It’s a brand new year, a brand new decade, and yet we still have some concluding thoughts about the 2019 year in the world of golf. This weekend we’ll focus on the seniors, the women, the newest of the new breed, some negatives, and a very big positive.
PGA
It wasn’t the greatest of years for the public relations man who handles Matt Kuchar. Kuchar has a two-decade reputation for being a good guy and a class act. I first met him on the driving range at Spyglass Hill in 1998. He was the defending U.S. Amateur champ and I was impressed with his intelligence and common man’s attitude. Yet in autumn 2018 he had the issue with his fill-in caddie and then in 2019 he had a contentious match with Sergio Garcia in the World Match Play as well as a controversy regarding his lie in a European Tour event. He did cap off the year by garnering the winning point for Team USA in the Presidents Cup.
One of the tour’s nice guys was missing in action for a good portion of 2019. Jordan Spieth finished tied for third at the PGA Championship in May at Bethpage. After that he was null and void. At the conclusion of the season, Spieth was 88th in driving distance, 181st in driving accuracy and 179th in greens in regulation. Thankfully he was 35th in scoring shots, meaning he made a lot of long putts for par. Simply put, Spieth lost his swing, wasn’t part of the Presidents Cup team, and needs to get things in gear if he’s going to return to the top of the leader board.
The newest members of the new breed include Matthew Wolff, Cameron Champ, Joaquin Niemann, C.T. Pan, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa and Nate Lashley. Wolff, who has a swing that is the closest thing to Jim Furyk on tour, won the NCAAs and then three months later won his first PGA Tour event at Minneapolis. Champ, a big-time bomber, won at Silverado and then played on the Presidents Cup team for the Internationals. His teammate, Joaquin Niemann from Chile, won at the Greenbrier. Another International, C.T. Pan, won at Harbour Town. Homa won at Charlotte, Morikawa, who played at Cal Berkeley, was victorious at Reno, and Lashley prevailed at Detroit. Of course, success on tour can be fleeting. Does anyone remember Smylie Kaufman?
LPGA
The LPGA Tour is turning things around as far as tournaments, purses and television. Commissioner Mike Whan has been a stable force for women’s golf for 11 years. The caliber of LPGA sites has been upgraded as evidenced by this coming season’s majors at Champions in Houston, Aronimink and Royal Troon. Jin Young Ko won two majors, the ANA Dinah Shore and the Evian. Jeongeon Lee won the U.S. Women’s Open, Hannah Green won the LPGA, and Hinako Shibuno came through at the British Open. In 2020 LPGA purses will be a combined $75.1 million, there will be 33 tourneys in 11 countries, and there will be 500 hours of television coverage with seven LPGA events on network TV. The LPGA Tour is definitely on the upswing.
Senior Tour
The earliest days of the Senior Tour featured Jack, Arnie, Lee, Chi Chi and a bevy of stars from the 1960s. Nowadays, the stars of the 1990s such as Greg Norman and Nick Faldo don’t enhance the brand that is Champions Tour golf. They don’t play. Scott McCarron won the season-long Schwab Cup and Steve Stricker won the U.S. Senior Open. Most notable was the victory in the British Senior Open by 62-year-old Bernhard Langer. Most senior golfers hit the proverbial wall at age 55. Instead, Langer not only took on Father Time, but his younger contemporaries in senior golf. During the past decade Langer teed it up 210 times. He won 32 tournaments, finished second 33 times and third in 19 events. He had 144 top-10 finishes. That’s pretty impressive stuff for a guy who is three years removed from Medicare.
Handicap system
Last year it was all about 20 new rules put forth by the USGA and the R&A. This year the focus for golfers of all levels will be the new world handicap golf system. All handicaps will be uniform. I no longer have to post in Northern California, Wisconsin and the Chicago District when I play. The easy version of the new system is that handicaps will be based on eight out of 20 scores and the 5-percent differential factor will go away. The rest is way too complex.
Olympics
This summer Olympic golf will be contested in Japan. The men will play from July 30- Aug. 2 while the women will tee it up from Aug. 5-8. The qualifying rules for entry into Olympic golf have been altered so that more world class golfers will be in the field. The PGA and LPGA Tours also have cleared their calendars during those weeks so that Olympic golf will be on center stage. The success of Olympic golf at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 has definitely popularized the sport as well as the tournament itself, regardless of the fact there is zero money involved and winners receive Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals.
Mickelson
Phil Mickelson won at Pebble Beach last February but was merely mediocre for the rest of the year. He failed to qualify for the Presidents Cup team for the first time in 25 years. Lefty’s 30-year career is on the downswing and he will turn 50 years of age over U.S. Open weekend in June. However, one has to anticipate that while Mickelson will perhaps play in the senior majors, he probably won’t be a week-in and week-out regular on the Champions Tour. His presence would definitely give that tour a big boost, but Phil will be of the mentality that he can still win against the young guns. He can’t.
Feel-good story
With 43 million views on social media, the feel good story of the year revolved around Amy Boskerstette, a young lady with down syndrome who plays on the women’s golf team at Paradise Valley Community College in Scottsdale. The PGA Tour set up a one-hole practice round for her with defending Phoenix Open champ, Gary Woodland, in January. Amy played the famous par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale with Woodland and Matt Kuchar. She pulled her tee shot into the left bunker, got out to 10 feet with her sand wedge, and then lined up her par putt with the stands full of spectators.
She told Woodland, “I got this,” and then poured in the par putt. She was a guest on the Today Show the week after the U.S. Open and was surprised when Woodland showed up on the set with his National Open trophy. Amy’s phrase, “I got this,” got nationwide attention and her exploits at Phoenix constituted the most watched video in the history of the PGA Tour.
Next stop, 2020
That’s concludes our review of 2019 and look at 2020. It was a very good year for Tiger, Brooks, Rory and Amy. On top of that, it was a very good decade for Bernhard.
