PGA Power Rankings: The 2019 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

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AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 13: Patrick Reed of the United States lines up a putt on the second green during the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 13, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

PGA Power Rankings: WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

***The following golfers are my top 20 overall. Each golfer will be followed by their official golf world ranking (OWGR) in parenthesis.

20. Patrick Reed – (23)

We have a stacked field once again, and Patrick Reed’s performance at Royal Portrush pushes him into the top 20 this week, and he gets this week’s PGA Power Rankings underway. His round of 71 on Sunday was good enough to move him up nine spots, and he finished alone in 10th place at 4-under par.

Reed has been trending in the right direction since the U.S. Open where he T-32, making five straight cuts now, with two top-tens along the way. He returns to TPC Southland for the first time since 2014, when he missed the cut. It was his third missed cut here in four tries, and his only weekend action took place in 2013, when he finished alone in fifth place at 8-under par.

19. Jordan Spieth – (37)

I am still not quite a believer in Speith quite yet, but his T-20 at the Open Championship last week, while some other highly notable names struggled, is worth giving him a little bump in the rankings this week. We can’t forget that it was not that long ago in which Spieth T-3 at the PGA Championship, which sparked a run of three straight top-tens.

Even though that stretch came to screeching halt with a T-65 at the U.S. Open followed by a missed cut at the Travelers Championship, Spieth hung in there at Royal Portrush finishing 1-under par, and proved that we cannot quite ignore him this week. He was errant off the tee as per usual but made up for it in other aspects of his game. It feels like if he can go four days hitting fairways, he could still win pretty much anywhere at any time.

18. Paul Casey – (18)

Although Casey failed to shoot any rounds in the 60’s last week at Royal Portrush for the 148th Open Championship, he at least made the weekend and finished 4-over par and T-57 for the tournament. I am sure he wasn’t thrilled with how he played, and Casey has done well in bounce-back spots this season.

Casey started 2019 on fire with three top fives in his first four events, and when he finally missed a cut for the first time of the season at the Players Championship, he bounced back with a win in his next action at the Valspar Championship. His next missed cut came at the Masters, and he followed that with a T-4 at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Casey has played the FedEx St. Jude Classic just once in the last ten years back in 2014, and he T-24 at 3-under par. He fell three spots in the OWGR after last week, as Open Championship champ Shane Lowry is just one golfer who has now moved ahead of him in the world rankings.

17. Adam Scott – (19)

Scott used the wrong putter last week, he admitted it, and changed mid round when it was way too late. PGA DFS Twitter was in a frenzy, and I saw plenty of curse words hurled his way simply with the question “Where is the bleeping anchor putter?!” He had not missed a cut since the Honda Classic albeit on a limited schedule, and to my knowledge, he hadn’t experienced with a normal length putter in any event all year.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged it was a mistake and that he did not have it mentally, and he missed the cut at the 148th Open Championship. That MC ended a streak of five straight top-20’s, that included three straight top-tens, and a T-7 at the U.S. Open. Like Casey, I fully expect Scott to bounce back this week, with nowhere to go but up.

16. Tony Finau – (12)

It’s official! Tony Finau is easily the hardest golfer on tour to figure out. Of all the top golfers in the world that struggled last week, Finau was the last guy I expected to finally put it all together after his recent struggles, and finish inside the top five. Finau finished alone in third place, and it was his best finish in a major championship in his career.

The 29-year-old was coming into Royal Portrush off of a T-23 at the inaugural 3M Open in Minnesota, but he had missed three straight cuts prior. He has notched three top-fives now in 2019, but the odd thing is that he has only finished inside the top-20 in two more of those in 16 total events.

Finau made his St. Jude Classic debut last year here at TPC Southland, and missed the cut. With his sporadic nature this season, I expect some regression to the middle of the pack here for Finau this week.

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