Mark Hubbard

Heading into his 7th season on the PGA Tour, there weren't many signs that Hubbard was about to break out, but that's exactly what happened. Though he didn't have a single top-3, he did double his previous season high of three top-10s. Another bright spot was that he fared pretty well when facing top competition. The question is, at 34 years old, was this season a fluke, or did Hubbard really discover something? Late-bloomers aren't common on the PGA Tour, but we have seen it. Hubbard has a chance to continue this ascension this season, but at his current number, he'll be tough to grab in a salary cap league.

It's not often that golfers breakout in their mid-30s but Hubbard is a great candidate to do just that. While his ceiling may be capped by his lack of distance, he's in the upper echelon of iron players and a steady putter as well. Coming off a couple of top-5s late in the season (albeit in opposite field events), we like Hubbard to continue the momentum and take a step forward this season.

Although Hubbard didn't go through any significant stretches of missed cuts, his season was mostly unexciting with a best finish of T-13 at the Travelers. That will likely send Hubbard back to the Korn Ferry Tour to try to regain his card this season, where he picked up a win in 2019. He's one of the shorter hitters on tour which makes it hard to compete with the upper-level talent, but he's certainly a candidate to rejoin the PGA Tour in 2022-23.

In his fourth full season on the PGA Tour, Hubbard finally broke through with a trio of top-10s including runner-up honors at the Houston Open last October. He would comfortably advance through leg one of the FedEx Cup Playoffs and into the BMW Championship, ultimately ending his season occupying the No. 44 spot in the standings. Hubbard missed only four cuts in 24 starts, while ranking 31st in SG: Putting, 44th in scoring average, 56th in scrambling and ninth in total birdies.

Hubbard, who failed to collect a single top-10 finish from 2015-2017 despite playing in 82 PGA Tour events during this span, was relegated to the Korn Ferry Tour over the past two seasons where he failed to reach even $85k in earnings last year. The 2019 campaign was a positive development for Hubbard, however, amassing 10 top-25s and a win at the LECOM Suncoast Classic as he finished ninth in the KFT's Regular Season Points List and re-gained full status on the PGA Tour for 2019-20. Hubbard hit just over 70 percent of the greens in regulation and ranked 28th in driving accuracy on the KFT, but his upside is somewhat capped against stronger competition at more difficult venues given his lack of power off the tee.

Hubbard was one of the fortunate golfers who missed-out on the top-125 on the money list, but he accumulated enough FedEx Cup points to sneak inside the top-125 on that list, which means he's good to go for the upcoming season. The reason he failed to crack the top-125 on the money list is because he had no top-10s all season. he did have five top-25s and well placed at that, so he was able to earn enough points. In his two years on the PGA Tour, Hubbard hasn't shown much, so for this year, he's not a good salary cap option. In drafts, he'll go very late or possible undrafted.

Nine top-25s in 24 starts helped propel Hubbard to the PGA Tour, with a T2 at the United Leasing Championship Presented by PTI his best performance of the season. Most impressive about Hubbard’s season is probably the fact that he only missed the cut five times, something that if repeated next season on the PGA Tour, will do him a ton of good. Ranking 28th in the All-Around Ranking, his starting spot of 31st on the Reshuffle List will put him in a bit of a hole if he doesn’t play well, but if he can rack up a bunch of mid-pack-at-worst finishes, he could start 2015 in a position of having a lot more starts on the west coast.