The 2017-2018 PGA Tour season kicks off today with the 1st round of the Safeway Open. The season wraps up in Atlanta again on 9/23/18. This season's schedule consists of 49 FedEx Cup tournaments and record total prize money of more than $363 million (that kind of money buys a lot of pancakes at IHOP).

A lot of credit needs to go revots33's way for predicting the monster that Justin Thomas was going to be a couple of years ago. JT was the past season's POY and FedEx Cup champion:



One has to wonder the goals this wunderkid has put in his iPhone for the upcoming PGA Tour season.

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Taking a look at the OWGR top 50 entering the season, USA#1 is back in a dominant position with 3 of the top 4 and 26 overall.





Some of the biggest movers up the OWGR rankings for this calendar year include: Rahm (137>5), Fleetwood (99>17), Harman (141>28), Perez (118>31), Schauffele (299>32), Henley (128>44), Hadwin (191>48), and Bryan (127>50). Look for more positive results from these players in the upcoming season.

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The year's major venues include a return to Shinnecock Hills for the U.S. Open (for the first time since '04), my favorite British Open venue is back this year -- Carnoustie Golf Links, and crappy Bellerive C.C. hosts the PGA Championship.

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Now for some predictions:

The player most likely to win a major this year:



The player most likely to win the FedEx Cup:



The side most likely to lose the Ryder Cup:



The player most likely to end a round putting with a club other than his putter:



The player most likely to be rookie of the year:

Austin Cook



The player most likely to be the next Hunter Mahan:



And, finally, the player most likely to backdoor the most top 10s:



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Lettuce 2017/2018 PGA Tour!

Awesome!! Thanks for the solid post.

I'm rooting for Hideki to win a major for Japan. I think golf's in good hands with JT and Speef at the top. They both love the game, and love competing. I hope they have some legit showdowns this year.

Ps. who's the 'Next Hunter Mahan' guy?

PPS, Wtf ever happened to Nick Watney?

Hideki winning a major would be HUGE for the game. We know it's going to happen, but I have a feeling his first will come when he's 28 or 29.

Next Hunter Mahan = Scott Piercy

Re: Nick Watney... good question. He's currently OWGR #353. His T13 at the Quickens Loans National was last season's highlight (he had no top 10s in 20 starts).

In! What's the Hunter Mahan prediction referring to? Is it the Ryder Cup chip?

A+ starting post even with the lack of Tiger.

One day relevant in the world of golf, the next a distant memory.

Did you miss the IHOP reference?

Why is Bellerive crappy in your opinion? Was lucky enough to play it in college.

Carnoustie your favorite? Ugh. It's not fun, it's ugly, and there's no magic there. Played 8 courses in Scotland including Carnoustie, 7 I would play again.

But good OP!

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Surprised to see Phil playing this right after the President's cup, maybe he just likes the course?

Looking forward to seeing how some of the Web.com guys do - I like Stephan Jeager and Beau Hossler.

Piercy is a solid player! I think he has another good year this year. Then again I probably said the same thing about Mahan a few years ago.

Solid op. Almost as good as the one I did last year

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Speaking of Carnoustie, Tommy Fleetwood broke the course record with a 63 today.

Johnny Miller could have done that in a hurricane with a persimmon driver.

Who is this kid Duncan???

Who cares how Carnoustie is for regular people to play? It has served up some great drama as an Open championship venue.

Count me in the crowd who's thrilled the Open will be going back there.

I think Phil's decline will accelerate this year. Will not be chosen for Ryder cup

I think Phil will be a contender in the majors into his mid 50's.

He also already jointly held the course record for St. Andrews with a 62 - until Ross Fisher shot a 61 today that is!

Its interesting how athletes like Tiger, Day and Rory have had problems with injuries while Phil with his man boobs just keeps trucking along.

It's all about how you swing, Phil's swing produces next to no stress. The other three have swings that stress the body tremendously.

The final group of the Safeway Open just completed their front nine in 2 hours and 57 minutes. When are you going to act PGA Tour? When?

Were they playing in 2's or 3's? Not that it rally matters as that's terrible. I see the Euro tour is going to implement a shot clock. Love it.

Were they far behind?

3's

Don't know. Literally switched to the channel, heard the announcer say that, switched away from channel and posted it on 2+2. I watched 10 seconds of the 4th round coverage.


edit: And a sad sidenote to the Safeway Open that I just ran across:

Justin Thomas doing Justin Thomas things in South Korea overnight. I think this might make the top 3 in OWGR all Yanks.

edit: the confirmed new top 3 are DJ, #TEAMSPIETH and then JT

You have such a weird obsession with Americans on the OWGR.