2014 Golf Preview: The Year Sergio Garcia Finally Wins a Major
Other Predictions: Tiger Woods Won't Win a Major, and the Resurfacing of Anthony Kim
By Andy VuongDecember 16, 2013 1:10 PM
COMMENTARY | The 2014 golf season will be remembered as the Year of El Niño.
Dating back to Lucas Glover's triumph at the 2009 U.S. Open, 15 of the past 19 major tournaments have been won by first-time major winners.
That trend should continue in 2014, with Sergio Garcia taking the British Open to remove perhaps the biggest monkey to ever grace a golfer's back.
Here's why the time is right for Garcia to break through: For all his struggles and high-profile collapses in recent years, he's still only 33. Another "best golfer without a major" ended his drought at the same age: Phil Mickelson.
Next year's Open Championship will be held at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, a course Garcia has played well at. Royal Liverpool hosted the 2006 Open Championship, a tournament won by Tiger Woods with Garcia finishing in a tie for 5th. A brilliant 65 in the third round catapulted the Spaniard into a tie for second heading into the final round.
Garcia turned around a disaster-filled year, highlighted by his collapse at the Players and controversy with Woods, by winning the Thailand Golf Championship this past weekend.
Other predictions for 2014:
Tiger Woods will not win a major. Mentally, he is simply not the same golfer he was before The Scandal. He can't hold a lead, not even at his own tournament while paired up for the final two days with about as comfortable a playing partner as you can find in Zach Johnson.
The pressure is so intense right now for Woods to win another major to prove to critics that he really is back. But his mental game, the one that helped him become the greatest closer of all time in golf, is not there and may never return.
Woods will win another major, perhaps two. But the next major victory will come when we least expect it, when there's less pressure on him, a la Ernie Els at the 2012 British Open or Jack Nicklaus' 18th and final major in 1986 at the age of 46.
Another young American golfer on the rise -- Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker or Hunter Mahan -- will also break through to claim his first major title. In 2011, it was Keegan Bradley. In 2012, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson. Last year, it was Jason Dufner. The trend will continue, and my bet is on the long-hitting Johnson, who scored his biggest win to date in November at the HSBC Champions in China.
Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas will resurface. It wasn't that long ago when these two were near the top of golf's elite. Injuries and partying derailed Kim's career over the past couple seasons, while Villegas' freefall to 273rd in the World Golf Rankings has just been puzzling. Villegas showed some signs of life last season and is still just 31 years old, so a bounce-back isn't far-fetched.
Kim is a bigger question mark. He skipped the entire 2013 season to recover from surgery to repair his Achilles tendon. He has three PGA Tour wins, the last coming in 2010. Kim must ditch his "Entourage" lifestyle to regain his form from 2008, when he was today's version of Rory McIlroy, the golfer Nike threw millions of dollars at and perhaps the most popular outside of Woods and Mickelson.
The Tap In
In a recent edition of Sports Illustrated Golf PGA Tour Confidential, a panel of experts weighed whether Woods winning another major or Mickelson winning the U.S. Open to complete the career slam would be the bigger story. The group tied 2-2.
I'll break the tie with an unequivocal vote for Woods winning another major as the bigger story. If that happens, it won't just be the biggest story in golf, it'll rank as one of the top stories in all of sports. That feat would essentially complete his turnaround and, depending on how many other regular tournaments he wins, would likely give him the title as Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year.
Andy Vuong golfs year-round in Colorado and consistently shoots in the 80s when he doesn't hit 90 or higher. Follow him on Twitter @andyvuong.
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