Bo

Van Pelt

The 46-year-old Van Pelt has made three cuts in 13 starts at Waialae Country Club, with a best finish of T-13 in 2007. He’s missed the cut in his last seven appearances in Honolulu. Last season, he played on Career Money Exemption and made 11 cuts in 28 starts with three top-25 finishes. Van Pelt finished runner-up at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree (one shot back of winner Garrick Higgo), and was No. 147 in the FedExCup standings, his first result inside the top 150 since the 2013-14 season. Of note, Van Pelt missed nine consecutive cuts to start the season before making 11 of his next 19. He broke the streak with a T-30 at the Phoenix Open in February. Van Pelt made two starts in the fall season, missing cuts at the Fortinet and Sanderson Farms.

The 43-year-old Piercy last played in November at The RSM Classic, where he made his third straight cut in a row and finished T-70. Also that month, he finished T-19 at the Houston Open and T-40 at the Mayakoba. Piercy’s best finish in the fall came at the Fortinet, where he finished T-11 before missing cuts at the Sanderson Farms and Shriners. Last season, he finished 116th on the FedExCup standings and qualified for the Playoffs for the seventh year in a row. Piercy made 17 cuts in 26 starts with a best finish of solo third at the Barracuda Championship for his only top 10. In 13 previous starts at the Sony Open, Piercy had made nine cuts with a best finish of second in 2015 for his lone top 10 at Waialae CC.

After being sidelined for nearly four years, Van Pelt has slowly started to regain his form. A runner-up finish at the Palmetto Championship surprised many as the former Oklahoma State Cowboy captured his best result since the 2012 AT&T National. After sandwiching a made cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic between two missed cuts, Van Pelt enjoyed a nice week in Kentucky. En route to a T-31 finish at the Barbasol Championship, Van Pelt posted +6.2 Strokes Gained: Approach, the sixth best in the field. He will look to carry his iron performance from Kentucky to TPC Twin Cities as he lost –5.3 SG: Approach in this event last season.

The 46-year-old, who briefly shared the lead on 12-under total after his second eagle-3 of the round at the 12th, missed three of his next five fairways leading to bogey-5s at 13, 16 and 18 and a six-way T2. It’s his first top 10 of the season in 22 events and first since a back-door T7 at the 2015 Travelers, the Travelers coincidentally being his next event as he’s not in this coming week’s U.S. Open. Had the Oklahoma State alum won, it would’ve been just his second TOUR victory in 437 events, first since the 2009 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee 236 starts ago, but he does bag his 53rd career top 10 and fourth career runner-up, first since solo 2nd at the 2012 AT&T National 128 starts ago as the 18-hole leader. For the week, he recorded laps of 69-71, day-low 66, 68, tallied three eagles and 13 birdies against nine bogeys, and ranked T1 in Total Eagles (3), 7th in SG: Around (3.989) and 3rd in SG: Putting (6.043), though 52nd in SG: Off-the-Tee (-0.675). On Sunday, the Indiana native offset four bogeys with two eagles and three birdies on 13 greens in regulation, losing strokes on approach (-0.109) and around (-0.314), but gaining 0.452 off-the-tee and 1.927 on-the-green.

The 46-year-old owns 52 career top 10s in 436 events but none since a back-door T7 at the 2015 Travelers, where he was T25 after 54 holes (70-68-65-66). This is his first time in the top 10 at three-quarter mark since the 2015 RBC Heritage in nearby Hilton Head, where he was T8 before finishing T9 (69-68-67-69). After opening with 69-71, the Oklahoma State alum began T20 on 2-under, three short of the overnight top 10. He camouflaged one bogey with four birdies, including three straight at 12-14, adding a tap-in eagle-3 at 4 from 23 inches after a stellar approach from 251 yards. The Indiana native lost 0.560 strokes off-the-tee but gained 1.194 approaching and 2.253 around-the-green, currently ranked 4th in the latter with a cumulative 4.292.

Due to a shoulder injury, Van Pelt was sidelined for nearly four years. He returned to the PGA Tour in the Fall of 2019 and after enduring a 2020 season that included only three made cuts, Van Pelt has already surpassed that number in 2021. Van Pelt has made four cuts in his last seven events, one of which included a top-15 finish at the Puerto Rico Open. Van Pelt will look to carry the momentum into this week’s Zurich Classic where he is teaming up with Luke List.

The now-45-year-old’s 2015-16 campaign was limited to just five starts before opting for surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left arm. Between a missed cut at that season’s AT&T Pebble Beach and his return to action at last season’s Safeway Open, a total of 1,321 days elapsed between rounds played. Add in the TOUR’s extended eligibility adjustments due to the COVID-19 pandemic from last season, and the Indiana native’s Top 50 Career Money Exemption has been carried over into this season, not unlike a medical extension would have worked. After the long layoff, he went just 4-for-18 last season with a best of T60 at the opposite-field Puerto Rico Open, and has begun this season with six consecutive missed cuts, ranking 226th in scoring average (73.353). The Oklahoma State alum owns one TOUR win in 423 events, the 2009 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee 222 starts ago, and his last top-10 finish (among 52) was in June, 2015 at the Travelers (T7) 35 starts ago.

BVP has plenty of Muirfield Village success on his resume but this was his first appearance at Jack’s Place since the 2015 Memorial. Overall, he arrived with a 10-for-12 record at MVGC with seven top 25s but his baseline performance numbers have obviously dipped over the last few years. Van Pelt still gave it a go, circling four birdies in 34 holes played but called it quits when a second weather delay hit on Friday. He chose not to wait out the second storm just two play two holes. Gamers should continue to treat BVP as a longshot to contend until he flashes any sign of regained form.

BVP has gone 1-for-5 this fall after returning from a long injury layoff. His most recent start came last week at the Mayakoba Golf Classic where he signed for rounds of 75-73 to miss the cut. Van Pelt has carded under-par rounds in just 2-of-12 attempts this fall. Gamers can leave him off their radar until he flashes a bit of form. He’s playing this season out of the Top 50 Career Money List category.

The 44-year-old has been a fantasy workhorse over the course of his career. He’s earned a paycheck in 259 of 398 starts. That includes a whopping top-25 rate of roughly 32 percent (127). That being said, it will be hard to know where his game is at right now, having no competitive action since a missed cut at the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Gamers should watch closely but there is no reason to invest in BVP just yet, in any format. Van Pelt is playing on a Career Money Exemption which gives him a strong priority ranking when it comes to finding starts.