Bold Predictions in 2015 on the PGA Tour
The passage of time can get downright Interstellar. Gravity warps our perception of time. Minutes turn into hours—hours turn into years.
It feels like yesterday when Rory McIlroy won the PGA Championship in the dark to win his fourth major golf tournament. He capped off a monster year, one that made ancient history of his Freaky Fridays.
Now we’re on the brink of a new season that should, in theory, have a healthy Tiger Woods, a slimmer Phil Mickelson and a Presidents Cup to act as mouthwash for the bitter taste of Team USA’s Gleneagles performance.
With so much talent spread across golfers in their 40s to their 20s, there has rarely been a better time to be in the gallery.
It’s time for bold predictions for the upcoming season.
Tiger Woods Will Play 15 Tournaments in 2015
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Last we saw Tiger Woods in 2014: Missing the cut at the PGA Championship
If we are to believe Tiger Woods is healthy—that the cumulative wear on his body is, for the time, behind him—he will play 15 tournaments. That’s about his threshold.
He labored to play seven events in 2014 when he should have pulled the rip cord after the Open Championship. He played 16 in 2013 and 19 in 2012. You’d have to go back to 2005—now 10 years ago—when Woods played more than 20.
Since then, he's played 15, 16, six*, 17, 12, nine, 19, 16 and seven for an average of 11.7 starts per year.
D.J. Piehowski, a digital producer for PGA Tour.com, said, “From 'Healthy Tiger,' you have to look for at least three wins (I actually loved how he was swinging it at Isleworth). But I'm less and less convinced that we'll see healthy Tiger for a full year.”
Will he win a major in 2015? That’s a bolder prediction I’m not willing to make.
*He won the U.S. Open on one leg, his last major win.
Rickie Fowler Wins Multiple Tournaments
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Last we saw Rickie Fowler in 2014: T8 in the Tour Championship
Rickie Fowler had one of those great seasons where he didn’t even win a tournament. For all his promise and potential, he still has only one career victory.
Fowler will win multiple tournaments in 2015. That could be two or four. He’s a big-time player. Just look at the majors in 2014. He finished T5, T2, T2 and T3. He also missed seven cuts in 26 events in 2014.
Bleacher Report’s Ben Alberstadt wrote:
"Fowler did everything but win one of professional golf's four most significant tournaments. Indeed, only two other golfers in history have finished inside the top five in all four majors in a season. Unfortunately, Fowler was the only golfer of the trio not to win a major during his year of brilliant major form.
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He needs to clean up his putting, especially those from mid-range. If he can play some of the B-level tournaments with that major intensity, Fowler will win a few this season.
Phil Mickelson Reclaims 2013 Form
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Last we saw Phil Mickelson in 2014: Ripping Tom Watson
Phil Mickelson couldn’t buy a win in 2014, in a season where he was involved in a potentially dangerous insider trading accusation. He had one top-10 finish and no wins. He ended his year by ripping Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson.
What’s past is prologue, right?
Now that it’s 2015, Mickelson’s goal is to lose 20 pounds and add 10 mph to his ball speed. That’s turning back the clock. As a result, Mickelson, the tour's "biggest loser," will return to his 2013 form that saw him win the Open, tie for second at the U.S. Open and land seven top 10s.
“Power equals strength plus speed,” said Lefty’s strength coach Sean Cochran on GolfDigest.com “In Phil’s offseason, we look to develop the parameters of him as an athlete. The basic components for monitoring his progress are the speed numbers he produces, and he’s gone up in both.”
Mickelson athletic? At age 44, he is still looking to improve and more importantly win the career Slam by winning that elusive U.S. Open.
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Billy Horschel Backs Up His FedEx Cup Performances
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Last we saw Billy Horschel in 2014: Winning $10 million
How many people had heard of Billy Horschel at the beginning of the 2014 season? After his powerful run through the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Horschel isn’t just a rich man but arguably one of the best players on tour now.
He won two tournaments in 2014—the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship with players like Rory McIlroy, Chris Pine and Fowler nipping at him the whole time.
Brushing up against greatness only helped Horschel’s confidence. He told Today’s Golfer:
"I gained a lot of confidence from my play this year, in the second half of the season especially. But the biggest boost I got was playing the last two rounds of the Tour Championship with the best player in the game right now. It doesn’t get much better than looking Rory in the eye and beating him. I know he will get his share of victories over me and everyone else in future, but it was nice to play as well as I did with him for company. Hopefully, we can look forward to many more battles in the years to come.
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What’s in store for Horschel in 2015? He’s 13th in the world rankings and will quietly do what he did a year ago. Repeating as a FedEx Cup champion is unlikely, but Horschel will back up his play from last season.
Jordan Spieth Has a Breakout Year
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Last we saw Jordan Spieth in 2014: 26-under Par at Hero World Challenge
Jordan Spieth is set for a breakout season.
The 2013 Rookie of the Year may be the golfer to challenge McIlroy if only he can put it all together. In a sport that begs for rivalries, this could be the one to look forward to.
Spieth notably destroyed the field at the Hero World Challenge, shooting four straight rounds under 70.
In 2014, he played in 27 events and had two T2s, with one of those at Augusta. T.J. Auclair of PGATour.com wrote:
"He also has five runner-up finishes in the last two years, including the 2014 Masters where he had a legitimate chance to become the tournament's youngest winner. A 74 in the final round of the Players Championship this year dropped Spieth to a disappointing T4 and there are a handful of other events where weekend rounds in the mid-70s cost him.
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Spieth appears primed to click his game into place. For those handing McIlroy the Masters, Spieth could steal the green jacket and the career Slam away from him.
Fred Couples Will Be the Next Ryder Cup Captain
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Last we saw Fred Couples as a captain: 2013 Presidents Cup
This isn’t so bold, but it bears mentioning since the U.S. was pathetic in this past renewal of the Ryder Cup.
Couples has been the captain of the past three Presidents Cups, and they have all been victorious for the United States. Maybe the international opposition doesn’t get up quite as much for the Presidents Cup as the Europeans do for the Ryder Cup, but you can’t argue with three straight U.S. wins. And Couples has the support of two of the biggest names on the team: Woods and Mickelson.
"He didn't cradle his boys enough, and that's what they need," Couples said of Tom Watson on Golf.com, who was one of his mentors in the early '90s. "They need some love."
It’s sad that professional golfers of a somewhat advanced age need “cradling,” but if that’s the case, Couples is the man to do it.
“If the bough breaks…”
The 2015 Masters Will Be the Tournament of the Year
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Last we saw the Masters: Bubba Watson won, McIlroy fluttered, and Spieth faded
The 2015 Masters will be the tournament of the year.
McIlroy goes for the career Grand Slam. Woods is starving for his first major in seven years. Spieth looks to assert himself as one of the tour’s best. Fowler, too, looks to step into that upper echelon.
Will the pressure on these golfers open the door for someone like Martin Kaymer or (gulp) Sergio Garcia to win? Will Mickelson don a third green blazer?
There is so much riding on this year’s Masters. Legacies are at stake. Young, teething pups look to usurp the alphas.
Either way, for four days in April, the Masters will be the most electrically charged weekend on the golf calendar in 2015.
Jason Day Wins a Major, but Which One?
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Last we saw Jason Day in 2014: T4 at the Tour Championship
Jason Day is on the precipice of winning that major tournament. He finished T4 at the U.S. Open and was right in the thick of the PGA Championship before finishing T15.
Day has finished third and T2 at the Masters in his brief career. He has the game. Now he just needs to close.
Kyle Porter of CBSSports.com likes Day’s chances in this year’s PGA:
"At some point you just sort of have to say that it can't not happen. I flat out refuse to believe that Day will go major-less over his entire career.
In 2010 at Whistling Straits, Day shot a final-round 74 (which had nothing on Nick Watney's final-round 81) to finish four back of Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson, so he's had some history at this course.
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Day is just as likely to perform well at the Masters. Given how many other players will be pressing for that green jacket, Day could slide in there and steal it.
If not there, then at Whistling Straits. Both? Let’s not to get too hopped up on Girl Scout Cookies.
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