The PGA Tour Super Season
Well the 2019-2020 season officially ended yesterday after Dustin Johnson claimed the FedEx Cup title. This has been the most unusual year fans, players and the rest of the golf community. Despite all of that us golf fans have been given some of the greatest golf ever seen. Over the past three weeks throughout the playoffs Dustin Johnson has been absolutely dominant. From the start he had his foot on the gas and never let up. After a mind-blowing 30 under par to win at The Northern Trust, he rallies back at the BMW Championship and holes a 25 footer to make his way into a playoff. Ultimately losing to John Rahm’s 66 foot miracle putt. Following that loss, Johnson was on a mission. Starting at 10 under par at East Lake he went wire to wire to finish at 21 under winning by three strokes to claim his first FedEx Cup title and the $15 million purse. Over the course of three events DJ was a remarkable 55 under par, an absolutely historic three weeks of golf. Winning The FedEx Cup has always been on Johnson’s mind and he was determined to add this title to his already Hall Of Fame career. Johnson, however, wasn't always playing this well. He went through 3-4 weeks where he was absolutely lost, he was missing cuts, barley breaking 80 and just downright struggling. DJ decided to go home, rest and just grind. He grinded for weeks and weeks and finally before the PGA Championship got back to a place where he could play well and the past 5-6 weeks DJ’s play and been downright remarkable. Golf is a funny game in that respect, it's such a day to day game, one day it’s there and the next day it’s like you’ve never picked up a club before. Every golfer can attest to that reality. Nonetheless, DJ remained patient, focused, and confident and he put it all together and got the job done. Hats off to Dustin Johnson our new FedEx Cup Championship.
Now typically there is about a week or two break the PGA Tour gives all its players however the 2020-2021 is going to be much different. The 2020-2021 season will be known as the PGA Tour Super Season. The season will be composed of 50 events including 6 majors (two US Opens and two Masters), a Ryder Cup and the events that were cancelled last season due to Covid-19. The players this year are going to be busy, and it seems that every player is excited to hit the ground running on this new “Super Season.” Not only will we be seeing a lot of familiar faces, this year we will be seeing new Korn Ferry Tour players. The top 10 players on the Korn Ferry Tour will be rewarded with PGA Tour starts since there will be no promotions from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGATour this season. On top of the new faces we will be seeing, The PGA Tour hopes to be able to have fans at their events by January 1, 2021. This would be huge for the PGA Tour, the last time fans were able to watch golf was the first round of the 2020 Players Championship, which was ultimately cancelled. However they won't be the first to allow fans for professional golf. The Champions Tour will be allowing fans to their next event in South Dakota. This is a huge stride for professional sports, while the Champions Tour is taking precautions very seriously they are extremely optimistic with the turnout and I'm sure the players are just as excited to have fans back out there. Players across all tours have commented and stated that “They miss the roars.” Nonetheless the 2020-2021 PGA, Champions, Korn Ferry, McKenzie, and Latin America Tours are eager to get back to normal and providing fans with the best golf they possibly can.
To kick off the 2020-2021 season the players are heading to Silverado Resort in Napa. California for the Safeway Open. Now we won't be seeing the top players in the world this week, however golf fans will be in store for a fun week showcasing some of the tour up and coming young players. Some of the notables you can look forward to watching this week are Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia. Now Tyler and myself will be doing something different, as well as giving our predictions for each week’s event, we will be providing more in depth stats, betting odds for players, along with the winner, notable player(s) to miss the cut, and our sleeper winner for the week. (Mike)
Safeway Open Preview
I am not sure how controversial this is in the game of golf, but my take is that Dustin Johnson is a top 10 player of all time. Many people will point to his lack of majors, but he is continuing to add to his already impressive career. He went 1st, t-1st, and 1st during the playoffs to claim his first ever FedEx Cup. When his game is on, he is one of the most dominating players I have ever seen. If not for a slip in a fall before the Master’s a few years ago who knows what would have happened. Prior to that fall he was playing some of the best golf of his career and was certainly one of the favorites going into that week. If not for a bad ruling at Whistling Straits and a horrendous three putt at Chambers Bay, he would have three majors to his name.
I am very confident that he will get at least one major in the upcoming tour season since he will have six tries to do so. He sees lines on the golf course that not many other golfers could ever dream of taking. It is well documented on how hard he has worked to get to where he is with his wedge game. When you have nothing more than a 8 or a 9 iron in on most par 4’s the game of golf becomes a lot easier. I think we still have five or six years left of peak DJ. If he can win two or three more majors and five or six more events, I think his spot within the top 10 will be hard to argue. I personally already think he is there because I could not name ten golfers who at their peak would beat DJ at his peak.
What we saw over the last few weeks from him is the start of a dominating fall for him I believe. He is the clear frontrunner to win at Winged Foot next week and a solid showing there will have him near the top of the favorites for the Master’s in November. Eventually, he will cool off, but I envision him competing at a very high level for a few more months. There is something to be said about the consistency to win at least every event for the last thirteen years. His career accolades are already hall of fame worthy, but he still is adding to it and it is time we appreciate and acknowledge how easy he makes such a hard game look. (Tyler)
Safeway Open Predictions
Tyler’s Picks: Brandt Snedeker. I think in a field that is lacking huge names Brandt will steal the show. If his putter gets hot as we know it can I think he will win this week. The Safeway plays an important role in prepping players like Brandt for next week’s US Open and I anticipate him heading to Winged Foot coming off a win.
My dark horse for this week is Will Gordon. An event such as this tends to bring out first time winners on tour. Will Gordon was certainly impressive in limited starts on tour this past year and I think he has a real chance to surprise some people and get his first win on tour. (Tyler)
Mike’s Pick: My winner this week is Si Woo Kim. Kim’s odds this week are 20-1, the best odds for the week next to Phil Mickelson who also has 20-1 odds. He is coming off a few weeks rest due to failing to qualify for the BMW Championship. Prior to that Kim finished T-1 at the PGA Championship and T-3 at the Wyndham, and he was winning the Wyndham for the better part of the event. For his last 12 rounds Kim has only had one round over 71. This bodes well for Kim coming off his strong play going into the first event of the 2020-2021 PGA super season.
My notable to miss the cut this week goes to Sergio Garcia. We haven't seen much of Sergio this year due to Covid-19 restrictions limiting European players from traveling to and from the United States. Nonetheless Sergio hasn’t shown much promise and has only one top five since the restart. Aside from that he's finished outside the top 30 in every other event. If you guys still feel confident in Garcia's odds sit at 30-1 to win the event.
Lastly the sleeper of the week goes to the young and tough Will Gordon. Will Gordon is a solid player having received full status after playing well through his sponsor exemptions last year. Will is fresh out of Vanderbilt, having graduated in 2019 and he is ready and able to make a quick name for himself.. Prior to the Safeway Open, Gordon has a top 3 at the Travelers and a top 27 at the Wyndham Championship.Gordon winning is a sports bettor's dream coming in at 60-1 odds to win. Will winning could make bettors a good chunk of change, even on a small bet. (Mike)