The real top 10: PGA Tour Power Rankings

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By Nick DeConti

GolfWRX Contributor

PGA Tour player performance is something that fans and media alike are always measuring and sharing their opinions about. When these matters are discussed between friends, enemies, co-workers, spouses, in-laws – there is always some disagreement. Some people like to measure the entire season’s performance when evaluating a golfer, and some employ the “What have you done for me lately?” school of thought. I always thought there was something to be said for both sides.

I wanted to find a way that I can measure a Tour player’s performance over the course of a season, but also keep in mind how hot (or cold) a player is to help me predict what they may (or may not) do in the future. The FedEx Cup standings do a good job of tracking a player’s season, but let’s look at it this way: if you only played in two PGA Tour tournaments and won them, you would have 1,000 FedEx Cup points (assuming one of them wasn’t a major). With those numbers at this time of the season, you could play in every other tournament, not make a cut, and be in 15^th place in the FedEx cup standings. Win only one tournament and you’re still good for 61^st! What I’m telling you is that you can’t judge a golfer by those standings alone.

So I invented a system that takes those FedEx Cup standings, put them through a series of number crunches and put together my own Power Ranking to give you a mix of how good these players actually are, meshing together their season performance and recent performance in an effort to quell the arguments between you and your loved (or not so loved) ones.

1. Jason Dufner

Dufner has been the talk of the TOUR this year, rightly so based on his performance. Although not active this week at The Travelers, he’s been in the top 5 his last two tournaments, and one of three players this season with 2 wins.

2. Webb Simpson

With a win at the U.S Open, we could be witnessing the growth of a superstar in Webb Simpson. Webb made 11 consecutive cuts earlier this season, letting us know that we should get used to seeing Webb on the Sunday leaderboard. Webb finished T29 at the Travelers.

3. Matt Kuchar

Coming off of a T8 at the Travelers Championship this week, Kuchar has not missed a cut all season, and also won The PLAYERS Championship in May. Kuchar has been playing great golf all season and is currently in very good form.

4. Jim Furyk

With Furyk’s worst finish being T13 over his past month of play, there’s no doubt he would be close to the top of this list. Furyk has played phenomenal golf as of late, highlighted by his T4 finish at the U.S. Open.

5. Rickie Fowler

After winning his first career tournament at the Wells Fargo in May, Rickie followed that performance up with back-to-back top-5 finishes in his next two tournaments. It has really been a coming out season for Rickie, and it seems he’s developed into the player people thought he would be coming out of college.

6. Hunter Mahan

Hunter put together another solid week finishing T11 at the Travelers this week, adding another good finish to a consistent season this year in which he has one two tournaments, one of them the WGC Accenture Match Play event where he took down Rory McIlroy in the final match.

7. Tiger Woods

Leaving all the “Is Tiger ‘back’ yet?” talk aside, there’s no way Tiger wouldn’t make this list by also winning two tournaments this year, one of them being earlier this month. His T21 finish at the U.S. Open is less than what we expected based on his earlier performance in the tournament, but if we’re expecting him to win majors this year, he’s a player to be reckoned with.

8. Marc Leishman

Leishman found his way into the top 10 this week by getting his first career win at the Travelers. Leishman has been having a good season this year, and also finished T3 at the HP Byron Nelson. He has certainly been flying under the radar, but we should be paying attention to him.

9. Phil Mickelson

Any time we see Phil’s name entered into a tournament, we expect a good finish. His performance at the U.S. Open was less than stellar, but with a win this season at Pebble Beach, we know that we can never count Phil out, and he’s always a threat to win.

10.  Ernie Els

A 9^th place finish at the U.S. Open and a slew of top-10 finishes this year, the Big Easy continues to be a threat on TOUR. Although he hasn’t broken through this year with a win, his form has been so good lately that we should be expecting one from him soon.

See the chart below for the full rankings, and click here for more discussion in the forums.

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