Patton Kizzire

Kizzire hustled in the fall to get into the top 125, but he fell just short of the cut line.The 37-year-old missed 14 cuts in 33 events, which would be good metric for a higher-ranked golfer, but he made it by the skin of his teeth in several of those events. Kizzire is proof that just making the weekend isn't enough on the circuit, and he'll have to make the most of his limited opportunities in 2024.

Since he joined the Tour in 2014, Kizzire has finished somewhere between 60th and 125th in earnings in all but two years. At 121st, he finds himself within this range yet again, and it would not be terribly surprising to see a similar result in 2023. He converted roughly 60 percent of his cuts this past year, which is consistent with his career average, and his best finish was T10 at the Waste Management. Kizzire won’t likely be a heavily-owned fantasy asset, but he does have the game and experience to contend on certain weeks.

Kizzire had his best season on tour since the 2017-18 campaign that saw him win two times and make the TOUR Championship. The Auburn product didn't find the winners circle in 2020-21, but he did pile up seven top-11 results. Kizzire picked up a fair amount of distance this season and was much more accurate with his irons. That went well with his always steady putter. Expect a pretty similar season for the 35-year-old in 2021-22.

After reaching a career-high Official World Golf Ranking of 51st back in 2018, Kizzire has fallen more than 225 spots after recording just one top-10 and 11 missed cuts in 19 events this season. He's dramatically improved his putting over the last two seasons, but he's struggled in the other aspects of his game as he ranked near the bottom of the Tour in SG: Tee-to-green in 2019-20. It's hard to envision a huge bounce-back season.

After two decent seasons to start his PGA Tour career, Kizzire shocked the golfing world when he picked up two wins early in the 2018 season. After that, he failed to accomplish much during that season or the next. With three decent seasons under his belt and just one spectacular season, it's reasonable to think that his two-win season was an aberration. The upside is obviously there. but his chances of tapping into the upside remain remote.

To say Kizzire got off to a good start last season would be an understatement. Kizzire picked-up his first PGA Tour win during the fall portion of the scheduled and he grabbed his second win of the season just a couple months later at the Sony Open in January. From there, a predictable drop in production befell Kizzire as he posted only one top-10 for the remainder of the season. Last season was just his third on the PGA Tour and considering he had yet to win in his first two seasons, it's understandable that he might let off the gas after picking up two wins within the span of a few months. Kizzire obviously set a career-high in earnings last season and as such, he's not a good salary cap option this season. Expect Kizzire to come back to Earth a bit this season, but not so much that he's fighting to stay in the top-125.

Kizzire got off to a great start during the fall portion of the season, when he carded a runner-up finish at the Safeway Open, but what followed was a pattern of extreme highs and lows for the remainder of the season. Kizzire managed a total of three top-10s last season, including another top-5 at the Zurich Classic, but he also missed the cut in half of his 28 starts. Kizzire entered this past season off of a solid rookie campaign where he earned more than $1.4 million, but made 20 cuts in 27 starts, which is what really made the difference between his first and second seasons. Kizzire could improve this season, but he's yet to show much of an upside, so a salary cap selection is not in the cards this season.

Every season there are a handful of rookies that look really impressive and every off-season after that, the speculation begins on whether they are legit or not. Kizzire looks legit as he showed a high-level of consistency for a rookie, as evidence by his five top-10s last season. He hit the wall towards the end of the season, but that's not uncommon. Kizzire should improve this season, but how much is the question. He shouldn't regress, so the risk is limited, and the upside should be high as well, which makes him a pretty solid salary cap option this year. In draft leagues, he should be a 7th-round pick.