Joel Cook’s power rankings for this week’s Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands includes some rather interesting positioning, starting with world No.1 Brooks Koepka ranked behind players such as world No. 48 Chez Reavie, while excluding world No. 6 Justin Thomas (one of the field’s top-3 ranked players) altogether.
Joel explains much of his thinking – particularly relative to Koepka, in this week’s Starter, but as always, proceed with caution when placing your bets.
Power Rankings: Travelers Top 10
10. Bryson DeChambeau
World Rank: 10 | PGA Tour Rank: 26 | Odds: 25-1
9. Jordan Spieth
World Rank: 29 | PGA Tour Rank: 67 | Odds: 16-1
8. Brooks Koepka
World Rank: 1 | PGA Tour Rank: 3 | Odds: 7-1
7. Paul Casey
World Rank: 15 | PGA Tour Rank: 8 | Odds: 18-1
6. Chez Reavie
World Rank: 48 | PGA Tour Rank: 35 | Odds: 50-1
5. Bubba Watson
World Rank: 22 | PGA Tour Rank: 70 | Odds: 28-1
4. Francesco Molinari
World Rank: 6 | PGA Tour Rank: 19 | Odds: 20-1
3. Patrick Cantlay
World Rank: 8 | PGA Tour Rank: 7 | Odds: 10-1
2. Marc Leishman
World Rank: 23 | PGA Tour Rank: 12 | Odds: 28-1
1. Jason Day
World Rank: 18 | PGA Tour Rank: 36 | Odds: 20-1
Sleeper Pick: Peter Malnati
Aside from a brief hot streak early in the 2016 season that saw his only PGA Tour victory, which came in a fall series event, Peter Malnati, the 32-year-old Indiana native has not done a lot with his Tour opportunities, posting just four top 10s in 127 starts. However, the man who got his 2019 Tour card through last year’s Web.com Tour finals has been taking advantage of his most recent opportunity and seems determined to not need to go that route again.
After missing five of his first eight cuts to being the season, Malnati has made 10 of his past 11, with three finishes of T17 or better in the past two months. He looked especially good at the recent Memorial Tournament where he led the field in greens in regulation and posted four straight rounds of par or better, including a pair of weekend 69s to finish T17, which he then followed up with a 66-68 start at the RBC Canadian Open two weeks ago.
He also played well at River Highlands a year ago, beginning the event with a 6-under 64 that had him just one stroke off the first round lead held by Zach Johnson and Jordan Spieth. Malnati’s putter has been the best part of his game this season, which is important at this short course.
