The Open Championship Preview: Ranking Bryson, Scottie, Rory and The Rest of The Top 50 Players In The Field At Royal Troon
Jan Kruger/R&A. Getty Images.The epicenter of world golf has shifted across the Atlantic as it always does this time of year. Robert MacIntyre produced a hell of an appetizer for the Open Championship with his storybook win at the Renaissance Club, where he became the first Scot to win the Scottish Open in 25 years. Now it's time for the year's final major at Troon, just a two hour drive from the eastern coast of Scotland to the west.
As always, we've ranked the top players teeing it up at Troon. It's the final major of the year, which means we have a pretty full body of work from these players to judge from. Logic would suggest that means this should be the most accurate ranking of the bunch, but predicting golf tournaments is always a fool's errand. Use this, then, to catch up on a guy's progress throughout the year and be a more informed viewer when you wake up early this week to watch the action.
Happy reading, and happy major week. Last men's major for nine months!
50. Joost Luiten
Age: 38 Data Golf Ranking: 224 Best Open Championship finish: T32, 2019
He’s on the list as a personal fuck you to the Dutch Olympic Committee, which decided he wasn’t good enough to represent his country despite qualifying on merit. And despite his six wins in Europe. And despite the fact he’s ranked higher than the silver medalist (Rory Sabbatini) and the bronze medalist (C.T. Pan) from the last Olympics. Sigh.
49. Sebastian Soderberg
Age: 33 Data Golf Ranking: 62 Best Open Championship finish: Rookie
With four top-three finishes in his last five starts, he’s flying high in the Race to Dubai and on track to get a PGA Tour card. That’s the good. The bad is that he blew the Scandinavian Masters in incredibly brutal fashion and hasn’t teed it up since. Nice to see him get his Open debut at 33 years old. Swedish.
48. Tom McKibbin
Age: 21 Data Golf Ranking: 73 Best Open Championship finish: First
Turned pro at 17 out of Holywood Golf Club, the same breeding grounds that produced Rory McIlroy. Already a winner in Europe and he’s on track to get his PGA Tour card through the Race to Dubai. A Ryder Cup-level talent you’ll be seeing more and more of. Made the cut (T41) in his major championship debut at Pinehurst.
47. Dustin Johnson
Age: 40 Data Golf Ranking: 90 Best Open Championship finish: T2, 2011
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of a Hall of Fame career? He’s among the most talented players to ever pick up a club and, having just turned 40, it’s not like he’s ancient. But he went to LIV Golf to play less golf, he’s playing less golf, and you wonder if he’s got the same drive to grind on off-weeks as he might’ve before the children and the generational wealth. Missed the cut in three of the last four major championships and fully absent from Team USA competitions.
46. Will Zalatoris
Age: 27 Data Golf Ranking: 68 Best Open Championship finish: T28, 2022
Played some ball early in the year to finish runner-up at Riviera, T4 at Bay Hill and T9 at Augusta, but it’s been very spotty since with no finish better than T41 in his last nine starts. Back surgery is always a mountain to overcome, even for a 27 year old with all the ability in the world. Has completed 72 holes just once in the Open; withdrew in 2021 with a back injury and missed last year’s edition with, you guessed it, a back injury.
45. J.T. Poston
Age: 31 Data Golf Ranking: 47 Best Open Championship finish: T41, 2023
He’s made the FedEx Cup playoffs each of the past five years and, sitting 27th this year, that’ll extend to six in a row. Yet to really leave his mark in major championships with a best finish of T30 in 15 career major starts.
44. David Puig
Age: 22 Data Golf Ranking: 128 Best Open Championship finish: Rookie
Played his way into the U.S. Open (55th) and now the Open Championship. LIV’s first college recruit has done a good job finding a path into majors given how much harder it is to do that on the path he’s chosen. Still just 22, don’t be surprised if he plays his way into the Ryder Cup conversation next year.
43. Jordan Spieth
Age: 30 Data Golf Ranking: 54 Best Open Championship finish: WIN, 2017
Wish there was better news to deliver here. He has just one top-25 finish in his last 16 starts, missed the cut last week at the Scottish Open, no top-20s in his last six major starts and isn’t a shoe-in to get into the FedEx Cup playoffs or next year’s signature events.
42. Nicolai Hojgaard
Age: 23 Data Golf Ranking: 115 Best Open Championship finish: T23, 2023
I’ve got a soft spot for the tall Dane, probably because I loved what I saw in-person at the Ryder Cup last year. He started the year excellently in his first PGA Tour season but has hit a real wall in the summer months and doesn’t have a finish better than T35 since the Masters. But he started off much better in the Scottish Open and we’re banking that a return to Europe and wearing a sweater in July will kick his game into gear. The ability is there.
41. Dean Burmester
Age: 35 Data Golf Ranking: 49 Best Open Championship finish: T11, 2022
He’d have a good chance of making the International Team had he not jetted for LIV Golf. The South African had an excellent week on a special exemption at the PGA Championship (T12) and qualified his way into and made the cut at the U.S. Open. Four-time winner on the European Tour before a late-career flourish brought him to the PGA Tour and then LIV Golf, where he won his first event by beating Sergio Garcia in a playoff in Miami.
40. Wyndham Clark
Age: 30 Data Golf Ranking: 29 Best Open Championship finish: T33, 2023
He’ll be representing the U.S. at the Olympics but that’s based on what he did before April 1, not after it. It’s been a pretty steep drop in play after a breakout 9 months that saw him win two signature events, the U.S. Open and finished 2nd in the Players and Bay Hill. He missed the cut at both the Masters and the PGA Championship and was never a factor in his title defense at the U.S. Open. A T9 at the Travelers came at the exact right time. Another high-, long-ball hitter whose regimented game wouldn’t seem to translate best to the inexact science that is links golf.
39. Justin Thomas
Age: 31 Data Golf Ranking: 20 Best Open Championship finish: T11, 2019
Loves links golf and loves this tournament, he just can’t quite figure it out…yet. His results in his seven appearances: T53, CUT, CUT, T11, T40, T53, CUT. Held the lead after the first round of the Scottish Open which was the first time he’s led a tournament after any round since his 2022 PGA Championship victory at Southern Hills. Faded as the week wore on. Has maintained that he’s closer than it might appear to getting back to his winning ways.
38. Sepp Straka
Age: 31 Data Golf Ranking: 37 Best Open Championship finish: T2, 2023
Joint runner-up finish at last year’s Open elevated his status in the game and essentially clinched a Ryder Cup spot for the Austrian. Posted six finishes of T16 or better in a seven-event stretch from the Masters through the Memorial. Missed cut at the Scottish Open.
37. Byeong Hun An
Age: 32 Data Golf Ranking: 39 Best Open Championship finish: T23, 2023
The Weapon, as he’s affectionately known, is having an excellent year (11th in the FedEx Cup) that was somewhat dampened by an MC at the U.S. Open and a WD from the following week’s Travelers Championship. He’s pretty much a lock to make the Presidents Cup team this year given some of the LIV defections and a good performance this week would make it a sure-thing. Spent the first few years of his career on the European Tour so these are not unfamiliar surroundings.
36. Max Homa
Age: 33 Data Golf Ranking: 34 Best Open Championship finish: T10, 2023
Finally broke through in the majors at the Masters where he contended all week. That seemed to portend a big 2024 but it really hasn’t materialized; he has just one top-20 finish in eight starts since and has slipped down in both the Data Golf rankings and the FedEx Cup. Issues have been mostly off the tee as he’s struggled in the past when trying to work the ball both ways. Top 10 at last year’s Open Championship.
35. Davis Thompson
Age: 25 Data Golf Ranking: 19 Best Open Championship finish: First
Won his first tour event at the John Deere, which capped a brilliant stretch of play that included a T9 at the U.S. Open, by far his best major finish, and a runner-up at the Rocket Mortgage. He was an exceptionally good amateur and seems to have his footing as a professional and riding some nice confidence right now.
34. Sam Burns
Age: 27 Data Golf Ranking: 24 Best Open Championship finish: T42, 2022
Finally posted his first top-10 finish in a major in his 16th try at the U.S. Open. That must’ve felt incredible given how poor he’d been in the big four, at least compared with his very solid record in PGA Tour events. With four top-13 finishes in his last six starts it’s safe to say the new-baby-drop-in-form didn’t manage to infect him or his good buddy Scottie Scheffler. No Open Championship success to speak of at all.
33. Keegan Bradley
Age: 38 Data Golf Ranking: 35 Best Open Championship finish: T15, 2013
Oh captain, my captain. A shock but super well-received choice to lead the American side at next year’s Ryder Cup, he said in his introductory presser that he hopes to make the team on points but won’t pick himself if he doesn’t. Going to be a very busy 14 months as he plays the signature event A-circuit full time while juggling the responsibility he’s now taken on. A very solid T18 at Royal Troon at the 2016 Open.
32. Joaquin Niemann
Age: 25 Data Golf Ranking: 16 Best Open Championship finish: T53, 2022
Was a lot of hype around him heading into the Masters as he’d won two LIV events early in the year and got a much-discussed special invite. He’s had the LIV version of Sungjae Im’s year so far; he leads the season-long points race on LIV Golf but hasn’t made any noise at all in the majors. Historically a pretty low-ball hitter so it’s curious that he’s played the Open so poorly, with a best finish of T53 in four tries. A great week would go a long way toward world ranking points but also just remaining truly relevant on the world stage, and that’s increasingly important now that the governing bodies are handing out judgement-call invitations.
31. Matthieu Pavon
Age: 31 Data Golf Ranking: 72 Best Open Championship finish: CUT, 2017
What a year it’s been for the Frenchman, and kind of out of nowhere. He’d been playing on the European Tour for the last few years but had only qualified for the Open once, way back in 2017, so it wasn’t like he was one of the better European Tour players for a while. Then got hot last fall to get his PGA Tour card and hit the ground running with a win in his third event as a member and a solo-third the very next week. A very solid T12 at the Masters ensured a return back and his solo fifth finish at the U.S. Open proved to himself that he can hang with anyone, anywhere
30. Louis Oosthuizen
Age: 41 Data Golf Ranking: 36 Best Open Championship finish: WIN, 2010
Won back-to-back events on the DP World Tour to end 2023 and has three runner-ups in 2024 already. All that has happened since he last played in a major championship, as his exemptions dried up and he didn’t find his way into the field in any of the three majors in the United States. He’ll be as excited as Louis Oosthuizen gets about a non-farm activity.
29. Cameron Young
Age: 27 Data Golf Ranking: 38 Best Open Championship finish: 2, 2022
Despite looking borderline joyless out there at times there have been plenty of good weeks this year, yet still looking for that first PGA Tour victory. Top 10s in each of the last two Open Championships and each of his past two starts, so there is some momentum coming in here.
28. Matt Fitzpatrick
Age: 29 Data Golf Ranking: 30 Best Open Championship finish: T20, 2019
Last major in his 20s for this babyfaced Englishman. It’s been a pretty meh year; no victories on either side of the pond and hasn’t really contended for a title, either—best finishes this season are a backdoor T5 at the Memorial and a backdoor 5th at the Players Championship. Iron play has been very spotty for essentially the entire season. Interestingly, he’s fared much better in the other three major championships than in the Open, where his best finish in eight tries is a T20. Missed the cut at Troon eight years ago.
27. Russell Henley
Age: 35 Data Golf Ranking: 14 Best Open Championship finish: T20, 2015
Continues to creep up the Data Golf ranking as he posts more solid finishes in big tournaments, most recently a T7 at Pinehurst. Something about the Open hasn’t suited him in the past, however; he’s made the cut 23 of 30 times in the other three majors but just 4 in 7 at the Open.
26. Akshay Bhatia
Age: 22 Data Golf Ranking: 23 Best Open Championship finish: Rookie
Still just 22 years old he impressed greatly in his last start at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, both on the course and off it. Unfortunately three-putted the last hole to miss a playoff by a single shot but took questions from media after and showed the sort of raw emotion we love from athletes. He’s on a great run of form and it’s been getting better and better—a T22 at the Memorial, then a T16 at the U.S. Open, a T5 at the Travelers and that T2 at Rocket Mortgage—as he heads over for his first Open Championship. Opted against playing the Scottish Open somewhat surprisingly.
25. Jason Day
Age: 36 Data Golf Ranking: 43 Best Open Championship finish: T2, 2023
His T2 at last year’s Open is his only top-10 finish in his last 13 major championship starts. Closer to 40 than 30, his days as a top-five level player could well be over but he still has the ability and obviously the know-how to contend on his week. Approach play has been pretty poor this summer though his putting remains elite. Will represent Australia in the Olympics after opting out of that in previous years.
24. Cameron Smith
Age: 30 Data Golf Ranking: 45 Best Open Championship finish: WIN, 2022
Two years ago he won the Open Championship in spectacular fashion at St. Andrews before departing for LIV Golf. He’s won three times on LIV in the last two calendar years and has made the weekend in all three majors this year, highlighted by a T6 at the Masters. Should be a good course fit for him as when he struggles it’s with the driver; he’s not long nor particularly straight, but the Masters and Open layouts allow him to overcome that with wider landing areas and more room to creatively recover.
23. Hideki Matsuyama
Age: 32 Data Golf Ranking: 11 Best Open Championship finish: T6, 2013
A streak of 17 consecutive cuts made came to an end at the Scottish Open where he missed the weekend by a shot. Historically thought of as a ballstriker first but it’s his short game that’s on fire this year; he leads the tour in strokes gained around the green and is third in scrambling. Missed the cut at Troon in 2016 when he was one of the five best players on the planet.
22. Adam Scott
Age: 43 Data Golf Ranking: 41 Best Open Championship finish: 2, 2012
Squeaked into the U.S. Open field to keep his breathtaking streak of major championship appearances alive, and this will mark his 93rd in a row. A testament to an amazing career and remarkable injury/form-loss avoidance. Hadn’t contended to win a tournament until last week’s Scottish Open where he played in the penultimate group on Sunday and finished on the wrong side of MacIntyre’s heroics. Swing still looks the part and he’s as comparatively long as he’s ever been.
21. Corey Conners
Age: 32 Data Golf Ranking: 15 Best Open Championship finish: T15, 2021
The advanced stats love his game, which remains one of the very best in the world from tee-to-green. Ranks eighth on tour in strokes gained tee-to-green and fourth in the always-vital strokes gained approach stat. As such, he’s been hugely consistent these last couple years and entered the Scottish with nine top-25 finishes in his last 14 starts. A lock to represent Canada in a home Presidents Cup, he’s making a hell of a living and having an excellent career. The chipping and putting remain a weakness (outside the top 100 in both stats) and he hasn’t shown to be his best when the lights are brightest.
20. Brian Harman
Age: 37 Data Golf Ranking: 22 Best Open Championship finish: WIN, 2023
Boatraced the field at last year’s Open, much to the chagrin of the English fans who wanted more drama. Harman, a bulldog by schooling and by nature, used their negativity as fuel and delivered an extremely impressive performance. Best finish by far this year was a runner-up at the Players and he’s in some pretty solid form heading into his title defense with top-25 finishes in three of his last four starts. Showed last year that the elements don’t phase him at all and he’ll be hoping the conditions are as difficult as possible.
19. Tom Kim
Age: 22 Data Golf Ranking: Best Open Championship finish: T2, 2023
Just turned 22 the week he battled his good buddy, Scottie Scheffler, all the way to the finish at the Travelers Championship. He teed it up the following week to make it nine in a row, which is basically unheard of for a player who can pick and choose his schedule like Kim can. He’s been a pretty consistent performer in the majors with six top-30 finishes in the last seven. He should improve as he continues to age and he’s added some significant length off the tee.
18. Viktor Hovland
Age: 26 Data Golf Ranking: 10 Best Open Championship finish: T4, 2022
The narrative after his great week at the PGA Championship was that his move back to swing coach Joe Mayo had made all the difference. Yes, hs ball striking numbers are better, but some bad short-game weeks have led to an only OK stretch results-wise: a T15 at the Memorial, a missed cut the U.S. Open, a T20 in the limited-field Travelers Championship and a slow start at the Scottish Open. Always, always tinkering and he’s been hard at work with his game all summer but still sits 50th in the FedEx Cup for the season. At 26, already one of the better player resumes without a major championship.
17. Sungjae Im
Age: 26 Data Golf Ranking: 17 Best Open Championship finish: T20, 2023
What a strange year—he’s missed the cut in all three major championships but has finished T12 or better in his last seven non-major starts, including in four signature events. Took T4 at the Scottish Open and, if you took out the majors, he’d be a top 5 PGA Tour player this year. But you can’t take out the majors, and in this bifurcated era in world golf the big four take on even more importance. He’s flopped in the first three. How will the last one go?
16. Patrick Cantlay
Age: 32 Data Golf Ranking: 7 Best Open Championship finish: T8, 2022
His T3 at Pinehurst is probably his most impressive showing in a major championship, and it came out of virtually nowhere as he’d gone T53-MC in his two starts prior. Said all week he’s been working hard at his game and it carried over the following week in the form of a top-five at the Travelers Championship. He’s staying high in the world rankings despite spending so much time and energy behind the scenes on the PGA Tour policy board.
15. Robert MacIntyre
Age: 27 Data Golf Ranking: 59 Best Open Championship finish: T6, 2019
What a summer it’s been for the Scot, now a national hero. That’s what happen when you win your national open with a long birdie putt on the 72nd hole. He’d already found his footing on the world stage even before Sunday’’s magic. Earlier this season he ung around at the PGA Championship all weekend (T8) then gave us one of the golf stories of the year when he won the RBC Canadian Open with his dad on the bag. Also has top-10s in the last two Open Championships. The questions is what kind of shape he’ll be physically, and I’m only half kidding—he couldn’t wait to start celebrating with his friends and said he’ll turn up at the Open when he turns up at the Open.
14. Tony Finau
Age: 34 Data Golf Ranking: 12 Best Open Championship finish: 3, 2019
Wasn’t much talk of him being left off last year’s Ryder Cup team because it really wasn’t all that close. He’s responded with a strong year and an especially good summer—five-straight top-20 finishes including a T18 at the PGA Championship and a T3 at the U.S. Open, his 11th top-10 finish in a major championship. He’s got a big-boy game that’s always fared well on difficult setups.
13. Tyrrell Hatton
Age: 32 Data Golf Ranking: 13 Best Open Championship finish: T5, 2016
Level hasn’t dropped since the move to LIV Golf and he won the Nashville event the week after the U.S. Open. Now returns to the site of his best-ever Open Championship finish (a T5 in 2016) and, given Keegan Bradley’s clear message that he’ll take the best 12 players to Bethpage regardless of Tour, you have to think he and Legion XIII teammate Jon Rahm are feeling pretty good about their chances if those are the vibes heading into the next Ryder Cup.
12. Sahith Theegala
Age: 26 Data Golf Ranking: 28 Best Open Championship finish: T34, 2022
One of my favorite watches on tour—he’s like a righty Bubba Watson with all the different shots he hits and his homemade swing. Got his first proper taste of major championship nerves at Valhalla and didn’t play his best, so he’ll be hungry to get into that position again. Has one of the nastier stingers around in his arsenal which I’m sure will come in handy this week.
11. Min Woo Lee
Age: 25 Data Golf Ranking: 27 Best Open Championship finish: T21, 2022
Dare we call it a frustrating season? He’s been just outside the top-30 cutoff that gets into signature events and so he hasn’t played one since the Players Championship. As such, it’s been difficult for him to move higher up the FedEx Cup standings and he stis 56th despite having a pretty solid year with six straight finishes of T26 or better, capped by a T2 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. One big week from all that world-ranking stuff not mattering, and he’s been very solid in the majors in his young career. Could be in for a big week. Won the Scottish Open in 2021 for the biggest win of his career, so he’s gotten it done in that country before. A deep sleeper who I like this week.
10. Shane Lowry
Age: 37 Data Golf Ranking: 32 Best Open Championship finish: WIN, 2019
A much, much better season after he failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs last year: a win alongside Rory McIlroy at the Zurich Classic, a solo third at Bay Hill, a T6 at the PGA Championship where he played in the final group on the weekend, and most recently a T9 at the Travelers. He talks often about how amped he gets for major championship weeks and, given his success in the UK/Ireland in the past, he’ll like his chances.
9. Jon Rahm
Age: 29 Data Golf Ranking: 8 Best Open Championship finish: T2, 2023
Been a very, very frustrating year in the majors for LIV’s massive offseason signing. Tied 45th in his Masters defense, missed the cut at Valhalla then withdrew from the U.S. Open with a foot injury. For as disappointing as that is for a player of his caliber and resume he’s not been half-bad on LIV. Yes, no wins yet but he’s second on the season-long points race. But therein lies the risk of going; if you don’t perform in the majors you slowly fade from relevance. One last chance to avoid a truly lost year in the majors and facing another eight months until he can play against Scottie and Rory and the rest.
8. Brooks Koepka
Age: 34 Data Golf Ranking: 44 Best Open Championship finish: T4, 2019
Called his T45 at the Masters “embarrassing” and said his trainer made him do punishment workouts. Slightly better in PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, where he finished T26 both times, but it’s been a down year in the majors by his all-time great standards. Began his career in Europe and has three Open top-10s to his name but the last two haven’t gone so well with a T64 at Hoyland and a missed cut at St. Andrews. The career Grand Slam is one of his goals and that doesn’t happen without winning this tournament.
7. Xander Schauffele
Age: 30 Data Golf Ranking: 2 Best Open Championship finish: T2, 2018
Not a weakness in his game and the prevailing takeaway from the PGA Championship is that he was a truly deserving major winner. Hasn’t been worse than T25 in 13 consecutive starts and it’s even more impressive at the majors, where he’s got 10 straight finishes of T18 or better than top-eights in each of his last three. No surprise, then, that he’s been T17 or better in each of the last three Opens. Opted for a week of rest over the Scottish Open and, apart from Scottie Scheffler, there’s no surer-bet for a high finish.
6. Tommy Fleetwood
Age: 33 Data Golf Ranking: 9 Best Open Championship finish: 2, 2019
Another excellent season with a ton of top-25 finishes but, as of yet, still on victory on the PGA Tour. He’s finished worse than T34 just one time in his last 11 starts and has top-10 finishes in each of the last two Open Championships. All signals are a go, as has been the case with him the past couple years. Gave it a good run last year at Hoylake before Harman pulled away and he’ll be a crowd favorite if he’s anywhere near the lead.
5. Ludvig Aberg
Age: 24 Data Golf Ranking: 5 Best Open Championship finish: Rookie
Took some much-needed time off back home in Sweden after the Travelers Championship, which was roughly the one-year anniversary of him turning professional, then returned to action in Scotland and earned a 54-hole lead. But he played poorly on Sunday and that’s been something of a theme—he has not broken 70 in a final round since the Masters. That won’t last, and if he continues to give himself looks in big events eventually he will get it across the line and absolutely no one will be surprised.
4. Rory McIlroy
Age: 35 Data Golf Ranking: 3 Best Open Championship finish: WIN, 2014
He’s never been as close as he was at Pinehurst to ending the decade-long major championship drought. What a painful loss that way with those misses on 16 and 18, and he took three weeks off to process his emotions and said he was able to take the positives out of the week. Which were, of course, plentiful; he continues to put himself in position and wasted no time getting back into the mix at the Scottish Open, where he hit it well enough to win but putted poorly enough to never really be in contention. He knows his career is measured in majors, fair or not, and this is his last chance until April to bring home glory. The last time he blew a major in flagrant fashion, at the 2011 Masters, he won the very next major in dominant fashion. What a story it’d be if that happened again.
3. Bryson DeChambeau
Age: 30 Data Golf Ranking: 6 Best Open Championship finish: T8, 2022
His victory at Pinehurst electrified the golf world and catapulted him into a new level of stardom and, crucially, adoration that he never enjoyed before. And he does enjoy it; he’s been all over the place with that trophy, letting everyone who wants to get their hands on it and leaning all the way in to being the People’s Golfer. You get the sense both he and the people around him believe he’s the best golfer in the world and, it must be noted, he has beaten Scottie Scheffler in two of the three tournaments they’ve played against each other this year. A T6 at the Masters, a solo second at the PGA Championship and that win at Pinehurst already makes for the best major season of his career, but now he faces his biggest test yet in the Open. Links golf runs contradictory to his style; he likes to hit the ball miles high and turn golf into a science, and that becomes exponentially harder on firm and hilly golf courses in windy conditions. But he’s matured quite a bit in the last few years and he’ll relish the challenge. T9 in last week’s LIV event.
2. Scottie Scheffler
Age: 27 Data Golf Ranking: 1 Best Open Championship finish: T8, 2021
Some air left the balloon in North Carolina, where the unpredictability of the wispy Pinehurst rough messed with his head and produced a T41 finish, his worst in nearly two years. He responded by winning the very next week for his sixth PGA tour win this season—five signature events and the Masters, so it’s not like these aren’t strong fields. On the best statistical run we’ve seen since Tiger’s heyday, and adding a second major to it immediately makes this season one of the very best in golf history if it wasn’t already there. Took some time off and vacationed with his young family in Colorado rather than playing the midwest events or Scottish Open. Some much-needed rest given the year he’s had. Remember when he was in a jail cell?! Only played three Opens: T8, T21, T23.
1. Collin Morikawa
Age: 27 Data Golf Ranking: 4 Best Open Championship finish: WIN, 2021
He’s back with swing coach Rick Sessinghaus and he’s playing the best golf we’ve seen out of him since those major-winning days of 2020 and 2021. Iron play remains elite but it’s the short game that has keyed this surge of excellent play; he’s sneaky one of the better chippers on tour and he’s gained ground putting in seven of his last eight starts. If he putts well, he has a good chance of winning any tournament he plays in. Looked great at the Scottish Open and has gone T3, T4, T14 in the majors so far this year. He’ll love his chances and I do, too. He gets major No. 3 and breaks free from the two-major club, which includes Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson.