PGA power rankings: The 2019 TOUR championship

PGA power rankings: The TOUR Championship

5. Rory McIlroy – (5)

As we get to the top-five in the PGA power rankings, we see plenty of movement for the last week of the season. Rory McIlroy T-19 last week at the BMW Championship after a final round 71, and it ended a solid back-to-back run of T-6 or better finishes.

He ended up dropping two spots in the FedEx Cup standings from third to fifth, and he will need to have a huge week to move back in the right direction.

As you can imagine, McIlroy has been here at East Lake for the TOUR Championship quite a few times throughout his career, and he has a pretty good history as well. Rory won here in 2016 and he finished second in 2014. More recently, he tied for 7th last year at 5-under par.

4. Jon Rahm – (6)

Rahm seems to be getting the shaft in rankings everywhere else, but not here. All he did last week at the BMW Championship was T-5, and the fact that he moved down in the OWGR and the FedEx Cup standings is baffling at this point. He has been probably the hottest overall golfer since he missed back-to-back cuts at the PGA Championship and the Charles Schwab Challenge.

In seven events since then, Rahm’s worst finish was a T-11 at the Open Championship, and he has five top-five finishes, including his win at the Irish Open. This week will mark Rahm’s third TOUR Championship and the 24-year-old from Spain T-11 here at East Lake last year.

3. Brooks Koepka – (3)

It was easy to put the number one player in the world at number one in the PGA power rankings the last few weeks, but after his win at the FedEx St. Jude Invitational, the playoffs have not been very good to Koepka. He came into the Northern Trust with a massive lead on the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings, and even though he T-30, his lead was still enough for him to hold the top spot.

However, after another mediocre showing for Brooks at the BMW Championship last week where he T-24, he dropped two spots from first to third in the standings.

Amazingly, that two-spot drop in the standings is an over 10 million dollar difference, and that cannot sit well with anyone. With the massive amounts of cash on the line this week, get ready for must-see golf on TV this weekend as the best will vie for that top spot and a $15 million dollar payday.

2. Patrick Cantlay – (2)

Speaking of must-see TV, the battle at Medinah between Cantlay and Justin Thomas on Sunday was pretty epic for at least the front nine while Cantlay made his surge. JT built what looked to be an insurmountable lead on Saturday with his course record 61, but Cantlay got to within two strokes as the two were making the turn.

However, Thomas seemed to match every birdie Cantlay made from that point on. Cantlay ended up finishing alone in second place, three strokes back from Thomas at 22-under par. He jumped four spots from sixth to second in the FedEx Cup standings and two spots in the OWGR up to seventh from ninth.

Although he is in solid form coming in, he has not had much success here at the TOUR Championship. He has qualified in each of the last two seasons, and his best finish in the fields of 30 was a T-20 in 2017. It will be interesting to see if Cantlay can put it together one more week here at East Lake where he has not been great in the past.

1. Justin Thomas – (1)

What a year it has been for the 26-year-old. Thomas was in top-ten form to start the season, but the wrist injury he suffered at the Masters which forced him to miss six weeks of action proved to be a major setback.

After he missed the cut at the Memorial Tournament and the U.S. Open, it was clear that despite his wrist being healed and him being fully healthy, there was still some rust to shake off.

After a T-36 at the Travelers Championship, Thomas opted for more rest and did not tee it up until the Scottish Open on the European Tour. As his tune-up for the Open Championship, Thomas T-9 and his solid stretch of golf began. He followed the T-9 with a T-11 at Royal Portrush and went on to finish T-12 in back-to-back events at the St. Jude Invitational and the Northern Trust.

Then it happened. One of the best iron players in the world had his complete game last week at Medinah and ripped off an incredible final score of 25-under par to win by three strokes.

Thomas jumped from 15th to number one in the FedEx Cup standings, and this now looks like it is his to lose. Considering his history over the last three years here at East Lake, he should be in very good shape.

Thomas finished T-7 last year, and surprisingly, that was the worst finish of his three trips. He was the TOUR Championship runner-up in 2017 but was the eventual FedEx Cup champion that year, so he has been in this spot before.

With everything in his favor heading in, including a starting score of 10-under par, let’s just hope he doesn’t completely run away with it. I would rather watch someone standing over a putt on 18 on Sunday with a difference of $10 million dollars on the line.

Thanks for stopping by FanSided Fantasy and checking out our ever-expanding Fantasy Golf content. I hope you enjoyed this week’s PGA Power Rankings. Be sure to keep an eye out for my FanDuel article coming soon as well. As always, special thanks to goes to Smart Golf Bets for his tournament sheets.