2020 CJ Cup: Top 10 power rankings at Shadow Creek

Don’t look now, but Tyrrell Hatton is in the top 10 in the world for the first time.

The 28-year-old Englishman won his first PGA Tour event in 2020 against an elite field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Hatton backed it up last week with his fifth career European Tour title coming at the tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship. Rounds of 66-67-69-67 helped him to a four-shot win over a field that included notable names like Reed, Poulter, Fitzpatrick and Fleetwood.

Hatton’s name is now on the wall of champions among Palmer, Faldo, Seve, Langer, Monty and Rory.

It was quite the cool moment for someone who attended the tournament on these same grounds as a kid.

Hatton’s among a handful of players from the BMW playing right away across the pond. At least they’re traveling west and not east.

He’s won in five different countries across three continents, so I’m confident in him regardless of venue. The whole consistency thing helps, too. Hatton has four top-25s in his last five starts and eight of the last 11.

He impressively made the Tour Championship for the first time and finished seventh in the FedEx Cup.

It’s always a roll of the dice as to how someone will play the week after a win. Picking up a trophy is becoming old hat for Hatton, though. In a pandemic world, I think he’ll keep this celebration fairly tame and be locked in for the CJ Cup.

Hatton ranked 64th or better on the PGA Tour in 2019-2020 in the main strokes gained stats. That included fourth in approach (.694) and eighth overall (1.431).

By the way, I don’t mind that he wore a hoodie last week at the BMW PGA. Sue me.