Top 10 Most Read Stories of 2020
4 Min Read
Written by Staff
2021 Players to Watch on the PGA TOUR
What were you reading in 2020?
According to the metrics, it was a diverse lineup of stories that was by turns predictable (two of the top three stories featured Tiger Woods) and unpredictable (a feature about Rory McIlroy’s reading habits). There was triumph (the astounding comeback of Brendon Todd, among others) and tragedy (the courage of Camilo Villegas, wife Maria, and their foundation Mia’s Miracles).
Here are the 10 most read stories of the year on PGATOUR.COM:
One player nearly drove off the road upon learning that he would be playing his first round with Tiger Woods, whose legendary exploits attracted so many TOUR pros to golf in the first place. A future Hall of Famer recalled, “I’ve never said ‘good shot’ as much in my life … as I did that day.” And yet a third player was so awed by Woods he reconsidered turning pro.
In this deep dive into the golf obsession of the most famous basketball player of all time, you’ll learn the name Buzz Peterson; meet the man who taught Michael Jordan how to play (hint: it wasn’t Davis Love III); and find out why Jordan’s future in the game was so tied to North Carolina’s loss to Indiana in the 1984 East Regional semifinals.
Grant Waite had already reached the par-5 18th green in two; now Tiger Woods had to do the same if he wanted to assure himself a birdie and a one-shot victory at the 2000 RBC Canadian Open. Between his ball and the pin: 218 yards, a row of bushes and a gaping water hazard. The lie: wet sand. What happened next was jaw-dropping even for longtime caddie Steve Williams.
“I spend enough time around a lot of impressive people,” Rory McIlroy said in an interview at the WGC-Mexico Championship, “and one of the common denominators, always, is that they read a lot.” Here, McIlroy details how he has improved his life by reading and in particular by embracing stoicism, which says to temper the big reaction and take the long view.
Doctors couldn’t save their daughter Mia, who died of cancer last summer, but Camilo and wife Maria Villegas are turning tragedy into something more hopeful and purposeful. They renamed their foundation Mia’s Miracles, which will keep their daughter’s memory alive as it supports families battling pediatric cancer in the United States and Colombia.
“Be the right club today.” The microphones caught Hal Sutton saying that to either his ball or the golf gods on the 18th hole as he won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2000. But what ever happened to the right club, the 6-iron he used to set up his tournament-clinching par? Where is it? And which of Sutton’s clubs now lives in a time capsule?
Collin Morikawa became golf’s newest young superstar when he drove the par-4 16th hole at TPC Harding Park on the way to winning the PGA Championship last summer. But what really sets him apart is his head. The man who recruited him to Cal said he never once saw Morikawa pull the wrong club, while a former rival remarked, “There are no holes in his game – at all.”
In a lengthy interview with PGATOUR.com, Mike Thomas explains what it was like raising golf-obsessed Justin; explains why it’s so vitally important to make it fun for kid golfers; and details why of all the famous people he’s met through his son, it was a pair of guided tours of the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Houston that impacted him the most.
The Honda Classic Monday qualifier has the deepest field of any PGA TOUR Monday qualifier, so it’s beyond special to get through. In 2019, for example, the Honda’s Monday sprint featured 24 players with at least one TOUR win. In 2020, there were 13 different TOUR winners in the Monday field with a combined 23 European Tour and 41 Korn Ferry Tour victories.
Which player was so lost he resorted to hitting shots blindfolded on a driving range in Dubai? Which one consulted a book by a Major League pitcher who had been felled by the throwing yips? This story explains why slump-busting is a team effort (wives, coaches, psychologists) and why the ultimate victors are sometimes “the guys that can muster through it the longest.”