The 2016 PGA Tour season marked another year of transition after a new cast of rising stars stole the spotlight and made it their own. Jason Day struggled to stay healthy, Rory McIlroy struggled with consistency and Dustin Johnson finally won a major. Then there is Jordan Spieth, who surprises golf experts for all of the wrong reasons following a brilliant 2015 season. What’s in store for the coming year? Here is a look at four golfers that will dominate the PGA Tour in 2017.
Jason Day
The World No. 1 announced in October that he would miss at least two months as he continued to rehab his back after an injury-plagued 2016 season. That decision could really pay off if he is healthy again in 2017. The 28-year-old battled nagging injuries all season and still recorded three wins and 10 top-10 finishes in 20 starts. The fact that he still finished second on the PGA Tour in earnings is an illustration of how good he is even when he isn’t at full strength so it’s scary to think about what he could do if he returns to 100-percent. Day will have the opportunity to re-establish himself as golf’s most dominant force in 2017 and it won’t be a surprise to anyone if he dominates on the PGA Tour once again.
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy picked up from where he left off in his first event of the official 2017 season as he placed fourth at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions at the end of October. This season McIlroy will need to focus on consistency and doing what it takes to challenge Day for the top spot in the world rankings. The talent is certainly there but the general consensus is that McIlroy has another level that we haven’t seen from him to this point. With a pair of wins and eight top-10 finishes in 18 starts in 2016 it’s clear that the potential is there for McIlroy to dominate if he can take that next step and establish the consistency required to be the top-ranked golfer in the world.
Dustin Johnson
2016 was a breakthrough year for the 32-year-old Johnson, who finally put it altogether and won his first major tournament at the U.S. Open. In fact, Johnson played some of his best golf in majors this past year as he finished fourth at the Masters and ninth at The Open in addition to his win at Oakmont in June. Johnson has all of the tools to dominate on the biggest stage and his consistency in 2016 was unrivalled as he recorded three wins and 15 top-10 finishes in 22 starts.
Johnson has only played one event on the 2017 calendar, finishing in a tie for the 35th at the World Golf Championships HSBC Champions. However, he’s going to start getting into the swing of things in early 2017 and he should again be one of the top golfers in the world. He’s currently the No. 3 player in the world.
Johnson has proven that he can contend with the best in the world and after establishing a new level of confidence he is poised to absolutely dominate once again in 2017.
Jordan Spieth
One year after stealing the spotlight with six wins and 16 top-10 finishes in 26 starts, Spieth struggled to meet expectations in 2016 with just two wins and only eight top-10 finishes in 21 starts. His lone top-10 major finish came when he was the runner-up at the Masters but he struggled after that with only three top-10 finishes the rest of the season. There was plenty of speculation about what was wrong with the former World No. 1 but it didn’t take long for him to signal that he is ready to bounce back in 2017. Spieth won his second Australian Open to officially kick off his 2017 PGA Tour season and it could be a sign of things to come. The 23-year-old is rested and refocused following six weeks off to rest and regain his mental focus. Yes, remember that he’s still just 23 years old. Although we hold him to such a high standard, he still has a ways to go before he hits his prime.
After last week’s win, all eyes are on Spieth to see if he can recapture his 2015 form and dominate the PGA Tour once again in 2017.
