DJ Now Stands Tall in the Record Books

Now that the pine needles have settled in Augusta, let’s view Dustin Johnson and his record-breaking Masters victory in historical context:

1. DJ is now tied with Gary Player for 26^th on the all-time list for most PGA Tour wins with 24. (But let’s get one thing straight; the Black Knight is arguably one of the top 5 golf professionals of all time, with nine majors victories on the regular tour and a matching nine majors on the PGA Tour Champions (seniors) circuit. Only the incomparable Bernhard Langer has more Champions Tour majors.  Player also logged 160 tournament wins during his career in the USA and internationally. Incredible.  So no parallels between DJ and Player should properly be drawn at this juncture of DJ’s career other than this happenstance of total PGA victories.)

2.  DJ now joins an exclusive group:  every golfer with at least 24 PGA Tour victories, save Macdonald Smith, who retired in 1936,  is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

3. Every golfer with at least 2 majors victories is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Now, in examining the qualifications for election, being a member of the WGHOF may not be the distinction one would otherwise think.  In fact, after the criticism it received after the election of Colin Montgomerie in the class of 2013 to the Hall, despite the fact he had never won a major championship or a stroke play tournament in the U.S., the WGHOF suspended its election process in 2014 and revamped its selection criteria. Prior to that process, the criteria for regular PGA tour golfers was basically at least 10 PGA Tour wins, two majors or two Players Championship titles. As a result, good but certainly not great golfers such as Lanny Wadkins (21 tour wins, 1 major), Tom Kite (19 tour wins, 1 major),  Larry Nelson (10 tour wins but 3 majors), Hubie Green (19 tour wins, 2 majors), Curtis Strange ((17 tour wins, 2 majors), and Fred Couples (15 tour wins, 1 majors) were elected to the Hall prior to 2014.

4. In the last 22 majors in which he has played, starting with the 2015 Masters, DJ has won twice, finished 2^nd (alone or tied) 4 times, and finished in the top 10 thirteen times.  To put that in perspective, Rory McIlroy was 12 top-ten finishes in majors during that time, Brooks Koepka has 11, Jordan Spieth 9, and no one else is close.

5. DJ is now 36 years young.  How many majors victories are in his future?  Well, Jack Nicklaus won 4 majors after turning 36, including his last and perhaps most memorable one at the Masters in 1986, at the ripe old age of 46.  Gary Player won 4 of his 9 majors after turning 36 years of age. Phil Mickelson won 2 of his 5 majors after turning 39.  Conversely, Tom Watson won all 8 of his majors before turning 36.

So, it would appear that history is not much of a guide here, except to indicate that it might be difficult to expect even someone as supremely talented as Johnson to win more than 3 or 4 more majors in the coming years. Only time will tell.  In the meantime, the 2021 Masters is only five months away, so it won’t be long before we see DJ defend his well-deserved 2020 title, and hopefully before crowds of roaring patrons and blooming azaleas in Augusta.

AMDG

© R. E. Kelly 2012 -2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Bryson DeChambeau Will Win the 2020 Masters

While we suffer through a rain delay of the first round at Augusta, let’s contemplate some issues to pass the time. Let’s start with this: there are several compelling reasons why Bryson DeChambeau will win the 2020 Masters; here they are:  

·        - Augusta National favors long hitters – of the eight champions with more than two Masters wins, four of the top five were the longest hitters of their day (Nicklaus, Woods, Palmer, Snead).

·        -DeChambeau is a long hitter; he is averaging 344.4 yards per drive this PGA season, 12 yards more than his closest competitor.

·         -Augusta National does not punish less than accurate drivers – see Phil Mickelson with 3 Masters wins (only two other major championships- 54% driving accuracy, rank 182,  in 2020), and Bubba Watson with 2 wins at Augusta (no other majors wins; made the cut in 10 of 11 Masters, missed the cut in 19 of 39 other majors played, with two top ten finishes in only 2 of the other 39 majors; averaged 58% driving accuracy in each season from 2018 through 2020, sitting at 57% currently in 2021 tour stats).

·         -Of the other big hitters in the field who averaged more yards off the tee than DeChambeau at Winged Foot  (Dustin Johnson, Matthew Wolff, Jon Rahm, Rory) all have significant mental baggage at the Masters.  None have won at Augusta; DJ has finished in the top ten (2^nd last year) in his last 4 Masters, but has not been able to close the deal; Rory’s collapse in 2011 at Augusta is legendary and his best finish since then is 4^th in 2015, so the Career Slam remains elusive; Rahm has made the cut in all three of his Masters’ appearances and did finish 4^th in 2018; however, in the final round he got to within two shots of leader and eventual winner Patrick Reed before dunking his approach to the 15^th green.  Perhaps his remarkable hole-in-one at the 16^th hole in this year’s practice round will move the Masters mojo in his direction.  Matthew Wolff is a Masters rookie; the last golfer to win the Masters in his first try was Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

·         -The Scientist dusted all of the above in the final round of the U.S. Open in September.

·         -DeChambeau knows what the coefficient of restitution, or COR, means. I didn’t know about it until yesterday, and am still not sure I know what it means. ( It appears to have something to do with the “trampoline effect” when the face of a golf club meets the golf ball.  Apparently, a higher COR measurement in a golf club generally equates to more distance of the shot.  As a result, PGA rules limit the COR in golf clubs to .830 (1.000 is the maximum COR according the laws of physics, I am told. For an excellent explanation, see here.  )

·         -DeChambeau wears a Ben Hogan style cap during tournament play, also sported by the late Payne Stewart. 

·         -DeChambeau is the slowest player on the planet. He takes an inordinate time to measure and “compute” all the data for each shot, regardless of location on the golf course.  Normally, that would incur this blogger’s wrath, as there are very few things in life more aggravating than being stuck behind (or with) slow players on a golf course. However, to accommodate CBS’s coverage of Sunday’s NFL games, coverage of the Masters final round will begin at 10:00 AM EST and thus end at approximately 2:30 PM, as opposed to ending with the traditional Sunday evening green jacket ceremony pushing over into 60 Minutes and prime time programming.  CBS’s NFL coverage will thus begin with the 4:05 games. So it would not bother me one whit to imagine the suits at Black Rock in New York squirming  as tournament leader DeChambeau in the final pairing lines up his last putt at 4:15 on Sunday.

·         -PGA rules limit the height of a tee peg to 4 inches.  DeChambeau, as is his wont, pushes the boundaries and uses a 4-inch tee for his drives, higher than those used by his competitors. (He also doesn’t ground the driver behind the ball at address.  Let me guess: calculations about launch rate and spin rate, maybe even Smash Rate, at work here.)  Let’s see if he can continue this delicate regimen as he gets older.  

 

Tee It High, Let It Fly

All in all, the stars, and stats, appear to be aligned for BDC to conquer Augusta National this week.  And I believe he will. 

AMDG

© R. E. Kelly 2012 -2020

Masters Week 2020 Is Upon Us

 

 

And it is perhaps the most unusual Masters since its inception in 1934 at the course champion golfer Bobby Jones built in Augusta, Georgia (membership by invitation only).  First and foremost, a November date, so viewers will see fall foliage versus blooming azaleas.   No patrons, no Patron, no poltroons, no Par 3 tournament; and in one of the Masters’ great traditions, ceremonial first tee shots from golf legends Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.  And of course, in a tradition like no other, no on-air witticisms from Gary McCord (fired by CBS 13 months ago, McCord described greens at Augusta being treated with bikini wax during a broadcast in 1994, and was banned by the Augusta National pooh-bahs from participating in a CBS Masters’ broadcast despite otherwise being a member of the CBS golf broadcast team.)  

Perhaps fittingly, a most non-traditional golfer is favored to win the tournament.  Bryson DeChambeau, the so-called golf “Scientist”, is the betting favorite at 8-1 odds to win a second major championship in a matter of weeks. Jon Rahm is a close second at 9-1.  If you have money you would like to set ablaze, Tiger Woods odds are 30-1.

Some interesting facts:

-CBS is broadcasting the Masters for the 65^th consecutive year. 

-To accommodate CBS’s NFL coverage of Sunday’s games, coverage of the final round will begin at 10:00 AM and thus end at approximately 2:30 PM.  CBS’s NFL coverage will begin with the 4:05 games.

-ESPN will broadcast its (quietest ever) College GameDay from Augusta National’s par 3 course on Saturday, November 14^th.   

-Players are invited from 23 countries.

-There are 18 defending champions competing in the tournament; 10 of the 18 are from foreign countries, and 11 of the 18 former winners are only qualified to be invited because they are former champions. (There are 19 methods to qualify for an invitation; Masters Tournament champions receive a lifetime exemption for the tournament.)

-Bernhard Langer will be the oldest competitor at the ripe old age of 63 years young.  I will be surprised if he fails to make the cut. 

 

AMDG

© R. E. Kelly 2012 -2020

Picture credits:  licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. 

Author: Pocketwiley

When I'm 64...

Sam Snead at 67 years old.

Tom Watson at 65 years old.

Jack Nicklaus at 64 years old.   

Three of golf’s five or six greatest ever, including the GOAT.  Pretty select company.

Now, add Fred Funk to that dazzling list.  At age 64.

That’s right.  Fred Funk finished 36 holes at -1 under par in the Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course yesterday, making the cut by a comfortable margin.  He did so while playing with his son Taylor, who nearly mugged his father with joy when Fred chipped in for birdie on the final hole yesterday.

 See it here here

Son Taylor failed to make the cut on the windswept Port Royal course, but I don’t think he minded one little bit.

Makes one think of the Beatles, a Lennon-McCartney masterpiece, from way back when:

When I get older, losing my game, Many years from now

Will you still me watching me make the cut

Then watch me down a bottle of wine

If I'd been short of the cut by three
Would you lock the door
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

AMDG

© R. E. Kelly 2012 -2020