The 2020 golf year in review: The highs, lows and surprises

My local highlight of the year

Danie van Tonder continued to prove there is more than one way to get the ball in the hole in the fewest strokes possible as he won four Sunshine Tour titles between the return to golf in August and the end of October, including three of the five Rise Up Series events that began the pro circuit after the Covid-19 lockdown.

To bring such an aggressive approach to the course and yet play with such consistency that he had a run of 14 consecutive top-10 finishes going back more than a year was simply phenomenal. Hopefully the 29-year-old with the unique swing and approach is going to transfer his local dominance on to the European Tour in 2021.

My international highlight of the year

Christiaan Bezuidenhout is another golfer from the East Rand (Delmas) who was able to prove he can be a force to be reckoned with on the European Tour. Making the cut in both the US Open and the Masters showed his pedigree and when he won both the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the South African Open in successive weeks, it lifted him to No 34 on the world rankings and he finished seventh on the European Tour order of merit.

The 26-year-old has had to overcome numerous challenges in his career, most notably a chronic stutter due to an accidental poisoning incident when he was just two years old, but the determination and character of one of the most popular players on tour is certainly not in doubt.

My biggest disappointment of 2020

The fact that the Nedbank Golf Challenge had to be cancelled in 2020, when it was set to celebrate its 40^th edition, due to Covid-19. In the last couple of years, the organisers have worked really hard to make the event more attractive for the top European golfers and local fans, placing it during the finale of the Race to Dubai and giving it lucrative Rolex Series status. Hopefully this iconic tournament will be back bigger and better next year.

My biggest surprise of 2020

Branden Grace’s slide to No 126 in the world rankings after beginning the year in such promising fashion by winning the South African Open at Randpark with a final-round 62. He began his US PGA Tour campaign with a tied-ninth finish in the Phoenix Open but then struggled with six missed cuts in his next nine events.

And then the year got even worse when he had to withdraw midway through the Barracuda Championship at the beginning of August when he tested positive for Covid – he was tied for second at the time. A top-10 finish in the year-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai means he will go into 2021 with some hope restored. Grace is surely too good a golfer to not bounce back from his tough year.

What I’m looking forward to in 2021

Bryson DeChambeau is threatening to change the game of golf as we know it, much as Tiger Woods did in the mid-1990s. From radically changing his physique so that he could bomb drives miles down the course and have the strength to not have to worry about hitting out of the rough, to developing an outstanding short game, to his unique clubs and scientific approach, DeChambeau became headline news, especially when he won the US Open by six shots. He has now risen to No 5 in the world and it is going to be fascinating to see how those above him – Dustin Johnson, John Rahm, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy – cope with DeChambeau’s onslaught.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.