So in honour of the start of another year, and because of my need to look back on my past predictions to see if I was right or wrong, I'm gonna toss up some predictions here for 2019.
Last year I said that the top-5 OWGR point earners would be Spieth, DJ, Rahm, Day, and Koepka. Spieth was a big disappointment, Day started excellently but drifted away, and Rahm was close yet just didn't quite reach that top level. DJ was on the money though, and Koepka ended up being a very nice guess (it ended up being Bryson, Rose, Koepka, DJ, JT in that order). This year... I'll go Koepka and DJ as locks. Spieth will have a bounceback year. I became sold on Thomas as a top-tier player this year and I imagine he'll stay great so he's one. I'll take Fleetwood to round it out.
For majors, I'm gonna need a lot more sucking from Spieth before I stop picking him to win at Augusta. My other three picks at majors are very obvious so I need a token sleeper pick... US Opens always favour good drivers, so I'll go Billy Horschel, who's suddenly decent again. f*** it, I'll take Tiger at Royal Portrush because I feel like the Open is generally his best shot to win a major at this point. Finally, Koepka will bomb and gouge his way to another major at the PGA.
I don't care at all about the President's Cup but I'll guess what the team will be: Tiger, Spieth, DJ, JT, Koepka, Horschel, Rickie, Bryson, Finau, Bubba, Reed. Daniel Berger will get the last spot on points because the St. Jude is now a WGC for some reason and that's the only place that he wins at.
Couple more small ones.... biggest positive surprise will be Danny Willett, biggest negative surprise will be Patrick Cantlay. Patty Reed will get his yearly win sometime in the late summer + a top 10 at the PGA to cement his spot on the President's Cup team, much to everyone's chagrin. Bryson won't win this year. Finau still won't win this year. Henrik Stenson will win twice. Justin Thomas ends the year as #1 and spends most of the year there. I guess that's all.
Also, a quick reminder because I completely forgot until now, but the PGA Championship is in May now. That's gonna be a weird adjustment.