PGA Power Rankings: The 148th Open Championship
PGA Power Rankings: The 148th Open Championship
20. Louis Oosthuizen – (22)
Oosty has had most of his success in his career on the European Tour, and he is always a force at the Open Championship. The 36-year-old South African won the 2010 version of the British Open for his only career major championship and was a runner-up at the 144th Open in 2015 at St. Andrews.
His form could be a little better coming in with averages finishes in his last two, but Oosthuizen was also impressive at the 2019 U.S. Open, where he T-7. In his last action, Oosthuizen T-46 at the Irish Open. In his last event on the PGA Tour prior to heading overseas, Oosty T-36 at the Travelers Championship.
19. Webb Simpson – (19)
Simpson is another golfer I think could make some noise at Royal Portrush this week. He has played pretty selectively in 2019, playing just 12 events. He has missed just one cut and finished inside the top-20 in eight of those 12. His best finish of the season was his T-2 at the RBC Canadian Open, and he has played solid at this season’s first three majors as well.
It started with his T-5 at the Masters, and his T-29 at the PGA Championship was actually his worst finish since he missed the cut at the Valspar. In his last action, Simpson T-16 at the U.S. Open, highlighted by a 66 on Sunday, and he should come into the 148th Open Championship well-rested. Simpson had his best finish at the Open last year at Carnoustie, where he T-12.
18. Paul Casey – (15)
2019 has been pretty good overall to Paul Casey, but I am sure if anything is disappointing to him up to this point, it would be his overall performance in the first three majors, as is the case for him it seems every year. Casey has plenty of victories on Tour over the years, but his best finish to date in a major was his T-3 at the 139th Open Championship nine years ago.
Casey comes into Royal Portrush in pretty good form. He T-5 in his last action at the Travelers Championship, and if you throw out his emergency WD at the Charles Schwab Challenge where he was hospitalized with the flu, he has been close to great since his missed cut at the Masters. Casey added another top-five in this span with a T-4 at the Wells Fargo Championship, and he notched a respectable T-21 at the U.S. Open.
17. Justin Thomas – (9)
As the Scottish Open continues on at the Renaissance Club, JT is looking more and more like he is heading in the right direction. A final round 65 put him inside the top-ten on the leader board with plenty of golfers left to finish up, but he was able to hold on for a T-9 finish. Much was made about the wrist injury that forced JT to miss about six weeks of golf, and this is the first week he has looked like himself, at least at times, since the injury.
Thomas is still ranked inside the top-ten in the world, so he can never be fully counted out, but the fact that he has missed two cuts in his last five events pushes him down a few spots this week. One of those missed cuts was at the U.S. Open, and JT has missed the cut at the Open Championship in each of the last two years as well.
16. Jason Day – (18)
Day has been up-and-down most of the season, missing some time with lingering back issues, which still looks to be holding him back a bit at times. When he is on he is on, as he has proven with five top-tens in 13 events in 2019. Day struggled on the weekend in his last action at the 3M Open, and despite his solid performances in the first three majors this year, his T-66 last time out is holding him back a bit in this weeks PGA Power Rankings.
A T-5 at the Masters was Day’s best finish in majors up to this point, and his T-23 at the PGA Championship and T-21 at the U.S. Open prove that Day can still be among the best when he is on his game. At previous Open Championships, Day finished T-17 last year, and his best finish was a T-4 in 2015 at St. Andrews.