Predicting 2020, tee to green
By Brady Kannon
The 2020 PGA Tour season teed off in earnest last week at its traditional spot, the Plantation Course in Kapalua for the Sentry Tournament of Champions. A new decade of golf began with a three-way playoff, as Justin Thomas edged Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele.
While Kapalua is not only a perfect setting to begin the golf year, the tournament results are a perfect sign of what’s to come in the 2020 season. I imagine we’ll see quite a few leaderboards featuring those three names: Thomas, Reed and Schauffele.
Here are my predictions for the 2020 golf season.
1. World No. 1 Brooks Koepka has been nursing a knee injury and is just getting back into formal competition. In my mind, the next three players in the rankings are truly the best golfers in the world at the moment — Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas. I believe that two of these three will hoist major championship trophies this season.
2. Two Norwegians, Viktor Hovland and Kristoffer Ventura, will make runs at PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors. But my pick to win it is Scottie Scheffler of Dallas.
3. Bryson DeChambeau finished the 2018 season ablaze, and that carried over into the beginning of 2019, but he declined the rest of the season. He was clearly affected by some controversy and the slow-play distractions. He is now ranked 15th in the world, and I believe he will fall out of the top 30 by the end of the season. I also believe former golden child Jordan Spieth’s slump will continue and Spieth, now ranked 43rd in the world, will fall out of the top 60.
4. Rickie Fowler will go another year without winning a major championship.
5. Dustin Johnson will bag another PGA Tour win in 2020, making it 13 consecutive seasons with at least one victory. This streak dates to his rookie campaign in 2008.
6. Tiger Woods is tied with Sam Snead with 82 official PGA Tour victories. Woods will not earn No. 83 between now and the Tour Championship in August.