Memorable moments in 2021
Handful of shots were worth remembering on LPGA, PGA tours
We’re in the midst of our end of the year review of the world of golf in 2021 and this time around we’ll focus upon great shots, the women’s game, amateur golf and Tiger Woods. We should take a shot at the NCAA when it comes to the most moronic decision by a ruling body this year, but we’ll choose to ignore the canceled Women’s Regionals in Baton Rouge last May.
Unlike other years, our great shots of 2021 didn’t have a lastminute impact upon a tournament. Nonetheless they were memorable and warrant our attention.
At the World Match Play Championship last March at Austin Country Club, European Ryder Cup teammates Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood were in a dead heat in their pod to advance to the round of 16. A sudden-death playoff ensued and the sun was starting to set as they reached their fourth playoff hole. Sergio took matters into his own hand when his iron shot on the par-3 fourth hole landed on the green and rolled into the cup for a hole-in-one. Sergio didn’t win the Match Play, but his shot in overtime was one for the memories.
Nelly Korda was on the verge of claiming the No. 1 ranking in the world last June when the greats of women golf converged upon the KMPG PGA Championship, one of the five majors on the LPGA Tour. The Women’s PGA was contested at Atlanta’s Highlands Course. As the fourth round began, Korda was in a battle for her first major title with fellow American Lizette Salas. On the par-5 fifth hole, Korda took out her 7-wood and attacked the faraway green. The ball landed just short of the green and rolled for what seemed like an eternity as it settled just two feet away from the cup. Korda’s eagle put her atop the leader board, she beat
Salas by three strokes and her next closest pursuers by nine shots to capture the Women’s
PGA. Her shot of the year occurred during her season to remember.
Finally, outside of golf’s four major championships, there is nothing more important to the game’s top players than the Ryder Cup. On Sunday morning with Team USA holding onto a rocksolid lead, Bryson DeChambeau began his individual match with Sergio Garcia by hitting his opening tee shot 360 yards onto the distant par-4 green. Bryson made his putt for an opening-hole eagle. I played Whistling Straits in 2018 and I still can’t fathom how DeChambeau pulled off his deadly accurate bomb of a tee shot. Real power and really impressive stuff.
On the LPGA Tour this year, a newfound rivalry between Nelly Korda and Jin Young Ko of Korea took center stage during the second half of the season. Korda concluded the year ranked No. 1 in the world, Ko won the season-concluding $1.5 million Race to the CME Globe, and it looks like the LPGA has a real rivalry in the making. Korda also won the Olympic gold medal in Japan. Patty Tavatanakit won the Chevron (Dinah Shore), the season’s first major as well as rookie of the year honors. Anna Nordqvist collected her third career major at the Women’s British Open. The Women’s U.S. Open was contested at San Francisco’s Olympic Club and although it seemed as if Lexi Thompson would power her way to victory, she faltered at the end and Yuka Saso of the Philippines prevailed in overtime over Japan’s Nasa Hataoka.
Things are looking up for the LPGA Tour as it has 34 tournaments worth $85.7 million scheduled for 2022. Ten years ago its total purses were just $41 million.
The LPGA is also starting to hold its majors at many of the same sites as the men. The Women’s PGA is at Congressional next year and the Women’s British Open will be contested at Muirfield in Scotland. It was only a few years ago that Muirfield wouldn’t allow women to belong to their course. Thankfully the times they are changing for the benefit of the women’s game. Sad to say but once again there are no LPGA tourneys scheduled for Northern California next year.
The only way to get onto the PGA Tour used to be through the Q School process every autumn. Nowadays it’s a new world out there with the likes of Will Zalatoris getting into fields, playing well and parlaying all that success into gaining a PGA Tour card. Next year the most renowned seven amateur tournaments that are held during the summer leading up to the U.S. Amateur are banding together to offer a path for top amateurs to gain exemptions into tourneys on the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour. The amateur tourneys include the Sunnehanna, the Northeast, the North and South, the Southern, the Trans-Mississippi, the Pacific Coast Amateur, and the Western Amateur. This seven amateur tournament series is being called the Elite Amateur Golf Series.
Patrick Cantlay earned a $15 million bonus for winning the Fed Ex Cup playoffs in 2021 by winning the final two events, the BMW and the Tour Championship. World No. 1 Jon Rahm of Spain, the reigning U.S. Open champion, pocketed $7.7 million during the regular season. The 124th golfer on the money list was Tyler McCumber, the son of old-time PGA Tour pro Mark McCumber. McCumber was one of 124 golfers this year to take home more than $1 million in earnings. It used to be that par was golden on the PGA Tour, especially in the majors. Had our imaginary golfer, Joe Par, made a par on every hole, he would have made only 13 of 31 cuts in 2021 and pocketed just $324,000. Joe Par would have lost his tour card as he would have finished a distant 182nd on the money list. The “average” golfer on this year’s PGA Tour made $1.45 million and came in a safe 86th place among the top 125 exempt golfers.
Finally, last February Tiger Woods was involved in a serious car accident a day after the playing of the Genesis L.A. Open. Tiger was badly injured, had multiple surgeries, and at one point in time there was some degree of fear that his damaged leg would have to be amputated. In the end it didn’t come to that, and while Tiger contends that he will never again be a full-time golfer, he has been able to make an impressive recovery. This weekend he returns to the links to compete alongside 19 other twosomes in the PNC Championship. It is a two-person scramble event, motorized carts are allowed, and all of the professional contestants in the field are past major champions. Others in the field include Lee Trevino and his son, John Daly and his son, Little John Daly, who doesn’t seem all that little, and the aforementioned Nelly Korda and her dad, Petr Korda, a past winner of the Australian Open, a major in the world of competitive tennis. If nothing else, the presence of Tiger and Charlie Woods will definitely move the needle.
Next week we’ll review the local golf scene in Lake County.