Sanderson Farms Championship and BMW PGA Championship Recaps: Willett and Munoz Win

In 2016, Danny Willett won the Masters and climbed into the top-10 in the world rankings. Things were going great. In 2017, he not only suffered shoulder and knee injuries and was, in his words, "chomping painkillers," he split with his caddie, his coach and his manager. By the middle of 2018, Willett's ranking had plummeted into the 400s and he was in such a dark place it was, as he called it, "pitch black."

So it was quite a sight to see Willett stare down Jon Rahm and the rest of a loaded field to win the BMW PGA Championship, the signature event on the European Tour, on Sunday at Wentworth.

The Englishman was tied with Rahm after two rounds and again after three before winning by three strokes. Seeing Willett celebrate with his family, including his two young sons, was a stark contrast from the previous couple of years.

Now two weeks shying of turning 32, Willett told reporters at Wentworth that he had "an undying want to get back there. I was willing to change whatever had to be changed, and I think that's pretty hard to do. It's hard to jump full throttle into something that you're not quite sure if it's going to work out or not.

"I was able to jump in there and I had the correct people around me. All the work that we've put in has come forward."

Willett's turnaround has been remarkable. It began to take flight last November when he won the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai – the Euro Tour's season-ending playoff event. Another six months of poor play followed before he tied for 12th at the U.S. Open and for sixth at the Open Championship, his first top-20s in a majors since winning the Masters.

Now, Willett is up to No. 31 in the world, and it's just unimaginable even typing those words.

Will Willett win the Masters again? Another major? Well, he's won one before and just tied for sixth at Royal Portrush. But maybe that's a question to be answered another day. For now, Willett is back, has shown he can win tournaments – big tournaments – and that puts him squarely into the conversation in real golf and fantasy golf.

Willett is in another loaded field – Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and more – at this week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championships. From there, there are eight more events before the European Tour's season ends back in Dubai, where Willett will defend his title.

It will be a good point to reassess Willett's standing on the golf landscape before he turns at least some of his attention to the PGA Tour in 2020.

Sanderson Farms Championship

Another big golf story was emerging a million miles away from England – in Mississippi. Sungjae Im, the newly crowned PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, was on the verge of winning his first tournament. But Sebastian Munoz sank a birdie putt on 18 to tie, then shocked Im on the first playoff hole to deny the young Korean sensation. Instead, it was the 26-year-old old Colombian winning his first PGA Tour title.

It's been quite a start to the new season, with South American golfers – Joaquin Niemann is from Chile – winning the first two events.

Munoz tied for seventh while Niemann was winning the Greenbrier. He now has six top-10s in 47 career PGA Tour starts. He's up to No. 108 in the world, but it's hard to envision Munoz being front and center when the best players start playing in the better tournaments next year.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Sungjae Im
The 21-year-old has seen lesser youngsters win tournaments over the past few months – Niemann, Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa – and it seemed only a matter of time for him. It still seems that way, though we'll see how he responds to coming so gut-wrenchingly close. Im will be in the field this week at the Safeway Open – of course he will be, he plays almost every week. It's surely of little solace to Im right now, but he moved inside the top-50 in the world for the first time, to No. 47, and if he can hold that position at year's end, he'll qualify for the Masters even if he doesn't win a tournament.

Jon Rahm
There probably wasn't a person who thought a final-round duel between Rahm and Willett, much less a 36-hole duel, would go Willett's way. Even though Rahm was disappointed, his recent run has been nothing short of sensational. Beginning with a tie for third at the U.S. Open in June, the Spaniard has finished no worse than 13th in his past nine events. In that time, he a has win at the Irish Open and now two runners-up. He just leap-frogged Justin Thomas for No. 5 in the world rankings. Clearly, Rahm is a top-five player.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout
The 25-year-old South African is developing into quite a player, now adding a solo third at Wentworth to his resume and moving inside the top-100 OWGR for the first time. He won the Andalucia Masters over the summer. Bezuidenhout has quite a backstory, too: At the 2014 British Amateur at Royal Portrush, he failed a drug test and was suspended, but it was reduced after they learned it was to treat a stuttering problem. He's overcome a lot already, so we should definitely keep an eye on him.

Billy Horschel
Horschel has a history of playing well this time of year, but it's usually in the FedEx Cup playoffs. With the opportunity to play Wentworth now that it's been moved to September, Horschel jumped at the chance – and he tied for fourth. Horschel has been a hard guy to predict, but when he has his irons firing, he's a threat to contend or even win. He's now up to 32nd in the world, right behind Willett.

Patrick Reed
We wrote all summer how Reed's hard work with David Leadbetter was paying off and that fully showed with a win at the Northern Trust. Now, he's added a tie for fourth in this elite European field. He's 17th in the OWGR. How high can Reed go? Surely the top-10. To make the top-five, well, that would really take some spectacular play.

Rory McIlroy
It would be easy to make a crack about another back-door top-10 for McIlroy. But after opening with a 76, needing a putt on Friday to make the cut and then shooting 65-67 on the weekend, he tied for ninth. McIlroy clearly is on a mission to regain the No. 1 ranking from Brooks Koepka. It's unlikely it could happen in 2019 – though there are still a number of big European Tour events to be played – but if McIlroy continues on this path, it surely could happen in 2020.

Viktor Hovland
It's one thing for Hovland to make an impression at Detroit and Minnesota, and even the Wyndham, but he moved way up in class at Wentworth. And the young man who turned 21 during tournament week showed he can deliver in any field. Hovland tied for 11th with Paul Casey and Shane Lowry. He's now cracked the top-100 OWGR for the first time, at No. 89, and the sky appears to be the limit.

Justin Suh
When the Class of '19 came around – notably Hovland, Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa – there was a fourth name included in the discussion. Suh was a celebrated collegiate at USC, but he has not been able to make a dent as a pro. He missed the cut at the Sanderson, and now has trunk-slammed in 7-of-8 starts in PGA Tour events this year (not all as a pro). Clearly, at least now, Suh is not in the same class as the others.

Brandon Hagy
Hagy missed the cut in 13 of 14 starts last year before shutting it down with a wrist injury. He returned for the Korn Ferry playoffs, finished top- five in two of them and appeared to be fine. We went so far as to pick him the past two weeks in RotoWire's DraftKings Value Picks and added him as a sleeper for the coming season in RotoWire's recent Sleepers/Busts predictions. Well, um, Hagy has been awful, missing the cut at the first two events of the season. It's not as if these fields were far better than the Korn Ferry fields. And there's been no word of an injury occurrence. So, for now, he's horrible, and so was our decision to back him.