2021 Hero World Challenge: Top 10 power rankings at Albany

I wonder what the odds would be if you could place a wager on of the Hero World Challenge newcomers this year, which includes Morikawa, Hovland, McIlroy, just to name a few, to win against the rest of the field.

I would like my chances of that hitting, but one player standing in the way of that is Tony Finau. An opening 72 doomed his chances of catching four-shot winner, Jon Rahm, in 2018, but Finau recovered for 64-67-69 to climb back to solo second place.

The big hitter returned in 2019 and had a baffling 79 on Thursday. Conditions were challenging with 11 of 18 players shooting in the 70s. Finau’s round was still the worst by three shots, so coming back to take T-10th was no small feat. He posted 68-69-65 the rest of the way and tied for low round on Sunday. Go figure.

The 32-year-old’s posted a few clunkers (T-45th, T-45th, MC) since his excellent play at the Ryder Cup. You’d like him to be coming to Albany in better form, but I don’t hold it against him for not getting up for a few fall events.

He had to be sapped of energy after winning for the first time in five years at The Northern Trust, and then keeping the adrenaline flowing for Whistling Straits.

With three weeks to relax before the Hero, I can see Finau regaining some form in the presence of his idol, Tiger Woods.

Finau should enjoy a course like this week’s. Barring the spare difficult lie if you go off line, it’s a good course for bombers. He ranked 35th in par-5 scoring last season (4.58), and there’s five par-5s at Albany.

He was also 16th in strokes gained tee to green (1.040) and performed well throughout the bag, statistically. In the clutch, we know he has his woes with the putter, but he was able to finally shake off some demons in his win in August.

I think that will propel him to more big things this week and into 2022.