Rory, Ricki , Jordan, Jason, or ???? allot of great talent .
Who will be #1 by the end of the year??
Could be swapping in and out of #1 all year . Any of them could be there
Think Jordan or Rory have the best chance.
I think in the end it will be Speith. My son who is 22, spent 1/2 hour talking with him, he said he is incredibly normal and humble. I see some Nicklaus in him.
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Can't bet against Speith........watching Fowler tho.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say not Tiger.
I'm going with Jordan but watching Jason...should be fun year ...
are we talking money or rank?
I'll root for Speith, but like Day too. Won't root for Fowler until he learns how to wear a hat. Won't root for Rory just because.
12 days later
I have Jordan coming out on top. Of the top players in the world right now he is the most consistent and should just get better this year. I don't think Rory is strong enough mentally right now. Rickie is not ready to be number one and Jason is a dark horse in my estimation. He has hovered on the edge for the last few years and last year he broke though, but can he do it again this year. Not sure about that.
It's a fickle game, so it's hard to say. If Jason Day plays like he played the last half of the season, not sure anyone could overtake him.
I like what I'm seeing though. Jordan is obviously the guy in the spotlight, which makes it a little more difficult for him while some of the others can fly under the radar a bit more. I think 2016 however is more important to Rory than all the rest. He needs to step up and show that he's not backing down from Spieth and Day, accepting the challenge.
And that's a great predicament for him to be in as it relates to us fans. It's never a bad thing having a fierce battle for supremacy, something we can't say that we've had for a fairly long time, not even between two guys. There could be a couple more guys moving up a level too.
It's a different brand of excitement, for sure, but no less riveting to be able to witness. It's been a long time coming.
Jason Day seems to always have some sort of health issue going on, and because of this I don't see him being consistently winning long enough to remain even where he is right now.
Rory McIlroy is a head case IMHO. Greatest talent for the game, but he allows distraction and outside things to influence his game. I don't see Rory fulfilling his potential in the long run, which if he went based solely on his talents, he could probably win 20 majors. But he's screwing around with sponsors, equipment, women, and allowing a horde of hangers on to influence his every whim. Rory has maybe five good years left to do something spectacular, but ultimately I see him crashing and burning. He says all the right things, and has great PR for the most part, but he's trying to be all things to all people, and that will make him borderline suicidal eventually.
Rickie Fowler seems to not only have the talent, but the killer instinct for a long term run. It took him awhile to find that next elite level that only a few golfers ever find, but I think if he stays away from skanks and low class idiots (like Bubba) then the sky is the limit. I can see Rickie finally winning a major (or two) this year, and he could be in the conversation for #1 at the end of the year.
Jordan Spieth is still a mystery to me. He's already shown incredible talent and a bit of luck to win two majors basically right out of the box. But his putting stats from early last year indicate that this is not a long term thing. You don't make those % of 20+ footers for a long period of time, which is how he was winning early last year. I look for him to possibly struggle to compete at the majors, even though he'll probably be towards the top of the leaderboard. Can he continue to win like last year? Possibly. But unless he finds a way to continue to putt like he did last April and June, then he'll be mixing in a few MC's with some top 25 finishes, and we may see him come down to earth even as early as this year. The jury is still out for sustained success from him. Show me this year you can come even close to what you had last year, and I might buy in.
Of the above four golfers I see the biggest upside tragectory in Rickie Fowler, with Spieth, McIlroy and Day coming next in that order respectively. Fowler impresses me most out of the four though.
I really want to jump on the Fowler bandwagon. People are still pointing to his incredible comeback last season at The Players as his real breakthrough moment, but quite frankly I was more impressed with his performance the year prior in every single major tournament he played in.
I don't think he'll be without a major much longer.
He's ranked 4th in the world and I don't see that as a fluke.
I'd like to see DJ get it going, but I think Rory will rise to the top where he belongs.