By Brian Wacker
When Dustin Johnson won the Travelers Championship on Sunday, he did so having shot a career-best 61 along the way. That’s saying something for a player whose résumé is already full of so many achievements it will likely land him in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

A week earlier, Webb Simpson finished his four days at Harbour Town Golf Links at 22 under par to break the RBC Heritage’s 72-hole scoring record en route to victory. And at the Charles Schwab Challenge the week prior to that, Bryson DeChambeau shot a pair of 65s at Colonial Country Club—and still finished a stroke out of a playoff.

The first three weeks of the PGA Tour’s restart have been a lot of things. Shootouts would certainly be one way to describe them.

RELATED: This is easily the most impressive stat from Dustin Johnson’s Travelers win

Since the tour resumed play on June 11, the winning scores of each event have been 15 under, 22 under and 19 under. Drilling down a bit further, there have been a total of 130 rounds of 65 or better in the three tournaments combined, or an average of more than 40 such scores every week. So much for rust following a three-month layoff.

And as the tour moves to Detroit Golf Club for this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, it’s reasonable to expect more of the same. In last year’s inaugural playing of the event, winner Nate Lashley shot a pair of 63s on his way to finishing at 25 under. He wasn’t the only one to torch the Donald Ross design, though, with 15 others ending the week at 15 under or lower.

Why all the red numbers? The reasons vary.

In Fort Worth, more than seven inches of rain doused Colonial the two weeks leading up to the tournament. That meant it was easier to hit fairways and the course’s small greens, leading to four rounds of 63, seven rounds of 64 and 22 rounds of 65. Not surprisingly, most of Colonial’s lowest scores have come in years with rainy conditions—Zach Johnson’s tournament-record 21-under 259 total in 2010, Kenny Perry’s 54-hole record of 18 under in 2005 and David Toms 36-hole mark of 16 under in 2011 are three glaring examples.

At Harbour Town, a Pete Dye track that traditionally rewards precision over power, there was a 62, 10 rounds of 63, seven rounds of 64 and 27 rounds of 65. That Simpson won and set a new scoring record in the process wasn’t terribly surprising—he has the most rounds on tour of 65 or lower since June 2019 with 15. But there were a staggering 51 players who finished double digits under par for the week.

Again, conditions were made soft by warm, wet weather in the days prior. The tournament was also held much later than its usual slot in April the week after the Masters, meaning it was overseeded to handle the heat of summer in the south.

“There wasn’t any wind blowing. It was definitely soft,” Johnson said in Hilton Head. “With it soft, it plays a little bit longer, because the balls aren’t rolling on the fairway. But, yeah, you can be aggressive around here.”

Simpson agreed.

“Most years the wind blows, anywhere from nine under to 15 under usually wins,” Simpson said. “We’re used to really firm greens here at Hilton Head, and we’re used to cooler temperatures, so the ball didn’t go as far. We’re used to more wind, honestly.

“I think all those factors play a role. Any time you give us soft greens, we’re going to shoot low scores.”

Last week at TPC River Highlands, the wet weather didn’t arrive until the weekend. Still, the par-70 layout is on the short side at less than 7,000 yards, it routinely sees low numbers because it’s a scoring-friendly venue with little in the way of danger. It is, after all, where Jim Furyk shot his PGA Tour-record 58 in 2016. The course nearly saw a second sub-60 score from Mackenzie Hughes in round one, but the Canadian had to settle for a 60. The low numbers kept coming, too, with Johnson one of two players to shoot a 61, two more 62s, eight 63s, 15 rounds of 64 and 24 rounds of 65.

Still, at all three venues course conditions only tell part of the story.

The fields each of the last three weeks on tour have been packed with the tour’s best. At Colonial, not only did each of the top five players in the world tee it up but there were 101 players in all who’d won on tour. The field was also expanded (to 148 players) and the strongest in the event’s history.

A week later, 17 of the top 20 in the world pegged it in Hilton Head. A similar pattern followed in Connecticut.

Another, perhaps unexpected, element may have played a role as well: No fans. While large galleries might save some wayward shots from finding trouble, a lack of fans also means few chances for distraction.

“In general, it’s easier to win on the PGA Tour without fans is what I’ve seen the first couple weeks,” Jordan Spieth said. “It’s easier to just be zoned in on pure golf.”

Perhaps all of this is merely a sign of a growing trend. As driving distances go up, scores continue to go down, particularly as the marriage between science and art move closer together in today’s power game. At least that’s what the numbers hint at.

At Colonial, each of the previous five years has seen the winner reach double digits under par, with 2018 champion Justin Rose getting the lowest of that group at 20 under. It hasn’t always been the case—the winning score was 10 under in 2017—but the average winning score in the event since 2015 is 14.4 under.

Similar patterns have played out at the RBC Heritage and Travelers.

While it’s true that 12 under was the lowest total in 2019 and 2018 at Harbour Town, Jim Furyk and Kevin Kisner finished atop the leader board at 18 under in 2015. At TPC River Highlands, only once since 2015 has the winning total been higher than 14 under. That was in 2017 when Spieth and Daniel Berger each finished at 12 under before Spieth holed out from a greenside bunker to win in a playoff.

Yet as far as 2020 is concerned, you better go low, or you’ll go home without the trophy.

The post Here’s why scores have been so low during the PGA Tour restart and why the trend will likely continue appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
As we’ve seen time and time again during Dustin Johnson’s career, he can never just coast to the clubhouse. This time, it was a rain delay, an out-of-bounds line and a water hazard that tried to stop his path to victory, but DJ powered through as he often does.

Johnson’s one-stroke victory over Kevin Streelman is his 21st of his PGA Tour career, but his first since the 2019 WGC-Mexico Championship, where he was able to coast to a five-stroke win over Rory McIlroy. He would have preferred that method on Sunday in Cromwell, Conn., but a win is a win. Here are our five takeaways from the final round of the Travelers Championship.

Is there ever a dull moment with Dustin Johnson?

The answer is an unequivocal NO. How have we not learned our lesson with this guy yet?

I made this analogy on Twitter, but it was so good (I got eight WHOLE likes) that I had to bring it here—Dustin Johnson is the guy who is beating you 28-7 in the fourth quarter of a game of Madden, but rather than step on your neck, he “makes things interesting” by letting you score a few times. Sometimes that works out and you still win 28-21. Other times you ground your club in a bunker and cost yourself a major. It’s dangerous business, as Johnson proved on the back nine. Each time he had a chance to run away with this thing, he immediately made a mistake—an OB tee shot at the par-5 13th, flirting with the water on 15, a bogey on the par-3 16th, just to name a few. He just refuses to win easily.

The thing is, DJ was beginning to get used to the win-it-easy life. His last four victories on the PGA Tour were by at least three strokes, and one of those was his epic walk-off eagle at the 2018 FedEx St. Jude Classic. But on Sunday at TPC River Highlands, he reverted to his old, hold-your-breath and chomp-on-your-fingernails form, ultimately claiming another title. Would he rather win by five? Sure, but that’d be a lot less fun to watch.

What a Sunday for Will Gordon

Maddie Meyer

After Will Gordon shot a third-round 71, I doubt anyone expected the unknown 23-year-old to bounce back the way he did on Sunday. But the 2019 SEC player of the year at Vanderbilt did more than just bounce back, shooting a six-under 64 that jumped him into a tie for third place, which earned him special temporary status on the PGA Tour after entering the week with no status on any tour. And Gordon birdied the 18th hole in order to get it. Talk about clutch. There’s only one winner every week on tour, but stories like Gordon’s show you can still win big without actually raising the trophy.

Is Bryson DeChambeau going to win or what?

Elsa

Obviously, yes, Bryson is going to win sooner or later, but Sunday’s T-6 marked his sixth straight finish inside the top-eight finish without a win. Not saying that’s a bad thing, but to not pick off even just one victory during this strong run of form is pretty surprising, if not alarming. Before this week, it was poor Saturday performances that were holding him back, but that wasn’t the case yesterday, when he shot 65. And while it feels like it’s his putting that’s kept him from winning, he finished 12th in strokes gained/putting this week. Again, he “should” get it done soon, but as we’ve seen these first few weeks with guys like Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Abraham Ancer, that’s much easier said than done.

Phil Mickelson had a quiet weekend

Elsa

Following rounds of 64 and 63, 50-year-old Phil Mickelson was the solo leader of the Travelers Championship. After Friday’s round, I wondered if he could keep it together all four days, something he struggles to do as he gets older at places not named Pebble Beach. I’m sad to report that my concerns were legitimate, as Lefty went 71-71 on the weekend to drop into a tie for 24th.

You’ll never believe this, but his driver failed him on Saturday and Sunday. After gaining strokes off the tee in each of the first two rounds, he lost 0.235 on Saturday and then lost 3.042 on Sunday, when he hit just five fairways. Someone who has never watched golf in their life could tell you that ain’t gonna get it done. Like many of you, I love it when Phil is in the mix and hope he continues to be as long as he wants, but it’s hard to get excited about the 63s and 64s when you know the one-over 71 is lurking right around the corner.

The PGA Tour rolls on

No COVID news is good news, and that was the case for the PGA Tour on the weekend at the Travelers. While Jason Day thought he was displaying symptoms, he wound up testing negative for the virus. Cameron Champ, who tested positive earlier this week and withdrew, released a statement saying he had tested negative three times since. After Denny McCarthy’s positive test, there were no more positives the rest of the week, not from a caddie, a player, family member, anybody.

This is good! We want the golf season to continue, and anyone who says different or believes that people are rooting for it to be shut down are utter fools. There are going to be more positive cases for sure, but hopefully they are as few and far between as possible, and the tour continues to follow all the proper protocols. Judging by what’s actually been a low number of positives so far, they’re doing the best job they can of handling this mess. As Bill Belichick would say “we’re on to Detroit.”

UPDATE: Unfortunately, just minutes after publishing this post, Dylan Frittelli became the fourth PGA Tour player to test positive for the virus. The South African has withdrawn from next week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic after testing positive on the test take in order to be able to fly on the PGA Tour charter to Detroit. Frittelli stated that he is “experiencing no issues and feel great physically and was surprised and disappointed to learn of the positive test.”

The post Dustin Johnson wins the only way he knows how and four other takeaways from Day 4 at the Travelers appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.