Here are the top-10 tour players and ties in each of seven PGA Tour statistical categories through completion of the Honda Classic.

Ernie Els took a small step toward his World #1 goal by winning the Honda Classic. He will need several more steps to get there, but it was good to see him giving the winner’s interview after the tournament. As the Masters Tournament approaches, Els needs to continue his level of play and remain mentally fresh, which can sometimes be a difficult thing to accomplish.

Yes, the Masters is quickly approaching. Els is playing well, Mickelson is playing well, and Tiger, well, Tiger is beating the world. He’s been the favorite to win the Masters since 1998 (the year after his first win there). It seems silly to state, but he’ll be the favorite again despite how well anyone else is playing. He’s expensive, but how can a fantasy golf team be complete without Tiger Woods, if he’s playing that week. When it comes to the Masters, he’s nearly a must-have fantasy golf pick.

There are some truly unknown names amongst the fantasy golf stats leaders (Merrick, Marino), but the top players are rising to the top of the stats. John Merrick and Steve Marino lead the group of guys that will be good buys for fantasy golf teams. When the Masters rolls around, the expensive of having Tiger on the team can probably be offset by players like Marino, Merrick and a few others. Here are the PGA Tour stats leaders:

Scoring Average

1 (Last Week, 1) Tiger Woods, 66.12

2 (Not ranked) Luke Donald, 67.64

3 (2) Stuart Appleby, 69.00

4 (3) Phil Mickelson, 69.12

5 (4) Padraig Harrington, 69.32

6 (T8) John Merrick, 69.33

7 (5) Steve Marino, 69.38

8 (6) J.B. Holmes, 69.49

T9 (7) Brian Gay, 69.54

T9 (17) Matt Jones, 69.54

Driving Distance

1 (Last Week,1) Bubba Watson (Rounds, 21), Average driving distance, 316.4

2 (2) J.B. Holmes (20), 310.2

3 (3) Dustin Johnson (23), 306.6

4 (6) Brett Wetterich (11), 303.9

5 (4) Robert Garrigus (12), 303.5

6 (7) Fred Couples (15), 303.0

7 (5) Anthony Kim (17) 301.6

8 (8) Troy Matteson (20), 300.5

9 (9) Jason Gore (25), 300.4

10 (10) Tag Ridings (22), 299.7

Driving Accuracy Percentage

1 (Last Week, 1) Scott Verplank (Rounds, 14), Percentage of fairways hit, 84.86

2 (2) Mark Brooks (12), 80.91

3 (5) Olin Browne (19), 79.66

4 (7) Fred Funk (22), 77.34

5 (6) Paul Goydos (20), 76.95

6 (4) Justin Leonard (31), 76.42

7 (8) Corey Pavin, (14), 75.36

8 (999) Glen Day (11), 75.26

9 (14) Joe Durant (25), 74.74

10 (11) Jim Furyk (19), 74.51

Greens in Regulation Percentage

1 (Last Week, 1) Tiger Woods (Rounds, 10), Percentage 80.56

2 (2) Mark Calcavecchia (23), 75.76

3 (6) Stewart Cink (17), 74.75

4 (8) Charley Hoffman (18), 74.07

5 (5) Justin Leonard (31), 74.00

6 (9) Scott Verplank (14), 73.93

7 (T10) Hunter Mahan (19), 73.53 225

8 (12) K.J. Choi (22), 73.46

9 (3) John Senden (20), 72.81

10 (T10) Joe Durant (25). 72.49

Scrambling Percentage - The percent of time the player misses the green, but still makes par or better.

1 (Last Week, 1) Chris Riley (Rounds,10) Percentage, 75.00

2 (2) Stephen Ames (11), 74.07

3 (3) Stewart Cink (17), 74.00

4 (4) Stuart Appleby (15), 73.33

5 (6) Tiger Woods (10), 71.43

6 (5) Ben Crane (19), 71.30

7 (8) Scott Verplank (14), 70.49

8 (T9) Phil Mickelson (17), 70.21

9 (11) Padraig Harrington (10), 70.18

10 (999) Luke Donald (10), 70.00

Putts per Round

1 (Last Week,1) Padraig Harrington, Putts per round,26.63 (Rounds, 8)

2 (999) Luke Donald, 27.25 (8)

3 (2) Eric Axley. 27.43 (23)

4 (20) Shane Bertsch, 27.57 (21)

5 (T15) James Driscoll, 27.60 (10)

6 (5) John Mallinger, 27.62 (21)

7 (T3) David Toms, 27.63 (8)

8 (8) Nathan Green, 27.73 (22)

9 (9) Tiger Woods, 27.75 (4)

10 (T15) Chad Collins, 27.78 (9)

For more fantasy golf stats and standings, visit the Suite 101 Golf Weekly PGA Tour Standings Index.

Source: PGATOUR.com, Suite101.com Golf.