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In this year-end edition, we’re celebrating the year of the DJ, the best of Bryson, and a season like no other.
Cut done
DJ day. For the vast majority of his World Golf Hall of Fame career, Dustin Johnson has proven the benefits of competition blinders to the world.
When he lost the 2010 PGA Championship after a strange rule violation, he shrugged and moved forward. When he lost the ’15 US Open the 72nd hole, he cooked for exactly 5, according to various accounts, and never looked back.
The emotions and enormity of the moment were traps that just didn’t impact him and when he tore up the FedExCup playoffs with victories at the Northern Trust and Tour Championship to claim the crown of the season after a fight Against COVID-19, it’s already secured its place as one of the most compelling stories of this strange season.
But it was in November at the Masters that he evolved from a stoic golf machine to a truly endearing champion. DJ was born about an hour’s drive from Augusta National and attended college in South Carolina. Sure, winning the Masters would mean the world to him, but the emotional release after his five-stroke win was so wonderfully off the mark.
“It’s just amazing, obviously, as you can see,” Johnson said, fighting back tears.
For the first time in his career, the world could tell.
Resistance. With all of the major pro and college sports now back to work after the March pandemic ended, it’s easy to dismiss the Tour’s return to action, but that would ignore a Herculean effort.
The Tour was the last sport to turn off the lights in the spring as COVID-19 began to change daily lives and it was one of the first major sports to resume competition in June at a time when a vaccine seemed far away and the coronavirus still felt like a mystery to most.
Without the benefit of a “bubble” to protect their players, the circuit created security protocols and testing while other leagues were perfectly happy taking a wait-and-see approach. As things seemed to turn the slopes upside down after a series of positive tests, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan made his way to the Travelers’ Championship with a message.
“We have to learn to live with this virus,” Monahan said in June. “This virus is not going anywhere … You’re going to get more [positive] upcoming tests. “
Throughout the tour’s continued return, the Commissioner has stayed on point – it’s not the message his members want to hear, but the message they need to hear.
Phil had a great time winning his Champs debut
Done cut – did not finish (MDF)
Reluctant senior. In January, we asked Phil Mickelson his plans for 2020 with his 50e impending anniversary in June and a tour summary that was light on recent success. The answer was purely Lefty.
“When I stop hitting bombs I will play the Champions Tour, but I am hitting crazy bombs right now,” Mickelson said with a smile. “No, I still have speed, there’s no reason I can’t play here. I hit the ball as far as I can.
Mickelson missed the cut in four of his next five Tour events before the pandemic ceased to play out in March and he began to change his mind on the over-50 tour. In August, he won his first start on the PGA Tour Champions (Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National). In October, he won his second start on the senior circuit (Dominion Energy Charity Classic).
Lefty still seems determined to play the PGA Tour for the foreseeable future, but it is undeniable that all the cameos he makes with the 50+ set are good for PGA Tour champions and continued success is good for Mickelson.
Being Bryson. Where do you start with DeChambeau?
2020 has been the craziest of years for everyone but for the 27-year-old it will be a season he will never forget.
He arrived on his first departure in January in Abu Dhabi, 17 pounds more than he was a month earlier. When he resumed his schedule in June at Colonial, he had added another 20 pounds, eating pretty much whatever was pushed in front of him.
He won the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July with a driving average of 313 yards and threatened to redefine the game, or break it on his knee, with his dominant victory in September at the US Open.
He said Augusta National was a par 67 for him and then missed the cut.
He was on the wrong side of the rule dust at the Memorial and the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and was trolled by Brooks Koepka for the latter.
Bryson was insightful and confusing and bizarre and awesome. But above all, he was entertaining.
Missed cut
September madness. Pencil the Ryder Cup every two years as the must see event of any season. Games are almost always the most fascinating scene in golf and this year’s fight in Wisconsin had all the key ingredients.
Steve Stricker would lead the US team in his home state and would cry a lot. Padraig Harrington would redefine what it means to be a captain with his hyper-analytical approach to golf and life, and the USA team would be favored … once again.
This is not a criticism of the PGA of America for postponing games until 2021. Unlike other quarantine quilting stages, a Ryder Cup without fans is not a Ryder Cup at all. What made this postponement / cancellation stand out is that among all the postponements / cancellations, the Ryder Cup is almost always the highlight of the year for all sorts of reasons.
Without the matches, 2020 felt even more empty.
Pace of play. Of the list of things the pandemic took away from golf in 2020, the most overlooked and curious was what had been billed as a new era for pace of play on the Tour.
Following a few high-profile slow-play incidents (we’re watching you, Bryson), the circuit created a policy that many believed would put the necessary teeth into policing slow play, including a watchlist for the circuit. slower, penalties for excessive firing times and increased fines.
The redesigned policy has also shifted the focus of officials charged with keeping an eye on the sluggishness of the timing groups’ hearts to keeping individual players on pace.
The new policy was set to begin in April at RBC Heritage after a period of training, but when the pandemic interrupted play in March and caused Hilton Head Island, South Carolina to shut down until June, the deployment has been on the shelf until 2021.
Frustration among players had been mounting for years and the new policy was an encouraging move on the part of officials who still seemed reluctant to accelerate the usual sluggishness and have to wait another year for the change to feel like a slow game.
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