The nearly-men of the Ryder Cup selection process have dominated the early stages of the new PGA Tour season, first Max Homa and then Sam Burns showcasing in stark terms the depth of talent in the United States. Now, less than a fortnight on from their record victory over Europe, Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler are the first members of Steve Stricker's side to get back to the day job in the Shriners Children's Open.
Back in 2012, four members of the victorious Ryder Cup side plus one vice captain combined to win five of the nine remaining European Tour events, and many will expect his victory over Jon Rahm in the singles to prove similarly catalytic for Scheffler. One of the two best maidens on the circuit, he's done everything but win, from shooting 59 in Boston to finishing runner-up in a WGC and building an excellent bank of form in majors.
As for Koepka, his record in this event — two top-fives, three missed cuts — is a mirror of his play in 2021. His pickpocket victory in Phoenix came after a run of three missed cuts, and he followed it with two more in his following five events, but two near-misses to go with it. Koepka has been all-or-nothing, either inside the top seven or outside the top 20, for almost three full PGA Tour seasons now. The 'only majors matter' schtick isn't quite true, but it's clear he's not that bothered about fighting to finish 12th.
Matsuyama ended a historic season on something of a low note, perhaps finding the tank running empty after the combination of becoming the first Japanese man to win a major championship, and then heading home to Tokyo for the Olympics. He did incredibly well to follow the disappointment of narrowly missing a medal there with second place in the St Jude Invitational, but come the TOUR Championship appeared in need of a reset.
Having had that, Matsuyama returned with sixth place in the Fortinet Championship, his trademark tee-to-green game back on-song, and it sets him up nicely for a return to Summerlin. He was 10th here on debut in 2014, which came after a similar effort in California and when he was at exactly the same spot in the world rankings, and finished 16th in 2019 despite having missed the cut a week earlier.
Given that he also had to battle back from an injury which forced him to withdraw from the Open despite a good start, he's done extraordinarily well and the only real criticism I would level at the youngster is his failure to kick on last week. His class should've counted for a lot during the third round of the Sanderson Farms Championship, but Zalatoris stood still as Burns made his pay instead.
Still, that's finishes of 11th and 14th to begin the season, the first on his course debut, the second at one where he'd missed the cut in 2020. Therein lies the key: now, for the first time as a fully paid-up PGA Tour member, he returns to a course at which he has positive experience and proof of his suitability. Last year, while playing for his membership, he fired back-to-back 64s here and finished in a tie for fifth.
As you'd expect, that performance came in spite of rather than thanks to the putter, which saw him rank 42nd. The good news there is some hard work and an equipment change have seemingly helped improve matters, because after losing strokes in each of his seven starts before the Open, he's gained strokes in three from four since then.
The case for him there did include local ties and course form, but he has the latter here having closed with a round of 63 to finish runner-up in 2015, and 64 for fourth place in 2017.
Since then, Kizzire's eight rounds have all been under par, enough to finish mid-pack, and a scoring average just north of 68 highlights how comfortable he is at the course. Generally he's one of those who is best avoided out west, where poa annua greens have often been problematic, but these smooth Bentgrass surfaces are plainly to his liking.
His record during this part of the calendar — by which I mean the events from the Fortinet Championship through to the American Express, when fields are a little weaker — is excellent, covering both his wins. In total he boasts 11 top-10 finishes from October to January, versus seven from February to September. He's played more than twice the number of events over the latter period than the former.
Bramlett currently ranks 180th in strokes-gained putting, last of all those to have played all eight rounds so far this season. But the fact he has been so poor on the greens yet managed to play every round tells you how well he's hit the ball, ranking seventh and eighth in strokes-gained approach and gaining 14 strokes with his ball-striking in total.
That's quality tee-to-green play and while not necessarily surprising given he's been known as a strong ball-striker for a long time, his iron play in particular represents a notable step up. It looks to me like the confidence taken from winning the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, his first tour-level success as a professional, has made a difference as he embarks upon another PGA Tour season.
So far Bramlett has failed to establish himself at this level, but his career has been plagued by injuries and only now does he look ready to press on. Long and straight off the tee and now showing signs that he can be equally as effective with his approaches, there is only one missing piece to the jigsaw, and that's putting.
He's been catching the eye for a long time now and with his 40th birthday approaching, a big performance seems likely if he can get the putter working, something he has managed to do in four of his last five visits to Summerlin.
Some will look at his course record, which shows a best of 24th in 10 attempts, and determine that it just isn't the right place for an accurate, green-finding type who might prefer tougher conditions. However, he shot 61 here in 2016, opened 68-64 last year, and back at the beginning of his PGA Tour career was the halfway leader in the event.
However, that confirmed my suspicion he's been closer than his results suggest, and although his inconsistency means we can't be confident he'll back it up, 250/1 seems an enormous price for someone who has won twice in the last three years on the PGA Tour and twice before that at Korn Ferry Tour level.
Certainly Landry is one who can be relied on when he does get in the mix and both those victories correlate nicely with Summerlin. The first came at TPC San Antonio, a desert course in Texas with similar characteristics, and the second came in the CareerBuilder Challenge, played across three desert courses in California.
So far he's not yet shown quite the same level of form here at Summerlin, but last year he opened 64-68 before rounds of 67 and 71 saw him fall to 27th. Nevertheless, that was a decent effort and by far his best since winning at huge odds nine months earlier.
Indeed both of Landry's wins have been at prices north of 200/1 and he's capable of producing another upset here.
Posted at 1200 BST on 05/10/21
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