2020 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational: Top 10 power rankings

In three trips to TPC Southwind, Daniel Berger has returned to Florida with either a check north of $1 million or nothing at all.

At the former FedEx-St. Jude Classic, Berger won in his first appearance in 2016 (67-64-69-67) as a rookie holding off Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Brooks Koepka by three. He defended his title in 2017 (70-68-66-66) with a one-shot victory over Meenwhee Kim and Charl Schwartzel. Surprisingly, he missed the cut in 2018.

Injuries hampered Berger in 2018 and 2019.

The FedEx-St. Jude morphed into a World Golf Championship in 2019 and Berger did not qualify for the limited field event..

The former Florida State Seminole’s game is now better than what earned him 2015-2016 Rookie of the Year Honors.

Berger had an incredible streak of 32 rounds of par or better going until round one at the Memorial Tournament a couple weeks back. The streak ender was still only a 1-over 73 on a day where the field average was much higher. He was also 2-under through 15 until a tough finish.

Four of those 32 rounds came at his win at the Charles Schwab Challenge in early June. In the first PGA Tour event since March, Berger defeated Collin Morikawa in a playoff. Not a bad win considering how well Morikawa has played of late.

A reason for Berger’s consistency is his polish throughout the bag. The 27-year-old sits 47th or higher in every strokes gained category.

He was a slightly above average putter for much of his career until now. Berger’s on track for a career year with the flat stick at 13th in SG putting (.664). That could regress as 2020 marches on, but don’t count on him to go cold on greens he’s well versed in at TPC Southwind.

A ranking of 18th in strokes gained tee to green illustrates his ball striking could give him enough birdie looks that he could even afford to miss a few.