Golf year in review: Superlatives from the 2021 PGA Tour and golfing world
Golf saw Phil Mickelson win a major at 50 years old, the PGA Tour play an unprecedented season, Nelly Korda become a megastar and much, much more in 2021.
Every year, golf gives us a marathon — but the 2020-21 season was unlike anything that fans of the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour and the sport at large have ever seen. Coming off of the COVID-shortened early parts of 2020, fans were gifted the super-season and an absolute jam-packed (and beautiful) slate of golf.
It feels like a special year that — given the circumstances around it — hopefully, we won’t see again. Because of that, though, it feels important to look back and remember everything that we saw and everything that happened and try to break it down.
Trying to break down the golf year in review, there wasn’t one simple list that was totally going to encapsulate everything that we saw. So instead of one list, we’re going with five lists of five to break down the breakout players, best tournaments, best moments, biggest heartbreaks, and the golfers on the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour who defined 2021 in the world of golf.
5 biggest breakout players in golf 2021
5. Will Zalatoris
Though he definitely faded at the end of the year, Will Zalatoris deserves his flowers. Sure, he didn’t actually win, but we’re talking about a 25-year-old that notched seven top-20 finishes in the first half of 2021 that included an outright second-place finish at The Masters (his first appearance at Augusta National) and a T8 at the PGA Championship.
And now, he’s actually a full-time member of the Tour.
4. Mito Pereira
Unless you weren’t locked into the Korn Ferry Tour in the early parts of 2021, you might not have been aware of Pereira. After getting his Tour card, he promptly finished T5 and T6 in two of his first four starts before competing for a medal at the Olympics as well.
Yes, he’s still someone who needs to show consistency that he has staying power on the PGA Tour but it’s undeniable that Pereira established himself as someone to watch this past year.
3. Viktor Hovland
We’re going to discuss more of this very shortly, but most golf fans were well aware of Viktor Hovland and his talent coming into the year. But 2021 was when he seemingly made the leap from “one to watch” to “possible winner pick whenever he plays.” Though he wasn’t winning every time out, he was constantly in the mix, notched several victories, and is not a top-10-ranked player in the world. There is no waiting for him to arrive anymore; Hovland is here.
2. Sam Burns
Those in the know throughout the golfing world were well aware of what the best iteration of Sam Burns looked like. The question was if he could find any kind of consistency with that. Suffice it to say that he accomplished exactly that.
Burns ended 2020 as the 154th ranked player in the world. Now at the end of 2021, he’s ranked 11th. The LSU product truly established himself as a weekly force to be reckoned with after being a guy who could pop on any given week, you just didn’t know when.
1. Collin Morikawa
Obviously, Collin Morikawa was already well-established as a major winner coming into 2021. Yet, he didn’t get much of the respect he could’ve been given. Some wrote it off as a COVID-major win or a flash in the pan. Morikawa put that to bed this year, though. He won The Open but also continued to be a force in the best fields of the year time-in and time-out. He became one of the game’s elite, as evidenced by being the No. 2-ranked player in the world.