The Metropolitan
November/December
A forgettable year gave u
who is to distance what Bill Belichick DeChamBunyan on Sunday and beat h moral to this story? You still have to get
The Bogeyman Dan O’Neill - Editor
(Editor’s note: This story appears courtesy of Morning Read (www. morningread. com) The world became all about COVID-19 in 2020. At the same time, golf is able to live with a virus better than most activities. Outdoors, distancing … they come with the territory. And as a result, the industry thrived on the recreational level. Professionally, after a three-month shutdown, and despite a dozen or so positive tests, the PGA Tour persevered. While other sports suffered stops and starts, golf regrouped, rescheduled and resumed the year unobstructed. That said, 2020 certainly was not your father’s year in golf. So, let’s look at some of the stories that, properly masked and socially-distanced, have stood out: Prime-time matches: OK, yeah, Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson probably had one sequel left, and tossing in Peyton Manning and Tom Brady gave it GOAT-grudge sizzle. Manning is easily the most entertaining of the bunch. But the second match, incorporating a tired Charles Barkley joke and the NBA’ s Stephen Curry, was more like an episode of Fantasy Island than golf. Next time, give it some spunk, have them play basketball. A Masters in November: Without fans, without pastels, without egg salad, it seemed like a forced hand, a Masters for the sake of being able to say there was a Masters. The missing elements, the absence of Amen Corner eruptions made it the least-imposing Masters for players; ditto for the U.S. Open. Given the circumstance, everyone’s doing his best, that’s understood. But where a major championship is concerned, the British Open probably had the right idea: wait until next year. Bryson DeChambeau: “Bison” came out of the COVID break the way Dr. David Banner comes out of temper tantrums. And when DeChambeau won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, power became all the rage. “Experts” predicted Augusta National would have no chance when the battleship DeChambeau came ashore in Georgia. Then he double-bogeyed his first par 5 and finished the championship tied for 34th. Oh, by the way, tied for 29th was 63-year-old Bernhard Langer, 8
The regression of Tiger: On the heels o title – a Big Cat revival seemed to be on. B ineffectively in 2020. A tie for ninth at t proved to be his only top-30 result in a ended in a bingo number: T-38. That sa had something like 45 back surgeries, so
Phil Mickelson, Sr.: Many fantasized a Foot, expelling his demons and winnin didn’t happen. But no one anticipated M which his missed cuts outnumbered his to visited the Champions Tour twice and w Silverado might be praying he visits mor
Cinderella: Ranked 304th in the world, Symetra Tour player, won the Women’s which includes battling Lyme disease, lo Tour card by one stroke, resonated wit in an embarrassing position, with Popo Inspiration. But all’s well that ends well. year, the U.S. Women’s Open, though s leaderboard.
Spieth softly: Jordan Spieth is now five y when he won two major championships years removed from his last win: the 20 on milk cartons or subway walls, but Sp rankings and has not been able to stop made 20 starts, with six missed cuts and mind, he’s still only 27 and – filed under Golf Hall of Fame based on what he did
Fowler power: In fairness to Spieth, he a number of “names,” and that include impressive, but the owner did not have the majors, struggling statistically, Fowl the bubble for the Masters in April. Dur no major titles and five PGA Tour win Everybody pulls for players such as Spie in life. But Fowler’s career has a Chip Bec
