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There are the top three players and then there is everyone else in professional golf currently. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm is how the Official World Golf Rankings orders the three PGA Tour superstars, but any permutation is acceptable with those three names right now.
They go into this week’s Genesis Invitational as the top three favorites in the field. All are 10-1 or shorter, and the next closest (Xander Schauffele) is 16-1. The reason for that? Over everyone’s last 20 rounds, those three players are all averaging (averaging!) 2.9 strokes gained or better per round. The next closest is, you guessed it, Schauffele at 2.4.
Data Golf
It’s not just advanced metrics that tell this story, either. In their last 15 combined worldwide starts, this trio has nine (!!!) top-five finishes, including five victories. Scheffler and Rahm have combined to win three of the first six PGA Tour events of 2023.
While trying to come up with my top five players in the world, independent of any other system, I struggled with two things. The first was figuring out which order to put those three in at the top. The second was trying to figure out who was even playing well enough compared to those three to be plugged into the No. 4 spot.
Humorously, Scheffler was asked if the hype around Rahm and Rory going into the Phoenix Open last week lit a fire under him. The two Europeans had won seven of their last 14 combined events and were very clearly the two best players in the world.
“Not really. I would probably have to agree,” said Scheffler. “It’s not like I’m sitting there saying I’m playing better than those guys right now. They have been winning tournaments and I’ve been kind of on the outside looking in. So, no, I haven’t really been paying attention to…
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Source : cbssports
