Competitors and players to watch

The tournament boasting the largest field in major golf has arrived, but that doesn’t necessarily mean ANY player has a chance to win the Wanamaker Trophy Sunday night in Pennsylvania.

Technically, yeseveryone has a chance to win The PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club this week. But the realist in us says that some of the guys down in the 200,000 to 1 range may not be strong bets (respectfully).

Since an effective-yet-mild here is the PGA Championship field The article isn’t all that fun, we’re creating some very subjective rankings for the contenders duking it out at the PGA this week. What about the guys excluded from this list? If someone wins, we’ll take our medicine and stop writing stuff like this.

At the levels…

One of these guys is going to win, right?

Scottie Scheffler
Rory McIlroy

It can be a two-horse race. Scheffler and McIlroy have combined to win four of the last five majors. McIlroy won the Masters last month. Scheffler is defending his PGA Championship title. Scheffler has finished as the runner-up in each of his last three starts, a streak that began at the Masters. Rory, with that weight off his shoulders, is somewhat in the running for the house’s money, as he’s now collecting green jackets like elementary schoolers collect pop tabs. Don’t overdo it – one of these guys will probably win.

But what about this guy?

Cameron Young

OK, so maybe it’s a three horse race. Watch this spring: Young tied for third at Arnie’s event, won the Players, tied for third at the Masters, tied for 25th at the RBC Heritage and won the Cadillac Championship. On Sunday he shot a 74 – his worst round of the season – and moved into a tie for 10th at the Truist Championship. We’ll call Sunday a bye and expect Cam to wrestle this week.

But what if it’s a ‘big 4’?

Matthew Fitzpatrick

In 2015 and 2016, there was a fun debate (mostly in the golf media) trying to figure out whether the top tier of the PGA Tour was a “Big 3” or a “Big 4” with the likes of Jordan Spieth and Jason Day and Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson and so on. That’s not quite the case, but while Rory and Scottie are somewhat on their level now, Fitzpatrick (along with Young) has moved up the next rung of the ladder. Fitzpatrick tied for 52nd at Truist, but before that he won three of his last four starts. A major title to his name seems like a very small number at the moment.

2 LIV Players You Shouldn’t Forget

Bryson DeChambeau
Jon Rahm

boy, after last weekthese guys should be excited to avoid being the center of attention. Both are also very good players.

2 former LIV players you should not forget

Brooks Koepka
Patrick Reed

Koepka has won the tournament three times, while Reed has five top 20s at the PGA. We like Brooks’ take a little better than Patrick’s, but maybe that’s just how PRed likes it.

The boy we are waiting for

Ludwig Aberg

He won the Genesis last year and hasn’t had a win since, though check out these last six starts: T8, T4, T21, T5, T5, T3. He looks destined to rack up some wins. But how long should we wait?

A handful of really good players who could win

Xander Schauffele
Tommy Fleetwood
Collin Morikawa
Justin Thomas
JJ Spaun

You wouldn’t be shocked if one of these guys earned a degree on Sunday. Four of them – sorry, Tommy! — you already have big titles, even though the one who doesn’t might be the guy you trust the most right now.

Jordan Spieth

Jordan Spieth

Welcome to his latest career Grand Slam effort. He’s been good but not great this season — one missed cut but zero top 10s — though few things excite the golf world like Spieth struggling on a weekend.

Other guys in good shape you should not forget

Patrick Cantlay
Adam Scott
Gary Woodland

Woodland won in March and has been solid since; Scott hasn’t missed a cut all season and has mixed in seven top-25 finishes; and Cantlay has finished in the top 12 in each of his last four starts.

Other guys in semi-decent shape don’t forget

Corey Conners
Thomas Detry
Sahith Theegala
Justin Rose
Viktor Hovland
Hideki Matsuyama
Joaquin Niemann
Ben Griffin
Russell Henley
Alex Smalley

Lots of names to dive into, but take our word for it.

European Ryder Cuppers who are intriguing

Tyrrell Hatton
Robert MacIntyre
Shane Lowry

Only one of them has won a major (Lowry), but the other guys bring some fun (fiery?) energy to the main weeks. They are also good players.

Did they catch a heater in time?

Christopher Reitan
Rickie Fowler
Nicolai Hojgaard
Alex Fitzpatrick

Who are these four? Why are your top four winners at the Truist Championship on Sunday. Alex Fitzpatrick has another chance to prove this run is no fluke (he’s been convincing so far), while Fowler, who should get most of the credit for this insane longevity run, is running out of time to grab that elusive major title.

Some other great champions we haven’t mentioned yet

Keegan Bradley
Wyndham Clarke
Jason’s day
Brian Harman

Maybe?

Players who were in good shape but are now struggling with injuries

Jake Knapp

The good? Five top-10 finishes in nine starts this season, and he is third in Strokes Gained: Putting. The bad? He hasn’t played in nearly a month due to a nagging thumb injury. It will be a last minute decision this week.

A few more guys with stats we like

Si Woo Kim (SG 5: Tee to Green)
Min Woo Lee (SG 13: Tee to Green)
Chris Gotterup (SG 16: Tee to Green)
Kurt Kitayama (SG 16: Tee to Green, 6th SG: Approach)
Austin Smotherman (SG 11: Access)
Sepp Straka (SG 13: Approach)
Jacob Bridgeman (SG 1: Putting)
Akshay Bhatia (SG 5: The Setting)
Sam Burns (10th SG: Putting)

Gotterup won twice in three starts earlier this year and has recorded just one top 10 since, although he has eight top 25s. His driver has been a weapon all year and he was also great with his irons and putters last weekend. A good sign for a big week.

Long shots

Sahith Theegala (+17500)
Max Homa (+20000)
Keith Mitchell (+22500)
Haotong Li (+30000)

Because these bets feel better when they hit.

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