Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)

Jon Rahm

Having experienced the to-be-expected ‘emotional hangover’ following his win at the Memorial and subsequent ascension to the World #1 spot, Jon Rahm seems to have resharpened his focus over the past few weeks and it’s been mirrored in the finishes he’s managed to produce. Since his sluggish T-52 at the WGC-FedEx in Memphis, Jon has racked up a T-13 at the PGA Championship (thanks to going 68-66 over the weekend) and, just this past weekend, secured a T-6 finish at the Northern Trust thanks to another hot weekend wherein he went 67-65 over Saturday & Sunday. As we all know, however, in spite of his best efforts in Boston, Jon was deposed from his recently reacquired #1 spot by the four days of unbridled golfing excellence produced by Dustin Johnson at the first of the FedEx Cup Playoff events and finds himself heading to Chicago this week as the second-best player in the world once again.

In the grand scheme of things, however, that doesn’t really matter a jot. Instead, the primary focus for Jon this week is going to be getting himself as close as possible to that number one spot in the FedEx Cup rankings to make sure he’s right in the mix ahead of making the journey to East Lake – and, from what I’ve seen at Olympia Fields, the Spaniard couldn’t ask for a better course on which to try and make that happen. Between his length off-the-tee (27th on Tour), accuracy off-the-tee (44th on Tour) & iron play (18th on Tour in GIR%), combined with the fact that, like Daniel Berger, the course suits someone who likes to hit a fade, if Jon can get off to a hot start on Thursday and get a feel for the greens early, he should, by right, be eyeing this up as a tournament that he can win. Plus, after seeing ALL that DJ accomplished at TPC Boston, I think Jon is the kind of guy who gets fired up by seeing a performance like that from one of his peers as if it’s almost another benchmark or level for him to try and reach, so I expect Jon to come out firing this week.

Daniel Berger

To be honest, part of me seriously considered just writing Daniel Berger’s record for the six events he’s played in since the return (1st, T-3, Cut, T-2, T-13, 3rd) and having that be all the reasoning for why I think he could do well this week, but so as to not leave you feeling shortchanged, I’ll go into a little more detail. 

With his length off-the-tee (298.8 yards, which isn’t mind-blowingly long, but it’s plenty long enough to get the job done), more-than-decent accuracy (40th on Tour in ‘Driving Accuracy’), workable iron play (71st in GIR with 68.25%) and really solid putting (12th in ‘Strokes Gained: Putting’ & 6th in both ‘Overall Putting Average’ & ‘Putts per Round’), this season Daniel has just been the epitome of an all-round good player who’s figured out how to make the most of the weapons in his arsenal. Like, I showed above his record since the return from lockdown, but if you combine those results with the best of what he did before the gates were closed back in March, then this season as a whole he’s finished 1st, T-2, 3rd, T-3, T-4, T-5, T-9, T-13, T-17 & T-18 … I mean, it’s like he’s playing an internal game of ‘Top 20 Bingo’ and trying to fill in all the squares.

So, to see Daniel heading to Olympia Fields this week, a course that should suit his eye down to the ground because of how it sets up for a left-to-right ball flight (his preferred shape with pretty much every shot), I think with his confidence in his game right now, his competitiveness and that he might want to secretly further punctuate his point that he feels he deserves a spot in this year’s Masters by grabbing his second win in seven events, don’t be surprised to see Daniel going deep into Sunday afternoon in Chicago.

Tony Finau

With a missed cut in Boston seeing him 29th in the FedEx Cup rankings, Tony is heading to Chicago this week with probably a lot more work ahead of him than what he would have wanted to ensure he does actually make it to East Lake. And if, somehow, that were to happen? As in, him not making it to Atlanta? Well, it really would be a kick in the stones for the big-hitting Utah native. 

Because when you think about it, this season, up until now, has been really close to being a ‘career season’ for Tony. Like, he lost in that playoff to Webb Simpson at the Waste Management – a win that, if he’d managed to pull it off, would have finally stopped all the chatter about how he’s “only” got one win on tour. Through 47 holes of the Memorial, Tony was looking incredibly strong and like he was going to be the guy to beat, but then took himself out of the tournament over the remainder of the back 9 on Saturday to leave himself with just too much to do heading into Sunday – another good chance gone. The following week at the 3M Open? This time Tony was really well-placed heading into Sunday, just two back of the lead, but wound up finishing in a tie for 3rd and three back of the eventual winner in Michael Thompson. And then, finally, at the PGA Championship a few weeks ago, after finding himself with a nice late tee-time on Sunday, Tony played really well, got into contention, shot a low round … but it still just wasn’t enough to take home the win and he wound up having to settle for a tie for 4th. 

I mean, when you look at those finishes, it’s kinda hard to fathom how he’s not further up the FedEx rankings, to be fair, but what they do show, ultimately, is that Tony has been playing well recently. And because of that fact, I expect him to shake off the missed cut at the Northern Trust and come out really strong in Chicago to punch his ticket to the Tour Championship because, with his power & natural fade, he has the game to do it – he just needs to string it all together early in the week and over the weekend, i.e. mainly drive the ball well and get the putter going.

Matthew Wolff

Sitting 33rd in the FedEx Cup rankings as he heads to Olympia Fields, Matthew Wolff knows that he needs to have a strong week in order to break into the top 30 and make it to Atlanta. Now, as we’ve seen since he burst onto the scene last year with his win at the 3M Open and at times over the course of this season (i.e. at the Rocket Mortgage Classic & PGA Championship) when he’s “on”? Matthew has the skill-set to hang with anyone in the game. The problem he’s had, however, is finding that form on a consistent enough level where he’s competing up near the business end of leaderboards week-to-week, hence why he’s only managed just the two top 10’s all season, at the aforementioned Rocket Mortgage Classic & PGA Championship, and why he finds himself needing to pull something out of the bag right at the death to make it to East Lake.

The thing is, though, I think the way Matthew performed at the PGA Championship over the four days – and, in particular, on Sunday – will have done his confidence the world of good. And if you look at how he performed in Boston last week – removing that round of 77 he shot out of nowhere on Saturday, of course – there’s an argument to be made that his game is, indeed, in quite a good place at the moment as both his ‘Driving Accuracy’ & ‘GIR %’ stats were better than his season averages in those categories en route to chalking up his eventual total of -8. So, given he likes to fade the ball, along with the fact that Olympia Fields reminds me in a lot of ways of the Detroit Golf Club (site of the Rocket Mortgage Classic), I think everything is set up this week for Matthew – who’s still only 21, remember – to not only push his way into that all-important top 30 but possibly even sneak the biggest win of his career to-date on Tour.

Title Photo Credit: The Signature 14th at Olympia Fields North/Dimpled Rock Golf Photography