OUR VIEW

Is this the most competitive era in the history of men’s professional golf?

Dustin Johnson’s staggering 30-under-par total in The Northern Trust, combined with Scottie Scheffler’s 59, helped emphasise the astonishing standard at the top of the professional game. After all, TPC Boston is a golf course that features five par 4s over 450 yards and three par 3s over 200 yards. What’s more, of the 12 sub-60 rounds in PGA Tour history, six have come since 2016.

With his victory, Johnson moved back to World No.1. He is the fifth person to have that title so far in 2020 – the most in a

No 32% calendar year since the inauguration of the Official World Golf Ranking in 1986. Currently, there are less than four world ranking points between Johnson and Patrick Cantlay in 12th, and there’s no place in the top 50 for multiple Major Champions like Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Jordan Spieth.

Other eras featured greats – Tiger, Mickelson, Els and Singh and Nicklaus, Watson, Player and Palmer spring to mind – but it’s hard to mount an argument that any epoch rivals this one in terms of overall standard and strength in depth.