Johnson starts strong in S.C., 1 shot shy of lead

Patrick Cantlay’s duel with Jon Rahm at the TOUR Championship to win his first FedExCup title capped off a huge 2020-21 PGA TOUR Super Season that began 361 days ago at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic produced a season unlike any other. For the first, and probably the last time, there were six major championships, three World Golf Championships, an Olympics, a PLAYERS Championship before an awesome FedExCup Playoffs all inside the one PGA TOUR season. And we had historic moments through just about all of those. Some of which would have been laughed at by Hollywood screenwriters as unbelievable had they been touted prior. Through 50 tournaments we witnessed thrills and spills from the greatest players on the planet with incredible golf coming thick and fast. The season was so packed tight with highlights that the task of coming up with the top 10 storylines from the last year of PGA TOUR golf was a near impossible task. But we’ve given it a go anyway. Here – in no particular order – are the Top 10 of PGATOUR season 2020-21. 1. CANTLAY CAN DO In addition to the $15 million, Patrick Cantlay earned a new nickname, one that will likely last just as long as the winner’s check he earned at East Lake. “Patty Ice” they called him for the way he holed important putts against Bryson DeChambeau a week earlier at the BMW Championship. Then he locked up the season-long prize with a clutch approach to East Lake’s par-5 finishing hole to hold off the World No. 1, Jon Rahm. Beating the best players in the game is what Cantlay did all season. It started at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in his native California, where Rahm and Justin Thomas were runner-up. Then Cantlay beat Collin Morikawa at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday (after Rahm bowed out with a positive COVID diagnosis). And finally, Cantlay bested DeChambeau and Rahm in the final fortnight of the season. Beat the best to be the best. That’s what Cantlay did to win a season-high four times, including the TOUR Championship. It fulfilled the promise that Cantlay showed a decade ago in that magical summer of 2011, when he shot 60 at the Travelers Championship, was low amateur at the U.S. Open (T21) and finished in the top-10 in another TOUR event (RBC Canadian Open). Personal tragedy and injury derailed his career, however. But when he returned four years ago, he quickly earned a reputation as one of the TOUR’s most consistent contenders. In an age of data and analytics, Cantlay is unwavering in his old-school approach, preferring for stability instead of tinkering. That slow build came to a crescendo this year. His four wins were twice as many as he’d earned entering this season. “With each passing year, he’s been better in these situations, better dealing with the crowds, better in the media,” his caddie, Matt Minister, said. “His interviews are fantastic; you see it with each passing year, his maturity and how comfortable he is being out here.” He was comfortable beating the best. And now, at the end of this Super Season, he lays claim to being the best. 2. THE ACCIDENT For a moment we feared the worst. In the early hours of Tuesday, February 23, the news was humming around the golf world that legend Tiger Woods was involved in a serious car accident but details were sketchy at first. Just how serious it was wasn’t immediately known but after quite a few tense hours it was revealed the 82-time PGA TOUR winner lost control of his vehicle near Los Angeles before it hit a tree and flipped several times. Woods needed to be extracted by first responders and faced several emergency surgeries on his right leg. It was revealed the 82-time TOUR champ and 15-time major winner broke both bones in his lower right leg, the tibia and the fibula, in multiple places and the bones had pierced his skin in places. While Woods has yet to talk in depth on his recovery there have been some positive signs of late with Woods seen up and about albeit with the help of crutches. A timetable on any possible return to golf is still unknown but the golf world felt a collective sigh of relief just to know Woods was alive and mobile in any way, shape or form. We all wonder what the future holds for the now 45-year-old and hope to see him back playing again one day. At what level… well that’s ultimately irrelevant… Woods has already provided the game with more we could have ever hoped for. 3. THE DROUGHT BREAKERS Stewart Cink, with his win in the season-opening Fortinet Championship, set the pace for a season that saw plenty of players end their winless droughts. The Fortinet was Cink’s first win since tearing up the storybook quest of Tom Watson in the 2009 Open Championship. Of course, Cink went on to win again this season, becoming just the fourth player to win multiple times in a season after turning 47. Cink did so with his son, Reagan, on the bag, who is the age of many of Cink’s PGA TOUR peers. Stewart’s first PGA TOUR title came the same year that Collin Morikawa was born. Now Cink was one of just several players to re-enter the winner’s circle this year after lengthy waits, providing all of us with a bit of inspiration and showing the power of perseverance. Jordan Spieth didn’t have to wait nearly as long as Cink, but no one on this list had to answer more questions about a next victory. Like Cink, Spieth’s win this was his first since hoisting the claret jug. Spieth’s win in the Valero Texas Open came nearly four years after his last win. It was a stunning span of time for a player who won three majors before turning 25. We found out later that the win came weeks after Spieth learned that his wife was expecting the couple’s first child. And we can’t leave out Tony Finau. Winless since his 2016 triumph at the Puerto Rico Open Finau had eight runner-up finishes, three of those in a playoff, and 11 finishes in the top three without another win. But he surged home at Liberty National over the back nine in THE NORTHERN TRUST and then stayed solid when Smith’s playoff tee shot went OB to get the win after a 142 tournament and over five-year drought. Let’s also give nods to Martin Laird (first win since 2013) and Lucas Glover (first win since 2011) for enduring the dry years to re-enter the winner’s circle and we can also give some kudos to Xander Schauffele who didn’t break his TOUR win drought but did claim Olympic Gold in Tokyo. And then there’s Jason Kokrak, who collected his first two TOUR titles this season at the age of 35. You know what they say. The waiting is the hardest part. Just ask Louis Oosthuizen who was runner up at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open and third at The Open. 4. SPIETH’S RETURN Relief was the overwhelming emotion when Jordan Spieth won for the first time in more than three years. “I feel grateful,” Spieth said, answering a question he was glad to be asked. “It’s been a road that’s had a lot of tough days. I’ve had people in my corner that have always believed in me, even when I’ve kind of believed less in myself.” It had been 1,351 days since one of his most famous wins, the victory at Royal Birkdale punctuated by his famous “Go get that” putt. Spieth had played 83 times on TOUR since that win. He had a bone spur in his hand. He had a swing that was getting too steep. He had days when he was unsure where his ball would land. He had a lot of questions. The win was preceded by glimpses that he was trending in the right direction, but even a player of Spieth’s caliber needed to re-learn how to win. The good signs started on a thrilling Saturday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where he shot a magical 61. But Sunday was a different story, as it was the following week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Still, those top-5 finishes, as well as another one at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, were good signs. Then came that Sunday at TPC San Antonio, where he looked like the player who’d won three majors, a FedExCup and reached No. 1 in the world. He shot a 6-under 66 to hold off Charley Hoffman, the perennial contender at TPC San Antonio. The victory was followed by podium finishes at the Masters (T3) and Open Championship (2nd) and a ninth-place finish in the FedExCup, a leap of nearly 100 spots since last season and his best finish since 2017. 5. PHIL THE THRILL While Phil Mickelson was still wowing us with the occasional epic bomb of a drive or with a filthy flop shot, most fans figured the 50-year-old veteran had moved into the ceremonial section of TOUR events. Winning a couple of times in a row on PGA TOUR Champions after going past the half century in age was cool but really only fed into the above narrative. Some Phil fans were hoping for a miracle win at The Masters given the season held two versions and Augusta National has always been kind to past champions. But he was T55 in November and T21 in April. So when he turned up at the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in May Mickelson wasn’t anywhere near the first line of betting. Three back after the opening round Mickelson was a nice side story. Tied for the lead at the halfway point was a great novelty. Everyone loved the idea of the oldest ever major winner but not many truly believed he could hold on as conditions got even tougher and brutal winds continued to wreak havoc. But when he took a one-shot lead into the final round those who had laughed off the probability of Mickelson winning were getting nervous. Those doubters were doing cartwheels after Brooks Koepka produced a two-shot swing on the opening hole of the final round but Mickelson continued to stay the course and by the final hole the crowd couldn’t contain their excitement – breaking through the ropes to swarm their hero as he closed out an incredible and historic two-shot win. Mickelson, just shy of his 51st birthday, became the oldest major winner in the history of the game at 50 years, 11 months and 7 days. He also became the sixth oldest TOUR winner. 6. POWER BALL The revolution may have stalled, but Bryson DeChambeau’s incredible transformation still made us rethink the way the game is played and netted him his first major championship. His dominance at Winged Foot led others, including Rory McIlroy, to follow DeChambeau’s lead, only for them to find that swinging out of your shoes isn’t as easy as it seems, even when armed with a 460cc driver. DeChambeau even backed off from his original plan, dropping pounds as the season wore on in the name of consistency. So, we may not see a cadre of bulked-up brutes swinging for the fences on a weekly basis but credit to DeChambeau for thinking outside the box. He won two big titles this season, the U.S. Open (2020) and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, and led the TOUR in driving distance for the second consecutive season. We’ll even see him ply his trade in a couple weeks at the World Long Drive Championship. What’s next for DeChambeau? It’s hard to tell, but there’s never been a better illustration of the value of distance. 7. MATSUYAMA’S MASTERS Ten years earlier, Hideki Matsuyama did the unthinkable. He debated whether he should accept an invitation to Augusta National. These were exceptional circumstances, however. His homeland was devastated by a tsunami and competing in a golf tournament didn’t feel appropriate. He was encouraged to go, however, and serve as an inspiration to his reeling countrymen. The teen-aged schoolboy went, and was an inspiration indeed, shooting a third-round 68 and earning low-amateur honors while holding his own against the best players in the world. That Saturday score proved to Matsuyama that a pro-golf career was an attainable dream. A decade later, he returned to Augusta National and again he was part of the trophy ceremony held late Sunday evening on the club’s practice putting green. This time, he was having the Green Jacket slipped on his shoulders, however. His Masters win was his first victory since 2017. Matsuyama had become the first major champion from golf-mad Japan and almost thrilled his country again at the Olympics, where he came up just short of earning a medal. 8. THE FIRST TIMERS While we were nowhere near the record of 18 first time champions from season 2002, we still had 10 new champions join the exclusive club of PGA TOUR winners this season. Arguably the most popular was one of the last ones in Mexico’s Abraham Ancer. After 19 previous top-10s on TOUR, including six this season prior to lining up at the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, the popular International Presidents Cup team member started the final round four shots off the lead. While appearing out of the running for most of the afternoon Ancer stuck solid at TPC Southwind and as carnage began around him the 30-year-old showed the benefit of experience from countless near misses to forge his way into a playoff. He then produced a brilliant birdie on the first extra hole to take down Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns for his breakthrough triumph. Burns had experienced the incredible feeling of a first win earlier in the season by taking home the Valspar Championship title. Huge shoutout has to go to Jason Kokrak who not only won his career first TOUR event at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK he then backed it up with a win at the Charles Schwab Challenge to produce the best of his 10 seasons. Others to join were Carlos Ortiz (Vivint Houston Open), just the third Mexican winner on the TOUR before Ancer became the fourth. Joel Dahmen (Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship), K.H. Lee (AT&T Byron Nelson), Garrick Higgo (Palmetto Championship at Congaree), Cam Davis (Rocket Mortgage Classic), Seamus Power (Barbasol Championship) and Erik Van Rooyen (Barracuda Championship). Special shout out to Jon Rahm who became a first-time major winner at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines less than two weeks after having to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday with a six-shot lead and a round to play with a positive COVID-19 test. His birdie, birdie finish on Sunday was almost karmic. 9. BONUS GOLF GALORE The season was full of close finishes with 14 playoffs needed to decide winners, including a stretch late in the year of four straight weeks needing extra holes to get a result. The final playoff, which came in the FedExCup Playoffs at the BMW Championship, was arguably the best. Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay had already started the final round at Caves Valley three clear of the pack and quickly were in a match play like scenario. When DeChambeau took a one-shot lead on the 16th hole in regulation and Cantlay put his tee shot on 17 into the water it appeared over. But Cantlay made a huge bogey putt to stay within one and then made a birdie bomb on 18 to ultimately stay alive. During the first five extra holes both players missed chances to win or made great saves to stay alive. DeChambeau recovered from a water ball of his own and Cantlay responded to one DeChambeau dart with a better one. In the end another great 17-foot birdie on the sixth extra hole was enough for Cantlay to prevail and take the FedExCup lead to East Lake – ultimately very important as he held on for a one-shot win over Jon Rahm to win it all. It wasn’t the only incredible playoff. At the Travelers Championship Harris English went eight extra holes before taking down a plucky Kramer Hickok at TPC River Highlands. And who could forget the six-man showdown at the Wyndham Championship where Adam Scott missed a short chance for victory allowing Kevin Kisner to come through on the second playoff hole and break his extra holes curse. Other playoffs included Martin Laird outlasting Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open; Brian Gay besting Wyndham Clark at the Bermuda Championship; Robert Streb taking down Kisner at The RSM Classic; English getting the better of Joaquin Niemann at the Sentry Tournament of Champions; Max Homa kept Tony Finau out of a trophy at the Genesis Invitational and Team Mullet of Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman beat Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Then we marveled when Cantlay took down Collin Morikawa in an epic at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday; Cam Davis claimed his first win after extras against Troy Merritt and Niemann; Seamus Power also got his first after a playoff with J.T. Poston at the Barbasol Championship, Abraham Ancer was the man over Hideki Matsuyama and Burns at the WGC – FedEx St. Jude Invitational and Finau broke his victory drought at THE NORTHERN TRUST by beating Smith on the first extra hole. 10. MORIKAWA SHUTS DOOR ON DOUBTERS Sometimes it can be hard to just accept greatness when you see it. The beginnings of PGA TOUR life for Collin Morikawa were certainly different. He made his first 22 cuts for one thing and was a winner in his sixth start as a professional in 2019 at the Barracuda Championship. But the naysayers said – well that was an opposite field event. He won twice in the following 2019-20 season, including the PGA Championship. But the naysayers said – well there were no crowds at Harding Park so he didn’t face real pressure. And then came this season where even a win at the World Golf Championships – Workday Championship wasn’t enough for some. Limited crowds they said. Wait till he really feels pressure. The question marks were ludicrous. And Morikawa made that abundantly clear at The Open Championship at Royal St Georges. A week earlier he struggled with his ball striking at the Scottish Open, his first foray into links golf. So he adjusted to new irons and also had the temerity to change his putting grip between long and short putts. He then put on a clinic over four days in front of huge crowds including a stone-cold Sunday effort as Jordan Spieth and Louis Oosthuizen, among others, lurked. He was impervious to the so-called pressure and proved, at just 24, he is the real deal.

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Taking a three-shot lead into the final round of the year, knowing that your first PGA TOUR win, the lead in the FedExCup and a Masters invitation are at stake? RELATED: Leaderboard Talor Gooch doesn’t consider that pressure. Sunday at Sea Island could be a life-altering day for the 30-year-old, but he doesn’t expect it to be more stressful than what he faced five years ago. Gooch will start Sunday with a three-shot advantage over Seamus Power and Sebastian Munoz. His spot on the PGA TOUR is secure no matter what happens in The RSM Classic’s final round, though. He’s already on the cusp of the top 50 in the world ranking – which is why he doesn’t even need a win Sunday to qualify for his first Masters – and in the top 20 of the FedExCup standings. It was in 2016, after two consecutive years on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, that Gooch found his career at a crossroads. He was considering worst-case scenarios during the final round of Q-School’s second stage, after a rough start put his chances of advancing in jeopardy. “I’m going to have to go work at Best Buy,” he recalls thinking. “I’m going to have to go do something to make a few bucks unless (I) get it together.” He rallied, advanced to the final stage and earned Korn Ferry Tour status for the first time. He won that following year, graduated to the PGA TOUR and has been on TOUR since. “If I could do it then, I could do it at any time,” he said. Sunday would be the perfect time for Gooch to call upon that experience. It will be the first time he enters the final round of a PGA TOUR event with the lead. This nascent season already is shaping up to be the best of his career. He arrived at Sea Island after finishing no worse than T11 in his first four starts. The highlight was a final-round 62 in THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT that threw him into the mix on a leaderboard that also included Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and his fellow Oklahoma State alum, Rickie Fowler. Gooch’s presence among such company may have been a surprise to everyone but himself. He has the self-confidence that some may consider delusion but is requisite for a professional athlete. Take his freshman year for the Cowboys, where the Midwest City, Oklahoma, native was competing against some of the best players in the country for a spot in the starting lineup. Some questioned Gooch’s decision to join the premiere collegiate golf program, fearing for a lack of playing time. Not Gooch. “It’s hard not to have that chip on your shoulder and want to overcome that, you know?” Gooch said Saturday. “Like I remember in recruiting, everyone was like, man, Oklahoma State’s pretty good, you don’t know if you’re going to crack the lineup your first year. I started every time my first year and that’s all I wanted to do was to go there and start every time and prove people wrong. “As a sportsman, if you don’t have that little bit of grit to go prove people wrong, you’re not going to make it long.” His Oklahoma ties came in handy on another windy day along the Atlantic coast. Tournament host Davis Love III, who also played Saturday after making the cut at age 57, called it a “heavy wind” that was exacerbated by the fact that Sea Island’s Seaside Course is exposed to the ocean. “People said to me, ‘What’s the big deal? it’s only 25 mph,’ but it’s different because it’s wide open,” Love said. “We don’t think the weather is that bad here in November because when it’s like this, we don’t play.” Only three players bested Gooch’s 67 on Saturday. He shared the lead with Power on 14, but Gooch’s two birdies on the final four holes, combined with Power’s bogey on 16, allowed Gooch to seize control of the top spot on the leaderboard. He birdied 17 after hitting a 7-iron to 13 feet, then hit a drive on 18 that flew so low that the one of the caddies in his group turned his head and asked, “Where’d you grow up, dude?” It was the sort of tee shot he used often growing up in the winds of Oklahoma. “For me, my creativity is just hitting it this high and hitting it low, not let the wind get it,” Gooch said. His short game has come in handy this week, as well. He’s missed just 10 greens and gotten up-and-down eight of those times, leading the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. He’s seventh in Strokes Gained: Putting, as well, highlighted by a 66-foot eagle putt he made on the seventh hole Friday. Seven players are within five shots of Gooch’s lead. Tom Hoge is alone in fourth place, four strokes back, while Luke List, past RSM winner Mackenzie Hughes and Scott Stallings are another stroke back. Webb Simpson, a perennial contender who’s lost two playoffs at Sea Island, is among the players who are six back. Simpson holed out a 95-yard wedge shot in his Saturday 66. He leads the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green but has lost strokes on the greens. They’re all playing their final official round of the year. Sunday’s result will determine where Gooch plays next, however. His childhood friends have a January golf trip planned for Scottsdale, Arizona. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to have to adjust that,” he said. A trip to Hawaii, where the Sentry Tournament of Champions will be played, would take precedent.

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