When the PGA Tour announced its 2020-21 season ahead of last year’s Tour Championship, the marketing wizards coined it the “super season.”
Following the COVID-interrupted 2019-20 season, the 2021 schedule included 50 events, and featured six majors, the Players, the Olympics, FedExCup Playoffs, and the Ryder Cup Matches – all in a 12-month span.
Many were predicting that with so many high profile events, one of the superstars was likely to get hot and “make a career” in just a 10-11 month span. Yet with all six of the majors (as well as the Players) in the can, and just two tournaments to go, not a single player has come close to going on one of those historic runs.
The big prizes were taken by Bryson DeChambeau (2020 U.S. Open), Dustin Johnson (2020 Masters), Justin Thomas (The Players), Hideki Matsuyama (2021 Masters), Phil Mickelson (2021 PGA), Jon Rahm (2021 U.S. Open) and Collin Morikawa (2021 Open Championship). The good news is that all seven are elite world-class champions, yet the hope was for one of those big-name types to go on a run similar to what Jordan Spieth did in 2015 or Brooks Koepka did in 2018-19 – both of whom had two less majors up for grabs.
That has not happened.
In fact, with two weeks to go until the Tour Championship (which the tour ruined by implementing a silly handicap system), there is not even a true leader for the Tour’s MVP race.
As of now, you’d have to put Morikawa as the MVP leader based off two elite wins – a WGC and Major. However, Jon Rahm has enjoyed a more consistent season, and was robbed of a big second win at the Memorial. If the Spaniard were to win the FedEx Cup, he’d easily secure the Jack Nicklaus trophy.
Same with DeChambeau, who with the FedExCup would have two other wins: U.S. Open and Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Thomas and Matsuyama, though, would need to win both the BMW Championship and the FedExCup to claim MVP honors as both have played mediocre after their big wins.
Majors
- U.S. Open (Bryson DeChambeau)
- Masters (Dustin Johnson)
- Players (Justin Thomas)
- Masters (Hideki Matsuyama)
- PGA Championship (Phil Mickelson)
- U.S. Open (Jon Rahm)
- British Open (Collin Morikawa)
World Golf Championships
- WGC-Concessions (Collin Morikawa)
- WGC-Match Play (Billy Horschel)
- WGC-Memphis (Abraham Ancer)
FedExCup Playoffs
- FEC-Northern Trust (Tony Finau)
- FEC-BMW Championship (Aug 26-29)
- FEC-Tour Championship (Sep 2-5)
This article originally ran on April 27, 2021.
