RADIO
Joe Nicely ranks his top 10 golfers ahead of the 2023 Open Championship event. Who are the top PGA Tour golfers at this week's Open Championship golf tournament? Which golfers can win the tournament and 2023's final major championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Course in Hoylake?
As the 2023 season continues to tick by, the golf world heads to Royal Liverpool Golf Course for the year's final major championship...The Open. This will mark the Open's first return to Hoylake since the 2014 edition won by Rory McIlroy.
In this article, you will find my 2023 Open Championship Power Rankings, which digs into the top 10 golfers who are primed to make a significant impact in this year's edition of the event. These players should be considered serious contenders at the classic links Royal Liverpool layout this week and are legitimate threats to take home the Claret Jug won by Cameron Smith in last year's edition of the Open Championship.
Hopefully, these rankings provide some insight into the current landscape of the PGA Tour and the upcoming tournament. Players have been evaluated on recent performances, statistical analysis, and course history. With a unique field of competitors and a traditional links golf course outside of the United States, the 2023 Open Championship promises to be a fun tournament for golf fans.
#10. Tyrrell Hatton
It might be fair to wonder if the hot-headed Englishman has the mental makeup needed to win a major championship, but there's little question about Hatton's physical skills at the moment.
The 31-year-old has seen a dramatic spike in his ball striking this season, which, in combination with his all-world short game, has led to consistently elite results. Hatton has logged five top-five finishes in 2023, while also putting forth three solid performances in the majors.
He's been unsurprisingly erratic in the Open throughout his career, missing the cut in six of 10 appearances. However, Hatton has also popped for a T5 and a T6 in golf's oldest major, as well as a T11 at St. Andrews last year. He's a two-time Dunhill Links winner that's playing perhaps the best golf of his career. If there's to be a major championship breakthrough, this spot makes loads of sense.
#9. Tommy Fleetwood
The Englishman just keeps pounding away, hoping that his next major championship start will be the major championship start.
Fleetwood's most recent close call in a major was a T5 in the U.S. Open, a result that was powered by an electric final-round 63.
Tommy Boy has also had some near misses in the Open, most notably a runner-up at Royal Portrush in 2019 and a T4 last year at St. Andrews. He heads to Hoylake sporting his finest form in years. Fleetwood grades out seventh among this week's entrants in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green over his last 24 rounds and comes in hot off a nice Scottish Open outing.
#8. Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay
Ok...I admit I'm cheating a bit by sneaking both Schauffele and Cantlay in together here at No. 8 in our Open Championship Power Rankings. I hope you'll forgive me, as I can find very little to separate the two this - or any other - week.
Perhaps that's not fair to Xander, as Schauffele's major championship track record has been elite throughout his career, while Cantlay's has been somewhat underwhelming. However, Cantlay has quietly strung together five consecutive top-15 finishes in major championships. For his part, Schauffele has remained unsurprisingly excellent in majors this year, posting top-10s at both the Masters and U.S. Open. The unfortunate similarity? Neither has won a major championship.
If we cut straight to the chase, both players have proven themselves to be among the world's elite, but both have yet to take a major championship by the throat. Until one does, we're forced to place them both in this sort of "no man's land" ahead of major championships which falls somewhere outside the likes of proven major winners but clearly ahead of most other contenders. It wouldn't be a shock if one of these two won this week, but we've learned that the most likely outcome is going to be solid performances that yield good results rather than a victory.
Xander Schauffele will play with one of his good friends, fellow Zurich Classic champion, Patrick Cantlay in Round 3 of the 2022 Travelers Championship.
They will tee off at 1:50 PM ET in the final group, with Xander having a 5 shot lead at TPC River Highlands. Let's go. ✅💥💯 pic.twitter.com/xy6vWsKRt0
— Xander Schauffele Legion (@XanderLegion) June 25, 2022
#7. Viktor Hovland
While a player with acknowledged short-game issues probably shouldn't play well in Open Championships, Viktor Hovland has done just that, going T4-T12 across the first two Open appearances of his promising career. It should probably be acknowledged that Hovland has dodged any impactful weather conditions across his first two Open starts, allowing him to simply ride his immaculate ball striking to strong finishes in each of the last two years.
With the current Hoylake weather forecast looking fairly benign, Hovland could well pull off the same feat at a Royal Liverpool links layout that possesses little defense outside of the elements. He's been elite from tee to green throughout 2023 and is evolving into the superstar many expected him to be after a brilliant amateur career. The Norwegian was a factor at both the Masters (T7) and PGA Championship (T2) before scoring the biggest win of his career to date at the Memorial last month.
The weather is always a factor to consider for the Open Championship and it feels especially relevant when discussing Hovland's potential outcomes this week. Mild conditions would seem to favor the 25-year-old and his elite ball-striking ability.
Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland avoid blunders to share Open Championship lead after three: https://t.co/wynGNupB8s#TheOpen pic.twitter.com/VCnGaNqRbV
— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) July 16, 2022
#6. Rickie Fowler
Fowler's well-publicized return to relevance culminated in a win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic earlier this month in a feel-good story for a genuinely likable player. That it happened at an event sponsored by a company that he's been a longtime pitchman for was just a bit of synergistic, advertising icing on the cake.
Rickie has never been sponsored by the R&A (that I know of), but despite that disappointing lack of corporate partnership, he still rates as a legitimate contender this week at a Royal Liverpool layout on which he scored a runner-up finish in the 2014 edition of the Open.
That result was no fluke, as Fowler has made the cut in 10 of his 11 career Open Championship starts with three top-six finishes across them. It's anyone's guess as to whether Fowler can ever get across the finish line in a major, but his rejuvenated form that's showcased concrete-solid tee-to-green play at its core, coupled with his strong Open track record, suggests he could once again find himself in the thick of things this week.
#5. Jon Rahm
Rahm opened the year in dominant form, recording four wins across the first four months of 2023, including a victory at the Masters.
However, that dominance now feels a long way away as we head to Royal Liverpool. Despite a T10 at the U.S. Open, Rahm hasn't truly been a factor in a tournament since a runner-up finish at the Mexico Open.
Though Rahm has made the cut in five of his six career Open Championship starts, a T3 in 2021 stands as his lone top-10 result in the event. Rahm's overall talent and championship pedigree keep him on the shortlist this week. While the betting markets and DFS pricing aren't giving us much incentive to "buy low" on the Spaniard, public sentiment surrounding Rahm is at its lowest point of the year.
#4. Cameron Smith
The defending Champion Golfer of the Year comes in trending in the right direction. After a sluggish start to the year, Smith has improved his finishing position with every major championship start in 2023. For what it's worth, he also comes in fresh off a win in his most recent LIV start in the London event.
After displaying his short-game brilliance to defeat Rory McIlroy last year at St. Andrews, the Aussie appears to have rediscovered his lethal putting stroke as of late. He'll have room for error off the tee at Royal Liverpool, which always bodes well for his major chances. Smith should be considered a serious threat to repeat this week.
LIGHTS, CAMera, ACTION - Cameron Smith surges on the back nine to win the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews https://t.co/QNXLJ92CVM pic.twitter.com/YeVAWaRt2B
— The Fried Egg (@the_fried_egg) July 18, 2022
#3. Brooks Koepka
If a near-miss at the Masters didn't prove that Koepka had returned to form, a huge win at the PGA Championship certainly did.
A solid, if unspectacular, T17 on a LACC layout that wasn't to his liking has the now five-time major champion headed to Hoylake a bit under the radar, though the alpha Floridian has reminded us that it's a mistake to count him out when major hardware is on the line.
He doesn't yet have a Claret Jug, though it's not been due to bad play in the Open. A missed cut last year at St. Andrews was just his second blemish in eight career Open starts.
Koepka, who came up on the European Challenge Tour and is more familiar with links golf than most American players, has recorded top-10 finishes in half of his Open appearances. He scored just a T67 in the 2014 edition at Royal Liverpool, though an opening-round 68 shows that Koepka has the ability to shoot a number on this layout and that experience could prove to be invaluable this go around.
#2. Scottie Scheffler
The 27-year-old has been inarguably the best golfer in the world from tee-to-green in 2023, posting prime-Tiger-like ball-striking statistics. However, Scheffler has been routinely held back by an uncooperative putter that grades out 107th among Open Championship entrants in SG: Putting across his last 36 rounds.
Scheffler is still a baby when it comes to Open experience, though finishes of T8 & T21 in the first two Open starts of his career are certainly encouraging, as is his upbringing playing in the winds of Texas.
Simply has all the tools and it wouldn't be at all surprising to see his almost-supernatural ball striking of 2023 get paid off with a major championship win this week.
#1. Rory McIlroy
It's tough to put anyone other than the aforementioned Scheffler atop any sort of golf rankings at the moment, but we'll give the honorary Numero Uno spot to Rory McIlroy this week, as he returns to a Royal Liverpool layout on which one of his four major championship triumphs took place.
Nine years on and McIlroy returns to Hoylake desperately seeking a fifth major, a scenario that was unfathomable when the man from Northern Ireland won the Open Championship at 17-under par in 2014.
There's no need to hammer home just how close McIlroy has been to major wins in the subsequent years, with his hard-luck runner-up finishes at St. Andrews and LACC being the most recent close calls. That U.S. Open outing last month, coupled with brilliant play at the Scottish Open, suggests that McIlroy is ready to make yet another deep run at a major title this week.
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