It’s a new year and maybe we can look forward to a happier and brighter 2021. If nothing else, golf showed itself to be a healthy diversion during the pandemic as evidenced by a greater amount of rounds played last year along with increased sales of equipment and golf attire. With that in mind, there is a lot of info to digest for the world of golf in 2021. Here goes.
For those spectators of the game, the Women’s United States Open visits the Bay Area in early June as the Olympic Club plays host to the game’s oldest major championship for women. The iconic Willie Watson and Sam Whiting design has hosted five men’s U.S. Opens, three U.S. Amateurs, a pair of Tour Championships, and is scheduled to be the site of the 2028 PGA Championship and the 2033 Ryder Cup.
The PGA Tour heads to the Monterey Peninsula in early February for the playing of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and returns to Napa in September for the Safeway Open at Silverado. Harding Park, the site of a most memorable PGA Championship this past August, has given up its chance to host the 2026 Presidents Cup Matches between Team USA and the Internationals. The San Francisco municipal course is in line to begin hosting a regular tour event in September. Expect the new event to commence in September of 2022 as tournament sponsor Workday wants its inaugural event at Harding Park to be with spectators although there is no guarantee for 2021. Warriors guard Steph Curry is one of the movers and shakers behind this new tourney.
On the PGA Tour schedule, the majors are back to their traditional dates. The Masters is at Augusta National in April, the PGA Championship returns to South Carolina’s Kiawah Island in May, the United States Open visits Torrey Pines in San Diego in June, and the British Open will be contested in July at Royal St. Georges in England. Kiawah and Torrey are hosting their second major while the Open Championship has been at Sandwich 13 times.
The LPGA Tour also returns to its traditional schedule. The ANA Inspiration (Dinah Shore) is at Mission Hills in Palm Desert, the Women’s PGA is going to the Atlanta Athletic Club, and the Women’s British Open visits the always diabolical Carnoustie in Scotland. The LPGA Tour will host 34 tournaments. including two new ones. The total purse for 2021 is a healthy $74.45 million. There’s a lot of quality golf being played on the LPGA Tour these days.
They’ll be attempting to hold the Summer Olympics this coming July and August in Japan. Golf is once again an Olympic sport and the 72-hole golf tournament for women and men will be contested at Kasumigaseki Country Club. The Ryder Cup Matches between Europe and the United States were also pushed back to late September in 2021. They will be held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, a three-time site of the PGA Championship. Madison, Wisconsin resident Steve Stricker will captain Team USA while three-time major champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland leads Team Europe. The Solheim Cup is set for this autumn at the Inverness Golf Club in Toledo, a past site of the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. The Solheim Cup is the women’s version of the Ryder Cup, founded by the late president of Ping Golf, Karsten Solheim.
On the men’s amateur golf front, the United States Amateur takes place at historic Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh. Oakmont has hosted the U.S. Open nine times. The Walker Cup Matches between amateur men’s teams from America and Great Britain/Ireland are at another gem of a golf course, namely the Seminole Golf Club in Florida.
Locally, one of the highlights of the local golf club season is the qualifying tournament to send a four-person team from each club to Monterey to play other teams in an NCGA Zone Championship. Last year the Zones were canceled because of the pandemic. This year is still in the wait-and-see category. Should the Zone Championship proceed, then the North Valley Zone will be at Poppy Hills and Carmel Valley Ranch on April 5-6.
The same can be said for the high school golf season. Should high schools be allowed to compete this spring in the North Coast Section, then the local high school season would be in April and May, with the Division II North Coast Section championships scheduled for Tuesday, June 1 at Franklin Canyon in Rodeo. Austin Pritchard of Middletown High School is the top golfer in the Coastal Mountain Conference while Cory Holt of Kelseyville High School and Nathon Lopez of Clear Lake High School should garner recognition as All-Conference golfers … if there is a season.
If there is a theme for fans of the game to watch for in 2021 and beyond, it will be the “arms race” on the PGA Tour. During the course of the past 16 months, Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis put on an additional 40 pounds of muscle to increase his clubhead speed in anticipation of hitting the ball much farther. Whether it worked or not is a point of argument. For DeChambeau, it will be hard to accomplish an even better season in 2021.
DeChambeau’s new body resulted in two wins, including the U.S. Open in 2020. He had 10 top-10 finishes and placed sixth on the money list with $4.99 million in earnings. He was the longest off the tee at 322 yards. He was first in strokes gained off the tee, which means he knew how to keep the ball in play while avoiding penalties and the deepest rough. However, these gaudy power stats only tell half the story. According to world No. 1 Justin Thomas, “Bryson won the U.S. Open because he putts the hell out of it, not because he hits it really far.” The telling statistic? DeChambeau was first on the tour in putting from inside 10 feet. He knocked it in 91.2 percent of the time. That’s the best percentage mark on tour since Jim Furyk in 2002. Bryson DeChambeau might have hit it farther and he wedged it closer, but even more important is that he took advantage of his power and his wedge game by making lots of putts.
DeChambeau and the power game are not new stories. After all, the greats of each era such as Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods all were long-ball knockers. They too won when all aspects of their game were top notch to go along with their length off the tee. Nonetheless it makes for interesting Sports Illustrated covers proclaiming “Bryson DeChambeau is Breaking Golf.” Here’s to a very happy 2021!
