The main attraction in golf this week is not across the Atlantic but in Memphis, as the golfing world shifts its attention from the 2019 British Open to a WGC event at the TPC Southwind. As usual, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, and Dustin Johnson will be the golfers to watch, but here are three sleepers who could end up topping the field this coming weekend.
Kisner has a golden opportunity to enter his name into the history books this week. If he could win the 2019 FedEx St. Jude Classic, he’ll be the first back-to-back winner of WGC tournaments ever. Not even Dustin Johnson and Tiger Woods have done that before, and that should be something that’s going to light up a fire underneath the 13-year pro. Kisner won the last WGC event, topping the field at the 2019 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play back in March. Kisner followed that win with a T21 at the 2019 Masters. He enters this week’s event in Memphis on the heels of a pedestrian T30 finish at Royal Portrush. In 21 starts this season, Kisner has managed to collect three top 10s and right top 25s while getting cut just three times.
A return to North American soil could get Stenson going again. Stenson had trouble battling the elements at Royal Portrush last week, but still finished with a respectable T20 at the 2019 British Open. Before crossing across the pond, Stenson had a T8 at the RBC Canadian Open and followed that up with a T9 at the US Open. Overall this season, Stenson has three top 10s and eight top 25s. He’s been cut just once so far, and that was many tournaments ago during the PLAYERS Championship back in March. Stenson is also the Tour’s leader in shots gained: approach the green and the owner of the fifth-best driving accuracy percentage on the season thus far.
It hasn’t been smooth for Woodland since an inspiring (and surprising) win at the US Open last June. Since then, he’s been cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and at the 2019 British Open. Speaking of inspiration, though, Woodland can draw plenty of that from his family. Woodland’s wife is reportedly set to give birth to twins this July. We’ve seen athletes before perform way better than expected right around the time of the birth of a new child, and Woodland could just be the latest example of that.
