10 Questions for 2021

The key questions ahead of a truly stunning year of golf.

This year is shaping up to be the greatest golf year in living memory, with huge events in almost every month and Majors, gold and glory dotted throughout the calendar. The schedule throws up all manner of talking points, so let us attempt to answer 2021’s 10 biggest questions…

1 IS 2021 THE GREATEST EVER YEAR FOR GOLF?

This year promises a lot – and not just because we’ve got the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup taking place just three weeks apart. There’s also the small matter of golf’s second appearance in the Olympics since 1904, the return of The Open Championship and the prospect of being able to attend nine UK events on the European Tour this year. It is, in short, golfing Nirvana. To help you keep track of it all, we’ve mapped out the key dates, including all nine Majors in the men’s and women’s game, so you know when to book your days off work – and the comfortable sofa in front of the TV…

2 WILL ROYAL ST GEORGE’S THROW UP ANOTHER SURPRISE WINNER?

The roll call of past Open champions at Royal St George’s includes Harry Vardon, Bobby Locke, Sandy Lyle and Greg Norman, but its two most recent winners were far less expected. Everyone remembers Darren Clarke’s emotional victory the last time The Open came to Sandwich, but what about World No.396 Ben Curtis’ shock victory on his Major debut in 2003? He only qualified by finishing 13th in the Western Open two weeks earlier, his highest-ever PGA Tour finish at that point, and he remains the highest-ranked golfer in history to win the Claret Jug.

Outsiders actually have a decent record at The Open – Shane Lowry was a 140-1 shot at Royal Portrush – so a shock winner wouldn’t surprise. But given 10 of the last 11 winners have finished in the top 10 of The Open previously, it’s hard to look past World No.1 Dustin Johnson, especially as he finished second behind Clarke in 2011.

Even though he hasn’t really figured since blowing a halfway lead at St Andrews in 2015, DJ ranks high alongside Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa in approach play on the PGA Tour, a metric which has proved key in the last two championships at Royal St George’s. He’s also a two-time Major champion now and if Brooks Koepka is to be believed, winning multiple times gives you an edge on the biggest stage.

3 CAN EUROPE RETAIN THE SOLHEIM CUP ON US SOIL?

It’s a big ask and has only happened once before since the Solheim Cup started in 1990. But there is plenty of cause for optimism – and not just because Catriona Matthew is reprising her role as European captain after leading the team to victory in 2019…

SIX WILDCARDS

Unlike her US counterpart, Pat Hurst, wh’ll only have two wildcard picks at her disposal, Captain Matthew will be able to pick and choose half her team, which could give Europe a distinct advantage at the Inverness Club in Ohio. After all, Matthew proved how valuable a captain’s pick can be with her choice of Suzann Pettersen in 2019, which added some much needed experience and paid off when she holed the winning putt.

JOKER IN THE PACK

Experience counts for a lot, and in Captain Matthew the Europeans have a veteran of 10 Solheim Cups, including nine as a player. Since she still competes on the LET, Matthew has the benefit of knowing all the players at her disposal and will once again be assisted by Laura Davies, Kathryn Imrie and Suzann Pettersen as her vice captains. But the big difference maker might just be the form of 24-yearold Emily Kristine Pedersen, who lost her game after making her Solheim debut in 2017 and wasn’t even considered for the team in 2019. However, she bounced back in 2020 to dominate the LET, winning the Order of Merit and becoming the first player in over 30 years to win three events in a row. “It just shows great character, to come back,” Matthew said. “She has the experience of playing in it before and knows what to expect. She will be much more complete and better prepared for it if she makes the team.”

THE FORMBOOK

Several Europeans took the opportunity to play at the Inverness Club in the LPGA’S Drive On Championship, which saw Celine Boutier finish second and Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Gemma Dryburgh, Caroline Masson and Anne van Dam round out the top12. There’s now a newfound belief that they’ve got the players capable of mounting a serious challenge Stateside, with Georgia Hall, Mel Reid, and Sophia Popov all winning on the LPGA Tour since the restart. “There’s no reason why we can’t win in America,” says captain Catriona. “We’ve got a good team coming together with the core being the same as last time.”

EUROPE’S POSTWOMAN

Like her Woburn stablemate, Charley Hull always delivers in the biannual clash against the US. And, like Postman Poults, she is a major source of inspiration to her European colleagues. Hull saves her best for the drama of matchplay and has only suffered three defeats in 15 outings in four Solheim Cups. Of the current crop of players, her 70 percent win record is only bettered by Boutier, who delivered four points from four matches on her debut last year.

4 IS BRYSON DECHAMBEAU BUILT TO DOMINATE?

The answer now seems fairly obviously no, but for a few weeks leading up to the Masters – with Bryson Dechambeau threatening to carve new routes through Augusta en-route to a record margin of victory – we were growing concerned. Dechambeau’s lockdown muscle gain and new supercharged swing speed got a number of golf observers understandably hot under the collar.

At the Charles Schwab Challenge in June, he laughed in the face of the Colonial Country Club’s many doglegs. “I want to make them obsolete,” he admitted. At the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July, his three-shot victory included a 232-yarder out of the rough and onto the green – with his 8-iron. “I’m sorry, Mr. Ross, I didn’t mean to hit it over those bunkers all the time,” he laughed, having rendered Donald Ross’ Detroit GC defenceless.

And at the US Open in September came the ultimate validation: Dechambeau won his first Major despite hitting only 23 of 56 fairways, the lowest proportion of any US Open champion – but his average distance off the tee (325 yards) was the longest of any past champ. The reinvention of Dechambeau cut to the heart of the distance debate. Was this really the way we wanted golf to go? The purists cried foul as Dechambeau set his sights on tearing up Augusta, until a 63-yearold German with a much slower swing reminded us all that there’s more than one way to play the game (even if the Green Jacket did still go to a bomber).

Bryson Dechambeau may represent the bogeyman to many of those purists but he is simply the next stage of the PGA Tour player’s evolution. Not since Tiger in the late 1990s has a player arrived so unlike anything previously seen. His approach changed the game completely, Bryson’s blueprint is merely the next stage – and all within the rules.

Good or bad for the game? That’s likely to depend on your age bracket. Luckily, what seems clear now is that for all the weapons at his disposal, Dechambeau isn’t built to win every time he tees it up. “If we were playing a long drive tournament, then Bryson is going to win,” noted Ian Poulter. “But we don’t. We play a very different game to that.” Amen to that.

WILL THE R&A AND USGA FINALLY ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF DISTANCE?

Augusta National claim we have reached “a crossroads”, while the two governing bodies have already signalled their intent to rein in advancements in club and ball technology to stop courses from being rendered obsolete. This may yet lead to another equipment rules change, as well as Local Rules potentially being introduced for certain courses and competitions such as the Masters to put the brakes on Bryson & Co. But right now it is all talk and no action. Last year, the R&A’S Martin Slumbers called on the game’s key stakeholders to come together and “do the right thing” – but herein lies the biggest problem. Club and ball manufacturers remain reluctant to embrace change if it means their equipment no longer goes as far, while the professional Tours will argue that fans pay to see players hitting drives they can only dream of. The simplest solution is to introduce a different set of rules for pros, but even that is unlikely to please everyone, not least the traditionalists who believe golf’s USP is that amateurs use the same equipment and rules. The USGA and R&A’S Distance Insights Project update in March 2021 should reveal more, but previous form suggests any changes will take years and not months to be approved because of indecision and pushbacks.

6 WILL RORY & CO START CHASING BDC’S DISTANCE?

It’s already a question of when, not if, the world’s best players follow Bryson’s lead and start flirting with driver shafts more commonly seen in long drive contests. Some already have. Phil Mickelson has been prioritising distance over accuracy for years and was one of three players, alongside Adam Scott and Dylan Frittelli, who switched to a longer build at the Masters. Viktor Hovland and Eddie Pepperell have also tested a 48-inch driver, the maximum length allowed by the Rules of Golf, and according to various Tour reps, a number of other golfers have experimented with shafts up to three inches longer than standard, including World No.1 Dustin Johnson. Taylormade revealed he not only tested a 47inch SIM driver shaft before the Masters, but put one in the bag during a practice round at Augusta, gaining 10 yards in distance. The only reason he didn’t use it was because it affected his timing with other clubs in his bag, a point you may want to consider if you ever decide to tinker with a monster driver shaft. “I’d say 90 percent of the drivers sold in the shops today are too long for most players,” says esteemed clubmaker Tom Wishon, of Wishon Golf. “The standard driver length of 45.5-46.5 inches offered by most companies is too long for most golfers and will prevent them from achieving their maximum potential for distance and accuracy. I very rarely build drivers that are 46 inches long and there’s still a very good reason the average driver length on the PGA Tour is 44.5 inches, not 45.5 or 46.5.” Longer, it seems, it isn’t always better. WHO ARE THE NEXT BREAKOUT SUPERSTARS?

The US seems to have perfected its production line of creating young Major winners, but what about the rest of the world? We peek into the crystal ball and see rosy futures ahead for these talented 20-somethings…