaign included a win at the Panama Claro Championship in February, and he finished the season having missed just three cuts in 20 events. Putnam statistically doesn't stand out among his peers, but was able to finish eighth on the regular season money list thanks to his ranking of 11th in terms of scoring average.

Putnam, the brother of current PGA Tour player Michael Putnam (who finished the 2013-2014 season 93rd in FedEx Cup points), used a victory at the WNB Golf Classic and a second at the season-opening Pacific Rubiales Colombia Championship Presented by Claro to finish the regular season second in money to clinch his PGA Tour card. He concluded the year with three other top-10s and 13 top-25 finishes in 22 starts. Ninth in putting average and ninth in scoring average on the Web.com Tour this past season, having his brother as a resource could help shorten the learning curve and get Putnam contending on the PGA Tour early on in the fall.