Justin Thomas: The Only Top Five Player With A 2020 Victory

The PGA Tour is back in action this week, finally, and it will have the top five players in the world at The Charles Schwab Challenge, but only one of them has won a tournament this year.

When the PGA Tour pulled the plug on play after one round of The Players back in March, up to that point, there had been exactly 11 events in calendar year 2020.  Forget those 2019 silly cross-over tournaments.

Yes, 11 tournaments and 11 separate, varied winners.

Only one of them was a top five player.

That was Justin Thomas, who jumped out the box fast and won the Tournament of Champions the first week of January, 2020.

Here are the winners who followed:

Sony Open:  Cameron Smith.

American Express:  Andrew Landry.

The Farmers:  Marc Leishman.

Phoenix Open:  Webb Simpson.

Pebble Beach Pro-Am:  Nick Taylor.

Genesis:   Adam Scott.

WGC-Mexico:  Patrick Reed.

Puerto Rico Open (opposite field):  Viktor Hovland.

The Honda:  Sungjae Im.

Arnold Palmer Invitational:  Tyrrell Hatton.

And that short list brings you up-to-date on the calendar year 2020 winners.

No Rory McIlroy, no John Rahm, no Brooks Koepka, no Dustin Johnson.  Just No. 4 Justin Thomas and his win seems like it came two years ago — this shutdown due to the Corona Virus has that sort of effect on time and put all professional sports on hold.

NASCAR is back and on Thursday, the PGA Tour will add itself to that short list.

So with a stellar field at Colonial Country Club — it begs the question — Will one of the world’s Top Five play his way into the winner’s circle next Sunday?

Rory McIlroy seems most prepared.  He looked fairly ready judging from his play last month at Seminole Golf Club when he stuck a wedge shot within 10-feet in the playoff to provide a win for himself and partner Dustin Johnson over Rickie Fowler and Matt Wolff.

Truth be known, D.J. played absolutely awful at Seminole.  His actual score likely would have been 76 or 77.

Rickie Fowler made the most birdies but he also made a slew of bogies and when it came time to hit that wedge shot into the playoff hole, something like 121 yards, he tried to back-off of a nine-iron and hit a miserable bleeder to the right that totally missed the green.

Matt Wolff looked okay in the matches.

That’s all we have to go on when it comes to the world’s No. 1.

As for Rahm, he hasn’t been seen in quite a while, no telling what he’ll look like this week.

Brooks Koepka?  Well, Koepka has looked pretty sloppy in his three appearances for 2020:  T43 at The Genesis, a Missed Cut at The Honda (in his backyard) and a T47 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.  Pretty ugly stuff.

On the other end of the success spectrum, McIlroy hasn’t finished out of the top five in any event for 2020.  His chart:  T3 at The Farmers, T5 at The Genesis.  Fifth at WGC-Mexico and T5 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Rahm’s been impressive at well:  Runnerup at The Farmers, T9 in Phoenix, T17 at The Genesis and T3 at WGC-Mexico.

In addition to his early-season win, J.T. had a MC at The Sony, T3 in Phoenix, MC at The Genesis then a T6 at WGC-Mexico.  Either really good or not-so-good for J.T.

As for D.J.?  Well, his 2020 results look somewhat indifferent:  T32 at Pebble Beach Pro-Am, T10 at The Genesis and a woeful T48 at WGC-Mexico.  He looked totally rusty at Seminole.

So who steps up this week?

Gotta go with Rahm, Rory or maybe J.T.