Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend of watching the world's best battle one another in their quest for immortality and greatness. But enough about the World Cup, there was a U.S. Open, too!
Congratulations are in order for Wyndham Clark, someone who I don't think anyone expected to pick up a second major this year at the start of the season. Shinnecock has once again received mixed reactions for how it played and how the USGA may have screwed up the setup once again, but to be quite honest, I had a great time, and I think it's a great course that always crowns a deserving champion, so let's keep it in the rotation.
Before we move on to this week's Travelers Championship, we finally have some details on the two-track model the PGA Tour is planning to implement in 2028. While there's a good amount of detail that still needs to be figured out, the main idea that there will be one track of premier events that all of the big names will play in, along with a parallel series for lower-ranked players to promote out of and relegate into, is finally coming into shape.
Of course, there are all kinds that still need to get figured out, as Brian Rolapp has stated. It is hard not to look at the "Challenger Series" events, with smaller guaranteed purses and essentially a ranking cap on who can play in them, as anything much more than Rory calling them glorified Korn Ferry Tour events.
While it seems like there will be more week-to-week advancement opportunities, this structuring of the one Tour actually being two parallel Tours is actually going to have the opposite effect that Rolapp hopes for, which is getting the Challenger Series events to mean a lot more than normal week-to-week events.
If anything, I can see golf fans looking at the schedule, seeing that the only event for a given week is one of the lesser field events, and not tuning in at all. This is all still a little ways down the road, but specifics need to be banged out to avoid current Tour players feeling like they're back in the Minor Leagues.
Anyways, we're on to TPC River Highlands this week for the Travelers Championship. As a New Englander, Travelers is held very near and dear to my heart now that it's the only New England Tour event, and it's a week I look forward to every year. We're coming off an honorable mention win at the U.S. Open with Wyndham Clark, so let's try to get someone in the top nine in the winner's circle this weekend.
Honorable Mentions: Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Ben James, Keith Mitchell, Collin Morikawa
9. Aaron Rai
After winning the PGA Championship in May, it seemed like everyone had kind of forgotten about Aaron Rai and let him slip back into near-irrelevance. But, if you look at Rai's play over the last month, he's kept up his strong form. Sure, he missed the cut in Canada, but he posted a T19 at the Memorial and a T11 last week at Shinnecock. Pair that with returning to a course that he has progressively better and better at over the years, and Rai hoisting the trophy on Sunday seems more and more likely.
8. Min Woo Lee
One of the streakiest golfers on the planet, Min Woo Lee is in the midst of a cold stretch right now, missing the cut at both the Memorial and the U.S. Open. Lee is returning to a course where he finished T9 in his debut in 2023, and overall has gotten his driving accuracy, historically the weakest part of his game, above where he was in 2023. Lee is an immensely talented golfer, yet also frustrating because of how infrequently he turns the hypotheticals into strong results. Hopefully this weekend we see the Min Woo Lee everyone expects.
7. Matt Fitzpatrick
While a solo 22nd looks nice on the DataGolf page, Matt Fitzpatrick surely has to e disappointed in his weekend on Long Island. Poor driving was really the main thing that killed Fitzy over the weekend, and he is going to have to tighten things up around TPC River Highlands, which has statistically been one of the most penal courses to those who miss the fairway off the tee. After a hot start to the season, Fitzpatrick is ready to rediscover that form this weekend.
6. Maverick McNealy
Maverick McNealy has put together a solid 2026 campaign so far, even if he hasn't quite reached the same highs as he had in years past. He's finished in the top-25 in five of his last eight starts, and I think his play last week at Shinnecock was better than the end result of a T32 finish. I promise this pick is not because he has one of the best names in golf, I think that McNealy has found something to try and get his driving accuracy back to where it had been in the past, and that progression is going to play big time at TPC River Highlands.
5. Justin Rose
The McLaren switch has not been anywhere near as disastrous as expected for Justin Rose, with three top-12 finishes in his last four starts, and his strokes gained: approach numbers returning back to pre-club switch levels. Rose hasn't played Travelers a ton in recent years, with only a couple starts in the last five years, so we'd have to go way back in his career to get a full view of his play, which doesn't really do us any good. We've reached the best stretch of play we've seen from the veteran this season, and I wouldn't be surprised to find him working his way up the leaderboard this weekend.
4. Wyndham Clark
Your now two-time U.S. Open champion, I don't think TPC River Highlands actually sets up that well for Wyndham Clark. He earns his spot in the rankings this week purely by being the hottest player on the planet right now. I mentioned Clark's putter switch in the Canadian Open rankings, and he once again reaped the benefits by making seemingly everything he looked at at Shinnecock over the weekend. Maybe he just ends up being this generation's Andy North, but it seems like Wyndham is ready to fully ascend to true top-tier golfer status, and picking up a third win in five starts would go a long way.
3. Russell Henley
Shinnecock was abysmal for everyone's favorite sleeper pick from last week, as Russell Henley finished T65, posting yet another disappointing major finish from the Bulldog. However, Henley is returning to a course this week where he finished T2 last year, where he had a front row seat to Tommy Fleetwood's collapse on the 72nd hole. One bad week does not indicate a complete loss of skill from Henley, and I think he'll be able to knock it around TPC River Highlands and be just as dangerous as he has been earlier in the season.
2. Scottie Scheffler
Is it an overreaction to finally have Scottie Scheffler unseated from the number one spot after a T4 at the U.S. Open? Maybe, but Sunday at Shinnecock was a disappointment, especially with Wyndham showing that he was vulnerable. Shinnecock might end up feeling like a missed opportunity for Scottie, especially as the chase for the career Slam drags on. His game isn't quite to the same level as it has been in the last couple of years, and maybe we need to finally have that reflected in the rankings. A win still wouldn't surprise me this weekend, but maybe the mojo needs to change.
1. Xander Schauffele
While Xander Schauffele will probably be upset with a T11 finish at Shinnecock, it does run his streak to ten straight top-15 finishes at the U.S. Open, only behind Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, and Bobby Jones with that mark. Of course, we're in Cromwell, CT this week, at a venue where Xander has also enjoyed plenty of success through the years. Schauffele has had five top-25 finishes in seven starts at Travelers, including a win in 2022. The floor for Schauffele's game is right up there with the best in the world, and I think he's due for another victory on Tour. Why not this week?
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