This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
Sometimes in sports there are other powers, other forces, at work besides sheer talent. That's why it's so hard to predict who will win. That's why sometimes analytics and other metrics don't and can't tell the whole story. Sports are played by human beings who have feelings and emotions, which are impossible to calculate. We can't imagine what Cameron Champ's feelings and emotions were, what was going through his mind last week at the Safeway Open.
With his grandfather, his beloved "Pops," moved to hospice care with stage 4 stomach cancer, Champ wasn't planning to play in the tournament. But he did, and he turned in the best performance of his young PGA Tour career, winning by one stroke with a birdie on the 72nd hole at Silverado on Sunday.
Champ, 24, hugged his caddie and his mom, then lay his head on the shoulder of his father, who was holding a phone. Grandpa Mack, the man who taught Cameron to golf, was on the other end.
"I'll say this now," Cameron told reporters in Napa, Calif., "I really feel like this will be, no matter what, even if I never win another tournament again or I win however many, this will definitely be the greatest moment of my golfing career."
Champ arrived on the PGA Tour full-time last year, bringing with him the longest driver in the game. He showed what he could do almost immediately, winning his second tournament of the season, the Sanderson Farms. He soon
Sometimes in sports there are other powers, other forces, at work besides sheer talent. That's why it's so hard to predict who will win. That's why sometimes analytics and other metrics don't and can't tell the whole story. Sports are played by human beings who have feelings and emotions, which are impossible to calculate. We can't imagine what Cameron Champ's feelings and emotions were, what was going through his mind last week at the Safeway Open.
With his grandfather, his beloved "Pops," moved to hospice care with stage 4 stomach cancer, Champ wasn't planning to play in the tournament. But he did, and he turned in the best performance of his young PGA Tour career, winning by one stroke with a birdie on the 72nd hole at Silverado on Sunday.
Champ, 24, hugged his caddie and his mom, then lay his head on the shoulder of his father, who was holding a phone. Grandpa Mack, the man who taught Cameron to golf, was on the other end.
"I'll say this now," Cameron told reporters in Napa, Calif., "I really feel like this will be, no matter what, even if I never win another tournament again or I win however many, this will definitely be the greatest moment of my golfing career."
Champ arrived on the PGA Tour full-time last year, bringing with him the longest driver in the game. He showed what he could do almost immediately, winning his second tournament of the season, the Sanderson Farms. He soon followed with two more top-10s. When the calendar flipped from 2018 to 2019, so did Champ's game.
In 21 tournaments the rest of the season, he missed 11 cuts, didn't get another top-10. It's hard to gauge young golfers, but the victory came in a terribly weak field in an opposite-field event.
And so Champ arrived in the Napa Valley last week with a lot on his mind, right after defending his Sanderson title with a decent tie for 28th in what is now a vastly improved stand-alone event. The last thing you'd have expected from him, especially with a heavy heart, is what happened. No data could have predicted what happened.
Champ at times has shown incredible skills. He hit it 369 right down the middle on 18 on Sunday. He led the field in scrambling. He has the tools (as have so many young golfers who qualify for the PGA Tour).
Young golfers who find success in their first PGA Tour season often take a step back in their second. Maybe Champ just took a step back in the second half of his first season. Maybe now he's is finding his "level."
We believe that there were other forces at work to help Champ win at Silverado. He'll always have Pops to help him. We also believe Champ has his own tools to forge a successful career, one with more wins, even if they won't be the "greatest moment of my golfing career."
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Adam Hadwin
Hadwin won his first PGA Tour even at the 2017 Valspar and has not yet won again. He too took a step back and never got as close to winning again until Sunday, when he pushed Champ to the 72nd hole and finished as runner-up (Hadwin was T2 at last season's Desert Classic). The Canadian made the Tour Championship in 2017, then just missed in 2018 but was outside the top-50 last season. We don't think Hadwin is a consistent top-30 golfer, but he also has shown he is better than someone who was 52nd in points last season. He's off to a good start in 2019-20.
Marc Leishman
If you look at the numbers, Leishman had a pretty good season in 2018-19. But if you look at the big tournaments, which is what the best players do, he was awful. In the majors and The Players, he missed three cuts, with a T35 at the U.S. Open his best effort. He finished solo third at Silverado, but there was a lot of that from Leishman last season. If you had him on a season-long fantasy team, he probably delivered; if you rostered him in DFS a bunch, he probably delivered. But in real golf, Leishman didn't have a good season.
Zac Blair
Blair lost his card last season, went to the Korn Ferry Tour and got it back, then missed his first two cuts this seasons. He tied for fourth, equaling the second best result in 122 career starts. Blair got 115 FedEx Cup points, and he's going to need close to 400 to keep his card. Even with such a great start to the season. That will be a hard task for Blair to complete.
Lanto Griffin
The Web.com grad notched a top-15 in the first two events of the season, in very weak fields. So his tie for 17th in a far tougher field is encouraging. Last year was Griffin's first on Tour even though he's now 31 years old. He's played only 31 career events. Maybe he's a late bloomer. He's not going to finish top-20 every week, but he bears watching as you construct your weekly lineups.
Akshay Bhatia
Bhatia is the 17-year-old former amateur sensation who just turned pro, avoiding college altogether. He missed the cut at the Sanderson and missed it at the Safeway. He's now in the field for this week's Shriners, all on sponsor invites, and those seven sponsor invites will run out pretty quickly. Back in 2001, 17-year-old Ty Tryon tried to make a go of it. Last week, Tryon, now 35, was teeing it up in the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour qualifying.
Tony Romo
Everyone took notice when Romo shot 70 in the first round and was in line to make the cut. A 78 on Friday ended those thoughts. We've switched sides on the argument that Romo getting a sponsor invite is taking the spot of another golfer. Technically, yes. But sponsor invites usually don't contend, and often aren't guys who will play many tournaments anyway. Romo brings eyeballs to the tournament. Imagine how many if he makes a cut?
Bo Van Pelt
Van Pelt is back, incredibly at age 44 and about three and a half years after he last teed it up on the PGA Tour. Back in 2015, an already-on-the-way-down Van Pelt used his one-time career earnings exemption to keep his card. Five events in, he shut it down with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He's been battling injuries ever since and, like a medical extension, that career earnings exemption carries over until … well … forever. Or until Van Pelt returns. Which he did at the Safeway. Amazingly, he tied for 62nd. He's in the field this week at the Shriners. Van Pelt has made more than $20 million is his career, so he doesn't have the stress out there that a lot of golfers do. We'll believe Van Pelt is a fantasy option when we see it. But for now, it's just an incredible golf story.
Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
It was a loaded field on the European Tour so, naturally, the top-four finishers were Victor Perez, Matthew Southgate, Joakim Lagergren and Paul Waring. Perez, who plays out of France, moved up to 70th in the OWGR with the win. But perhaps the most interesting takeaway was former world No. 1 Luke Donald tying for 10th. Also, Jon Rahm missed the cut, breaking a string of nine straight top-15s.
