This week on the PGA Tour is the St. Jude Classic, the final event before next week's U.S. Open at Chambers Bay outside of Seattle. The field includes some trying to play their way into form for next week -- see Phil Mickelson - while others are taking advantage of a weakened field to help their stock. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
The defending champion is Ben Crane, who beat Troy Merritt by one shot. In 2013 Harris English beat Phil Mickelson and Scott Stallings by two and in 2012 Dustin Johnson beat John Merrick by one.
Our recommendation here is Johnson, who credited one of his commercials for his improved play at Memorial where he finished T13, a week after finishing T8 at the Byron Nelson. He finished the week T18 in strokes gained putting for the week at Muirfield Village.
One player we don't recommend is Mickelson, who struggled majorly over the weekend at Jack's place, where he shot 78-75. If it wasn't for Tiger Woods' Saturday 85, Phil's 78 would have gotten a lot more attention. Statistically, both his long game and short game are off, as he ranked 61st in strokes gained-tee to green and T66 in strokes gained-putting.
Who Is Playing
Others in the field include Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English, Padraig Harrington, Billy Horschel, Graeme McDowell, Patrick Rodgers, Sam Saunders, Webb Simpson and Nick Watney.
Our recommendations are Koepka, DeChambeau and Rodgers.
Koepka won in Scottsdale, and after an inconsistent stretch through
This week on the PGA Tour is the St. Jude Classic, the final event before next week's U.S. Open at Chambers Bay outside of Seattle. The field includes some trying to play their way into form for next week -- see Phil Mickelson - while others are taking advantage of a weakened field to help their stock. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
The defending champion is Ben Crane, who beat Troy Merritt by one shot. In 2013 Harris English beat Phil Mickelson and Scott Stallings by two and in 2012 Dustin Johnson beat John Merrick by one.
Our recommendation here is Johnson, who credited one of his commercials for his improved play at Memorial where he finished T13, a week after finishing T8 at the Byron Nelson. He finished the week T18 in strokes gained putting for the week at Muirfield Village.
One player we don't recommend is Mickelson, who struggled majorly over the weekend at Jack's place, where he shot 78-75. If it wasn't for Tiger Woods' Saturday 85, Phil's 78 would have gotten a lot more attention. Statistically, both his long game and short game are off, as he ranked 61st in strokes gained-tee to green and T66 in strokes gained-putting.
Who Is Playing
Others in the field include Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English, Padraig Harrington, Billy Horschel, Graeme McDowell, Patrick Rodgers, Sam Saunders, Webb Simpson and Nick Watney.
Our recommendations are Koepka, DeChambeau and Rodgers.
Koepka won in Scottsdale, and after an inconsistent stretch through the early spring, has gone T16-T52 over his last two weeks. He ranks 10th in driving distance, 21st in strokes gained-putting and 18th in strokes gained-total.
DeChambeau has had a crazy good week. First, he won the NCAA Division I individual title last Monday at the Men's Golf Championships at Concession Golf Club in Florida. Did it impressively too. Then he decided to enter the toughest 36-hole U.S. Open Section Qualifier earlier this week -- the one stacked with PGA Tour pros in Columbus, Ohio -- and finished T3, making 14 birdies over the two rounds. Really, really impressive stuff.
And finally Rodgers got the big monkey off his back -- he secured special temporary membership by hanging on and finishing T40 last week at Memorial - and now with unlimited sponsor exemptions can focus on getting his PGA Tour card via this tour versus the Web.com Tour. That's significant because, although he's in line to get his card currently via the Web.com Tour money list -- those who get it through the PGA Tour, (and for him via the Non-Member FedEx Cup Points List) have a higher priority ranking than those who come off the Web.com Tour. That means more starts next season.
Why do we bring this up? Because with that sigh of relief he should be able to free-wheel it more on the golf course, and not worry about every little mistake. Last week at Memorial, even with those aforementioned miscues, he ranked fifth in driving distance and 28th in strokes gained-putting.
