Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler, the world’s no. 1 and no. 6 players, respectively, per the Hawley Ratings, are the top two picks this week as the PGA Tour pulls into Florida for a four-week stay. They are the last two winners of the Honda Classic and the top two money-winners here over the past several seasons. What they are not is bitter rivals. “Golf buddies” would be more like it.

In those two winning efforts, they alternated behind the wheel on trips between the course and their Jupiter FL homes, according to the Palm Beach Post. These guys have no problem with the absence of the gritted-teeth rivalry between top golfers that existed on the Tour at some points in memory. “Some people want to see that as a negative and I have a hard time addressing that with them,” Thomas told the Post. “They can think what they want. I think the game is in a great place right now.”

A good field will be on hand to demonstrate the correctness of that statement. Also from the top 10, the

field includes U.S. Open and PGA champ Brooks Koepka. Webb Simpson is just outside the top 10. Also among those playing great lately are Gary Woodland and Cameron Smith from the top 30. Thomas gets the edge as favorite due to much better recent play. He has three finishes in the top three this year already – second in the Genesis and third at Phoenix and in the Champions. His two most recent other starts were both top-20s.

Michael Thompson, who is up to 67th in the ratings after starting the year 157th, has three top-10s and one finish in the top 15 in his last four starts of 2019. The best was seventh at the Genesis.

Chris Stroud, Trey Mullinax, and Vaughn Taylor are three others with improved play recently. Stroud missed the cut at the Genesis after back-to-back top-10s in the Pebble Beach and Phoenix. Mullinax has made six straight cuts with a top-15 at Phoenix and top-40 finishes in his three other most recent appearances. Taylor has top-10s in two of his last four starts.

The top two stats in correlation with success on the Champion course at TPC National in Palm Beach Gardens are sand saves and scrambling, with greens in regulation and putting a bit behind. The data seems to be saying that the ability to work self out of trouble will come in handy. The statistical profile of Simpson is no. 1 among this field with those stats. Talor Gooch is not far behind. Per the Hawley course fit statistics, about a third of the field is within one stroke of Simpson in course fit.

Close to the bottom of the picks this week there is a player whose stature is worth some reflection. Vijay Singh, 56, a player who has spent 24 weeks as no. 1 in the Hawley Ratings this century, is the 147th-rated player in the event.

Singh has 34 PGA Tour victories, including here in 1999. As a workout and practice devotee, he has stayed in great shape and played both PGA Tour and Champions Tour events in recent years. Unfortunately, the results have dropped way off and he told the Sarasota Herald Tribune that he is facing a crossroads. “I love to play here but I can’t fool myself,” Singh said Monday after a four-hour practice session. “If I’m not playing well or if I can’t compete over here, I shouldn’t be here. I’m playing pretty good right now. I’ll see. My deadline is TPC and see how I do. If I’m playing good, I’ll play a few more. Otherwise, I’m just going to go hang with the Champions Tour.”

Singh’s last made cut on either the PGA or Euro tour was a 25th against an extremely weak field in the Fiji International last August. He had three straight made cuts (but outside the top 50) on the PGA Tour in July and August. This year he has missed cuts at the Genesis and Sony.