2018 turned out to be a pretty great season on the PGA Tour. There was a nice mix of veterans, established younger players and some interesting rookies every week. Of course, we had Tiger Woods come back and almost win a couple majors then win the Tour Championship. Tiger being back is a big enough story in itself.
Brooks Koepka won 2 major championships, no small feat in this era. Many other players made their mark in some fashion on Tour; whether its Cam Champ blasting drives or the ultra-antagonist Patrick Reed winning a major and then going off the rails or the multiple comeback wins, the season had everything.
So here we are in 2019, could it actually improve from 2018? I think so. Here are my bold (for the most part) predictions for the upcoming year.
No player wins more than once on Tour.
Last year the multiple winners included: Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson, Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Jason Day and Bryson Dechambeau. Wow maybe I should back-pedal on this prediction. But with the amount of parity there is in the game today, I will stick to my guns here. If this happens, this article is going viral if articles can actually go viral.
Tiger doesn’t finish Top 5 in any tournament all year.
This might be even more bold than my first prediction. However, I see Tiger taking a step back this year. The 43-year-old may face another injury or some other adversity to make this prediction come true. Last year he had three Top 5’s and seven Top 10’s but also lost a heads up match to Phil the thrill Mickelson.
Jordan Spieth keeps fading into irrelevancy.
In 2013, Spieth came crashing into the golf world with multiple Top 10 finishes and his first win. 2014 was a bit of a letdown year but 2015 was one of the best seasons in modern golf history. Five wins (2 majors at Masters and US open), four runner ups and fifteen Top 10’s. He also won the Tour Championship and Fed Ex Cup.
2016 brought a couple wins but nothing serious. 2017 he wins the Open and 2 other tournaments. Then we get to 2018: 0 wins and only five Top 10’s in 23 events although he nearly won 2 majors. He was ranked as high as 2nd in the world and was 3rd at the start of 2018. His current rank is 17th. Something is wrong with his game or his head and I don’t see it correcting itself anytime soon. I think he’s in the 23-27 range at the end of 2019.
Someone outside the Top 50 in the world wins the British Open.
It’s been a number of years since a lesser-known player has won one of golf’s big 4. Overseas at the Open Championship, it hasn’t been since 2003 and 2004 when Ben Curtis and Todd Hamilton won back to back Opens. I’m saying that changes this year when a random European wins the Claret Jug.
Two Canadians win a tournament.
Canadian golf is in a great spot right now. We have more players on Tour than ever before as the game continues to grow in the great white north. Adam Hadwin continues to lead the pack and his consistent play gives him a chance every week. David Hearn is an established guy who has been showing signs of breakthrough lately with a couple top 10 finishes in 2018. Mackenzie Hughes and Nick Taylor have each won a tourney on tour. Youngsters Corey Conners, Roger Sloan, Ben Silverman and Adam Svensson could breakthrough at any moment and any given week could put all the pieces together. And finally, the Saskatchewan born Graham Delaet is hoping to get back from injury late in 2019 and get his game back in form. A win from one of these guys would be great but I’m saying we get 2!
A lefty wins the Masters.
This one is from my heart being a left-hander myself. Maybe this isn’t even that bold since 6 of the past 15 winners were left-handed (WEIR once, Bubba twice, Philly thrice). But being that there’s currently only a handful of us on tour, it still remains bold. Phil and Bubba are the best chances, Brian Harman could surprise, Ted Potter Jr would have to qualify and have the week OF HIS LIFE and Mike Weir would need a legit miracle. Augusta National sets up well for lefties, I’m saying it happens in 2019.
Cameron Smith makes a significant jump in the world rankings.
The young Aussie has been making a bit of a name for himself lately on the PGA tour and worldwide. One win on Tour and two other international victories over the past couple years are vaulted him to 27th in the world. I’m saying he gets into the Top 15 in 2019 by winning a big tourney and having a number of other high finishes. I realize there may be some bigger jumps in the ranking than this (say Mike Weir jumps from 1693 to 1540), but Cam Smith’s jump will be the most significant.