20 Questions For 2020

THE NEW YEAR BRINGS NEW QUESTIONS THAT WILL SHAPE THE GAME IN THE COMING 12 MONTHS. HERE WE PRESENT 20 KEY QUESTIONS FOR 2020.

The new year brings new questions that will shape the game in the coming 12 months. here we present 20 key questions for 2020

1 BROOKS VS RORY : WHO COMES OUT ON TOP?

It’s been a long, long time since we’ve had a decent rivalry in golf. Tiger Woods’ dominance of the sport deprived us of all that fun. You have to go all the way back to Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson to find an evenly-matched rivalry. Greg Norman and Nick Faldo’s ‘spicy’ relationship gripped us but their head-to-head encounters rarely ended well for the Australian. Woods and Mickelson had potential but Tiger had eight majors in the bag and was out of sight before Lefty had even got off the mark. And the Big Easy found it hard to get Woods out of his head long enough to become anything more than a minor irritant to the American.

Koepka and Mcilroy, however, ticks all the right boxes. Both players have won four majors and are of a similar age. Mcilroy is 30, Koepka 29. Both are refreshingly open and honest. There are some nice contrasts, too. Mcilroy was a childhood phenom while Koepka was a late bloomer who played satellite circuits before earning his PGA Tour card. Rory is adored worldwide while Koepka’s relationship with fans and media has been a slow burn.

Mcilroy’s resumé may be deeper with 17 PGA Tour wins to Koepka’s seven, but the Irishman’s fourth major, the 2014 USPGA, came before Koepka even joined the Tour, as Koepkas was quick to remind us. “I’ve been out here for five years. Rory hasn’t won a major since I’ve been on the PGA Tour. I just don’t view it as a rivalry,” he recently said.

It was the first time Koepka had spoken publicly since he was defeated head-to-head by Mcilroy down the stretch at the Fedex Cup in Atlanta. “I wanted some revenge for Memphis,” Mcilroy said afterwards. Mcilroy was referring to their head-to-head encounter at the St. Jude Invitational a few weeks earlier, where Koepka shot 65 in the final round to win his third title of the year while Mcilroy stumbled to a 71. Mcilroy followed up by telling the media that Koepka would have to “go through me first” if he wanted to retain his World No.1 status.

But a great rivalry is founded in more than tit-for-tat soundbites. We need to see Mcilroy and Koepka dueling it out in majors in the years to come. Until then, and until Mcilroy wins a few more, the verbal barbs mean nothing.

2 WHAT'S TIGER'S GAMEPLAN FOR 2020?

He needs just one more win to usurp Sam Snead as the PGA Tour’s most successful golfer of all-time and four more majors to end the Tiger vs. Jack debate once and for all, so 2020 is an exciting year for Eldrick T. Woods. But it’s also one that needs to be very carefully managed.

A series of back surgeries and rehabilitative work have, against all odds, enabled Tiger to win again, but the fact remains that he’s a 44-yearold who has undergone multiple back surgeries. As such, he played just 13 events in 2019, around half as many as his peers, and had to withdraw from the Northern Trust in August due to injury. He played 19 events in 2018 and said he was “mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted” by the time he got to the Ryder Cup.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see him play a schedule of 16-18 events in 2020, with a focus on being rested but match ready for the majors, while playing as many Fedex Cup points rich WGC events as possible. Coming off December’s Hero World Challenge and player-captain duties at the Presidents Cup, expect Tiger to have a quiet start to 2020 as he recuperates ahead of the meat of the season and four majors in the space of three months.

Chasing 83, all eyes were on Woods at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, his first start of the new decade ended with a solid T9 finish. The Genesis Invitational where he did double duty as host and player saw Tiger go into a tailspin. While the tournament couldn’t have asked for a better champion in win-starved Adam Scott, Woods book-ended the scoreboard coming in dead last out of a field of 68. Shocking? Tiger still found humour enough to comment “Good news, I hit every ball forward, not backwards, a couple sideways.” The questions will come hard and fast at the Wgcmexico before The Players in mid-march. He’ll likely follow that with the WGC-DELL Match Play and then take two weeks off to get ready for his Masters defence. There are four PGA Tour events between each major; expect Tiger to play one of them to stay match sharp. Twice in 2019 he had a complete rest between majors. Twice it resulted in missed cuts.

He also wants to win one of the few things he hasn’t – an Olympic medal – before it’s too late: “Making the Olympic team is a big goal,” he said. “I don’t see myself having too many more opportunities. At the next Olympic Games, I’ll be a 48-year-old. To be one of the top Americans at that age is going to be tough.

He’ll then reach the Fedex Cup Playoffs hoping he has enough points on the board and juice in the tank to mount a challenge.

3 SO WHERE WILL TIGER WIN NEXT?

Predicting where Tiger might win next on tour is tricky as his schedule remains uncertain, but he’s won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the WGC Invitational and the Farmers Insurance Open so often they pretty much engrave his name on the trophy as soon as he arrives. In terms of adding to his 15 majors, the Masters and the Open again remain Tiger’s best hope. Both Augusta National and Royal St George’s

will reward the man who can plot his way around the course, seeing the shot and execute under increasing pressure. Even more so than Augusta, Woods relishes the challenge links golf throws up. “It allows you to be creative,” he’s said. “Augusta used to be like that. The US Open is obviously not. And the PGA is similar to a US Open setup.” If he is to win big again, circle Georgia or Kent. But ‘if’ remains a very big word.

4 WHO WINS THE MAJORS? MASTERS AUGUSTA NATIONAL, 9-12 APRIL DUSTIN JOHNSON

He’s never won the Masters and his only major victory will be nearly four years past by the time this year’s majors get underway, but no one is as consistent around Augusta as the former world number one. He’s finished in the top-10 in each of his last four appearances – a feat no one else can match – and was only a shot behind Tiger last year. They say it takes a while to really get to grips with Augusta’s subtle quirks this is DJ’S 10th Masters and will be his time to shine in green.

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP TPC HARDING PARK, 14-17 MAY RORY MCILROY

He’d never played Harding Park before the 2015 Wgc-match Play but that didn’t stop Rory blitzing his way to victory. “It suited my eye,” he said. The PGA Championship does too – it’s the only major he’s won more than once and he’s missed just one cut in 11 events. The pressure of the Masters and a possible career grand slam may again prove too much, but 2019’s most consistent performer could well bounce back in the best possible way in his very next major appearance.

US OPEN WINGED FOOT, 18-21 JUNE XANDER SCHAUFFELE

He’s only played three US Opens but has clocked up three top-six finishes already, including a T3 last year. Winged Foot demands elite iron play above all else – Marc Leishman won last time the US Open was here – and is something Schauffele has in spades. He’s shown he has the game to win a major, finishing runner-up at the 2019 Masters and The Open in 2018. With the experience from those near-misses under his belt, he’s ready to go one better and break his major duck.

THE OPEN ROYAL ST GEORGE’S, 16-19 JULY JON RAHM

Rahm’s first four years on tour are the best we’ve seen from anyone since Tiger Woods. The only thing lacking is a major victory, although the powerful Spaniard has clocked up four top-10s and three top-5s in golf’s biggest events. It is surely a matter of when, not if, he breaks his major duck, and when he does, expect it to be at a links course, as that is where he tends to really excel. He finished T3 and T11 respectively at the US Open and The Open last year, and won the Irish Open in 2017 and 2019.

5 IS RORY'S GRAND SLAM NOW OR NEVER?

Nine long years will have passed since Rory Mcilroy plucked defeat from the jaws of victory at Augusta National, that final day implosion in April 2011 seeing the 21-year-old blow a four-shot lead to finish nowhere. He cried that night but he will have been consoled by the fact he had his career ahead of him and opportunity would come knocking again. Nine years later, Rory Mcilroy is now 30 and the opportunities have knocked but gone unanswered: a 4th, a T7, a T5. With the three other majors in the bag, the Masters is all that stands between Mcilroy and the Grand Slam, golfing immortality. But the Masters has become a problem. The one that will not come.

At 30, Rory could feasibly have another 15 solid shots at the green jacket ahead of him – good odds for a man of his ability, with a game that appears perfectly suited to the challenges of Augusta National, with the booming right-to-left drives and towering irons. Alas, the scar tissue of 2011 runs deep and the law of diminishing returns comes into play. “I feel like I’m a good enough player,” said Mcilroy after a T10 in 2016. “I feel like I’ve got everything I need to become a Masters champion.” The problem is that the longer the wait, the harder it becomes. “I think with each and every year that passes that I don’t [win], it will become increasingly more difficult.”

Looking positively, Rory enters 2020 in the form of his life – his stats across the board showing a player firing on almost all cylinders. Even the short game that has often undermined his Augusta assaults is in good shape.

Psychologists talk of a need to focus on performance over outcome. “This helps them stay in the moment and just do what is required right then,” says sports psychologist Dr Josephine Perry. “When their focus is on the result, their head has already left the course and they may make poor decisions and lose focus.”

Easy for some, perhaps, less so for Rory. “I am – ask anyone who knows me – a complete prick in the week leading up to Augusta,” he said in 2017. “But they understand and know that. It’s stressful.”

It’s hardly now or never for a player of Mcilroy’s undoubted ability, a man in the peak years of his life. But as a man at the peak of his powers, going into Augusta with a game in rude health, it’s impossible not to worry that if he doesn’t get it done this time, it won’t ever get an easier. Rory knows that, which might be the biggest problem of all.

6 WILL THE TWO KOS CONTINUE TO RISE AND FALL? JIN YOUNG KO

Jin Young Ko recorded the season of her life in 2019, featuring 12 top 10 finishes, including four victories, half of which were majors. She finished the year with the second-lowest scoring average in LPGA history, having gone 114 holes bogey-free at one stage and ending the season with an insane GIR stat of 79 percent.

But like so many greats before her, she wasn’t happy. “My play today was not good,” she said after finishing only T11 in the CME Group Tour Championship in November. “I will work harder and more.” Chasing perfection is a futile pursuit, but Ko won’t come up short for lack of trying. “This is not the end but only the beginning,” she vowed. “I will work even harder to become a better golfer.”

No player has been able to win backto-back Rolex Player of the Year titles since Yani Tseng in 2011 – the prodigy who shone so bright and faded fast.

Jin Young Ko is the most overlooked and underrated world number one in history, but if she resists the urge to fix what clearly isn’t broken in her game, she could break that statistic and begin a period of dominance not seen since Lorena Ochoa a decade ago.

LYDIA KO

Last year was a tale of two Kos, for while Jin Young was dominating in only her second season as a pro, her namesake Lydia continued her slow, painful and perplexing slide down the world rankings.

World number one as recently as 2016, Lydia Ko remains a cautionary tale against making too many changes to a winning formula. The knock-on effect of so often switching coaches and caddies – and of listening too often to her parents’ views – the South Korean-born Kiwi began 2019 ranked 14th, ended with no victories and only three top-10 finishes and ended it in 38th.

The big concern for Ko is that her accuracy and putting can no longer compensate for a lack of distance off the tee. A growing number now wonder if her slump may be terminal. “Thank you to the haters for bringing out the strength in me, and pushing me to become the best I possibly can be,” she snapped back on Instagram.

It’s a cruel irony that the player who inspired a new generation of South Korean golfers to dominate the women’s game looks like being pushed out towards obscurity by them. Golf’s natural selection at work.

7 PLAYERS WHO COULD K.O. KO NELLY KORDA

Twenty-one-yearold American won two LPGA titles and one LET title in 2019. Expect a first major in 2020.

MARIA FASSI

Highly rated, bighitting 22-year-old Mexican, turned pro May 2019 and tipped to dominate in the coming years.

ANNE VAN DAM

Twenty-four-yearold Dutch star with the finest swing in golf and effortless distance. Her five LET wins will lead to greater success.

8 CAN JORDAN SPIETH GET BACK TO WINNING WAYS?

Ever since a 19-year-old Jordan Spieth won the 2013 John Deere Classic and started holing everything he looked at, one question lingered. What would happen if his super hot putter ever went cold? It didn’t take long to find out. In 2016, Spieth ranked 2nd in Strokes Gained: Putting on the PGA Tour. A year later, he ranked 123rd, having also tumbled to 181st in cleaning up the three-footers. He is now without a victory since the 2017 Open Championship.

But at least the solution was simple – rediscover the magic and climb back up the rankings, right? Not quite. In 2019, Spieth had his best ever putting season. Yet he is now 43rd in the world and was a bystander as the American Presidents Cup team boarded the plane to Melbourne for its biennial destruction of the Internationals.

So have the quirks of Spieth’s grip, bent left arm and chicken-wing finish finally caught up with him or is the problem psychological? The issue most likely has its roots in a late Sunday Masters afternoon in 2016, when Spieth lost a five-stroke lead down the stretch. The following summer, Spieth almost blew the Open at Birkdale in similarly destructive style from the front. And in 2018, he let a final round lead at Carnoustie slip. Spieth, quite simply, has lost the ability close. We’re betting it’s only a temporary affliction, though. Winning, after all, is in his DNA. He’ll find a way.

9 WHAT DOES JON RAHM NEES TO DO TO WIN HIS FIRST MAJOR?

In short, nothing more than he’s already doing. Having raced to five European Tour titles in just 39 starts, 10 quicker than Seve, and having put himself in contention to win at a rate not seen since Tiger in his pomp, and having registered top 10 finishes in all four majors since turning pro, the question is when and not if the Spaniard will win his first major. Blessed with the game, and a high ball flight reminiscent of the one that powered Jack Nicklaus to 18 major titles, the only question mark of Rahm has always been his hot temper. But even that seems to be under better control nowadays. Witness last November’s DP World Tour Championship and Rahm three putting on 15, something that might have made the younger, more combustible Rahm explode and unravel. Instead he counted to diez and reminded himself of a story Jack told about winning the Open at Muirfield in 1966. “He said he was on the 16th hole as well and told himself: If you finish 3, 4, 4, which there is birdie, par, par, you win the tournament,” smiled Rahm. “I told myself on 16 before I hit the tee shot, “If you finish 4, 3, 3, you win the golf tournament, no matter what anybody else does.” And that’s what I did.” He sealed that success with a birdie. Expect bigger and better from Rahm in 2020 – perhaps as early as the Masters. And when he lands the first, expect it to be the first of many.

10 WHERE IS DECHAMBEAU'S NEXT MARGINAL GAIN COMING FROM?

Bryson Dechambeau entered last season with high expectations, having closed 2018 with a flurry of victories that suggested a major victory was within reach in 2019. Instead, he struggled to make the impact expected, falling from a year-end world ranking of 5th to 12th a year later. The off season has allowed him to take stock and look at how he can take his game to the next level. The answer, it seems, is for the young American to bulk up. “I’m going to come back and look like a different person,” he announced late last year. “Bigger. Way stronger. I’m going to be hitting it a lot farther.” In this era of gym bunny super athletes that’s hardly a revolutionary approach. But this being Dechambeau, there is science behind his reasoning. The goal of bulking up is to “make sure the neurological threshold is just as high as the mechanical threshold,” which, as we all know, means maximising muscle potential and the body’s range of motion. While hardly a slouch off the tee, Dechambeau’s drives last season ranked T34, his 302.5-yard average being 15 yards short of Cameron Champ at the very top and seven yards behind Brooks Koepka at T10. It’s hard not to assume that Dechambeau has been inspired by Koepka, the world number one and poster boy of power. Copying the four-time major winner’s body shape makes scientific sense. If he can also copy Koepka’s pace of play, we’ll be right behind him.

11 WILL SHANE LOWRY NOW KICK ON?

The four constituent parts of golf’s Grand Slam are the best of the best, tournamentwise. So winning one isn’t easy. But perhaps even more difficult than finishing first at the highest level is doing it again. The game’s long history is littered with one-off major winners. Right now, Shane Lowry falls into that category. And, unfairly or not, only a few months on from his career-defining Open victory, that is the question for the genial Irishman: can he win another major?

The immediate signs are not that good. Perhaps understandably in the wake of such an emotional triumph, Lowry failed to record even one top-10 finish for the rest of 2019. And don’t think he hasn’t noticed.

“I would have taken your hand off for what I’ve done this year – it’s been incredible,” he said just before his final event of the year, the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. “But I try not to dwell on that. The one thing that’s gotten me since Portrush is when I’ve had a bad day people say to me, ‘You won the Open, it doesn’t matter.’ But it really does matter. Every day it matters. I want to be the best player I can be every day.” That’s more like it. Even in a world that is ever more scientific in nature, there remains room for those of an artistic temperament. Lowry is one such man, a fact that always makes him – in the right week and on the right course – a potential contender in majors. Watch out for him at Winged Foot in the US Open. In 2016 at Oakmont, Lowry led into the final round but didn’t win. Call it unfinished business.

12 WHICH OF 2020'S BREAKOUT STARS WILL SHINE BRIGHTEST?

That kids grow up so fast these days is as true a cliché in golf as it is anywhere else. Elite amateurs are ready to win the moment they turn professional. Most of them went through the American college system, so they’re essentially living life as a tour pro and competing at an extremely high level before they cash their first cheque. Last year, we saw Viktor Hovland, Matt Wolff, Bob Macintyre and Kurt Kitayama explode into our consciousness, but who comes next in 2020? 1. SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER is the man to watch on the PGA Tour. The Texan played in the Walker Cup in 2017 and won twice last season as he topped the Korn Ferry Tour. He’s taken to the top tier like a duck to water, with three top-10s and no missed cuts in seven starts. He’s an excellent ball-striker and he makes lots of birdies. Don’t bet against him making a decent run at a Ryder Cup spot. Norwegian KRISTOFFER VENTURA played alongside Hovland and Wolff at Oklahoma State and he’s already got two professional wins. Both those trophies have come on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour, but they’ve proved he knows exactly how to get the job done when he’s in contention and he’ll no doubt be inspired by joining his former college teammates on the PGA Tour. In Europe, CALUM HILL and 2. MATTHEW JORDAN look like very hot prospects stepping up from the Challenge Tour. Hill won three times in two years on the second tier and Jordan played alongside Macintyre in the 2017 Walker Cup and is especially dangerous on links courses. Danish twins RASMUS AND 3. NICOLAI HØJGAARD also have big futures. Keep an eye on Asia, too. Japan’s

TAKUMI KANAYA is the World Amateur Number One, but he’s already proven his pro credentials by winning on the Japanese Tour in November and it won’t be long until he enters the pro ranks. JOO-HYUNG

KIM is already a pro at just 17 years old, and he recorded three wins and nine top-10s in 20 starts across Asia in 2019. In the ladies’ game, 4. JENNIFER KUPCHO is the next Next Big Thing from America. She won the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur and finished tied-2nd in just her third major as a pro at the 2019 Evian. Twenty-year-old German 5. ESTHER HENSELEIT finished runner-up four times in her rookie season on the LET and a first win in 2020 could open the floodgates.

13 CAN THE LPGA MERGER REJUVENATE THE LET?

This is a watershed moment for women’s professional golf in Europe. The Ladies European Tour has struggled for a few years, with rarely more than 20 events per season since 2015, relatively small prize funds and players finding it difficult to attract even the most basic of sponsorships. Last November’s announcement of a partnership with the LPGA Tour has been greeted with enthusiasm by everyone involved. They’re right to be optimistic. The LPGA will bring bigger sponsors and greater exposure to the LET. The 2020 schedule is set to offer more events and larger purses, plus a more specific pathway to the higher-calibre and more lucrative LPGA Tour – although it might feed into the second-tier Symetra Tour rather than straight to the top table. It was getting very difficult to make a living on the LET, but more players will now have the opportunity to pursue their dreams. For the LPGA, they get direct access to the players, fans, courses and sponsors in a significant golf market.

The full schedule is yet to be announced but one important event we know will be visiting the UK is the UL International Crown. The biennial team event always attracts a world class field and it will be at Centurion Club, Hertfordshire, on August 27th-30th, the week after the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Royal Troon. This fortnight represents a huge opportunity for both Tours and the players to put down a marker for the future of women’s golf in Europe – expect them to make the most of it.

Two European-based tours (with similar geographical footprints) in search of growth and expansion that are already cooperating on a couple of events in 2020 might have been a more preferable solution to some people, but in reality, this was never a realistic proposition. A joint venture with the LPGA with the focus on the global future of the women’s game seems like a more logical coming together. The future of the LET is certainly a lot brighter than it was just a few months ago.

14 HOW WILL PLAYERS ADJUST TO THE NEW SCHEDULE?

The new schedule last year had mixed success. There were positives like the BMW PGA Championship moving to September and more time between the run-ins on the PGA and European Tours. But there were also negatives as it felt like the ‘major season’ was over very quickly. For the players, adapting to the new schedule was tricky – and not everyone managed it successfully – Sergio and Phil Mickelson spring immediately to mind. That is only going to get more difficult this year when you add an Olympics and the Ryder Cup into the mix. The biggest lesson many players learned last year is that you need to peak early and stay hot. All the majors come between April and July, so you have to be ready heading into the Masters. If your game isn’t there by early April, it’ll be very hard to find it when there’s a major coming at you every four weeks. If you’re playing well, the events between majors become about maintenance without burning out, and you can ride a wave like Brooks Koepka did.

This season, expect to see the elite guys playing a little more golf prior to Augusta, probably just one event between each major, and then putting the clubs down for a longer stretch after September. The Fedex Cup finishing earlier than the European Tour might give the Americans a chance to rest more heading into the Ryder Cup.

From a fan’s perspective, having the Olympics and Ryder Cup will extend the season of big events into late September. But we’ll have the same problem we had last year in 2021, with the final major in July. There’s still some work needed on the schedule – perhaps a fifth, international major around October or November time – but there are a lot of incredible events to look forward to throughout 2020.

THE KEY DATES

THE PLAYERS March 15 THE MASTERS April 9-12 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP May 14-17 US OPEN June 18-21 THE OPEN July 16-19 OLYMPICS July 30-Aug 2 FEDEX CUP PLAYOFFS Aug 16-30 RYDER CUP Sept 25-27 DP WORLD TOUR CHAMP Nov 19-22

15 WILL THE MAIN TOURS FINALLY MAKE A STAND ON SLOW PLAY?

At the back end of 2019 the European Tour and PGA Tour both addressed the ongoing issue of slow play, one proactively, the other with some reluctance. For the 2020 season, the European Tour’s new four-point plan will focus on regulation, education, innovation and field sizes. Players will receive shot penalties more quickly, repeat offenders will be fined more significantly, members educated on the rules and known slow-pokes more aggressively targeted. “We are already at the forefront of pace of play management in the professional game,” said European Tour CEO Keith Pelley, arcing an eyebrow in the PGA Tour’s direction. “But after being mandated by our tournament committee to be even firmer in dealing with this issue, the time was right to take these additional steps.” There have been suggestions that the PGA Tour is stuck in its ways, loathe to upset its members by making any kind of meaningful change. “We are not stuck in our ways,” denied PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. “We know that players all over the world are watching the best players in the world on the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour, and they mimic their actions. And so, if there is an opportunity for us to make a positive contribution to the game and continue to elevate our product, that’s what we’re going to do.” Though very thin on detail, Mr Monahan announced that modifications to the PGA’S pace of play policy are likely to come into effect in the second quarter of 2020. Tellingly, perhaps, his soundbites came a few days after Brooks Koepka had called out Bryson Dechambeau for his glacial pace of play – an unsightly spat that reflected very poorly on those in charge. Change may not be swift, and it may be reluctant, but it feels like it’s finally coming.

17 DOES OLYMPICS GOLF NOW GENUINELY MATTER?

Four years ago, the likes of Rory Mcilroy, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott chose not to play when golf made its long-awaited return to the Olympics in Rio. Justin Rose embraced the opportunity, won the gold medal and has revelled in being introduced as the Olympic Champion ever since, describing it now as his most important victory.

This year in Tokyo, all the big names will be there, because Rose is proof that an Olympic gold medal really matters. The Olympics still might not be viewed with the same reverence as the majors by most players, but it’s leapfrogged the WGCS for many of them. Those who played in Rio raved about the tournament and being a part of the Olympic experience, the fans turned out in their droves and responded positively after the event, and the fact it only happens once every four years makes a medal an even more precious commodity.

If anyone again chooses not to play, they can’t use excuses (legitimate or otherwise) like the Zika virus or question marks over the location. Tokyo was named the world’s safest city in 2019, Japan is a golf-mad nation and Kasumigaseki Country Club is an established and highlyrated course that has hosted the Japan Open on four occasions.

Rory and Tiger have already declared their intention to play from July 30-August 2. They will undoubtedly be joined by the majority of the world’s top players.

18 WILL WE HEAR 'C'MON AUSSIE' IN 2020?

The familiar refrain of ‘C’mon Aussie’ has been missing across both tours in recent months. Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert all slipped down the world rankings in 2019. Adam Scott had a good year but didn’t get a win. In fact, there were no Aussie wins on the PGA Tour in a calendar year for the first time since 1987, and only Scott Hend got a trophy on the European Tour.

Australia’s rich golfing heritage is undermined by a lack of strength in depth – with only three players in the top 50 and five in the top 100 of the world rankings. So when the big names don’t perform, Aussie golf struggles.

Scott is the most likely to get back in the winner’s circle in 2020. He had two runners-up finishes and seven other top-10s last year, including T7 in the US Open and T8 in the PGA Championship. He’s won 29 times around the world, but the last of those was in 2016. For Day and Leishman, it looks somewhat trickier as both have struggled with injuries in recent years.

Australian golf needs the younger players to now step up. Smith and Herbert have talent and potential, but they have to find greater consistency. Beyond that, the next bright hope is 21-year-old big hitting Min Woo Lee. And so it came down to a hungry Scott, Adam Scott, snapping a four-year winless drought at the Genesis Invitational. Scott said, “I really do believe, if I can maintain motivation and focus, the next five years can be my best years on Tour.” C’mon Aussie.

19 HAS LEFTY LEFT THE WINNER'S CIRCLE?

Out of the world’s top 50 for the first time in 25 years, months away from hitting the big 5-0 and on the back of a season that was, by his own standards, troubled, it’s easy to predict that we’ve seen the best of Phil Mickelson.

Having reinvented himself as the king of social media, and accepted a $3m pay cheque to play in the Saudi International rather than play the Phoenix Open he’s been a fixture at every year since 1990, it’s also easy to think that Lefty is slowly exiting the main stage and transitioning into the next phase of his life. “Given that I turn 50 this year, there’s a good chance I’ve played my last Phoenix Open,” he reasoned, an air of finality in his voice. “We’ll see.”

As sad as that would be, it should come as little surprise. Lefty wasn’t only battling the new breed of super athletes on tour in 2019, he was also battling the undefeatable adversary in Father Time. His victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Proam last February showed he can still win, just not with the same regularity.

Phil Mickelson dropping out of the world’s top 50 for the first time in a quarter-of-a-century – for the first time since November 27, 1993 and the first time in 1,353 weeks – only highlights how much we’ve taken Lefty’s brilliance for granted.

He will win again, no question. There’s every chance he’ll win this season, next and possibly beyond, but his days as a top 50 force are now behind him.

20 WHO WINS THE 43RD RYDER CUP?

WHY THE US WINS

HOME ADVANTAGE COUNTS TOO MUCH

But for the historic comeback in 2012, we’d be looking at six straight home victories. Home advantage, with the partisan crowd and advantageous setup, has become too big an advantage and it will show this time.

THE US NOW HAVE A PLAN

Europe used to win in the States – 2012, 2004, 1995 – but that was when the US had no plan and lacked unity. The US have copied Europe and now go in with a plan and a system – if not complete unity.

EUROPE’S TEAM HAVEN’T AGED WELL

Sergio, Stenson, Rose, Poulter and Casey will be 40, 44, 44, 44 and 43 respectively. We hope for one last hurrah but powers wane and the reduced captain’s picks means they need to make it on merit or miss out.

EUROPE MAY BE ROOKIE HEAVY

Europe scaled down the captain’s picks from four to three, preferring players who qualified to wildcards – a questionable decision that could backfire if Europe ends up overloaded with rookies, as we saw at Hazeltine.

THE BAYING MOB WILL PLAY ITS PART

It is only a tiny minority, but add booze-fuelled patriots to a powder-keg atmosphere and Europe have trouble. We need experienced heads who stay cool. Would Rahm, Hatton and Willett thrive in such conditions?

THE US MIGHT YET IMPLODE

They have a plan but it only takes one ego-fuelled beef to undermine everything. Koepka and DJ have put their 2016 issues behind them, but Patrick Reed’s presence may yet help Europe.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Hey, we’re Europeans and sometimes the heart overrides the head. Also, nine wins in the last 12 tournaments cannot count for nothing. So we still believe. Alas, it’s more hope than expectation. WHY EUROPE WINS