PGA Power Rankings: The 148th Open Championship

PGA Power Rankings: The 148th Open Championship

***The following golfers are my top 30 overall. Each golfer will be followed by their official golf world ranking (OWGR) in parenthesis. All rankings are prior to the finish of the John Deere Classic, and the Scottish Open***

30. Matt Wallace – (24)

Before the PGA Championship where Wallace sniffed his first major championship with a T-3 finish, he went back to the European Tour, and T-2 at the Betfred British Masters. After another impressive showing at a major with a T-12 at the U.S. Open, Wallace was back at it on the Euro Tour, with a T-3 at the BMW International Open.

Wallace struggled a bit with a T-55 at the Irish Open, but he bounced back somewhat with a T-14 at the Scottish Open last week. If he comes into Royal Portrush with three top-fives in his last seven starts.

29. Eddie Pepperell – (32)

Pepperell shot up the world rankings after two victories on the European Tour last year. Other than his T-3 at the Players Championship this year, he hasn’t really been around a leader board anywhere other than across the pond. After his T-2 at the British Masters, he failed to make the cut at the challenge of Bethpage Black and the PGA Championship. Pepperell then took some time off, and returned with a T-4  at the Irish Open, then followed that with a T-43 at the Scottish Open last week.

28. Rafa Cabrera Bello – (37)

Like those before him, Cabrera Bello has also struggled on the PGA Tour as of late but is really rounding into form just in time for the 148th Open Championship over on the European Tour. After his T-65 at the U.S. Open, Rafa took his game overseas, and T-3 at the BMW International Open. Following a week off, he was at it again at the Irish Open, where he notched another top-five with a T-4 finish.

While he has made the cut in each of the first three major championships, his best finish in those was a T-36 at the Masters. Cabrera Bello was able to notch another top-ten this week at the Scottish Open giving him three straight, as a 66 on Sunday led to a T-9 finish.

27. Marc Leishman – (23)

It seems like ages ago that Leishman was relevant, but the fact that his still in the top 25 in the world rankings is a good reminder that it really wasn’t that long ago that he was on fire. Leishman won the CIMB Classic on the fall swing last season and started 2019 with three top-five finishes in his first four events. In nine events since, he only has one finish inside the top-20 since, and that was his solo fifth at the Memorial Tournament.

Even though the Open Championship is a rotating event, what keeps Leishman inside the top-30 is his recent stretch in past Opens. He lost in a playoff at St. Andrews in 2015 and T-2, and he also T-5 in 2014, and T-6 in 2017. Although his form coming in is not great, Leishman is a fit for these European links-style golf courses.

26. Graeme McDowell – (94)

I kept these rankings to the numbers for the most part. Young guns like Sungjae Im and Joaquin Niemann are playing great, and sniffing the top-30, but this field will obviously be loaded with the best golfers in the world. McDowell may be ranked lower than those two at the moment, but experience, home-field advantage, and course fit put him well above some of the best in the world this week at Royal Portrush.

McDowell was playing well in the U.S. for a good portion of 2019, but his solid play has recently come to a halt on the European Tour. After his T-8 at the RBC Canadian Open which got him into the U.S. Open where he T-16, he missed cuts at both the Irish Open, and at the Scottish Open last week.