Top 10: International & European players for 2021

One of the many things affected by the COVID-19 pandemic was scheduling for the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup. Both competitions were pushed back a year, moving the Ryder Cup to odd years and the Presidents Cup to even years. Whistling Straits in Wisconsin will host the Ryder Cup next year and the Presidents Cup will be played at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow in 2022.

So, as we head to the new year, we’ve decided to highlight some of those players the U.S. teams may come up against in the coming seasons. We have split this top-10 list into the top five Europeans and top five Internationals.

This is a subjective list; there is no science. Most of these players, though, have shown signs of having a big year ahead.

Here are the 10:

INTERNATIONALS

5. Joaquin Niemann

The 22-year-old strikes us as someone who is only going to improve as his experience bank gets filled. With a PGA TOUR win already in his kitbag, Chile’s golf sensation is one to watch in 2021. His Presidents Cup debut in Melbourne might have only yielded a half point but it set him on a path towards excellence. Seeing how his elders prepared and realizing he belongs in the upper echelon of this game has him in great shape.

Niemann was the first winner of the 2019-20 season at The Greenbrier and would ultimately finish 27th in the FedExCup. An improvement on this would not be a surprise in 2020-21.

In the fall portion of this season we saw Niemann quietly move to 35th in the FedExCup with five of his six starts resulting in top 25s, highlighted by a sixth-place finish at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK. Had it not been for an unfortunate positive test for COVID-19 prior to the Masters, he could have easily been higher.

We also saw evidence of his maturity as he used his last two events of the year to raise money for his infant cousin’s million-dollar medical treatment. It was a classy move and helped bring awareness to the cause.

4. Hideki Matsuyama

Incredible to think Matsuyama is still just 28. It feels like he’s been on the PGA TOUR for a long time now. It feels like that because he has. He made five appearances on TOUR as a young amateur between 2011-13 before turning professional and becoming a mainstay from the 2013-14 season onwards.

Matsuyama is a five-time TOUR winner who has never finished worse than 28th in the FedExCup – and that was his first full season. Since then, he’s always found a spot between eighth and 16th on the list. After the fall portion of this season Matsuyama is 23rd on the list with his runner up at the Vivint Houston Open the highlight.

Now astute fans would be well aware Matsuyama has been a model of consistency but also has not won since his three-win 2016-17 season. We’ve passed the three-year barrier in this drought but have an expectation it will come to an end in 2021.

Due to a COVID-19 adjustment Matsuyama is eligible for a start in the upcoming Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui afforded to all TOUR Championship qualifiers from last season. In his three previous starts there he was T4-2-T3. Also early in 2021 he is likely to play the Waste Management Phoenix Open where after his T4 on debut in 2014 has gone T2-1-1-WD-T15-T16.

3. Abraham Ancer

It’s time. Beyond time perhaps. But 2021 will see Ancer take the next step in his progression and become a PGA TOUR winner. While short in stature Ancer is enormous in heart, fight and talent and quite frankly is too good a player not to have tasted winning success on this TOUR.

The 29-year-old Mexican has been knocking hard on the door in recent years with a runner up finish in 2019 and two of them last season as he finished a career best 18th in the FedExCup.

He will start the 2021 portion of the season in 31st on the FedExCup list after a decent fall that included a fourth-place finish at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and a T13 (Masters) and T12 (Mayakoba Golf Classic Presented by UNIFIN) in his last two starts.

At Augusta National, Ancer forged his way into the final group for Sunday with tenacious play and while a short missed putt on the par-5 second hole on Sunday seemed to rattle him, the experience gained from that day is another in the bank that gets him closer to the elusive win.

The key for Ancer will be lifting his Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and SG: Putting levels. Last season, he upped his putting to 41st on TOUR after a few years in triple digits. Early this season its slipped back to 107th. Around the green has been in triple digits the last three seasons but currently in 2020-21 sits at 77th.

2. Sungjae Im

What might have been. After winning Rookie of the Year in 2019, Im continued to impress in the beginning of 2019-20 season with a runner-up and third-place result last fall. He was a machine at the Presidents Cup and leveraged the experience gained into a career first TOUR win at the Honda Classic.

A week later, the South Korean was third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and was leading the FedExCup as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and shut down part of the season.

The momentum was lost – not all that surprising given Im likes to play most weeks and had not dealt with a significant break in his short career. With cautious optimism that any such long breaks won’t be part of 2021 - we feel Im will once again get into his groove.

In his 12 starts after the break, Im had just two top 10s, ultimately finishing 11th in the FedExCup. This new season had been relatively pedestrian early until a runner up finish at the Masters in November, which saw him apply some brief Sunday pressure to Dustin Johnson.

It is that effort that sparks the positivity behind his climb. It would not be a surprise to see him head to the PLAYERS Championship once again near the lead of the FedExCup standings.

1. Cameron Smith

Imagine being the first player in Masters history to shoot four rounds in the 60s and still not win the tournament. That is exactly what happened to Cameron Smith this past November. The 28-year-old Australian has long threatened to show his best stuff on the biggest stages and his short game at Augusta National was world class.

It came after a T11 at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK and a T4 at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP to help him finish the early section of the season in 15th on the FedExCup. But he’s been in a similar situation before. Now we expect Smith to deliver on his promise on a more consistent basis.

The fall and early part of a calendar year has always been the honeypot part of Smith’s efforts with around 40percent of his PGA TOUR top 10s coming in the months of October and November.

Last season he kicked on after an inspired comeback win in Presidents Cup singles over Justin Thomas to get his second TOUR win, and first individual TOUR title, at the Sony Open of Hawaii in early January. After that, he let things slide and failed to record another top 10 before being T24 in the TOUR Championship.

In 2021 things should be different. With a taste of what he’s truly capable of Smith should maintain the highest levels of motivation for longer periods and produce a career year.

EUROPEANS

5. Tommy Fleetwood

The fact that 2020 was not at Tommy Fleetwood’s usual high standards yet he still had every opportunity to win the European Tour’s Race to Dubai speaks volumes of the Englishman’s talent.

A five-time European Tour winner Fleetwood is still searching for a maiden PGA TOUR win, something we don’t expect to elude him much longer. The carrot of the Ryder Cup will also help spark his 2021 efforts – who could forget his combination with Francesco Molinari in Paris.

With global travel in upheaval at times it makes sense last season was tougher on Fleetwood and others from outside the U.S. If things settle down sooner rather than later, so will normal service for Fleetwood.

4. Tyrrell Hatton

He’s nothing if not entertaining. This fiery Englishman is as outwardly emotional as they come, constantly self-deprecating despite having immense talent that finds him in contention often. Whether it rubs you the right or wrong way, the reality is it shows just how passionate the 29-year-old is.

Hatton has five European Tour wins and was the champion at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard right before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last season. He came out of the break with back-to-back top five’s and ultimately was seventh in the FedExCup.

While he missed the cut at both the U.S. Open and the Masters in the fall portion of this new season, Hatton also added a couple of top-10s in Las Vegas and Houston. As always, be prepared to ride the rollercoaster with this guy, but we think there will be more highs than lows.

3. Viktor Hovland

What a pickup for the future of European golf this guy looks set to be. Even before claiming his second PGA TOUR title recently at the Mayakoba Golf Classic Presented by UNIFIN we had Hovland slated for this list. Now he’s just climbed higher up it.

The 23-year-old from Norway moved up to No. 15 in the world after his win in Mexico and joined legends Rory McIlroy, Seve Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm as the only Europeans in the last 75 years to win multiple PGA TOUR titles before turning 24.

Hovland also joined the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jerry Pate and Lanny Wadkins as the only players in the last 75 years to win the U.S. Amateur and multiple PGA TOUR titles before turning 24. Everyone else on that list won at least one major and a PLAYERS Championship.

With silky ball-striking skills many players would die for Hovland can contend most weeks. If he continues to improve his short game and putting he could become the type of player we see win often.

2. Jon Rahm

As we head towards 2021, Rahm is the leading European in the world rankings, slotting in behind only American Dustin Johnson. And he’s coming off a 2020 season featuring two PGA TOUR wins, taking his TOUR tally to five. So having him here at No.2 is not a reflection on his ability in any sense, nor is it to say we don’t expect him to improve even further in 2021.

In fact, Rahm could quite easily win multiple times in the new year, and with the U.S. Open set for Torrey Pines, where he’s had success in the past, and another tilt at the Masters, where he’s had three straight top 10s, coming in April, it could be an incredible 2021 for the 26-year-old Spaniard.

The drive behind Rahm is ever present and he will never lack for motivation. Passion is a weapon he has learned to harness and use to his advantage. If he ended the season as FedExCup champion you’d be lucky to find anyone surprised.

1. Rory McIlroy

Call it a hunch if you like but Rory McIlroy is set to produce a vintage display in 2021.

The two-time FedExCup champion failed to win anywhere in the world in 2020, (his World Golf Championships – HSBC Champions win was in 2019 as part of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season) and it is a drought we don’t expect to last.

It is easy to forget he began last season on the PGA TOUR with the following results leading into the cancelled PLAYERS Championship – T3-1-T3-T5-5-T5. And just as easy to not lay enough importance on the fact his form after the COVID-19 break coincided with the latter stages of his wife’s pregnancy for their first born child.

With the PGA Championship returning to Kiawah Island, where McIlroy won by eight shots in 2012, it seems the perfect timing for him to break his major winning drought of over seven years also. He could take care of that at the Masters in April now having recorded top 10s at Augusta National in six of his last seven starts there. And he will be the defending champion at THE PLAYERS in March after last year’s edition was cancelled.

With the experience and perspective of a new father relieving some external and internal stress the Northern Irishman is primed.