Power Rankings: Barracuda Championship

Adam Scott went through U.S. Open qualifying for the first time in his career and made it into next week’s Open at Shinnecock Hills with one stroke to spare.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The PGA TOUR has announced that it will implement a new Integrity Program effective January 1, 2018, to protect its competitions from potential outside influences related to gambling. While the TOUR has a longstanding policy prohibiting players from betting or related activities at TOUR-related events, the new Integrity Program is more comprehensive. It will cover all facets of competition and operations on the six Tours overseen by the PGA TOUR, including players and their support teams, all tournament staff and volunteers, the entire PGA TOUR staff and the PGA TOUR Policy Board. The Program’s stated mission is: “To maintain integrity and prevent and mitigate betting-related corruption in PGA TOUR competitions – ensuring competitions always reflect, and appear to reflect, the best efforts of the players, while protecting the welfare of the players and others involved with the PGA TOUR – through clear policies and regulations, ongoing education and training, and effective and consistent monitoring and enforcement functions.� To assist with the implementation of the program the TOUR has engaged Genius Sports, the global leader in sports integrity services, to provide several key services. This includes its state-of-the-art bet monitoring system which tracks real-time betting activity and utilizes proprietary algorithms to identify potentially suspicious patterns occurring in global betting markets. “The bedrock of PGA TOUR competition are the inherent values of golf and the honesty and integrity of our members,� PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said. “We recognize, however, that no sport is fully immune from the potential influence of gambling. So, we felt it was important to move forward with an Integrity Program to further protect our competition from betting-related issues. Genius Sports will provide essential support as we roll out the Program across the entire PGA TOUR.� The TOUR has worked with Genius Sports to develop a tailored educational program that will help players, caddies and officials to identify, resist and report incidents of potential betting corruption. Educational workshops will reinforce the PGA TOUR’s regulations and highlight the potential consequences related to betting corruption. Additionally, custom-made e-learning modules will be available on a worldwide basis to all PGA TOUR players in multiple languages. Mark Locke, CEO at Genius Sports Group, said: “We are delighted to partner with the PGA TOUR to drive its integrity initiatives. Protecting the integrity of sport has never been of greater importance and it requires forward-thinking organizations such as the PGA TOUR to proactively invest in both proven technology and education driven by true expertise.� The TOUR will receive important insight into global betting activity on its tournaments across the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Web.com Tour, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR China, covering approximately 140 events per year. The Program will be administered by a PGA TOUR Integrity Officer, and investigations will be conducted by an independent group with experience in law enforcement.

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Daniel Summerhays … With his record at TPC Deere Run since 2013 – 4-for-5 with four top 15s and a career-low 62 in 2013 – he should have our attention. However, every once in a great while, a golfer who also should be in the Power Rankings slips into this grouping based solely on course history as a benefit of the doubt, because current form has escaped him. In 13 individual competitions on the PGA TOUR this season, he’s made only four cuts, none of which resulted in a top-50 finish. He arrived in the Quad Cities having missed five straight cuts and with eight consecutive rounds over par. The 34-year-old on conditional status still has the capacity to be a lights-out putter and scorer, it’s just that he needs to plug into that potential on this course once again. C.T. Pan … If you understand the long game of reaching and maintaining status on the PGA TOUR, then his trajectory is pretty much on target with his projection prior to his rookie season of 2016-17. Like so many decorated collegians, the former standout at the University of Washington has been laying a foundation of experience inside the ropes while learning the ropes of everything that goes with the road-warrior mentality week to week. While he’s yet to record a top 10 this season, he’s connected for six top 20s, three of which in his last five starts to cement his TOUR card for 2018-19 when the flood gates could swing open as they often do for a third-year talent with his pedigree. As it pertains to the formula that can work for his debut at TPC Deere Run, the diminutive 26-year-old ranks 19th in greens hit. Trey Mullinax … Despite manufacturing a schedule with conditional status a second-year TOUR member, he’s headed for the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time, so everything between now and then is a bonus. A T6 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in early June is his only top-55 finish during his current 4-for-9 stretch, but it’s also why he’s dangerous. Currently 43rd on TOUR in birdies-or-better percentage while standing over scoring opportunities and T32 in par-5 scoring. Also placed T19 at TPC Deere Run as a debutant last year. Wesley Bryan … Although mired in a Sophomore Slump, there have been signs that the 28-year-old is climbing out of it. After enduring a 1-for-8 drought from February through early May, he’s survived five consecutive cuts, including a season-best T12 in Memphis a month ago. Save the trick shots, his strongest skill is with the putter, so the timing of its importance in what tilts towards a putting contest this week helps explain why he’s finished T8 (2016) and T3 (2017) in his only two appearances of the John Deere Classic. Perhaps best of all, with six weeks before the FedExCup Playoffs begin, he knows he’s already exempt through next season by virtue of his breakthrough victory at Harbour Town in 2016-17. With the pressure off, he can step on the pedal. Peter Malnati … When a relative unknown wins as early in a wraparound season as he did at the Sanderson Farms Championship in 2015, and then goes quiet during the interim, it’s natural to forget that he’s been fully exempt ever since hoisting the rooster trophy in Mississippi. Now grinding at 156th in the FedExCup standings, he’s been pecking away at leaderboards for three months, going 7-for-9 albeit sans a top 25. He’s also without a top 25 in his last two trips to TPC Deere Run, but as one of the best putters on the circuit who ranks 40th in connecting on par breakers after hitting GIR, this is as good a time as any to showcase what got him all the way here in the first place.

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