Play The View from Pebble Beach
Jim Nantz The greatest stretch of majorchampionship golf I’ve seen N AUGUST 2020, amid that difficult period when golf was played without fans and the world was at a low ebb because of COVID-19, I had a revelation about the ensuing 11 months I couldn’t keep to myself. On the eve of the PGA Championship at Harding Park, during a CBS media conference call, I proclaimed, “We are about to enter the greatest stretch of golf in major-championship history.” Part of my reasoning came down to just math—because of postponements and rescheduling, an unprecedented seven majors would be contested in less than a year, this coming after a stretch when no majors were played in 13 months. At least one prominent golf writer thought the prediction hyperbolic, but what followed delivered on my promise, and in an age when we are slow to savor recent history and quick to move from one headline to the next, it’s a good time to reflect on what pro golf has given us. It began with Collin Morikawa, then in his second season, capturing his first major with his PGA Championship victory at Harding Park. Less than six weeks later came the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, won by Bryson DeChambeau. The victory, his first in a major, emboldened DeChambeau to transform himself—and the way the game is played—even further. The 2020 season wrapped with Dustin Johnson’s victory at the Masters in November. DJ’s record 20-under-par performance at Augusta National might not be broken in our lifetime, and by winning his second major, he laid the perception of him as an underachiever to rest forever.
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The stretch not only continued into 2021, it got better. Hideki Matsuyama’s win at the Masters was crucial for golf globally and lifted his home country of Japan, which always was golf-mad but without a men’s major until now. The sight of Hideki’s caddie, Shota Hayafuji, bowing respectfully to the Augusta National course at the conclusion of the tournament was one of the “shots” of the year. The PGA Championship at Kiawah followed and went to ageless Phil Mickelson, who at 50 became the oldest winner of a major and enriched his legacy. Next came the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and the gutsy performance by Jon Rahm, who at this writing is the No. 1-ranked player in the game and is
assured of greatness. Then came Morikawa again, at 24, calmly pocketing his second major, the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s. It was an unbroken streak of quality major champions who produced titles consecutively over the course of two calendar years, albeit in condensed fashion. Only two streaks in golf history remotely compare. In 1962, Arnold Palmer won the Masters and Open Championship, Jack Nicklaus won the U.S. Open and Gary Player won the PGA Championship. That fed into the 1963 season in which Nicklaus won the Masters in April. Five wins by superstars in five straight majors—rare indeed. The stretch encompassing 1971 and ’72 was
