PGA Power Rankings: The 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational
In the ever evolving nature of FantasyCPR, I would like to welcome another new golf article to the mix. We do a lot of DFS site specific coverage, so in an effort to bring in new golf fans, and look at Fantasy Golf as a whole, I am excited for the second edition of PGA Power Rankings for this weeks Arnold Palmer Invitational.
This PGA Power Rankings article will cover the top 20 golfers for this event, and with each golfer will come a short blurb with some justification to their respective rankings. Before we do that, let’s touch a bit on the history of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
PGA Power Rankings: Arnold Palmer Invitational – Course and History
This week marks week two of the four-week Florida Swing, as the PGA Tour stops in Bay Hill, Florida just outside of Orlando, for the 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. When I think invitational, I think smaller field, but unlike other smaller field invitationals such as the WGC events, we do have a standard cut here, as the field is stretched to 120.
The Bay Hill Club and Lodge was purchased by Arnold Palmer back in 1974, and this event has been played at Bay Hill every year since 1979. It has seen some name changes over the years, but the most current sponsor MasterCard has been on board since 2004. It is a long par-72 at 7,419 yards, and is highlighted by three long par-3’s, all of which likely playing over 200 yards each this week.
Last years champion Rory McIlory is back to defend his title, as he held off Bryson DeChambeau by three strokes last year to grab the victory. Eight time champion Tiger Woods is back at Bay Hill after taking last week off, and not only has he won this event eight times during his career, he managed to shoot 10-under last year and T-5th. *Correction: Tiger Woods has in fact withdrawn from this weeks Bay Hill citing a sore neck, and is hoping to return for the PLAYERS Championship.
Other big names in the field this week include the return the Justin Rose, and other recent Arnold Palmer Invitational champions such as Jason Day and Marc Leishman. As it currently stands, 17 of the top 30 in the current FedEx Cup standings will be teeing it up, so it is safe to say we have a solid field loaded with top-tier talent. With that said, let’s see how this weeks rankings shape up.
PGA Power Rankings: The Arnold Palmer Invitational
***The following golfers are my top 20 overall. Each golfer will be followed by their official golf world ranking (OGWR) in parenthesis.***
20. Henrik Stenson – (36)
The start of 2019 has been nothing short of a struggle for the once top two player in the world, and if you watched any of the WGC-Mexico and saw Stenson looking less than happy, I think that changes a bit this week at a course he has had some success at in the past. Stenson had a very hard time with elevation, and finished T-54 in the 72 man field.
Things certainly are not trending the right way for Stenson as he missed three straight cuts on the European Tour prior to Mexico, but this is a definition course horse right here. In the last four years at Bay Hill, he has notched three top-four finishes, with the best coming as a solo second in 2015.
19. Billy Horschel – (39)
While Stenson is trending the wrong way, Horschel is doing the opposite in 2019 so far. He climbed all the way up to T-16 at the Honda Classic last week by firing a 3-under 67 on Sunday, and that was his third top-25 finish in five events this year. No stranger to Bay Hill, Horschel has made the cut here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational each of the last five straight years, with his best finish in the span being a T-13 in 2017.
18. Matt Wallace – (37)
Wallace is staying state side this week after finishing T-20 at the Honda Classic last week, which was an improvement on his T-33 finish at the WGC-Mexico two weeks ago. A European Tour regular, Wallace had three wins last year, and his solo second place finish at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in late January boosted his world ranking above 40 for the first time in his career. The 28-year-old Englishman will be making his debut at Bay Hill this week, but he was in the exact situation last week at the Honda Classic, and it did not seem to make a difference.
17. Hao-Tong Li – (35)
I will likely be a little higher on Li than most, but it is just hard to ignore what the 23-year-old from China has done in the early stages of his career, mostly played on the European Tour. Li finished third in the 2017 Open Championship and tied for 16th at the U.S. Open last year, so he has proven he can compete with the best in the world.
He is coming off of a T-19 finish two weeks ago at the WGC-Mexico Championship, and that gave him three straight top-20’s, highlighted by a solo second place finish at the inaugural Saudi International just over a month ago. Li made his debut at Bay Hill last season, and finished even par for the week, tied for 54th.
16. Lucas Glover – (92)
Glover has been playing extremely well as of late, and has just this week crept back in to the top 100 of the OWGR for the first time since early May of 2018. It has been a pretty solid, consistent career for Glover, highlighted by his U.S. Open Championship in 2009. After missing the cut at the Waste Management Phoenix Open a few weeks ago after a stretch of six consecutive top-20’s, Glover tied for seventh at Pebble Beach, then after a couple of weeks off, tied for fourth at the Honda Classic last week.
Glover’s best finish at Bay Hill was in 2017, when he tied for seventh. With two straight top-tens, and eight top-20’s in his last nine events it is safe to say the crafty veteran is in probably some of the best form of his life.
PGA Power Rankings: The Arnold Palmer Invitational
15. Tyrell Hatton – (33)
After bouncing back from his missed cut at the Genesis Open with a T-19 at the WGC-Mexico, Hatton is in Florida this week, where he will tee it up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the third straight year. While it has been sort of a mixed bag for Hatton lately with two missed cuts in five event in 2019, prior to that, he was on a stretch of nine straight top-30 finishes, going all the way back to the Open Championship. Here at Bay Hill, he made the cut last year, but struggled on the weekend and finished T-69 at +4. 2017 was much better however, as Hatton tied for fourth with Rory McIlroy at nine under par.
14. Charles Howell III – (47)
I am fan of Howell for a lot of reasons, and his play since his win at the RSM Classic in November has been beyond outstanding. He grabbed a solo sixth at the Genesis Open, and T-8 at the Sony Open back in January. Howell continued his consistent play at the WGC-Mexico Championship two weeks ago, where he T-14. He has been consistent here at Bay Hill as well, making the cut every year for at least for the last eight years, with his best finish just last year with his 6-under T-14.
13. Ian Poulter – (30)
Another consistent veteran on fire as of late, Poulter comes into Bay Hill as yet another golfer with some success here as well. His best finish in this event was a solo third in 2012, and he has posted five top-25’s since 2011. He went T-6, T-3, T-6 in three European Tour events after finishing T-33 at the Sony Open, and was solid once again in Mexico two weeks ago where he T-3. Much like Glover who I mentioned earlier, Poulter is another long time veteran in possibly the best form of his career.
12. Francesco Molinari – (10)
The world’s 10th ranked golfer hasn’t played much yet this season, but the reigning Open Championship champion Molinari is coming off of a solid T-17 at the WGC-Mexico. He has struggled a little at times since that victory at the Open, but he is no stranger to Bay Hill. Not only is he a regular here in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he has been in contention a couple of times over the last five years, with his best finish coming in the form of a T-5 in 2014. Molinari also notched top-10 finishes here in 2016 and 2017 as well.
11. Phil Mickelson – (20)
Mickelson has not played here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational since he missed the cut at +8 in 2013. He has won here however, but that was over 20 years ago in 1997. Even though he won at Pebble Beach just a few weeks ago, he was just mediocre in his two events following, with a T-37 at the Genesis Open, and a T-39 two weeks ago at the WGC-Mexico Championship.
If Mickelson gets hot he can always make a run, and even though it’s been awhile, the fact he has played well here in the past and is choosing to come back after a five-year layoff gives him a slight boost in the rankings this week.
PGA Power Rankings: The Arnold Palmer Invitational
10. Patrick Reed – (16)
Reed cracks this weeks top-10 by a nose over Mickelson, and although he isn’t threatening to win on Sundays as of late, he is consistently posting top-25’s, and continues to play solid all around golf. Other than his hiccup at the Saudi International, Reed has finished no worse than T-25 in 2019, and is coming off of a T-14 at Chapultepec. Reed finished +2 here in 2014 then did not return to this event until last year, when he shot 8-under and finished T-7.
9. Hideki Matsuyama – (27)
Matsuyama is really striking the ball well the last few weeks, and it looks as though the slump of most of 2018 is behind him. It seems like so long ago, but it was just 2017 and just over two years ago when Matsuyama peaked at #2 in the OWGR. He moved up a spot this week after finishing T-19 at the WGC-Mexico two weeks ago, and that marked four straight top-20’s. His best finish in this run was at the Farmers Insurance Open just over a month ago, where he T-3. Matsuyama’s best finish at this event was in 2016 when he finished 11-under and T-6.
8. Tommy Fleetwood – (14)
Fleetwood has all the potential and tools in the world. But even though I am pretty sure I mentioned it before, he just seems like he isn’t fully interested at times. Bay Hill really shapes up well for his game, and his T-10 here in 2017 and T-26 last year are pretty solid examples of that. I just worry that even if he is in it heading to the weekend, will he stay focused? A second round 65 at the WGC-Mexico had him right in it two weeks ago, but back-to-back 72’s led to a T-19 finish.
7. Marc Leishman – (18)
When Leishman won here in 2017, he blew the field away in strokes gained putting, and also picked up over a stroke in tee-to-green and approach as well. Always a threat to win any time he is striking it well, the 35-year-old Australian struggled to a score of +10 through the first two rounds of the WGC-Mexico two weeks ago, and the T-62 finish was his worst finish since his missed cut way back at the Travelers Championship last year. With three top-five finishes in his last five events, it still safe to say his form is very solid, and he did follow up his victory here in 2017 with a T-7 last year.
6. Jason Day – (11)
Another former Arnold Palmer Invitational champion, the 2016 champ Jason Day will be back in action for the first time in a month. Following his victory here, he was able to also notch top-25 finishes in 2017 and 2018 as well. Day opted to skip the elevation and the WGC-Mexico, and he is coming off of back-to-back top-fives at the Farmers Insurance Open and the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. In three events in 2019, Day’s worst finish was at the Sentry TOC where he finished a solo 13th.
PGA Power Rankings: The Arnold Palmer Invitational
5. Bryson DeChambeau – (5)
As we crack into the top five this week, I am sure you will mostly see some variation of this same group at the top of most power rankings you may come across. If DeChambeau would have done a little better in Mexico, he likely would be number three this week, but the T-56 in the limited field showed signs that Bryson may be coming back down to Earth a bit.
Since winning the Shriners Open last year, he has finished no worse than his T-15 at the Genesis Open aside from the WGC-Mexico of course. DeChambeau was fantastic at Bay Hill last year in his debut, as he finished three strokes behind the champion Rory McIlroy for a solo second place.
More from FanSided
- Thunder projected lineup and rotations heading into 2023-24 season
- NWSL Challenge Cup news: Courage ruthless against Washington, Racing remain perfect
- 2023 Women’s World Cup: Ary Borges and Brazil showed the entire world what they are about
- Trea Turner’s rough season goes from bad to worse
- Brewers attempt to troll Elly De La Cruz backfires 456 feet
4. Rickie Fowler – (7)
Fowler continues to play some inspiring golf, as he showed the victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open was no fluke by finishing T-2 at the Honda Classic last week. In fact, it was enough to move his world ranking up two more spots to number seven. He has back-to-back top-15’s here at Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and his number four ranking this week could easily be flipped with our number three golfer, as both are coming off of solid performances.
3. Brooks Koepka – (3)
Koepka hasn’t had it all together over the last few outings, but there seemed to be very little problems last week as he returned home to Florida. After finishing T-24 in the limited field Sentry TOC, Koepka took his game overseas to the European Tour, where he was solid at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, but not so much at the Saudi International the following week. All seemed well last week however, as he was able to climb his way into a T-2 finish with Fowler. Surprisingly he has not done well here at Bay Hill, as he missed the cut in last crack at this event two years ago.
2. Justin Rose – (2)
Not quite sure how they figure the rankings out as far as the OWGR goes, but I do know there are a lot of factors determining the outcome. Rose fell to number two this week as Dustin Johnson has reclaimed the top spot, but looking closely at the average points, it looks like less than a thousandth of a point difference. With DJ taking the week off, my guess is any top-five finish here for Rose this week and he will likely regain the number one position.
After winning the Farmers Insurance Open, Rose competed in the inaugural Saudi International, but failed to make the cut in what was his last action. He was a runner-up here at Bay Hill to Tiger Woods in 2013, and including his solo third place finish last year, he has finished no worse than T-13 over the last three seasons.
1. Rory McIlroy – (6)
McIlroy has been hot to start 2019, with four straight top fives, including his solo second place at the WGC-Mexico two weeks ago. However, as we know, finishing has not always been McIlroy’s strong suit, but his last victory was in fact right here at Bay Hill last season. Rory T-4 here at Bay Hill in 2017, and when you look at two top-fives in the last two years with a win, and four straight top-fives to start the year, that combination makes McIlroy the top ranked player of the week.
Next. PGA DFS - Arnold Palmer Invitational DFS Picks. dark
Thanks for stopping by FantasyCPR and checking out our ever ever-expanding PGA coverage. Be sure to keep an eye out for my FanDuel article coming soon, along with some Fantasy Draft once again as well. Please give me a follow on Twitter with the link at the top of the page, and feel free to ask any questions if you wish. Good luck with your Fantasy Golf this weekend!