Over Rated PGA Players

Who in your opinion on the tour get too much credit for being better than they are. I don't mean they can't play. Of course they can but...........

Mine has to be Tony Finau. The guy never wins but he seems to always be put into the upper tier players.

My second is Rickie Fowler. He has won a couple of tournaments but overall with his talent he has totally underachieved.

Oh boy.

Anyone in the top 15 or 20 without a significant number of wins.

Full disclosure - I have no idea who all the players are currently in that group.

Both those guys are on the Presidents Cup Team. There are a lot of guys on tour that wish they were over rated.

I think wins on tour are overvalued. I know that sounds stupid but guys like Finau and Fowler are world class players with enough game to compete with anyone. Sure, they don’t have a ton of wins but look at how many guys are in these fields each week. There’s only so many wins to go around. I look at how many cuts these guys are making and how many top 10’s they’re making.

bottom line is just because you’re on tour and you haven’t won doesn’t make you a loser. It makes you damn good at golf.

Have to disagree with your picks here.

Can you finish 5th, 2nd, 2nd & 3rd in majors in one season and ever be considered overrated??

Also luv Finau’s game and think he’ll have a breakout season very soon.

Tiger Woods. He should have 120+ wins and 25 majors by now

In Golf, you are rated exactly where you should be. If you play well enough to be in the top ten, then you have earned it via your play. If you qualify for the RC or PC team, then you have earned it with your play. I can only think of one other sport that is as results driven and that is sumo.

What you are asking is who is the most over exposed, and I'm sure you have a hot take that noone has heard before, but it's a take that occurs several times a year. Don't take the responses personally.

Finau - not even rational.

He's improved every year, finished 19, 6, 7 last 3 Fed Ex Cup rankings. Won a tournament. Beat Fleetwood in the Ryder Cup - one of the few of our guys that showed up, IMO. Playing this week. How good does he need to be?

He's recognized as a really good player, with a lot of potential - hardly qualifies as any definition of overrated.

Guy has come up the hard way, respect him.

As was said, you are rated as you perform, but as another kind of is getting at, he's not overhyped either.

Not even a lukewarm take.

finau is ranked 16th in the world ... because his finishes are, on average (for lack of a more efficient explanation), 16th best ...

i'm not sure how that constitutes being over-ranked ...

Guess I am in the minority. I never said he wasn't good. I don't care where he is ranked. He doesn't win. Justin Thomas has won 11 times already.

Majors and tour wins are all that matter at that level. You can have him. I'll take a guy who wins.

There's lots of good players who don't win. Hoffman, Howell to name a few.

It's cool I knew not many would agree.

Rickie

Totally agree if you expected agreement you wouldn’t have started the thread, lol.

True True

LOL

I believe Tiger's 142 consecutive cuts-made record is an impressive as any of his golf achievements.

From a pure golf perspective, consistent good play is a goal, and certainly both Finau and Fowler have been consistently good.

Is it possible that you have framed your question incorrectly? What it seems that you are saying is who should win more on Tour. If you said that, then I would agree that Finau and Fowler are two players who should have won more than they have but bottom line, winning on Tour is hard. It is also hard to say that Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler are overrated. You can’t get to where they have in the grand scheme of things without being in the top 0.1% of the top 0.1%...

If wins are all that mattered then why do they give out money and ranking points for finishes other than 1st?

For that matter, Jack's 19 second place finishes in majors is also very impressive. But that's a different thread.

I understand but at the end of the day, nobody cares about that crap when you are talking leaving a legacy in the game. People remember wins and majors. Who cares if Finau finishes 8th every year in fed ex points.

I personally don't really care about the other stuff. Like the presidents cup? It's good TV and gives us some golf to watch in Dec. The players love it because they get to hang out together but it isn't really all that big a deal. It gets why more hype than it should.

Your right though, I should have asked, who should win more and doesn't. They are all good players. Again, Finau is good but he doesn't win. Fowler should win more. For that matter so should Reed. He's a self proclaimed one of the best in the world but he doesn't win all that much. He hasn't done jack since the Masters win.

The ratings are what they are. Is the OP talking about media coverage elevating their stature? That's different.

Rickie deserves attention. Really good player. He's friendly and a good interview. Most Tour players are not.

who, exactly, is over-rating these players you speak of? ... is there some group of people that are saying finau is better than justin thomas? ...

and reed won a tournament this year ...

While I’m sure most who get into professional golf would love to leave a legacy like jack, arnie, tiger and the other greats of the game, the reality is the vast majority of guys who play on tour aren’t going to win a lot and they are playing to make as money much as they can like anyone else with a job. At the end of the day tour golf is a way for these extremely good players to make a living at something they are good at and enjoy.

Anyone in the top 50 of the world is far from overrated.

All those points and season long races are all designed to keep people watching. We have watered down greatness in this era or leaving legacy in the game. Now if you are a cash cow and finish high in season ending points lists then you are considered a great player even though you never win.

If Finau stopped playing tomorrow nobody would even talk about him five years from now.

Guess I just look at it different.

The top money list isn’t to jeep is watching, that’s pure performance related and everyone is trying to make as much of that as they can to secure their privileges for the next year and get into the big tournaments including majors and wgc.

Imo you keep moving the goal posts a bit between talking about great players and legacies wit overrated. I don’t recall anyone saying Finau was a great player but rather that he isn’t overrated.

I think the vast majority of golf fans and media know who is great, who is really good and so on. To state Finau or Rickie aren’t overrated isn’t saying they are great.

I would go with Sergio. Looking at the endorsements he has received over his career compared to say, Tom Watson, and you would think that it was Sergio that had 39 Tour wins and 8 majors instead of Watson.

RH

I think I can get on-board with your first statement to an extent. (I would have quoted only it if I had the ability to.)

I can see two scenarios where second is just not that bad a place to be. First, guy who wins just plays lights out, out of his head golf and laps the field. Second, in a play-off or just losing by a stroke at the end. The margin of winning and "losing" is so razor thin in that second scenario. Plus you got one winner and 164 or so "losers" every week?

From a pure making a living standpoint, a couple top tens in a season and you are living very, comfortably even by PGA Tour pro standards. For the guys out there that are just playing to put bread on the table I doubt they really care if they don't win a bunch. Unless you are just that steely eyed competitor where winning is everything and the money is just gravy on the side can you really fault a guy for not winning and labeling him over rated?

Even the most over rated player on tour will make more money in their life playing golf than all of us so I don't think they really care.

Agreed. The total depth of field on tour now is far far greater than it used to be, with the difference between winning and not being marginal. The players that win more often typically just have that smidge of extra grit/gusto to separate themselves. If you are are consistently in the top 20 in money/fedex points against the current fields where just about anyone can find lightning in a bottle for a week and win, you are absolutely a great player.

Wow. You get a PGA tour card, you’re not over-rated no matter what else happens.