Masters Power Rankings 3.0

By: Jack Nutting

Writer’s Note: This is a weekly report on the players most likely to win the Green Jacket in April. It is not necessarily a ranking of the best players in the world, but simply if the Masters were being held tomorrow, who would be most likely to win the event.
Editor’s Note: Due to travel, midterms, and other dumb things, this is the first time we have published The Power Rankings in three tournaments.

1. Jason Day- Since we last wrote on the state of the Masters, Day had yet to win in 2016 on the PGA TOUR. But, while many players were in the middle of the West Coast Swing or the Swing through the Middle East, A.K.A. the money swing, Day was resting quietly in Ohio. So far, his 2016 results are the following: T-10, cut, T-11, T-23, win, win. The two wins have each come the last two weeks, last week being at the solid field of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and this past weekend at the WGC-Dell Match Play in Austin, which featured 62 of the top 64 ranked players in the world. Right now, he is clearly the best golfer in the world. His long game is longer than anybody in the world, including Rory Mcilroy. His short game is having NBC Golf announcers induce on air nostalgia over Tiger Woods short game from the early 2000s. In the most simple of terms, if you have the longest and most powerful game off the tee, and can avoid all danger around the greens due to superior short game skills, it’s really hard to see how he can lose a tournament right now.      

2. Rory Mcilroy- The number two spot for most people is likely much more up in the air than the number one spot right now. But, I have a really hard time placing anybody in front of Mcilroy other than Day in these rankings. People really enjoy shitting on Rory for a variety of reasons, from his social life to his decision to switch clubs to his on course decision making and overall play inside the ropes. But really, it’s all noise with him. Since coming onto the scene, critics have always tried to put Rory in the Tiger mode, where every little thing matters and impacts him. Everyone is always in constant chatter about how tournament A will effect tournament B for the guy. Momentum is a classic one people like to bring up with him. My view is more that Rory just does Rory and doesn’t really care what others think. He BLEW UP in the 2011 Masters and then won, in a hurricane fashion, the US Open two months later. Between winning the Honda in late February of 2012, and the PGA Championship in August of the same year, Mcilroy racked up four missed cuts, lost his number one ranking, and then wins the PGA by eight strokes, no big deal. He has peaks and valleys for sure, but I think he is on an upward slope right now. Look for him to be contending on Sunday.

3. Jordan Spieth- I have written about this before, but Spieth’s Masters results since turning pro are the following: T-2, win. He has a great track record at Augusta, and he has really done anything to dispel with that notion yet this season. He already has a win from the Hyundai and probably played a little too much taking cash grabs in the Middle East and Asia, but he appeared more rested and ready to roll this past weekend, advancing through the group stage of the Match Play. For Spieth, the more concerning thing is probably the two horses in front him. Spieth is long by every notion of being a professional golfer, but Day and Mcilroy are otherworldly long off the tee. In few scenarios can he hang with them with the big sticks come out of the bag. Now, of course this doesn’t really matter because the guy won TWO MAJORs last year! But, the strain that the two in front of him can put on a course is brutal, and a potential roadblock moving forward Jordan Spieth. (Again, though, he is long, it’s just that Day was hitting 9 iron into 570 yard par 5s this weekend!)

4. Adam Scott- Scotty won the Cadillac since the last rankings, netting him two wins on tour this year. He is primed for the Masters this year. If he can keep the flat stick hot, or at least warm, his dominate iron game sets him up to be in contention again this year, looking for another win at Augusta.

200. Tiger Woods- There are literally 199 players more likely to win this thing than Big Cat. Please, just get healthy, take the year off, learn how to play golf again and come back next year. (Side note- I really, really, miss the guy. Just look at this- he won that US Open by 15 strokes -how can you not get amped for this?)

Dispatches from the PGA TOUR

1. Tony Finau won the Puerto Rico Open in the opposite field event today. This guy is long off the tee, and look for him to keep making some noise in the months and years to come.

2. Tim Finchem, the PGA TOUR Commissioner, signed a contract extension that takes him through next spring, but he is still expected to step down at the end of the year.   

3. Next week is the first major on the LPGA TOUR calendar, the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, CA.

4. Bill Simmons and his group have launched a new golf centered podcast called ShackHouse. I recommend checking it out.

5. The new match play site is very good. It’s a great course for match play and the players seemed to enjoy playing on the track. The city of Austin appeared to really embrace the TOUR swinging through town. The date could be better, but it’s not horrible. But, my goodness, the format still needs a lot of work. I am not going to go into the detail here, but consider these articles in shaping your viewpoint. I certainly believe a world exists where we can have a really good format for this event.