Updated: June 25, 2012, 8:59 AM ET

2012 Golf Power Rankings: June

Month:

At the U.S. Open, Jason Dufner gave the kind of performance you would expect from a player leading the FedEx Cup points standings and the money list. Dufner was one of only three players finishing in the top 10 who did not have an over-par round on the weekend.

Ultimately, his rounds of 72-71-70-70 would fall 2 shots short of Webb Simpson's 1-over-par winning total. Still, a tie for fourth solidified Dufner's hold as the early favorite for player of the year at the halfway juncture of the PGA Tour season.
-- Farrell Evans

2012 Power Rankings: June
RANK	GOLFER	COMMENT
1	Jason Dufner	If Player of the Year ballots were to go out this month, the 35-year-old Auburn grad would have to be the favorite to win. In his past five starts, he's had two wins, a second, a tie for fourth at the U.S. Open and tie for 68th at The Players.
2	Tiger Woods	With a share of the 36-hole lead at Olympic, the 73-time tour winner was headed to his fourth U.S. Open title. But then on the weekend he looked like a mortal. Still, his prospects are on the rise as he plays host this week at Congressional. A fourth British Open title is in his sights at Lytham.
3	Lee Westwood	The 39-year-old Englishman had, for what seems like the umpteenth time, a chance to get his first major championship win at Olympic. But his hopes died when his wayward tee shot at the fifth hole stayed in a tree. At Lytham, he will be looking to better his second-place finish in 2010 at St. Andrews.
4	Webb Simpson	Without his win at the U.S. Open, the 26-year-old Wake Forest grad probably wouldn't have made my power rankings. Coming into Olympic, he had missed the cut at The Players and the Memorial. When evaluating his chances to win from week to week, it helped to remember that in 2011 he won twice and had 12 top-10s. Yet we won't have to worry about what he'll do at the British Open, because he's pulled out of the event to stay home with his wife, Dowd, who is due with their second child in late July.
5	Bubba Watson	Since winning the Masters in April, Watson hasn't had the easiest adjustment to life after winning a major championship. After sleepwalking his way through 72 holes in New Orleans for a tie for 18th, he took about a month off to spend time with his new baby son. When he came back, he missed the cut at the Memorial and the U.S. Open. But then on his C game and in a dark mood, he got a tie for second at Hartford. Bubba was frustrated Sunday afternoon after not executing on a couple of good birdie opportunities coming down the stretch that would have gotten him into a playoff with Marc Leishman.
6	Rickie Fowler	The orange-flavored 23-year-old superstar from Murietta, Calif., has cooled down a bit since a hot May, when he got his maiden win in Charlotte, a T-2 at The Players and a T-5 at Colonial. Yet his modest finishes at the Memorial (T-52) and the U.S Open (T-41) won't dampen his resolve at Lytham to better his tie for fifth last year at Royal St. George's.
7	Luke Donald	The No. 1 player in the world had a miserable experience at Olympic. No matter how many wins and top-10s he rakes up over the next few months, if he doesn't win one of the next two majors, his year will have been a minor failure.
8	Matt Kuchar	The 1997 U.S. Amateur champion finally got an elite pro win in May at The Players. He'll continue to be a top-10 machine (six in 2012) but now he's proved to himself that he's more than just one of the most consistent players in the world.
9	Zach Johnson	A tie for 41st at the U.S. Open was a very disappointing finish for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native, especially after a win and two seconds leading up to the championship. The 2007 Masters champion just quietly continues to have another solid year.
10	Ernie Els	The Big Easy had to do a lot this year to just get back inside the top 50 in the world. His tie for ninth at the U.S. Open was his sixth worldwide top-10 of the year.
11	Hunter Mahan	The 30-year-old former Oklahoma State star is a two-time winner in 2012, but outside of those victories, he has only one other top-10 on the year.
12	Rory McIlroy	The 23-year-old may be No. 2 in the world, but since a tie for second at the Wells Fargo Championship in May, he has missed four of his last five cuts. As the defending U.S. Open champion, he made a very timid defense of his title with rounds of 77-73 to miss the cut.
13	Justin Rose	The 31-year-old has been Sean Foley's most consistent student this year with five top-10s, including a win at Doral.
14	Jim Furyk	Bogeys on two of his last three holes at Olympics cost the 16-time tour winner a chance at taking his second U.S. Open. A win at Olympic would have ended a two-year winless streak. But that drought should end soon. Furyk has two fourth-place finishes in his past four events.
15	Graeme McDowell	The 2010 U.S. Open champ finished a shot back of Webb Simpson at Olympic in a tournament in which he entered the final round with a share of the lead. With a 73 on Sunday, McDowell couldn't close the deal, but it was a major boost to his confidence after missing three of his last four cuts coming into that week.
16	Phil Mickelson	Since his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in May, Lefty's game has been a little off. After salvaging a tie for seventh at the Byron Nelson, he had a very bizarre Memorial, where he withdrew after a first-round 79, citing fatigue and perhaps some angst from ringing cell phones in the gallery. Then at Olympic, he had bookend rounds of 76-78 to finish in a tie for 65th.
17	Dustin Johnson	Striding back onto the PGA Tour in his leisurely style after a three-month break following a back injury, Johnson quickly got a win in Memphis. Then he missed the cut at the U.S. Open. Yet he must be excited about Lytham after the close call he had last year at Royal St. George's, where he finished in a tie for second. He won't ever forget hitting his second shot out of bounds at the par-5 14th on Sunday in last year's British Open.
18	Adam Scott	Like all the top players, the 31-year-old Australian now focuses his schedule around the majors. And those are about the only two tournaments where he's played well this season. At the Masters, he had a tie for eighth. Then at Olympic, he had a tie for 15th.
19	Francesco Molinari	The older of the two Molinari golfing brothers from Italy, the 29-year-old Turin native won on the European Tour in Spain in May. Then a few weeks later he had a tie for seventh in one of Europe's biggest events, the BMW PGA Championship. At the U.S. Open, he finished tied for 29th.
20	Padraig Harrington	In April, the three-time major champion finished tied for eighth at the Masters. It was his first top-10 in a major since he had a T-10 at the '09 PGA. At Olympic, Harrington tied for fourth, his best finish in a major outside of his two British Open wins and PGA victory. At the Travelers, the 41-year-old Irishman tied for 11th.