Ten stats that defined the PGA TOUR seasonTen stats that defined the PGA TOUR season
On the PGA TOUR, the average approach shot from 200 to 225 yards out in the fairway finishes 42 feet from the pin. With Jon Rahm applying pressure and the FedExCup on the line, Patrick Cantlay hit his approach at 18 on Sunday at East Lake – from 218 yards away – to a cozy 11 feet, 4 inches. Those statistics help contextualize how good Cantlay’s approach was in the biggest moment so far in his PGA TOUR career. In a season loaded with big moments, there is no shortage of remarkable numbers to help accent the sport we all love. These are the 10 statistics that best defined the 2020-2021 PGA TOUR season. 1. Bryson DeChambeau breaks own season driving distance record (323.7 yards) In 2020, with a rebuilt frame and power-focused approach, Bryson DeChambeau set the PGA TOUR single-season driving distance average record, at 322.0 yards. In 2021, he shattered his own mark, averaging 323.7 yards off the tee – and more importantly – won multiple big tournaments along the way. Because it happened nearly a calendar year ago, it’s easy to forget that DeChambeau’s triumph at Winged Foot was part of the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season. That Sunday at the 2020 U.S. Open, DeChambeau shot the only round under par in the field, the first time a champion had done that since Jack Fleck in 1955. His 7.90 Strokes Gained: Total was the most in the final round by a U.S. Open winner since Johnny Miller’s Sunday 63 at Oakmont in 1973 (+10.77 Strokes Gained). The most poignant image from DeChambeau’s win at Bay Hill in March remains his mammoth drive at the par 5 sixth, carrying the water and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. But Bryson was razor-sharp through the bag that week, especially in the final round. The field scoring average in the final round at Bay Hill was 75.49, the highest in a final round there since 1980. DeChambeau’s 71 tied the low round of the day and lifted him to a 1-shot victory. 2. Dustin Johnson records lowest score to par in Masters history (-20) No single week embodied the oddities of sport during the pandemic like the 2020 Masters. An annual symbol of springtime renewal, a patron-less Augusta National staged a Masters Tournament while Thanksgiving décor adorned grocery stores stocked with frozen turkeys. It was bizarrely emblematic of a year where time both stood still and progressed at warp speed, where home, work and school were all the same place. Fittingly, it was the most unflappable player of his generation who brushed all of this aside and became Golf Terminator in a career-defining performance. Dustin Johnson won by 5 strokes, the largest margin of victory at Augusta National since Tiger Woods won by 12 in 1997. He hit 60 greens in regulation for the week, the most by any player in a single Masters Tournament since Tiger Woods in 2001 – the week he completed the ‘Tiger Slam.’ His 4 bogeys for the week are the fewest ever by a Masters champion. Johnson had +13.82 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee + Approach for the Tournament, the most of any player by five full strokes. Cameron Champ ranked second, at +8.81. 3. Sungjae Im makes most birdies-or-better (513) in a single PGA TOUR season In a season of 50 tournaments, spanning 360 days, the prolific achievements of Sungjae Im can help sum up the sheer size of 2020-21 on the PGA TOUR. Im, who played 17 more rounds this PGA TOUR season than anyone else, finished with 513 birdies-or-better, the most in a single season on the PGA TOUR since at least 1980. The previous mark was held by Steve Flesch, who made 509 in the 2000 campaign. Im had a good season – he reached the TOUR Championship and had 5 top-10 finishes – but his birdie-making rate wasn’t close to the best on TOUR. Im ranked 29th in par-breaker percentage (23.36%), well behind TOUR leader Bryson DeChambeau (26.32%). Yet, because Im played 42 more rounds (756 more holes) than DeChambeau, he was the man to play his way into the record books. Using a baseball analogy, think of it as Im setting the single-season hits record while DeChambeau led the league in batting average. 4. Justin Thomas ties lowest closing 36-hole score ever at TPC Sawgrass (-12) Friday evening at THE PLAYERS Championship, Justin Thomas was a tournament afterthought. Eight shots behind Lee Westwood, Thomas would need a truly remarkable performance to get into contention on the weekend and possibly win against the toughest field in all of golf. That’s exactly what he did. Thomas was 12-under on the weekend, tying the lowest closing 36-hole score in the history of THE PLAYERS (Fred Couples and Rocco Mediate each shot -12 on the weekend in 1996). His ball-striking numbers were through the roof: Thomas gained 11.2 strokes tee-to-green over the last 36 holes, the most by any player in a single weekend since tracking began in 2004. His 17 greens in regulation in the final round were the most by any player in the final round of a Players Championship win since Hal Sutton in 2000. With the win, Thomas joined Tiger Woods as the only players with a PLAYERS, major championship and double-digit PGA TOUR victories before age 28. 5. Phil Mickelson becomes oldest major champion in golf history (age 50) In May, a new generation of golf fans got familiar with the name Julius Boros – the man who previously held the title of ‘oldest player to win a major.’ Boros was 48 when he won the 1968 PGA Championship at Pecan Valley. Less than a month shy of his 51st birthday, Phil Mickelson took that title with a timeless victory at Kiawah Island. Mickelson was spectacular from a ball striking perspective, leading the tournament in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He gained more than 2 full strokes per round with his approach play, and tied for the best par 5 scoring average in the field. Mickelson truly captured lightning in a bottle that week: it was his only top-10 finish of the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season. 6. Playoffs: Longest and Largest The quantity of playoffs on the PGA TOUR this season – 14 – is not particularly historic. Ten years ago, the 2011 season yielded 18 playoffs, most ever in a single season. In 2015, we nearly eclipsed that total, with 17 playoffs. The size and length of the playoffs we did see, though, were another story. At the Wyndham Championship, six players were tied through 72 holes, tying the largest sudden-death playoff in PGA TOUR history (done twice previously). At the Travelers Championship, Harris English and Kramer Hickok needed 8 extra holes to decide a winner. Only one sudden-death playoff, the 1949 Motor City Open, has ever lasted longer in PGA TOUR history. In that instance, Cary Middlecoff and Lloyd Mangrum were declared co-winners by after 11 holes due to darkness. Three other playoffs this season went at least 5 holes: the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Barbasol Championship and BMW Championship. It made for a summer full of sunset-backed drama and Sunday evening flight itinerary changes. 7. Collin Morikawa wins 2nd major in 8th career start Collin Morikawa’s brilliant performance at Royal St George’s was worthy of inclusion in this series of notes on its own. He didn’t miss many greens in regulation (he hit 75% for the week), but when he did, he scrambled efficiently (78%, T-3rd in the field). Morikawa needed less than 28 putts per round for the week, tied for fewest of anyone. There are only three instances since 2000 where a player shot a bogey-free final round of 66 or lower to win a major championship. Rory McIlroy has one of them (2012 PGA at Kiawah Island) – Morikawa has the other two, at the 2020 PGA Championship and 2021 Open. It’s the pace at which Morikawa claimed his first two major wins, though, that puts him in an unprecedented place in men’s golf history. Morikawa has won two major championships in just eight career starts, the fewest of any player since the Masters was first held in 1934. Only two players in the last century won their 2nd professional major in fewer starts: Walter Hagen (6th start, 1919 U.S. Open) and Gene Sarazen (4th start, 1922 PGA). 8. Fourteen consecutive PGA TOUR winners trailed entering the final round Closing out a PGA TOUR victory is difficult any given week. Over the last 15 seasons, players with the 54-hole lead or co-lead have gone on to win the tournament just 34.6% of the time. Players with a 1-shot lead have a win percentage just over 30%. Even a lead as big as 4 strokes isn’t completely safe – more than 22% of those tournaments end up won by a someone trailing through 54 holes. For 14 consecutive PGA TOUR events this summer, closing with the 54-hole lead was impossible. From the Charles Schwab Challenge (won by Jason Kokrak, who entered the final round 1 shot back) through THE NORTHERN TRUST (won by Tony Finau, who entered the day 2 off the lead) not a single PGA TOUR event was won by a player who held the 54-hole lead or co-lead. The run of 14 consecutive comeback wins on the TOUR was the longest such streak in at least the last 30 seasons. The leaders didn’t always simply fall flat on those particular Sundays (or Mondays). Usually, they were just caught by a particularly hot chaser. Excluding the Memorial (Jon Rahm was the 54-hole leader before his WD) and the Barracuda Championship (modified Stableford Scoring), there were 19 players during that run who held the 54-hole lead or co-lead. Their scoring average in those final rounds was 71.4. Those who won in that stretch had a final round scoring average of 66.7. 9. Patrick Cantlay sets Strokes Gained: Putting record at BMW Championship (+14.58) Before taking on Bryson DeChambeau in an epic 6-hole playoff, Patrick Cantlay wrapped up the most impressive putting performance of the ShotLink era at Caves Valley. Cantlay wound up with +14.58 Strokes Gained: Putting for the week, the most by any player in a single tournament since detailed tracking began in 2004. Perhaps even more remarkable is that he set the record despite having negative Strokes Gained: Putting the 3rd round. Cantlay made 21 putts longer than 10 feet, the most ever in a single tournament tracked by ShotLink. No other player that week made more than 16 putts of 10 feet or more. Cantlay finished the season with 15 straight rounds in the 60s, the most to finish a PGA TOUR season since Charles Howell III ended the 2002 campaign with 16 in a row. 10. Jon Rahm has 15 top-10 finishes, 6 more than any other player No player in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season was more consistently great than Jon Rahm. His victory at the U.S. Open came during a summer flurry that featured almost exclusively high finishes. Since May, Rahm has only 1 result outside the top-10: his withdrawal from the Memorial Tournament when he led by 6 shots after 54 holes. In his last 28 rounds worldwide, Rahm has made birdie-or-better on 30% of his holes played, and shot in the 70s just 6 times. Rahm finished the season leading the PGA TOUR in scoring average, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, total driving and Strokes Gained: Total. Rahm is just the fourth player since 1980 to have 15 or more top-10 finishes in a season with 22 starts or fewer. The others to do it are Tiger Woods (twice, 1999 and 2000), Tom Watson (1980) and Dustin Johnson (2015-16).
Thanks to men’s basketball schedule-makers, we’ll see Gonzaga vs. UCLA Part 2 in 2021.