2023 AT&T Byron Nelson: Top 10 Power Rankings in Texas
Are you more of a TPC Craig Ranch person, or a TPC Craig Blue Cheese person? The PGA Tour is in Texas for the third time in 2023 for the AT&T Byron Nelson.
TPC Craig Ranch in Mckinney, Texas, is hosting for the third straight year.
The stakes are not sky-high this week at the Byron Nelson.
We’re coming off a designated event and leading into a major.
With that said, there are some storylines to keep an eye on in an event in this slot on the calendar.
Will the big names who do choose to tee it up this week play well? Will a lesser-known player win and emerge as a dark horse candidate at Oak Hill?
We shall see how it shakes out.
There are five players from the Official World Golf Ranking in this week’s field of 156.
Spieth and fellow Dallas native Scottie Scheffler have never won the Byron Nelson, which is something they’d both like to add to the resume. So would another local, Will Zalatoris, but he’s absent due to injury.
When looking at who can succeed this week, it starts with those who aren’t afraid to go low.
Lee won last year at 26-under. Fourteen players finished at -20 or better and the cut was -5.
In 2021, Lee “only” got to -25 and “only” six players broke -20. The cut was -6.
Wide fairways and a relatively long course at 7,468 yards for a par-72 make this an attractive venue for bombers. Especially so if a forecasted stormy, hot and humid week pans out as such.
Shorter hitters will do the opposite of a rain dance or it could be tough sledding.
A hot putting week from someone near the top of strokes gained off-the-tee is likely to emerge from a crowded leaderboard.
Let’s get to the top 10:
I have a fair amount of conviction in my top nine players this week, but the 10th and final spot felt like a wild card.
I could’ve gone for a young gun like Brandon Wu, who posted a top-10 in Mexico a couple weeks ago. Or perhaps one of the best putters on the PGA Tour and Rookie of the Year candidate, Taylor Montgomery.
The list goes on and on at an event where big names are sparse. That’s why I’m going with a proven winner.
Si Woo Kim can be a bit of an unpredictable player, though his talent has produced some high highs.
None more than his 2017 Players Championship victory.
It seems like Kim has been around forever. He did turn pro in 2012. However, he’s still just 27. To have four PGA Tour victories at this point is impressive.
Kim’s a winner this season. He went low with rounds of 67-67-64-64 to win the Sony Open in Hawaii.
He’d sign up for those scores here at TPC Craig Ranch.
In his two trips to Mckinney, Kim finished T-55th (66-70-70-72) in 2021 and missed the cut (72-69) last year.
He’s in a great position in the FedEx Cup sitting in the top 20. Getting back to East Lake and securing a spot in next year’s majors is important for a player who seems to be perpetually around that all-important top-50 world ranking line.
This is a great opportunity for Kim to take advantage of a weak field and earn more points.
He’s 31st on the PGA Tour this season in total strokes gained per round (.831). Aside from putting, he’s a positive in every category, including 22nd in SG off-the-tee (.925).
Kim missed his first cut since February a few weeks ago at the RBC Heritage. He bounced back by teaming up with Tom Kim to take T-7th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
He followed it up with T-43rd at last week’s designated event, the Wells Fargo Championship.
Kim’s flashed decent form in Texas in 2023. He took T-39th at the Valero Texas Open and took second place in his group to earn T-17th at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.