2021 The Northern Trust: Top 10 power rankings at Liberty National

Coming off his first PGA Tour win, Abraham Ancer returns to the site of where he nearly did the did in 2019.Ancer won his last time out at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. He stood firm as the final group on Sunday folded.

Ancer beat a lot of the big names he’ll see this week at The Northern Trust. A couple were Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns who he outdueled in a playoff.

The former Oklahoma Sooner was first in the field in scrambling (85.71%), salvaging his score on the rare he occasions he was out of position at TPC Southwind. Ancer made no double bogeys or worse and was fourth in strokes gained tee to green (2.15) and 10th in SG putting (.893).

The win was a big monkey off the back of a player who won the prestigious Australian PGA Championship in 2018 and had four runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour, but hadn’t quite finished off an event stateside.

Ancer is now up to a career high 11th in the Official World Golf Rankings. He can play with the freedom of being in all the majors next year and with two years of PGA Tour exempt status.

It’s all out in front of him in the FedEx Cup Playoffs at a familiar venue. Ancer earned solo second place in 2019 at The Northern Trust, firing 67-65-68-69 and posting birdies on the 70th and 71st holes to end up one shot behind Patrick Reed.

This was Ancer’s highest OWGR point-earning performance prior to Memphis.

Ancer was 79th in the field in 2019 in driving distance (282.8) yet was first in SG off the tee (1.49) due to his laser like precision off the tee. He hit 83.93% fairways to rank fifth in the field.

“Just have to strike the ball pure out there,” Ancer was quoted by ASAP Sports in 2019. “If not, you will be missing a lot of greens and up-and-downs here are definitely not easy.”

Ancer seeks his fourth made cut in a row and ninth top-20 in his last 12 starts.