By Dan Rapaport
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Tiger Woods took his most definitive stance on the distance debate, saying that he believes adding spin to the ball “would be advantageous for the game of golf.”

The comments came in an interview with CBS’ Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo during Saturday’s third-round broadcast of the Genesis Invitational as part of Woods’ duties as host of tournament. Faldo proposed limiting the size of driver faces to help reign in distance off the tee, to which Woods responded: “Add spin to the golf ball. That’s a way to shorten it up as well.

Woods began his career playing with balata balls and experienced first-hand the revolution started by the urethane-covered ball, which not only flies farther but spins less, aiding distance while mitigating the penalty on mishits.

Golf’s governing bodies have been studying increases in distance for years and, in February 2021, laid the groundwork for potential rule changes.

“We’re entering into the solution phase from an equipment-standards standpoint,” Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s senior managing director of governance, said in a statement. “This is the first step in re-engaging the manufacturing community in looking at possible solutions for the long-term distance challenges that the game is facing.”

In October 2020, Woods said the distance debate had been going on for 20 years and should have been addressed earlier.

“They should have been worried a long time ago, but the genie’s out of the bag now,” he said at the 2020 Zozo Championship. “It’s about what do we do going forward and how soon can they do it, but I don’t know if you’re going to stop the guys who are there right now. Guys are figuring out how to carry the ball 320-plus yards, and it’s not just a few of them.

“There are a lot of guys who can do it, and that’s where the game’s going,” Woods continued then. “There’s only going to be a small amount of property that we can do … where we can alter golf courses. I just don’t see how they can roll everything back. I would like to be able to see that, as far as our game, but then we go back down the road of what do you bifurcate, at what level?”

Woods seemed to endorse bifurcation on Saturday, saying that he opposes any changes that would hamper amateurs’ enjoyment of the game and doesn’t see an issue with having a specific set of rules for professionals.

The post Tiger Woods offers an idea on how to solve the distance debate appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Golf Digest Editors
Not since 2001 has there been a year in which the golf world was so profoundly impacted by something “outside the ropes” as 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. From the moment late in the evening of Thursday, March 12, when a stunned Jay Monahan, commissioner of the PGA Tour, announced the cancellation of the Players Championship after just one round—the first of several similarly profound (and surreal) declarations from executives throughout the golf community in the days that followed—our sport has been shaken at every level. The saving grace of the coronavirus is that golf has been able to serve as a salve in so many ways for a general public longing for order and comfort and the familiar. Participation in the recreational game skyrocketed, golf becoming an outlet for those in need of distraction as it proved to be among the safer sports to play. And consumption of the competitive game increased as well, Monahan bringing back the PGA Tour in June, the LPGA and European Tours returning shortly after, the majority of the men’s and women’s majors played successfully at later dates, without fans but not without fanfare.

While the days run together during a pandemic, the calendar professes 2020 is coming to a close (finally!). Which means it’s time to embark on our annual review of the last 12 months. As always, our “Newsmakers” package aims to revisit the year in golf and retell the stories that helped define the sport. In counting down the top 25 during the next several days, many entries have been directly touched by the spectre of COVID-19. But you also might be surprised at how many of our favourite people, events and moments rose above the pandemic and stood out for what they said about the individual or the group. As always there were a few clear choices—spoiler alert, Bryson DeChambeau is pretty high on our list—but also some characters who are less obvious yet, we think, no less worthy, once again, of our collective appreciation. —Ryan Herrington

• • •

No. 1: THE ‘NEW’ GOLFERS

J.D. Cuban

Two decades ago, a golf boom was spurred by a magnetic young star named Tiger Woods and an expanding real estate market. The 2020 version, borne from a pandemic in which no one could do much else, was never part of anyone’s grow-the-game strategy. But a year in which COVID-19 disrupted so much of life provided an unlikely opening for golf. According to the National Golf Foundation and Golf Datatech, there will be some 50 million more rounds played in 2020 than 2019, an increase partially attributed to good weather, but mostly the serendipitous ways golf fit a social distancing world. Those who couldn’t go to work or the gym could still meet up with friends and play 9 or 18. Handshakes were replaced by elbow bumps and a whole new cottage industry arose in developing creative ways to safely extract a golf ball from the hole. Other than that, the game remained blessedly intact. While the year-end statistics point to an encouraging influx of new players—about 20 percent more beginners and junior players, respectively—the surge appears to have been driven more by core golfers who were simply afforded the chance to play more. Yet one could argue those of us who had played all along were still “new” golfers this year. Because we were suddenly around to play at Wednesday at 2. Because we stored our masks and our hand sanitiser in the same golf bag pocket as our keys. And because every trip to the golf course was a welcome refuge from a distressing new world. We might have always loved golf, but in 2020, we savoured it like never before. —Sam Weinman

• • •

No. 2: BRYSON DECHAMBEAU

Chris Keane

Where do we begin? There’s so much to talk about with Bryson DeChambeau that we created a separate list of 101 things that happened to him in 2020. But first and foremost, Bryson became one of the game’s biggest stars. Literally. A process of putting on pounds that began in 2019 revved up even more during quarantine, and when DeChambeau returned, he was some 40 pounds heavier than the previous year. And the gains were apparent in places other than the scale. DeChambeau overpowered golf courses—and even driving ranges—in ways we hadn’t quite seen before. The 27-year-old wound up leading the PGA Tour in driving distance in the 2019-’20 season and, more importantly, strokes gained/off the tee. But Bryson didn’t just drive for show, he also putted for some serious dough by improving to a career-best 10th in strokes gained/putting. Not surprisingly, that dangerous combination eventually led to a pair of wins, first at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July and then his maiden major title at the U.S. Open in September. Winged Foot’s treacherous rough was supposed to be this golf zealot’s kryptonite, but it proved to be no problem for mighty Bryson as he swatted driver after driver on his way to a dominant six-shot victory. And in doing so, he may have ushered in a new era in which extreme length isn’t just an advantage, but a necessity. “What he’s done in the gym has been incredible,” Tiger Woods said at the Masters in November. “What he’s done on the range and what he’s done with his entire team to be able to optimize that one club [driver] and transform his game and the ability to hit the ball as far as he has and in as short a span as he has, it’s never been done before.” Beyond all the results, though, was Bryson’s knack for creating buzz. From those booming drives to his crazy diet to an aggressive shirtless photo to run-ins with rules officials to continued run-ins with Brooks Koepka, DeChambeau was constantly in the news. And whether you’re a fan or not, this overpowering and analytical golfer isn’t going anywhere. In fact, there will undoubtedly be a lot more like him to follow. —Alex Myers

• • •

No. 3: GOLF’S STAKEHOLDERS

If golf were Gotham and every leader in the game had a red Bat Phone on the desk, the ringing would have been incessant on Thursday, March 12, 2020. In the hours after sunset that day, the PGA Tour decided it could no longer safely stage one of its prized events, the Players Championship, and shut it down after only one round. It was golf’s COVID-19 reality check. The coronavirus wasn’t going to be a mild inconvenience. It was going to rock our world at every turn, and the stakeholders in competitive golf would have to face it head-on. It was a daunting proposition, considering there are so many voices in the choir—the PGA Tour (led by Jay Monahan), PGA of America (Seth Waugh), USGA (Mike Davis), Augusta National (Fred Ridley), R&A (Martin Slumbers), LPGA (Mike Whan) and European Tour (Keith Pelley). They all have personal interests and agendas, with cumulative billions of dollars at stake. But in a fairly remarkable accomplishment, golf’s presidents and CEOs and COOs and tournament directors—along with the medical community and the athletes themselves—glued the year’s broken pieces back together into a one-of-a-kind mosaic. Recalling those manic moments of March and April, Slumbers, chief executive officer of the R&A, told Golf Digest, “In those 13 to 14 days, we covered ground that in normal time would have taken a year’s worth of thinking.” To be sure, there were sad casualties, the most wrenching being the Open Championship’s cancellation for only the fourth time in its 149-year history. But golf also served as a model of cooperation and ingenuity. Prime example: The Ryder Cup was postponed to 2021 (as was Olympic golf), and the PGA Tour agreed to push back the Presidents Cup to 2022, thus permanently altering the rotation of the men’s biennial events as well as the women’s Solheim Cup. Also, the PGA Tour and European Tour came together late in the year to announce an unprecedented strategic alliance. The three other majors were shuffled around—the most jarring being the Masters’ move from April to a display of fall colours, not flowers, in November. And while the PGA Tour lost 11 events due to the pandemic, it didn’t cut the prize money and put together a COVID-19 protocol plan that proved to be one of the most successful in all of sports. The effects of the virus will be felt well into 2021, particularly with few or no fans in attendance in the early part of the schedule—a development that will further drain the coffers of tournaments around the country. Still, as the calendar turns, there is optimism, considering what already has been accomplished in the most trying of times. “I’m hopeful we’re going to get through next year,” Monahan said at the Tour Championship in September. “We’re going to get back to normal fast, and that puts us in a position where we continue on the normal growth pattern that we’re projected to be on this year, that unfortunately, we were not able to be on because of the events associated with COVID.” —Tod Leonard

BONUS READ: Where do preparations stand for the men’s majors and the Ryder Cup for 2021?

• • •

No. 4: DUSTIN JOHNSON

Ben Walton

Peculiar as it seems in hindsight, Dustin Johnson was trending towards being somewhat of an afterthought halfway through 2020. Heading into the third tournament of the PGA Tour’s restart, the Travelers Championship, Johnson owned a lone top 10 in a full-field tour stop over the past year, falling out of the top five in the World Rankings for the first time since 2016. To be fair, Johnson underwent arthroscopic knee surgery at the end of 2019 and showed hints of his former self in the early spring. And yet, as the sport has callously shown, there’s always the possibility of not returning from the wilderness. As we now know, Johnson not only returned, he asserted himself, unequivocally, as the game’s sheriff. The revival started in Connecticut, riding a hot Saturday into contention at TPC River Highlands and staying cool down the stretch for his first win in 16 months. He finished runner-up in August’s PGA Championship, won The Northern Trust by a dominant 11 strokes, could have won the BMW Championship if not for a miraculous Jon Rahm putt in sudden death and captured his first FedEx Cup with a steady performance at East Lake. Even a bout with COVID couldn’t slow down DJ, who returned from quarantine with a runner-up at the Houston Open in his first outing back. Alas, in spite of these accomplishments, Johnson’s career continued to be defined for what it lacked. Specifically, more major titles to accompany his 2016 U.S. Open victory. He couldn’t close out his 54-hole lead at the PGA, the fourth time he had failed to do so at a major, and after entering September’s U.S. Open as an overwhelming favourite, he was never in contention at Winged Foot, his T-6 finish of the backdoor variety. The knock on Johnson, some asserted, was he could not rise to the moment, that the poise that worked so well at rank-and-file events needed giddy-up at the four championships that matter most. Those knocks were forever addressed in November. Johnson’s 65-70-65 Masters start translated into a four-shot lead heading into the final day at Augusta National, and though his 54-hole advantage was nearly wiped away after five holes, Johnson answered when it mattered most. He kept the mistakes at bay, didn’t flinch in tight spots and attacked when given the go-ahead in route to a tournament-record 20-under score to lap the field by five. In resounding fashion, with new wardrobe in tow, Johnson rewrote his legacy in 2020. And rather than wonder what might have been, the only question on Johnson is what he’ll do next. —Joel Beall

RELATED: The highs and lows of Dustin Johnson’s spectacular 2020

• • •

No. 5: A NOVEMBER MASTERS

JD Cuban

If the first wave of tournament cancellations in pro golf due to the surging coronavirus stunned golf fans in March, the news from Georgia shortly thereafter landed like a punch to the stomach. A month before the 84th Masters was to be played, officials announced it was being postponed. Even Augusta National couldn’t escape the wrath of COVID-19. On what would have been Monday of Masters week, there was more news: Golf’s governing bodies released a joint statement outlining an unprecedented plan: a reshuffling of virtually every golf tournament of note, including a Masters in … gasp … November.  November?!? What will the course be like? (Softer). The weather? (Virtually the same). Will there be fans? (Nope). How would Augusta handle exemptions? (Sorry, Daniel Berger). What played out was a tradition unlike any other, unlike any other. Instead of marking the unofficial beginning of the golf season, the Masters marked the end. Instead of back-nine roars echoing through the pines and accompanying fist pumps, there were smatterings of applause and polite waves. Instead of fiery greens that force you to hit the ball high, there were soft putting surfaces that punished you for having too much spin. What resulted was a week of low scoring that broke plenty of records—most notably, the lowest cut in tournament history (even-par 144) and the lowest winning 72-hole score, courtesy of Dustin Johnson’s 20-under 268. Of course, there were other stories, too. There was Bryson saying Augusta was a par 67 for him, only to lose a ball in fantastic fashion and never factor on the weekend. There was Tiger’s title defense, which got off to a hot start then crashed and burned with a career-worst 10. And there was Johnson’s runaway win, a performance that culminated a three-month stretch of dominant golf with a five-shot win that served as a much overdue victory lap for one of the best players of his generation. Still, maybe the most important legacy of the event was that it was played at all, much in the same way the PGA of America and USGA pulled off the PGA Championship and U.S. Open in their altered time slots. Long story short, Augusta National made the most of a bad situation, which is all anyone could have asked for in 2020. —Daniel Rapaport

RELATED: The major that never happened—The story behind the cancellation of the Open Championship

• • •

No. 6: DISTANCE DEBATE

Gregory Shamus

The past year put a lot of things on hold, but the debate over distance in golf continued almost non-stop. In February, the USGA and R&A released their much-anticipated Distance Insights Report. The lengthy document, crafted after two years of research, offered this ominous language in the Conclusions section: “Golf will best thrive over the next decades and beyond if this continuing cycle of ever-increasing hitting distances and golf course lengths is brought to an end.” Then COVID-19 hit and further “research topics” the governing bodies intended to explore were delayed until March 2021. Still, a lot happened to fuel the debate, Exhibit A: Bryson DeChambeau. It wasn’t just his 400-yard drives but the discussion surrounding them. Colin Montgomerie got so freaked out by what DeChambeau was doing at the tour’s re-start at Colonial he stated he was in favour of a tournament ball for professionals that went 80 to 85 percent of the current ball. That’s a position long held by Jack Nicklaus, who spoke up again when the tour visited his Muirfield Village in July, telling Golf Channel, “The USGA and the R&A have got to wake up sooner or later. Guys, stop studying it and do something!” Doing something, however, comes with potential risks. DeChambeau off the tee became must-see TV, particularly after his once-questioned methods resulted in a six-stroke U.S. Open victory. Others, such as Rory McIlroy, started pondering swinging for the fences, posting ball-speed and carry-distance numbers on social media. Then there was Collin Morikawa’s memorable driving of the green to within seven feet on the par-4 16th hole at TPC Harding Park in the final round of the PGA Championship. Distance sells, and there appears to be no reason for the PGA Tour to want less of it. The governing bodies, however, seem to remain steadfast that something must be done. On Dec. 4, the USGA sent a release regarding the association’s commitment to charting a sustainable future for golf courses in collaboration with other stakeholders in the game. Included was language that could be construed as not only pro-rollback for everyone, not just the professionals. “As owners feel the pressure to lengthen courses, they face significant capital expenditures and larger areas to maintain, which have contributed to an average increase of 6.7 percent in maintenance costs.” The takeaway? The rhetoric will continue and don’t expect this nearly 20-year debate to end anytime soon. Stay tuned. —E. Michael Johnson

BONUS READ: Professional golf witnessed first-hand the power of evolution in 2020

• • •

No. 7: GOLF VOICES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Golf is often measured in its reaction to social matters, and from afar it may seem that the game was muted in its response to the protests of racial injustice across America in 2020. Yet golf was far from silent. Long Drive champ Maurice Allen penned a moving letter about being Black in a mostly white sport. “Golf is supposed to be an accountable sport. You hit a bad shot, that’s on you. You break a rule, you call it on yourself. Stop making excuses or guessing someone’s intention,” Allen wrote. “Start using that same accountability you apply to golf to racism, sexism and injustice.” Kirk Triplett, who is a white man with a Black son, became the first player to brandish the Black Lives Matter logo on a PGA Tour circuit. “Look, golfers are great with charity, and on the whole are socially conscious,” Triplett told Golf Digest. “But the game never crosses the line into some of the more uncomfortable stuff. Well, this is an uncomfortable time, and we can’t ignore it.” Cameron Champ, one of just four players with Black heritage on tour, followed with his support of BLM and backed up his actions by establishing scholarships at Prairie View, a HBCU in Texas. Augusta National named Lee Elder an Honorary Starter at the 2021 Masters, and announced it will fund golf programs at nearby Paine College. The latest rendition of The Match played the day after Thanksgiving had the proceeds—more than $5 million—also go to historically black colleges and universities. And then there is Harold Varner III. Days before the PGA Tour’s restart at Colonial, Varner spoke of his experiences with inequality. The message was eloquent and passionate, offered perspective and understanding. Then the most remarkable thing happened. Varner, at a juncture where the lines of sport and society are blurred, contended at Colonial. He ultimately did not win the event; didn’t even finish top 10. But with his words and resolve, with a performance that can only be measured against the pain and uncertainty and fear we all face, Varner showed us the best that golf can be. —Joel Beall

RELATED: Maurice Allen—Being Black in a white sport

• • •

No. 8: PHIL MICKELSON

It’s been one of pro golf’s favourite parlour games for years: What will Phil do next? Trying to anticipate the mercurial Phil Mickelson’s next move is a bit like playing charades blindfolded, and there was at least the usual number of questions surrounding Lefty in 2020—most notably because he celebrated his 50th birthday in June. That opened up the possibility of Mickelson venturing onto the PGA Tour Champions for the first time. Phil was coy about it the season’s outset, saying he wanted to focus on the regular tour. But after a pretty lacklustre effort before and after the COVID-19 shutdown (the only highlight was a solo third at his personal playground, Pebble Beach), Mickelson decided the time was right in late August for his senior bow. And boy was it a show. In the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National, Phil drained 11 birdies and shot 61 in the first round and then cruised to a wire-to-wire victory at 22 under for 54 holes. Tiger Woods’ reaction? “There’s no reason he can’t win every time he plays out there.” To prove that plausible, Mickelson played on the Champions again in mid-October in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic—and won again. Feasting on wide fairways and benign pin placements, Lefty is 2-for-2. Now about still competing with the youngsters … that’s becoming a bit more daunting. Mickelson has posted only two top 10s in his last 21 starts on the PGA Tour. Probably more disappointing was never being a factor in trying to pad his resume of five major victories. In 2020, Phil tied for 71st in the PGA Championship, started the U.S. Open with a 79 to miss the cut, and had no chance on Sunday in the Masters after a third-round 79. Boasting that his swing speed is better than ever, any power gain has been erased by erratic play in virtually every asset. For the 2019-’20 season, Mickelson was better than 75th in only one of the tour’s important strokes-gained categories (around the green). He was poor with his irons (129th, strokes gained/approach) and putter (124th, strokes gained/putting). He’s going to have to get a lot better to contend very often on the big tour. So, what will Phil do now? Here’s betting he beats up more on the graybeards and picks his spots with the kids. —Tod Leonard

RELATED: Our 50 favourite ‘Phil being Phil’ moments

• • •

No. 9: TIGER WOODS

Patrick Smith

That Tiger Woods occupies real estate on this list is a testament to his star power, because he did really very little of note on the golf course in 2020. He played in just nine tournaments and managed one finish better than T-37. He was not a factor in any of the three majors, and he putted miserably. And yet he still commands the attention of the entire golf world in a way no one else can. He began the year ranked No. 6 in the World Rankings and now sits at No. 38, but his status as the game’s biggest star has not diminished. And it’s still not close. As for his golf, as we mentioned, it was a year to forget. He started 2020 well enough, with a T-9 at Torrey Pines. That would prove to be his only top 10. And yet he still did stuff, and people still cared. In no particular order: He sent the golf world into a panic when he pulled out of the Players Championship with a sore back; He, Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady produced a highly entertaining trash-talk fest (The Match 2) during the height of the sport-less wasteland; all eyes turned to him to make a statement on the killing of George Floyd, which he did; he opened his first public course design, Payne’s Valley, with another well-received exhibition in Missouri; he gave fans an early Christmas present by announcing he’d play in the PNC Championship this week with his son; and he made a 10 on Sunday at the Masters, the worst score of his professional career. It was, however, the response to that 10 that warrants optimism for 2021. Directly after failing as he never has before, Woods did something he’s also never done before: birdie five of his final six holes at Augusta National. It was a reminder of Woods’ fighting spirit, of his total and complete unwillingness to pack it in. Sure, this was a down year on the golf course. But he’s trudged through way worse and still managed to climb back to the mountaintop. What lies ahead in 2021 is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for certain: We’ll be watching his every move. —Daniel Rapaport

BONUS READ: What’s 2021 look like for Tiger?

• • •

No. 10: SOPHIA POPOV

Richard Heathcote/R&A

There isn’t a story from 2020 that more exemplifies why we love sports than Sophia Popov’s win at the AIG Women’s British Open. A player no one had ever heard of, who wasn’t a member of the LPGA Tour, who was on the cusp of quitting the game a year ago, who struggled with weight loss and other complications as she battled Lyme disease for years, plays her way to a two-shot win over the best players in the world. It’s hard not to root for that story every time. Popov wasn’t even supposed to be in the field at Royal Troon. The 27-year-old had been bouncing around tours since graduating from USC in 2014. She lost her LPGA Tour card in 2019 and was going to be spending 2020 on the Symetra Tour—likely 2021, too, once the pandemic hit, limiting the number of spots Symetra Tour graduates would get on the LPGA Tour for 2021. But LPGA Tour players not wanting to travel during the pandemic opened up some extra spots in the early tournaments when play resumed. Popov caddied in the first event back and then got a start the next week at the Marathon LPGA Classic. She took full advantage, finishing T-9. It was enough to get her into the field at Royal Troon. With her boyfriend on the bag, she started out with a 70, good enough for T-2. At that point, she was just a name near the lead no one had really heard of, the kind of player who has one good round in a major and then falls away. But Popov didn’t go away. She shot 72 on Friday, staying in the T-2 position. A 67 on Saturday gave her a three-shot lead. She remained unflappable on Sunday, winning by two to become the first German woman to win a major championship. She also earned full LPGA Tour status. No more Symetra Tour events, no more considering giving up all together. Popov had finally, officially arrived. —Keely Levins

• • •

No. 11: PREMIER GOLF LEAGUE

Ross Kinnaird

The idea of a world golf circuit to combat the PGA Tour is far from new. Yet few proposed competitors have generated as much interest and curiosity as the Premier Golf League. Tracking its roots to 2014, the PGL’s blueprint., revealed publicly in January, is a league with 48 players divided into 12 teams—which players owning a share of said teams—competing in 18 no-cut, 54-hole events. It boasts shotgun starts (so an entire round could be compacted into a five-hour broadcast) and a team-only finale, with 10 of the tournaments set for the United States. And money. Lots of money—$240 million in prizes, to be exact. A sum the PGL hopes will pry the sport’s superstars to its pastures. However, most of the game’s marquee, in-their-prime attractions (including Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka) have thus far distanced themselves from the PGL, with the strongest rebuke coming from McIlroy, who said he “didn’t really like where the money was coming from,” a nod to the PGL’s alleged Saudi backers. Some big names, though, sounded curious. Phil Mickelson played with PGL financers in January and said the concept was “intriguing.” The recent alliance between the PGA and European Tours added another obstacle for the fledgeling league, as the PGL had sought a partnership with the Old World circuit. Despite an inauspicious rollout, the PGL remains, as Mickelson said, an intriguing—and in the eyes of the PGA and European Tours, formidable—concept, one fan could be hearing more about in the coming months. —Joel Beall

• • •

No. 12: COLLIN MORIKAWA

San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

In football, pundits often debate whether a quarterback is ready to make “the leap”—loosely defined as the progression from promising up-and-comer to bona fide franchise player. Ideally it happens in the QB’s second year in the league, after he’s had one full season and offseason under his belt. Extrapolated to golf, Collin Morikawa followed the timeline perfectly. The former world No. 1 amateur who graduated from Cal-Berkeley in May 2019 hit the ground running, going T-2/T-4/WIN in his fourth, fifth and sixth starts as a professional. That firmly established him as one of golf’s most promising young players, as did making 22 straight cuts to start his career (three shy of Tiger Woods’ record). That put Morikawa at 44th in the World Ranking when the COVID-19 pandemic halted play in March. Come June, however, when the season resumed—13 months after he turned pro—Morikawa kicked it into an entirely different gear. A shoved three-footer saw him lose in a playoff in the first event back, the Charles Schwab Challenge, and the nightmare nearly repeated itself three starts later at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village. But that par putt on the 72nd hole lipped in, rather than out, and he beat Justin Thomas in one of the more entertaining mano-y-manos you’ll ever see: Thomas holed a 50-footer for birdie on the first extra hole before Morikawa punched back with a 24-footer of his own, then won it with a par on the next. The true breakthrough came a month later at TPC Harding Park, a short cruise across the Bay from his college stomping grounds. On a typically gray San Francisco Sunday afternoon, Morikawa emerged from a seven-deep pack of contenders at the PGA Championship with a chip-in for birdie on 14 and an eagle for the ages on the par-4 16th, where his tee shot finished seven feet from the cup and he finally sunk an important putt right in the heart. Two closing pars gave him the Wanamaker—and gave golf its newest superstar. —Daniel Rapaport

• • •

No. 13: THE PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

Kevin C. Cox

What began as a year focused largely on PGA Tour Champions perennial headliner Bernhard Langer and his assault on Hale Irwin’s record 45 career senior victories quickly made way to a new and “younger” storyline: the tour’s impressive 2020 rookie class. Five golfers playing in their first year on the senior circuit won eight titles in the 14 events contested during the COVID-interrupted year. The headliners were names familiar to golf fans. Ernie Els, in just his third senior start took the title at the Hoag Classic in March, the first of two wins that the four-time major winner would collect. As Jim Furyk turned 50 in May, the tour was still in its COVID-19 hiatus, but when play resumed at the Ally Challenge in July, the 2003 U.S. Open champ won in his senior debut. He also won his next start, the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach. Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson, who sounded hesitant to join the seniors at first, chose to play the Charles Schwab Series in his debut in July, opened with a 61 and cruised to a four-stroke win. Two months later, he entered the Dominion Energy Charity Classic and won it, too. Impressively, the two other rookie winners, Brett Quigley and Shane Bertsch, also were quick senior studies, each winning in just their second career starts. Suffice it to say, the fivesome helped bring a new energy to the 50-and-older circuit, as did the emergence of former major winner Darren Clarke (who claimed his first senior title in the fall) and the continued success of the coolest senior around, Miguel Angel Jimenez. And, of course, there was Langer, who at 63 grabbed his 41st PGA Tour Champions win, and finished in the top 10 in 12 of 15 starts. —John Strege

RELATED: How the PGA Tour Champions became competitive again

• • •

No. 14: RORY MCILROY

Tom Pennington

“A game of two halves” may be one of soccer’s hoariest cliches, but it is an apt description of Rory McIlroy’s play during the 2019-’20 season and beyond. Between October 2019 and March 2020, the now 31-year-old Northern Irishman won once (WGC-HSBC Champions) and was never out of the top five in seven consecutive PGA Tour appearances. But when the tour returned after the COVID-19 lockdown in June, that high level of consistency was gone. In his next nine starts, McIlroy’s T-8 finish at the season-ending Tour Championship was his only top 10 and his distinction as World No. 1 was no more. Meanwhile, the 2020-’21 season, so far, ranks somewhere between those two extremes. Four appearances contained a T-8 at the U.S. Open and a T-5 at the Masters. Good obviously, but not even McIlroy’s biggest fan would claim he was ever in serious contention to win either. So what to make of it all? In a recent interview, McIlroy—who also became a new father to daughter Poppy, born Aug. 31—gave himself a “C” grade for his play. “I think any year you don’t win a tournament is a disappointment, and that’s why this year is disappointing,” McIlroy said, acknowledging once more his struggle getting comfortable with fanless tournaments. “It maybe took me longer to adjust to it than some other people. Every time I went out there for the first few weeks it felt like a practice round, like it didn’t matter.” Still, the world of golf is trending upward. A virus vaccine is reportedly on the way, and the return of crowds could follow. If the ever-inspirational McIlroy follows that same direction, it would hardly be a surprise to see a fifth major victory—and the first since 2014—added to his resume in 2021. Then again, maybe he won’t do anything of the sort. As 2020 has illustrated, with Rory you never quite know anything for certain. —John Huggan

• • •

No. 15: CHARITY GOLF EVENTS

Mike Ehrmann

Hit-n-giggle events have historically been specks of dust in the golf galaxy. They featured big names and bigger money but the stakes never matter, if they were even remembered to begin with. Their existence was derided as the sport’s “silly season.” But in 2020, these matches moved from the game’s fringes to centre stage. Rather than line the pockets of the rich, a series of high-profile exhibitions generated millions for charities and food banks and HBCUs in a time when every dollar counts. And if these events were just charity generators, that would be well and good. Yet they were entertaining, all in their own rights. Through the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity event fans got their first glimpse of the uber-private Seminole Golf Club. Charles Barkley showed his infamous swing had drastically improved during a Thanksgiving showdown with Peyton Manning, Steph Curry and Phil Mickelson. Speaking of Mickelson … well, he did a bunch of Phil Mickelson things in both two iterations of “The Match.” Fans got to watch him stomp around with Tiger Woods, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning (above) at Woods’ home course, and the PGA Tour’s weekly nine-hole Wednesday games showed us the personalities of players not normally given the spotlight. And while the stakes remained low, they sure felt high. A sentiment best encapsulated by Brady at “The Match II” at Medalist. The Buccaneers quarterback was exposed as a sandbagger, received an ungodly amount of schadenfreude from his competitors and broadcast and social media, and he ripped his pants in the one nanosecond where things weren’t going wrong. Yet his hole-out for eagle the first “Oh-My-Did-You-See-That?!?!!” sports moment since the world shut down in March. Yes, it was a golf exhibition. In the best possible connotation. —Joel Beall

• • •

No. 16: BROOKS KOEPKA

Ezra Shaw

There’s a bluntness to the way Brooks Koepka plays golf, or at least to the force that he delivers to a golf ball. His words aren’t much different either, so when asked recently to sum up his year, he cut right to it: “I don’t know if I could say that without getting fined. Pretty bad.” Such is the standard for a player who won four majors in just less than two years and began 2020 as the No. 1 player in the world only to go winless and dip to 12th, his lowest ranking since 2017. On one hand, it was a disjointed season—pun intended—as the 30-year-old missed two months, including the U.S. Open in September, because of lingering knee and hip issues that also sidelined him for three months in 2019. On the other, his ego wrote some checks his game couldn’t cash, most notably in August at the PGA Championship, where he entered the final round at Harding Park tied for second just two strokes off the lead of Dustin Johnson. Koepka proceeded to offer a dismissive assessment of Johnson and the other contenders, then promptly imploded with a Sunday 74 to tumble to a T-29. He also missed more cuts in 2020 (five) than he had in the previous two years combined (three), had just four top 10s (the fewest in a calendar year of his career) and seemed at times to have trouble adjusting to the lack of buzz without fans in attendance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then there was his continued trolling of Bryson DeChambeau over everything from ants, to slow play, to more serious insinuations over DeChambeau’s newfound bulk. On the bright side, there was a T-7 at the Masters. On the brighter side, 2020 is in the rear-view mirror. —Brian Wacker

• • •

No. 17: DANIELLE KANG

Mike Comer

When the LPGA Tour returned on July 31 after having not competed since February due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no way of knowing how players’ games would come out of the long hiatus. Danielle Kang, however, made the state of her game immediately clear when she won the first two events, and emphatically put her stamp on the 2020 season. After taking the title at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Inverness Club by one shot over Celine Boutier, Kang gave credit to her coach, Butch Harmon, saying they spent the time off back in Las Vegas working on her 3-wood and wedge game. “Butch was the mastermind behind it,” Kang said. “He knew exactly what I needed to accomplish and work on, and I had the time.” Another one-shot win the next week, this time over Lydia Ko at the Marathon LPGA Classic, made it five career victories and bragging rights over her boyfriend, PGA Tour pro Maverick McNealy. Kang remained one of the tour’s top guns through the rest of the year, finishing top 12 in four other starts and moving up to fourth in the Rolex Women’s Rankings. Always a fiery competitor—she picked up the game at age 12 and 18 months later had qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open—Kang is clearing living up to her potential. With the season’s two biggest events still to come—this week’s U.S. Women’s Open and next week’s CME Group Tour Championship—the 28-year-old California native has the chance to become the first American since Stacy Lewis in 2014 to win LPGA player-of-the-year honours.—Keely Levins

• • •

No. 18: GOLF & GAMBLING

Hispanolistic

Once a back-room taboo topic, the legalization of sports betting continues to transform how we watch our favourite games, golf included. In 2020, golf broadcasts—notably the PGA Tour’s live digital streams and Golf Channel’s coverage—began showing and discussing odds. Made-for-TV exhibitions such as The Match 2 and The Match 3, the TaylorMade Driving Relief Skins Game and the Payne’s Valley Cup at Big Cedar Lodge all included heavy integrations with major sports-betting companies. It might’ve been a bit bizarre for some to hear announcers talking about who to bet on during a telecast, but given how momentum is shifting, it’s a sign of things to come. Consider that when the PGA Tour returned to action in June at the Charles Schwab Challenge, that first tournament was the most-bet tour event in DraftKings history. So what’s next? Prepare to see the PGA Tour continue to embrace the industry, including its partnership with IMG Arena, which will release a live-betting product in the 19 states where legal sports betting is available (with more states to come). The tour’s partnerships with most of the major betting operators will allow it to try almost anything it wants—notably develop new products and TV integrations to continue to engage their audience. There is a massive shift in behaviour—and a way to encourage non-golfers but fantasy golf players or bettors to be watching golf. It might not be the method many envisioned when they talked about growing the game decades ago, but it’s already happening. —Stephen Hennessey

• • •

No. 19: WILL ZALATORIS

Hector Vivas

What if we told you the most consistent men’s golfer in the world didn’t earn status on the PGA Tour in 2020 until November? Such was the case with Will Zalatoris, a former All-American at Wake Forest, who picked the wrong year to light up the Korn Ferry Tour. A record stretch of 11 consecutive top-20 finishes on the developmental circuit, including a first pro win at the TPC Colorado Championship in July, was enough to easily finish first on the money list. But thanks to COVID-19, Korn Ferry Tour players will have to wait until the end of the 2021 season to earn PGA Tour cards. The good news for Zalatoris? The Plano, Texas, native kept his hot play going in the limited opportunities he got in the bigs, most notably a T-6 at the U.S. Open. The 24-year-old’s form was so strong by the time fall came around he was even made the betting favourite at the PGA Tour’s Bermuda Championship. Zalatoris didn’t win that week, but a T-16 was enough to earn Special Temporary Member status on the PGA Tour. In other words, we’re betting you hear a lot more about him in 2021. —Alex Myers

BONUS READ: The best things for golfers to come out of the pandemic

• • •

No. 20: PUSH CARTS

Richard Heathcote/R&A

Golf not only became the “it” participation sport during COVID-19, but walking the course came back in a big way. With golf carts a non-starter in most parts of the country during the early months of the pandemic, golfers who loathed the thought of lugging their bag looked to push carts as a viable alternative. Even pro golfers got into the act; LPGA up-and-comer Lindsey Weaver used one when the tour resumed play in lieu of a local caddie, including at the AIG Women’s British Open at Troon. It all resulted in a sales explosion in the category, a scarcity of supply and, eventually, price gouging on the secondary market with some non-motorized pushcarts going for close to $1,000 on some auction sites. Sun Mountain, a leading producer of push carts, ramped up production 250 percent—and still couldn’t keep up with demand, its pre-sales pushing availability out some three months during the summer. Results were predictably strong at retail as well. Ken Morton Jr., VP of retail & marketing at the Haggin Oaks golf facility in Sacramento, Calif., said the push-cart boom remains strong, with sales in August-September more than double the norm. “And that’s virtual without any inventory,” Morton said. “Everything we get in from the manufacturers is gone within a day or two of it arriving. At one point, we had a waitlist nearly 100 customers long.” Although 2021 will see demand for push carts slow somewhat, it likely will still far exceed pre-COVID levels. Golfers have not only grown used to hoofing it, but many have found they prefer the walk—as long as the bag stays off the shoulder. —E. Michael Johnson

• • •

No. 21: NICK WATNEY

Gregory Shamus

When the PGA Tour resumed its season in June with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, there were those who figured it wasn’t a matter of if a player would test positive for coronavirus but when. Unlike the NBA, which locked down its league in Orlando, the tour would be playing tournaments at courses around the country, with players, caddies and officials going in and out of “the bubble” each week. And while 40-plus pages worth of safety protocols were in place, they would only go so far. So when Nick Watney tested positive during the second tournament back, the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, the surprise wasn’t so much that it happened but who it happened to first. The 39-year-old tour veteran with a wife and two kids had the reputation of being a rule follower. “At the time it was extremely surreal because I felt like I had followed all the suggested protocols,” Watney told Golf Digest last week. Thankfully, the five-time tour winner experienced only mild symptoms and returned to play three weeks later. Unfortunately, the rest of 2020 was a struggle, with eight missed cuts in his 10 remaining starts. The tour, meanwhile, played on, confident its plan could limit exposure and keep other players safe. And, indeed, it did. While there were more positive tests among players, compared to other sports (notably the NFL and college football), the numbers were relatively low: 15 in total over a span of 17 tournaments and thousands of tests administered. Watney’s place in history remains, but thankfully it isn’t all that infamous. —Brian Wacker

BONUS READ: The first PGA Tour pro to test positive for COVID-19 reflects on his surreal experience

• • •

No. 22: SHEEP RANCH

Dom Furore

Like the age-old gifting question, What do you get the person who already has everything?, it’s difficult to envision what could possibly make Bandon Dunes better. The golf world received the answer this year: Sheep Ranch, which opened in June and earned Golf Digest’s Best New Course honours for 2020. The trick to enhancing a golf destination that seems to offer everything—including four courses currently ranked among Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest Courses—is to make any new addition distinct. Sheep Ranch accomplishes that by playing across a property that’s unlike anything else on site—a broad, open plain of seaside bluffs to the north of Old Macdonald. Where Bandon’s other courses dip in and out of sandy dunes and forests, Sheep Ranch fans across a mostly naked and ferociously windswept expanse that used to be home to a rustic and secretive 13-green course of the same name. The task for architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw was to find a way to assemble, in limited space, 18 holes that were broad enough to handle balls that would be blowing in all directions. In doing this they were also able to locate a remarkable nine greens along a majestic run of Pacific Ocean bluffs. Sheep Ranch is a gorgeous, bouncy course with its own look and playing characteristics, giving guests a different kind of golf experience and travellers yet another compelling reason to make the trek to southwest Oregon. —Derek Duncan

• • •

No. 23: PAUL AZINGER

Tasos Katopodis

It’s hard to believe now, but in a pre-COVID world the most-heated debate—at least, in the golf world—stemmed from Zinger’s zinger at Tommy Fleetwood during the final round of the Honda Classic in March. For a moment, the NBC commentator sounded more like an American Ryder Cup captain trying to fire up his squad when he said, “These guys know, you can win all you want on that European Tour or in the international game and all that,” Azinger said, “but you have to win on the PGA Tour.” More than what Azinger said, though, was how he said it. Many European players from Ian Poulter to Lee Westwood rightfully found the words condescending, particularly the line, “that European Tour.” To be fair to Azinger, though, even Fleetwood acknowledged the importance of winning in America. And whether it was the pressure of doing so or not, his chances of doing so disappeared when his second shot found the water on the par-5 18th at PGA National. In any event, Fleetwood enters 2021 still in search of a win on U.S. soil, and Azinger remains in the 18th tower for NBC. At the very least, like his predecessor Johnny Miller, Azinger seems to get golf fans—and golfers—talking. —Alex Myers

• • •

No. 24: HOODIES

Ross Kinnaird

Like seemingly every controversy in golf, the heated debate that centred around the acceptability of wearing hooded sweatshirts—aka Hoodies—during a golf tournament was manufactured on social media. While well-known players like Tony Finau, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy had worn them in competition before, HoodieGate didn’t really “explode” until Tyrrell Hatton won the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship in September wearing one. And by “explode,” we mean a handful of folks with 26 Twitter followers were upset with Hatton’s Bill Belichick-ian look at Wentworth. Nevertheless, the debate persisted, becoming less of a Hoodie-specific controversy and more of a diatribe on proper golf attire in general. One English golf club doubled down on its no-hoodie rule after Hatton’s victory. Ewan Porter, a former tour pro, told the story of being kicked out of an Australia golf club for wearing black socks. These two situations had many up in arms over golf’s outdated “dress code,” the argument being that if we want to grow the game, forcing people to abide by archaic rules ain’t the way to go. One thing is clear: There is still a divide regarding golf’s dress-code debates, be it on social media or behind the closed gates of an exclusive club. —Christopher Powers

• • •

No. 25: MIKE DAVIS

Scott Halleran

Mike Davis soon will break new ground as he segues into a career in golf course architecture with partner Tom Fazio II. Of course, many would argue—some saying for the better and, yes, more than a few for the worse—that Davis, 55, has been doing that for years during his tenure at the USGA, which will come to a close at the end of 2021. Davis said in September that he’ll be stepping down as CEO of the organization where he’s worked since 1990 and been in charge since 2011, leaving to pursue his first love, because, he said, “I’m closer to 60 than I am 50, and there was almost a sense that if I don’t do this, I’m going to regret it.” During his tenure, Davis oversaw, among many initiatives, the modernization of the Rules of Golf, the launch of the World Handicap System, the creation of the USGA Foundation, the debut of four new championships and plans for a second USGA headquarters in Pinehurst, N.C. He also, with mixed results, took the U.S. Open in a different direction with the selection of new courses like Chambers Bay and Erin Hills, and with the setup of old standbys like Winged Foot, Oakmont and Shinnecock Hills that featured graduated rough and multiple teeing grounds. Critics harped on tests that were either too easy (Erin Hills) or too tricked up (Shinnecock Hills) or simply not of true U.S. Open character (Chambers Bay). In the end, however, he put his stamp on the association, and though he said, “I hate the idea of leaving,” he nevertheless leaves as he served—on his own terms. —Dave Shedloski

RELATED: Who will replace Mike Davis? This is what the USGA is looking for

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By Joel Beall
It is a question, the question, that is not so much a question as it is an existential crisis for the Masters and the very game it stewards: Will Bryson DeChambeau break Augusta National?

What was greeted as a curious hypothesis from the Mad Scientist—a year-long odyssey from man into mountain for massive distance gains that would beget performance—has proven true, any remaining doubt erased by DeChambeau’s triumph at the U.S. Open. However, the way DeChambeau has achieved this success has left some wondering what has been and what will be sacrificed in his pursuit. It’s one thing to turn the Rocket Mortgage Classic into a pitch-n-putt. It’s something different to do the same to Winged Foot. It is a storm that has been expected for years yet mostly discussed in the future tense; DeChambeau was merely the vessel to pull it into the present.

The storm now visits golf’s most famous tournament at its famous course. Surely Augusta National cannot be bomb-and-gouged into submission; after all, Jack Nicklaus called the venue “the quintessence of a second-shot golf course.” The Golden Bear is not wrong. Three of the past five Masters winners led the field in strokes gained/approach. In that sense, DeChambeau’s relatively poor iron play (119th in SG/approach on the PGA Tour last season) should prohibit him from donning the green jacket.

Conversely, as Nicklaus elaborates, how that second-shot prowess is attained is not necessarily through irons.

“The perceptive player recognizes that his ability to attack the flag with the approach is largely determined by the drive—much more than on an average course,” Nicklaus told Golf Digest. “A difference in position of just 10 or 15 yards in the fairway might mean everything. On a second-shot course, you use the tee shot to truly create your second.”

Part of this philosophy accounts for angles of attack … but no need to muddy what is clear: Pure distance fuels this engine, and DeChambeau’s strategy. Which is why DeChambeau has continued to chase yardage, packing on more weight and adding a 48-inch driver in preparation for the Masters.

Augusta National has been overpowered before. At his 1997 breakthrough, Tiger Woods didn’t just pace the field with his 323.1-yard driving mark. He was 46 yards longer than the tournament average, and 25 yards past anyone else. That dominance, coupled with his win at the 2001 Masters, led the club to begin “Tiger proofing” the layout, a process that chiefly involved lengthening the course and strategically adding trees. But there’s only so far you can move the tee markers back, especially as DeChambeau attempts to cross the 400-yard barrier. Hurricane Bryson is now upon Georgia. What’s left standing after he blows through could change the game as we know it.

So what should fans brace for? With intel from one of DeChambeau’s recent visits to the course, along with opinions from a current PGA Tour player, we illustrated eight holes where Bryson will be able to attack Augusta National. (The lines depict DeChambeau’s theoretical drives with his added length—green signifying his ideal shot, red on some holes showing an alternative spot—against a variety of tee shots, represented by the red dots, seen over the last five years at the Masters.)

Hole 1, Tea Olive: Par 4, 445 Yards

Intel: A par at the first is one of the biggest exhales in golf. Players almost universally say it feels like you stole one on the field. DeChambeau may have his sights higher, er, lower. According to a source, DeChambeau was left with 65 yards into the first during his latest visit. For those scoring at home, that’s a 380-yard pop.

Player’s Take: “Bryson plays this right, it’s his biggest advantage over the field. If he has 80 yards in, he’s getting a good look at birdie at least twice. … If he’s hitting it this far, the miss is going to be left. Too much bad [right] to get aggressive with the cut.”

• • •

Hole 3, Flowering Peach: Par 4, 350 Yards

Intel: Not only is Bryson planning on going for the green, he can do so with a 3-wood.

Player’s Take: “There is a reason so many guys lay back rather than power it as far as they can up the left side. It’s such a tough leave from there [short left]. Long is worse. Reaching the green doesn’t mean much if he reaches it in the wrong spot. He will have an opportunity that 95 percent of the field won’t have, no doubt. And an approach from 110, 120 yards is sneaky tough too, so maybe green-light is the play. There’s just a lot of risk that comes with that.”

• • •

Hole 5, Magnolia: Par 4, 495 Yards

Intel: The hardest hole at Augusta National (13 birdies against 103 bogeys and six doubles in the 2019 Masters), a smoked drive will allow Bryson to clear the bunkers on the left side of the fairway, which play longer than their 315-yard stated carry. It is critical for Bryson, though, to not overcook one left.

Player’s Take: “I know the focus is on the [par] 5s, but this is right up there with No. 1 in terms of what his distance can do for him. This is an uncomfortable a tee shot as we get at Augusta, and if he could just blow it past the bunkers … hell man, I don’t care what he has left in, he’s taking the bite out of it. To be fair, it’s difficult, almost impossible, to get aggressive coming in. Even the guys who [find the fairway bunkers] know to play for bogey rather than save 4. That’s how the ‘scaries’ happen.”

• • •

Hole 8, Yellow Jasmine: Par 5, 570 Yards

Intel: This green is reachable, although usually it requires a fairway wood or hybrid. Sources told Golf Digest that DeChambeau was left with a 6-iron in.

Player’s Take: “My caddie thinks this is more important than 13 to Bryson. A drive that’s 30 yards longer here would feel like 60. That far up you can drop the birdie in your back pocket.”

• • •

Hole 10, Camellia: Par 4, 495 Yards

Intel: The 10th tied for the second-hardest hole at last year’s tournament. It could be one of the few holes where he lays up. By “laying up” we mean a 350-yard fairway wood.

Player’s Take: “Do you think he would take driver? I’m not so sure. He’s outdriving all but seven, eight guys with his 3-wood. That leaves him not much, 140, 150 yards in? Driver brings in the trees on the right. I suppose the temptation could get him here. From the box, it’s inviting, even by Augusta standards. Because of that, it’s easy to get loose with it. Trust me, that’s experience talking.”

• • •

Hole 13, Azalea: Par 5, 510 Yards

Intel: Bryson’s stated desire is to hit his drive into the 14th fairway, leaving 120 yards and change. That remains the game plan heading into the tournament, which not only requires a bit of a draw but clearing trees on the left side of the hole.

Player’s Take: “Maybe I’m over [the hype about 13] because so much has been said and written about the hole. Can he reach the 14th? I’m never saying never when it comes to Bryson. Most of the field, though, is making 4 here. He’s going to need an eagle one of the days to make it worth it. … I will say, this is not an easy wedge shot. Not difficult; you see what guys [score] here. There is some touch required. Just something to watch.”

• • •

Hole 15, Firethorn: Par 5, 530 Yards

Intel: Bryson is planning on having a 9-iron or wedge into the par 5. Which sounds wild, although Woods had a wedge in his hands at the ’97 Masters.

Player’s Take: “Sorry, I was dreaming about flipping a wedge for my second here … If we see wind, this might be a separator for Bryson. Yeah, a wedge into here is stupid. We’re also well past the days of players hitting 3-, 4-iron into the green. But if there’s wind some guys will be forced to hit something low, and he’ll have something mid-to-high in. That is the difference from ‘You know, give yourself a look [at eagle] but don’t give away 4’ to making eagle the goal.”

• • •

Hole 18, Holly: Par 4, 465 Yards

Intel: During his practice round Bryson hit it past the trees on the right side, leaving less than 100 yards in.

Player’s Take: “If he has a hair of action left-to-right, I mean, game over. Personally, I am not so sure about just driving it long [over the bunkers]. Back pin, yes. Anything else, the angle doesn’t leave much room for error, no matter the club. Of course, if you could tell me I could drop past [the bunkers] I’d take it before you finished the sentence.”

The post Can Bryson DeChambeau break Augusta National? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Late Tuesday evening, a video of DeChambeau swinging for the moon began making the rounds on social media. At the beginning of the clip, which was posted by DeChambeau’s longtime coach Michael Schy, DeChambeau can be seen bouncing around like a boxer getting himself ready for Round 1. “TWO OH EIGHT,” he screams, which we assume is him pumping himself up to get to 208 mph ball speed:

Bryson preparing for the Masters like an asteroid about to impact earth pic.twitter.com/VVa49UtDZ1

— Riggs (@RiggsBarstool) October 28, 2020

This is … something. AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” playing in the background, 18 hanger-ons watching and/or filming him, Bryson screaming like a madman. Are we sure he’s prepping for Augusta National and not a World Long Drive contest? Judging by the numbers he posted over the weekend, it’s starting to feel like the latter:

Bryson DeChambeau isn’t messing around with his prep for the Masters. ?

(?: @B_Dechambeau) pic.twitter.com/WOLp6yq7A0

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) October 23, 2020

The man is drunk with power. Imagine he takes one over the corner on No. 13 at ANGC and does a gutteral scream after? Sheesh. It could be the end of the Masters as we know it.

The post Bryson DeChambeau looks like he’s prepping for World Long Drive instead of Augusta National appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
There are some who rolled their eyes and scoffed when Bryson DeChambeau boasted that he’d drive the ball 400 yards one day. The notion seemed as much a fantasy as someone shooting a perfect round of 54.

Now, at least when it comes to the game’s highly driven scientist, anything seems possible. Only months after he spoke of the frontier, DeChambeau has reached it by breaking the 400-yard barrier.

On Friday, DeChambeau posted on Instagram a photo of his launch monitor, and he was celebrating the first time he has carried the ball more than 400 yards. CARRIED—from his clubface to the moment the ball found earth again. The actual distance was 403.1 yards, so what many a weekend hack considers a longish par 4. Ball speed: 211 mph, or the speed of an Indy race car. The hang time: 8.2 seconds.

Bryson DeChambeau isn’t messing around with his prep for the Masters. ?

(?: @B_Dechambeau) pic.twitter.com/WOLp6yq7A0

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) October 23, 2020

Of course, it was only a matter of time before this happened. DeChambeau has been saying since he beefed up that his goal was to smash the 400 ceiling. After the mad scientist went back to work in his lab following his dominating victory in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, he revealed that he was going to test a 48-inch driver. The scary thing is, in reporting his 400-yard bomb, DeChambeau added, “Not even the 48-inch driver.”

Purists and golf course architects are rolling their eyes in surrender.

The next big on-course experiment comes in arguably the most compelling tournament of this COVID-19 year, the delayed Masters in three weeks. As others quickly pointed out on Friday, if DeChambeau can approach 400 yards in competition, he could master Augusta National like none before him. All conditions being equal and with elevation or roll not considered, with a 400-yard tee shot, he’d have 45 yards into the first green, 95 into the fifth, 50 into the seventh, 95 into No. 10, 105 into 11, 40 into 14, 50 into 17 and 65 into 18. The par 5s would all be reachable in two with a short iron.

Granted, DeChambeau is not going to drive it 400 yards consistently. His 322-yard average from last season tells us that he still has a long way to go to produce bombs that big on a regular basis. But there seems little doubt that Bryson is hellbent to get there.

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By Daniel Rapaport
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Tiger Woods’ U.S. Open ended with a missed cut on Friday afternoon, but it was the events of that weekend that triggered a vehement debate in the golf world. And, for once, it had nothing to do with Tiger.

It was exactly one month ago that Bryson DeChambeau put the finishing touches on a devastating performance at Winged Foot, where he blasted driver after driver en route to a six-shot victory. DeChambeau hit just 23 of 56 fairways that week and just nine of 28 over the weekend, which is supposed to be a death sentence in a U.S. Open. But DeChambeau—thanks to his new, 40-pound-heavier body—was able to muscle his way out of Winged Foot’s punishing rough all week, winning a U.S. Open like no one else has before.

The tournament felt like an inflection point in the ever-crescendoing distance debate. That bomb-and-gouge won a U.S. Open at Winged Foot, one side posits, proves the essence of the game has been lost—that power now reigns supreme, that accuracy isn’t as important as it used to be, and that the governing bodies need to do something about it. DeChambeau’s success has also motivated other golfers to chase distance; both Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson posted videos to social media showing launch monitor readings of 190-plus mph ball speeds.

RELATED: Everybody wants to talk Masters with Tiger Woods

Simply put, distance is all the rage in golf. On Wednesday, ahead of his title defence at the Zozo Championship, Woods was asked about the phenomenon.

“Distance has always been an advantage,” Woods said. “Now that we have the tools, that being the launch monitor, the fitting of the golf clubs, the adjustability. I think all that plays into the fact that you’re able to maximize the capabilities of a driver. There’s no reason why you can’t pick up more yardage, and guys have done that. They’ve changed shafts, they’ve changed lofts, they’ve changed weights on their heads and length of clubs. Driving is such a huge part of the game and it’s so advantageous if you’re able to get the ball out there. It just makes the game so much easier.”

Woods was then asked if the game’s governing bodies should be worried about the direction golf is heading.

“They should have been worried a long time ago, but the genie’s out of the bag now. It’s about what do we do going forward, and how soon can they do it. I don’t know if they’re going—you’re not going to stop the guys who are there right now. Guys are figuring out how to carry the ball 320-plus yards, and it’s not just a few of them. There’s a lot of guys can do it. That’s where the game’s going.

“There’s only going to be a small amount of property that we can do, we can alter golf courses. I just don’t see how they can roll everything back. I would like to be able to see that, as far as our game, but then we go back down the road of what do you bifurcate, at what level? So that’s a long discussion we’ve had for a number of years, for 20-plus years now, and I think it’s only going to continue.”

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By John Huggan
It’s hard to imagine a bigger architectural and cultural contrast. The city of Las Vegas and the village of Virginia Water have virtually nothing in common, other than the fact that both are this week hosting professional golf tournaments. And that obvious dichotomy is also holding true on the two golf courses. While Bryson DeChambeau has blasted his way into the early lead at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Nevada, Matthew Fitzpatrick has taken a more subtle approach to the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Tied at the top of the leader board alongside Open champion Shane Lowry at 12-under 132, Fitzpatrick was clearly more than happy with a second-round 65 that included seven birdies, an eagle and one lapse, a double-bogey 6 at the par-4 eighth. After a season on the PGA Tour the 26-year-old Englishman described as “hit and miss” and “just not as consistent as last year,” Fitzpatrick’s trip down the Burma Road course was built on sound foundations.

“Everything was solid, really,” he said. “Drove the ball well. Chipped well. Putted well. Iron play was good. It’s nice that it all come together. The last few weeks I’ve done three things well and one thing’s been off. But I’ve always loved this course and felt that it suited my game.

Fitzpatrick’s game, of course, is constructed around the consistency he has recently found elusive. But what his slimly-built figure does not allow him to do is launch the ball enormous distances off the tee. Last season on the PGA Tour, the world No. 20 ranked a ho-hum 68th in driving distance, despite averaging 309.8 yards off the tee. And Fitzpatrick isn’t afraid to say that trend of players maxing out on distance is not something he welcomes.

“I’m biased because I’m not quite the longest,” said the five-time European Tour champion. “But in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, fair play to Bryson, he won and shot six under. But the fairways were tight as hell. I drove it brilliantly and actually played pretty well [despite missing the cut by one stroke], but I was miles behind. He’s in the rough and miles up and he’s hitting wedges from everywhere. It just makes a bit of a mockery of the game.

“I looked at Shot Tracker yesterday, to see some of the places Bryson hit it,” Fitzpatrick said, referring to DeChambeau’s first round in Vegas. “He was cutting corners. And when he’s on, there’s no point. It doesn’t matter if I play my best. He’s going to be 50 yards in front of me off the tee, and the only thing where I can compete with him is putting. Which is just ridiculous. But we’re going to see people going harder and harder at it. Look at the college kids coming out now, Matt Wolff, Viktor Hovland. They just smash it, basically. Matt is a great player, but it seems to me the game is smash it and get after it and play the next one from wherever it is.”

Asked whether the R&A and the USGA should do something about the ever-increasing distances leading professionals hit their drives, Fitzpatrick, ironically, didn’t hold back.

“I really hope they do,” said the former U.S. Amateur champion. “In my opinion, it’s not a skill to hit the ball a long way. I could put on 40 pounds. I could go and see a bio-mechanist. I could gain 40 yards; that’s actually a fact. I could put another two inches on my driver. But the skill is to hit the ball straight. That’s the skill. He’s just taking the skill out of it in my opinion. I’m sure lots will disagree. But it’s just daft.”

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By Ryan Herrington
We wrote over the weekend about how the latest tour pro to be experimenting with the Bryson DeChambeau/swing-out-of-your-shoes method of driving was a pretty big surprise: Rory McIlroy.

As we said then, it was inevitable that DeChambeau winning the U.S. Open with his bombs-away strategy would cause previously sceptical peers to become more willing to give the method a try. It’s just that McIlroy was, well, really previously sceptical.

Remember that McIlroy notably praised DeChambeau on the Sunday of his victory at Winged Foot (“It’s kind of hard to really wrap my head around it.”) but did so with a seeming caveat.

“So I think … about the guy, I think it’s brilliant, but I think he’s taken advantage of where the game is at the minute,” McIlroy said. “Look, again, whether that’s good or bad, but it’s just the way it is. With the way he approaches it, with the arm-lock putting, with everything, it’s just where the game’s at right now.

“I’m not saying that’s right or wrong. He’s just taking advantage of what we have right now.”

Earlier in the summer, when asked if he might consider bulking up like DeChambeau to help increase his swing speed and get more distance, McIlroy noted he wasn’t inclined to do so since he felt he typically hit it farther when he was smaller.

And yet, on his Instagram story feed over the weekend, McIlroy shared a look at some numbers on a launch monitor in which he appeared to follow DeChambeau’s swing-it-hard lead with some eye-popping results.

Mind you, McIlroy was already no stranger to long drives; he has averaged between 306 and 319 yards in driving distance on tour each of the last five seasons. And whether he decides to crank it up in a tournament setting isn’t clear.

And double mind you, this was just one brief image on an Instagram feed. Skeptics quickly suggested that golf pundits would be reading too much into this one little easter egg on McIlroy’s social media account.

To them, we now offer another piece of evidence that this “experiment” might actually be real.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

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A post shared by RORY (@rorymcilroy) on Oct 6, 2020 at 10:04am PDT

Indeed, if McIlroy was fretful of DeChambeau “taking advantage” of today’s technology, it’s not enough to keep him from exploring whether it could work for him, too.

The post Rory McIlroy hints—again—that he’s tinkering with the Bryson DeChambeau approach to distance appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But whether those statistics mean the longest hitters are dominating the game in a distinctly different way than they have in the past, well, that’s a different question. And a different set of numbers show that big hitters indeed have begun to matter more than ever. Or at least they have until this year. In 2020, the numbers are saying big distance is generally about as relevant to success on the PGA Tour as it’s always been, not more and not less.

The ruling bodies have ramped up their study of distance in the last five years, including a comprehensive investigation of the topic called the Distance Insights Project that ultimately concluded that driving distance at the elite level needed to be curbed. The USGA and R&A have tabled any specific recommendations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and currently are expected to announce further research topics for potential actions next spring. But as a head start as to what might fuel the ongoing debate, here’s what we looked at.

Since the PGA Tour started tabulating statistics in 1980, we charted the top 10 players on each season’s money list and where each of those players ranked in the four “skills” that generally matter most in golf performance: driving distance, driving accuracy, greens in regulation and putting. Then we looked at the average rank for the top 10 players in each of those skill categories and compared those numbers throughout history. The graphic below shows how the top 10 players in the world fared in driving distance and the other key stats over the years. The lower the number, the better the ranking in that category and the more that skill determined financial success.

As you can see in the graphic, the numbers generally float up and down throughout the last 40 years in the same range for each statistical category. There were years where driving accuracy dipped dramatically, and that specific time clearly fueled the equipment rule changes on grooves that took effect in 2010.

From 1980-2019 the average yearly rankings for the top 10 broke down this way:

Driving Distance: 61
Driving Accuracy: 81
Greens In Regulation: 45
Putting: 38

In 2020—more specifically, the 2019-’20 PGA Tour season— the averages are pretty close to the normal range.

Distance: 54
Accuracy: 90
GIR: 62
Putting: 21

In fact, if you just focus on the modern era since 1995, which includes titanium-faced drivers and solid-core, multilayer golf balls, the numbers for 2020 again seem within the normal range.

Distance: 58
Accuracy: 98
GIR: 49
Putting: 41

Now, there is a way to drill down a little farther and see the trend that the ruling bodies most likely are studying intently as part of their Distance Insights research. In the five years prior to 2020, the bombers seemed to be starting to play a much larger role in the success matrix than in years past. As well, accuracy has continued to decline in relevance to the highest levels of success.

Here are the averages for the top 10 on the money list from 2015-2019:

Distance: 38
Accuracy: 109
GIR: 51
Putting: 31

As an example, in 2018 only one player in the top 10 on the money list ranked outside the top 40 in driving distance. In 2019, there were only two. In 2018, the average rank in driving accuracy for top 10 players was 122, and it hasn’t been inside the top 100 since 2015, until this year when it was wound up being 98. By comparison, in 1994, the last year before titanium drivers were introduced, the average rank in driving distance for those in the top 10 on the money list was 76. When Tiger Woods won his first major in 1997, the driving distance average rank was 87.

Sean M. Haffey

All distance, of course, is relative. Heading into this week’s Tour Championship, 74 players are averaging 300 yards off the tee. The player ranked 100th in driving distance, Matt Jones, has a driving distance average that comfortably would have led the tour every year until 1997 and would have ranked in the top five through 2002. Meanwhile, the driving distance leader in 1985, Andy Bean at 278.2 yards, would not rank in the top 200 this year.

Do 2020’s numbers suggest the rush of power hitters has subsided, Bryson DeChambeau and his current all-time high of 323.9 yards, notwithstanding? Well, it is true that five of the top 10 on the money list are outside the 60 longest hitters on tour and three are outside the top 100. Of course, it has been an abbreviated season and several of the tournaments since the restart were played on courses where accuracy was perhaps at more of a premium compared to distance. Still, the average driving distance for the top 10 players on the money list is 305 yards, or about nine yards longer than the tour average this year. There also are five times as many players averaging 300 yards or more off the tee among the 30 headed to East Lake than there are players averaging less than 290.

Then again, it’s also true that one of the three players who is not ranked in the top 100 in driving distance but still ranked in the top 10 on the current money list is Collin Morikawa, the guy to win the only major played this year.

The post Do the best players on tour have to be the longest hitters? New data suggests not necessarily appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Lest one forgets—and given the amount that’s happened this year, any loss of memory is forgiven—the R&A and USGA released their long-awaited Distance Insights report in Feburary. The two-year study of how far the golf ball is flying was resoundingly clear on one specific conclusion: Distance must be stopped.

So it doesn’t take much imagination to guess what the sport’s ruling bodies think about Bryson’s bomb barrage.

Speaking with the Daily Mail, R&A chief Martin Slumbers said that while he’s personally fascinated with DeChambeau’s transformation, he and his organisation feel the need to restrain increasing distance gains.

“It’s a topic I feel very strongly about,” Slumbers said. “It’s our responsibility, as a governing body, to have a view on the broad implications of your question. … We published our report, along with the USGA, in February, and it said we needed to put a line in the sand and come back—because we think it’s gone too far.

“My view is very much that golf is a game of skill. It’s important to have a balance of skill and technology.”

A second part of the Distance Insights project was supposed to be released this spring, but it has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Slumbers said the release will still happen once the golf industry, and world, has a chance to stabilize.

“It’s all been put on hold because the world has a lot more to worry about. And we were conscious of the golf industry having the time to recover,” Slumbers said. “But we will bring that topic back—because it does need to be discussed.

“Once we feel that the industry is stable again, which isn’t going to be tomorrow, because we don’t know what’s going to happen over autumn and winter, we will be coming back to that issue in great seriousness.”

Slumbers reiterated he’s been intrigued by DeChambeau and his accomplishments. However, DeChambeau’s performance has only strengthened Slumbers’ resolve to curb distance.

“I’m not sure I can remember another sportsman, in any sport, so fundamentally changing their physical shape,” Slumbers said of DeChambeau. “I can’t think of anyone. I’m thinking of some boxers because I love boxing.

“But what is extraordinary is that Bryson isn’t the first one to put on muscle in golf. How he’s able to control the ball, with that extra power, is extraordinary. All credit to him, he’s a true athlete.

“But I still come back to the belief that golf is a game of skill. And we believe we need to get this balance of skill and technology right.”

Due to the postponement of this year’s Open Championship, DeChambeau won’t get the chance to showcase his talent to the R&A up close. The 26-year-old, who has finished no worse than T-8 in his last seven starts, is in this week’s Memorial field.

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