PGA wasn’t only show in town
LPGA Tour, Champions Tour produced a fair share of highlights
While the PGA Tour gets a lot of media attention as well as larger-than-life purses, it is not the only competitive golf game in town. The LPGA Tour is a worldwide circuit for the game’s top female golfers. The Champions Tour for the over-50 crowd remains entertaining golf as well as a nice walk down memory lane. If you want a glimpse into golf’s future, it’s the amateurs who play competitive golf on the USGA level. They will turn out to be the stars of the next decade.
The LPGA Tour concluded its season just last weekend with the playing of the CME Group Tour Championship.
The No. 1-ranked female golfer in the world, J.Y. Ko from Korea, played brilliantly in securing the $1.1 million first-place prize. She also won two major titles in 2019, has seven career LPGA Tour victories, and has accumulated 11 titles on the Korean LPGA Tour. She is just 25 years old. She is a great ball striker and is only now entering her prime.
The season started quietly for the women in early 2020. The first four tourneys were played. Then the COVID-19 pandemic pulled the plug on the LPGA until late July. Similar to the men, four of the women’s major championships were rescheduled to later dates while the fifth, the Evian Championship in France, was canceled altogether. The LPGA Tour played two events in Scotland and then held its final 10 tournaments in the summer and fall.
Sophia Popov picked a great time to win her first LPGA sanctioned tourney in August when she captured the Women’s British Open at Royal Troon. Popov was born in Massachusetts but spent most of her life in Germany. She played college golf at USC and has won three times on the Cactus Tour, a regional circuit in Arizona, Nevada and California. In September, Mirim
Lee of Korea came from behind to win the ANA Inspiration (Dinah Shore) at Rancho Mirage. It was her fourth career win.
The Women’s PGA was held at Aronimink in October and S.Y. Kim of Korea won for the 12th time in her career. The Women’s U.S. Open was held two weeks ago at the Champions Golf Club in Houston, site of a past U.S. Open and Ryder Cup. Playing in America for the first time, A. Lim Kim of Korea birdied the final three holes to outlast a most impressive leader board. A relative newcomer, she has won twice on Korea’s women’s circuit.
The Champions Tour for men professionals ages 50 and older had a similar schedule to the LPGA although they added an additional wrinkle. They decided to combine all the tourneys from 2020 with those from 2021 to determine their seasonlong Charles Schwab Cup champion. The first five tournaments in 2020 pointed to an exciting season. Bernhard Langer won for the 41st time on the senior tour in March in Arizona. Newcomer Ernie Els, a four-time major champion, won his first senior title at Newport Beach in March.
When the Champions Tour resumed in August, it would be all about the well-known “newbees” finding the winner’s circle. In August, Jim Furyk won his first senior title in Michigan. Later that month, Phil Mickelson went to Ozarks National and secured his first senior win in his first try. He had just turned 50 in June. In September and October, Els, Furyk and Mickelson won again for a second time. Former British Open winner Darren Clarke joined the party by winning his first senior title in Florida. The one and only senior major contested in 2020 was the Senior Players Championship held in Ohio. Senior tour regular Jerry Kelly won his seventh Champions Tour title and his first senior major. Kevin Sutherland from Sacramento won the seasonending Charles Schwab Tournament in November.
The seniors will re
sume in 2021 with 25 tournaments scheduled. Only one event per month will be played during the opening part of the season. From May onward there will be three tourneys per month. Look for 2021 to be a most entertaining year for senior golf.
There was no conclusion to the collegiate golf season, so we didn’t get to see how the NCAA championships would play out. Normally the United States Golf Association holds 14 open tournaments throughout the year for professionals and amateurs as well as juniors, mid-amateurs and seniors. This time around, the USGA held just four events. The U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Men’s Amateur were held in August while the U.S. Open played out in September. The Women’s U.S. Open was held in Houston in December.
There was nothing “open” about the four tournaments staged by the USGA this year. Because of the pandemic, all qualifiers were put
on hold. The USGA filled its fields based on world rankings and special invitations. Yes, the U.S. Open was really not open.
Georgia Tech senior Tyler Strafaci won the
U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast in August. Earlier in the summer he won the prestigious North and South Amateur at Pinehurst. Strafaci is from a wellknown golfing family. His grandfather won the U.S. Public Links and a pair of North and South Amateurs in the 1930s. Rose Zwang of Southern California, a 17-year- old high school senior who signed a letter of intent to play at Stanford University, won the Women’s U.S. Amateur in New York. In 2019 she was the AJGA girl’s junior golfer of the year.
As we mentioned last week, the U.S. Open was contested in September at the iconic Winged Foot Golf Club in New York. Bryson DeChambeau won his first major title that weekend. He won because of his wedge and putter, not necessarily because of his driver. The U.S. Wom
en’s Open was two weeks ago in Houston and A. Lim Kim won her first major championship as well.
Because of the pandemic, there was no Olympic Golf in Japan this summer. The Olympics will be rescheduled for this coming summer if all goes well with the control of the COVID-19 virus. The biennial Ryder Cup Matches between Europe and America were also delayed for one year. They will be held this coming September at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. The Solheim Cup Matches featuring women’s teams from the USA and Europe will be held later this year at the Inverness Golf Club in Toledo. The iconic Donald Ross design has hosted four U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships and a
U.S. Amateur. The Presidents Cup will be moved to 2022.
Best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Next week we will look into what the 2021 season has to offer in the world of golf. Stay safe.