St. Jude Classic Recap: Absent Cream, Gomez Rises

If you had Fabian Gomez winning the St. Jude Classic, we'd like to hire you to do some golf forecasting here at RotoWire.

If you had Fabian Gomez winning by outdueling Greg Owen on the back nine on Sunday, we'd like to accompany you to Vegas.

Situated the week before the U.S. Open, the Memphis tour stop did not have a strong field, but to see the No. 288 golfer in the world beat someone ranked 342nd, that's a bit much. And when you throw in David Lingmerth winning the Memorial last week at No. 212, and Steven Bowditch capturing the Byron Nelson the week before at No. 127, and ... well ... what the heck is going on here?

As we touched on last week, the PGA Tour is so deep now, with so many events, that more than 40 golfers win tournaments every year. The cream sometimes rises to the top; there just wasn't that much cream at TPC Southwind this week.

Phil Mickelson tied for third as he tuned up for his umpteenth attempt to win the U.S. Open, which would complete the career Grand Slam, but he was never truly in contention on Sunday, racing up the leaderboard with a 5-under 65. Brooks Koepka also tied for third, and after opening 64-67, many observers believed he wouldn't be headed in this water-down field. He was.

For everyone out there who doesn't think Tiger Woods will ever win again, do you think he's worse than Gomez, Owen, Lingmerth and Bowditch? (OK, that's not a fair question. He could be better than all of them and still never win again. As we see, catching lightning in a bottle for one week happens more and more as parity takes hold.)

As for Gomez, he's a 36-year-old Argentine who won for the first time in this, his 70th PGA Tour event. But he's no stranger to winning, compiling victories on the Web.com Tour, PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour LatinoAmerica. Learning how to win anywhere surely counts.

You'd think the PGA Tour, which oversees all those tours, would have a better idea of who Gomez is. But on his player page his height is blank and his weight is listed in kilograms. (He's at 74, if you're scoring at home, and that equates to 163 pounds.)

The last -- and only other -- time Gomez had a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour, he tied for second at the 2013 Puerto Rico Open with Jordan Spieth. Heading to the back nine tied with Owen, Gomez broke away with three birdies to close at 13-under 267, four clear of the veteran Englishman. Mickelson, Koepka, Seung-Yul Noh, Matt Jones and Michael Thompson were all another stroke back.

Gomez will now climb to 131 in the world and 36th in the FedEx Cup point standings. While he didn't get into next week's U.S. Open, he gets a boatload of invites and perks, most importantly his tour card through 2016-17.

Do you think Gomez will use this victory as a springboard, or that he just had everything break his way in one glorious week? We don't know. Ask a guy who had him winning this tournament, if such a guy exists.

MONDAY TAKEAWAY

Greg Owen

Owen has never won in 214 PGA Tour events. This was his second runner-up, having come up short to Rod Pampling at Bay Hill in 2006. It's his first top 10 of the season, one in which he's missed more cuts than made. But this one great week surged him from 172nd to 95th in the point standings and, likely, secured his card for next year. He probably wasn't in your league and shouldn't be now.

Phil Mickelson

Uh-oh. After finishing his round, Mickelson said he feels good about his game. The last couple of years, he doesn't play well after saying he's playing well. Mickelson surely is playing better than last season, and does have runner-ups in the past two majors, and he does have top-fives in two of his past three starts, and Chambers Bay has fairways wide enough to contain even the most Mickelsonesque of wayward drives. But we don't see Mickelson winning. If nothing else, the pressure is now so great on him to win the one major he hasn't.

Brooks Koepka

Even though this is Koepka's top showing since winning at Phoenix way back in early February, the week surely classifies as a disappointment. With that opening 64, this tournament was shaping up as Koepka's to lose - and he did. Koepka certainly was in contention well into Sunday, until rinsing his tee ball on the par-3 14th, leading to a double bogey and ending his chances. Koepka could surprise at the Open, but he's clearly not in the top wave of favorites.

Russell Knox

The Scot is having a quietly successful season, with a T8 in Memphis his third top-10. Knox is 27th in the point standings - meaning he'd be in the Tour Championship if it started today. And he could be in line for more high finishes as the top names skip some of the lesser events as the majors and WGCs come with greater frequency now.

Colt Knost

With 137 tournaments in his career, Knost is still winless. But he continues on his most successful season to date with a T12 in Memphis. That's T10, T10, T12 in his past four starts, moving him to 77th in the point standings. Knost will surely keep his card after fighting his way back from the Web.com Tour last season.

Nick Watney

Remember when Watney followed up a top-10 at Torrey Pines with a runner-up at Pebble? Yeah, me too. He's done little since, won't be at the U.S. Open - or any of the remaining majors or WGCs right now. Watney tied for 53rd at Memphis. Hopefully, when someone in your league bid high on Watney back in late winter, it wasn't you.

Shawn Stefani

Stefani had missed only three cuts all season before falling flat at TPC Southwind. At 28th in the point standings and with nine top-25s already, Stefani could've really taken the next step in his career in the sub-par field. It really was a surprise that he missed this cut, but we expect him to pick up where he left off next time out.

David Duval

Here's all you need to know about the quality of the field: They let an announcer play. We kid! Duval made his fourth start of the season and missed the cut for the third time. He won't be at the U.S. Open but, as a past champion, will be at the Open Championship next month.

Graeme McDowell

Since opening the 2014-15 season with a T3 overseas, McDowell has done squat, with no top-25s. He's 147th in the point standings after missing the Memphis cut and has fallen from 15th to 44th in the world since New Year's. He heads to Chambers Bay as a past champion, one who looks like a one-and-done in majors.

Dustin Johnson

We've soured on Johnson since his strong return to the tour was highlighted by winning the WGC-Cadillac in early March. He seemingly is in contention most weeks but has reverted to doing just enough bonehead-DJ-type things to shoot himself in the foot. Memphis was just the sort of low-level event where the pressure wouldn't be great -- plus he had won there back in 2012. Johnson withdrew after nine holes with an illness, the severity of which we don't know. We don't like his chances in the pressure-filled U.S. Open, but if he's recovered from the illness, we like his chances more than if he played four rounds at the St. Jude. Chambers Bay is the fourth straight week he's playing, and that's too much. Memphis turned into a week off.