The PGA Championship has come and gone, with Scottie Scheffler further establishing himself as the best player of the 2020s by capturing his third major championship.
The leaderboard improved day over day and gave us a Sunday that at least became interesting for a tiny bit when Jon Rahm tied Scottie at the top for a couple of holes. Is Quail Hollow a major championship-quality venue? I'm still not convinced, but let's celebrate Scottie for now and worry about courses later.
This week, the PGA Tour heads back to Texas for the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club.
Colonial is another part of this run the Tour has been on, with more historic courses that are small by modern standards, much like Philadelphia Cricket Club and Harbour Town. With its narrow fairways and tight greens, Colonial boils down to the following formula: drive accurately, hit good approach shots, and putt well.
Scottie's victory gives us six straight weeks of winners, and we're just going to keep things rolling along. Anyone could've guessed that the No. 1 player in the world could win the PGA last week, so perhaps there's nothing impressive about getting Scottie right.
But let's just go ahead and keep the streak this week and let the hit rate get better and better.
Honorable Mentions: Bud Cauley, Ryan Gerard, Tom Hoge, Mackenzie Hughes, Hideki Matsuyama
9. Daniel Berger
The 2020 winner at the Charles Schwab Challenge in the first tournament back once play resumed during the pandemic, Berger is coming off of a few solid weeks that include a T3 at RBC Heritage.
The 32-year-old has the right skill mix to play well this week at Colonial, but the one thing that worries me is that the putter is a little cold right now.
Three straight weeks of negative strokes gained with the short stick dull the shine of Berger a bit, but none of the weeks have been disastrous enough to fully shake the confidence.
8. Eric Cole
Earlier in the season, Eric Cole couldn't find the fairway and was getting killed in his results.
Since The Players Championship, though, he's gotten the driving back to neutral, and his results have started looking much better, missing only one cut in his last eight starts. And that was at the team event in New Orleans.
On top of that, he's had positive putting in each of those events, and positive approach play in seven of those eight events. The 2023 Rookie of the Year is trending back in the right direction.
7. J.T. Poston
J.T. Poston hits all of the same trends and skills as Eric Cole; he's just slightly better in all aspects.
Coming off a T5 finish at the PGA, the Postman may be primed for a come-down from the adrenaline of Sunday. However, his current run of four straight top-25s shows that last week was not a fluke, and that Poston should be contending once again come Sunday at Colonial.
6. Harris English
Harris English may have given us the ultimate backdoor T2 finish at Quail Hollow on Sunday. The irons and putter are cooperating very well for the world No. 17 right now, and his win at Farmers with a negative week off the tee makes me feel more confident in his ability for this week.
The driving has been consistently better since that win in January, and his overall ball striking should give confidence to anyone picking Harris English in fantasy this week.
5. Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth has definitely cooled off since his fourth-place finish at the Byron Nelson and was a little unlucky to miss the cut at Quail Hollow last week.
However, coming home to Texas wakes something up in Jordan, and I think that his performance at RBC shows that he can still hang on these tighter courses. Also, Spieth has eight career top-10s at Colonial, so the vibes will be running high this week.
4. Andrew Novak
Despite missing his opportunity to impress captain Keegan Bradley at the PGA, Andrew Novak is still having a fantastic season.
He's played well on courses with tighter-than-average fairways this year (Valero, RBC Heritage, Farmers Insurance), and his irons are consistently solid. If Novak can find a good week with the putter, he could be threatening once again for a win this year.
3. Ben Griffin
Novak's teammate at the Zurich, Ben Griffin, put together a great Sunday at Quail Hollow to finish T8 at a course that I did not think fit him at all.
His irons are his best weapon, and Colonial begs for players to play their irons well. While he has been a little up and down this season, I think finishing in the top 10 at a major can be a great catalyst for a second-half surge from Griffin.
2. Brian Harman
Brian Harman's best finishes recently are his win at Valero and a T3 at RBC Heritage, two courses that match up well with what Colonial requires.
Valero saw the lefty finish second in strokes gained approach and fifth in strokes gained putting, which kickstarted a run of five straight weeks of positive putting performance. While it will always be wild that Harman is a major champion, he should be putting together another strong week at Colonial.
1. Scottie Scheffler
Joel Beall of Golf Digest wrote a great reaction piece to Scottie's win, likening the current status of professional golf to professional tennis.
Scheffler's win, to use this comparison, moves him from the Rafael Nadal zone closer to Roger Federer (or possibly Novak Djokovic), showing that he can break through at majors away from one venue.
What else is there to say about Scottie at this point? He's the most complete golfer on the planet, nothing fazes him anymore, and he's simply a golfing machine who's showing no signs of slowing down.
This week could be a repeat of the Byron Nelson, and it wouldn't be shocking. There's a reason his competitors keep saying in interviews that they want to do things more like Scottie. There's no stopping him.