Power Rankings

5. Russell Knox

The Scot won this tournament in 2016, but since that PGA Tour season he has struggled in the FedEx Cup Rankings each of the past 3 years, never finishing inside the top-70 (he was memorably 10th in 2016, ahead of players like Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama and Matt Kuchar). Currently 85th this season and 71st in the Official World Golf Rankings, Knox is coming off 2 of his best finishes of the season with a T8 at the Charles Schwab Challenge and T27 at the Memorial. Stats wise, Knox has clear strengths and weaknesses throughout a single hole. Off the tee, he ranks outside the top 100 in SG and similarly outside the top 130 in SG: putting. But in the middle of any given hole, he can be lethal. He’s a top-30 greens in regulation player (68.7%) and is top-35 in SG: approaching the green and SG: tee to green. Knox is a great sand player and has been steady around the green this year- he might be worth the small gamble on a course he is comfortable with.

4. Jason Day

Day doesn’t have the best track record here, despite finishing T12 in 2018. And overall this season has been a bit of a question mark for the Australian, who is actively chasing another major as well as positioning himself to lead the International Team at the Presidents Cup in his home country this Fall. On the plus side- Day has not finished outside the top-24 in any event that he made a cut in this season, with notable finishes including a T4 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and a top-5 finish at The Masters. Oddly enough though, he has also missed 3 cuts this year and notably withdrew out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational due to injury back in March after just 33 shots. Still, when you have a player who is top-15 in scoring average this season and is one of the best drivers of the golf ball (not to mention a GIR % of 69+) it is difficult not to like him on a track which is expected to yield a ton of birdies. A top-10 finish is likely for the 31-year-old.

3. Paul Casey

Casey could be the favorite this week, as he has finished very well at this event in each of the past 3 years. He tied for 2nd last season, and finished T5 in 2017 and T17 in 2016. On Tour this year he has been on fire in 17 events, including 6 top-10s and a win at the Valspar Championship. While he did miss the cut at some notable events early in the season (THE PLAYERS / The Masters) he did finish inside the top-30 at both the PGA Championship and US Open. On paper Casey sets up well for this track, as he ranks 2nd in eagles this season on Tour, as well as 13th in SG: total. He is also a top-10 players in SG: off the tee and SG: tee to green, further proving that he is one of the best ball strikers on Tour right now.

2. Jordan Spieth

Spieth won this tournament back in 2017 in a playoff over Daniel Berger. But 2019 Spieth is only a shell of what he once was as he is slowly trying to redefine his game after a crazy 2018. This year he sports just 3 top-10s, but they all came back-to-back-to-back in the last month at the PGA Championship, Charles Schwab Challenge and the Memorial. But at his most recent start (the 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach), he finished +6 for the week and outside the top-60. While Spieth has always been known for being one of the best putters on Tour (he’s 6th SG: putting this season), he has been awful off the tee. His driving accuracy is under 54%, which puts him outside the top-190 on Tour. He’s 182nd in SG: off the tee and 147th in SG: tee to green, and a GIR ranking of 180. And with a proximity average of over 38 feet, it is just difficult to make putts (he also has a 3-putt avoidance percentage outside the top-100, unsurprisingly). Spieth is beginning to get hot, it will be interesting to see if he can put Pebble Beach behind him and continue this run, or if he will regress back to his up-and-down season.

*Favorite* Brooks Koepka

We know what you’re thinking- this isn’t a major, so why is Brooks in your rankings? And to be honest, it’s a fair question. In major championships this year Brooks has won the PGA and was runner-up at both The Masters and the US Open. But besides those? He has finished isnide the top-20 at a non-major just once since March, with a T4 finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson. But is difficult to say no to a player with a 69.4 scoring average this season who is #1 in both the FedEx Cup money list and Official World Golf Rankings. Koepka ranks in the top-10 in a flurry of stats, including birdies, eagles, GIR, scoring average, and SG: tee to green. His one blemish (if you can call it that) has been putting, where he ranks outside the top-90 in SG: putting this year. A deeper dive into his putting stats would suggest that it’s not really one area that deceives him, but just an overall weakness this year. He ranks outside the top-140 in both 1-putt percentage and 3-putt avoidance. In particular, he doesn’t make long putts- he ranks outside the top-100 from a variety of distances, including 7′, 8′, 9′, 10-15′, and putts greater than 25′. This is all despite the fact that he ranks in the top-30 in proximity to the hole at about 35ft.

Vegas Odds

• Brooks Koepka +750
• Patrick Cantlay +1000
• Jordan Spieth +1600
• Justin Thomas +1800
• Paul Casey +1800
• Francesco Molinari +2000
• Jason Day +2000
• Bryson DeChambeau +2500
• Bubba Watson +2800
• Marc Leishman +2800
• Tommy Fleetwood +2800
• Louis Oosthuizen +3300
• Tony Finau +3300
• Brandt Snedeker +4000
• Charley Hoffman +5000
• Chez Reavie +5000
• Emiliano Grillo +5000
• Kevin Streelman +5000
• Patrick Reed +5000
• Phil Mickelson +5000
• Ryan Moore +5000
• Russell Knox +6000
• Adam Hadwin +6600
• Byeong Hun An +6600
• Daniel Berger +6600
• Jason Kokrak +6600
• Sunjae Im +6600
• Viktor Hovland +6600
• Keegan Bradley +8000
• Kevin Kisner +8000
• Lucas Glover +8000
• Andrew Putnam +10000
• Brian Harman +10000
• Bud Cauley +10000
• C.T. Pan +10000
• Joaquin Niemann +10000
• Kevin Tway +1000
• Matthew Wolff +10000
• Russell Henley +10000
• Si Woo Kim +10000
• Sung Kang +10000
• Abraham Ancer +12500
• Cameron Smith +12500
• Danny Lee +12500
• J.B. Holmes +12500
• Kyle Stanley +12500
• Nick Watney +12500
• Austin Cook +15000
• Beau Hossler +15000
• Chesson Hadley +15000
• Collin Morikawa +15000
• Harold Varner III +15000
• Joel Dahmen +15000
• Mackenzie Hughes +15000
• Martin Laird +15000
• Matt Jones +15000
• Nick Taylor +15000
• Peter Malnati +15000
• Sam Burns +15000
• Scott Stallings +15000
• Sebastian Munoz +15000
• Trey Mullinax +15000
• Troy Merritt +15000
• Aaron Baddeley +20000
• Anirban Lahiri +20000
• Ben Silverman +20000
• Brendan Steele +20000
• Brian Stuard +20000
• Cameron Champ +20000
• Cameron Tringale +20000
• Carlos Ortiz +20000
• Denny McCarthy +20000
• Dylan Frittelli +20000
• Hank Lebioda +20000
• Harris English +20000
• J.T. Poston +20000
• Jonas Blixt +20000
• Kiradech Aphibarnrat +20000
• Kramer Hickok +20000
• Kyoung Hoon Lee +20000
• Max Homa +20000
• Ollie Schniederjans +20000
• Peter Uihlein +20000
• Scott Brown +20000
• Sepp Straka +20000
• Stephan Jaeger +20000
• Vaughn Taylor +20000
• Adam Long +25000
• Adam Schenk +25000
• Alex Prugh +25000
• Andrew Landry +25000
• Chris Stroud +25000
• Hunter Mahan +25000
• J.J. Spaun +25000
• Josh Teater +25000
• Sam Ryder +25000
• Scott Langley +25000
• Seamus Power +25000
• Shawn Stefani +25000
• Tom Hoge +25000
• Tyler Duncan +25000
• Brandon Harkins +30000
• Brian Gay +30000
• Curtis Luck +30000
• Hudson Swafford +30000
• Jim Knous +30000
• Jose De Jesus Rodriguez +30000
• Justin Suh +30000
• Kelly Kraft +30000
• Morgan Hoffmann +30000
• Padraig Harrington +30000
• Patton Kizzire +30000
• Robert Streb +30000
• Roberto Diaz +30000
• Roger Sloan +30000
• Ryan Armour +30000
• Ryan Blaum +30000
• Sangmoon Bae +30000
• Satoshi Kodaira +30000
• Wes Roach +30000
• Cameron Davis +35000
• Joey Garber +35000
• Richy Werenski +35000
• Sam Saunders +35000
• Zack Sucher +35000
• Boo Weekley +40000
• Brice Garnett +40000
• Cody Gribble +40000
• Fabian Gomez +40000
• Freddie Jacobson +40000
• Julian Etulain +40000
• Nicholas Lindheim +40000
• Wyndham Clark +40000
• Adam Svensson +50000
• Alex Cejka +50000
• Brady Schnell +50000
• Bronson Burgoon +50000
• Chase Wright +50000
• Chris Thompson +50000
• Colt Knost +50000
• J.J. Henry +50000
• Kyle Jones +50000
• Martin Trainer +50000
• Rod Pampling +50000
• Seth Reeves +50000
• Whee Kim +50000
• Anders Albertson +75000
• Brandon Hagy +75000
• Jim Herman +75000
• John Chin +75000
• Michael Kim +75000
• Chris Tallman +100000

DFS Picks

Unfortunately TWSN is on the road this week and we couldn’t make picks on DraftKings. Paul Casey would be a top-level pick with Niemann, Fleetwood, Hovland and Ancer being mid-level selections.