Golf

The 2020-21 PGA Tour season is where winless streaks go to die. Who could be next to end victory drought?


That winning feeling never grows old.

Robert Streb, 33, was the most recent PGA Tour winner, nearly holing out his approach to win a playoff over Kevin Kisner at the RSM Classic at Sea Island Resort. It was his first victory in six years and 165 starts. … since the 2014 RSM Classic, or what was then known as the McGladrey Classic.

It continued a current trend of Tour winners finding the winner’s circle after a long dry spell.

Streb’s victory drought was nothing compared to Stewart Cink, who was ranked No. 319 in the world when he claimed the season opener at the Safeway Open. Cink was the first and Streb the latest of five players in the first nine tournaments of the wrap-around season who were ranked outside the top 300 in the world at the time of their victory and hadn’t tasted victory in several years.

For Cink it had been 11 long years since he had won the 2009 British Open, while Martin Laird and Brian Gay had waited seven years respectively between wins (Laird at the Shriners Hospitals to 2013 Valero Texas Open and Gay at the Bermuda Championship to 2013 Humana Challenge). That itch for victory can make the reward even more gratifying, even if the payoff for all the hard work took only half the time for Hudson Swafford, who won the Corales Puntacana Open (2017 American Express) and Sergio Garcia, Sanderson Farms (2017 Masters).

“We’re all so close out here,” Cink said. “If you just elevate a couple of little areas in your game and just get a little bit better, then you find yourself in contention or winning. If you go the other way, you find yourself on the outside of the cut or having a bunch of 50th-place finishes. It’s just that close.”

40-somethings

Early-season winners also feature the 40-something brigade. Garcia (40), Cink (47) and Gay (48) turning back the clocks could be just the inspiration these golfers need to get over the hump and hoist another trophy:

Lucas Glover (41), last win: 2011 Wells Fargo Championship
Luke Donald, (42), last win: 2012 Transitions Championship
Kevin Streelman (42), last win: 2014 Travelers Championship
Rory Sabbatini (44), last win: 2011 Honda Classic

“It would be huge,” Sabbatini said of what win No. 7 would mean to him at this stage in his career. “I’m in that dwindling stage of my career. To be out here and still be able to compete is something I’m very happy about.”

A quartet of late 30-somethings also are trying to knock on victory’s door again. Hunter Mahan (38), a six-time Tour winner who reached No. 4 in the world in April 2012, hasn’t won since the 2014 Barclays while Camilo Villegas (38), has suffered a similar drought (2014 Wyndham Championship) and would be the sentimental choice after losing his daughter to cancer in July.

Has it really been since the 2012 Barclays that Nick Watney (39) has KO’d a field? And yet his time without a victory is eclipsed in this week’s Mayakoba field by K.J. Choi (50 – 2011 Players Championship), Bo Van Pelt (45), whose only title was at the long-defunct 2009 U.S. Bank Championship, and D.J. Trahan (39), who won so long ago that Bob Hope’s name still adorned the tournament title: 2008 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

What pro may have the best chance to get off the schneid this week at the Mayakoba Golf Classic?

How about Harris English (31), who will try to pull a Robert Streb and win at the same tournament he last won only seven years later to top Streb’s six-year wait. It was at the 2013 Mayakoba where English captured his second Tour title and the world seemed like his oyster. The only other player 25 years old or younger at the time with two Tour titles was Rory McIlroy. English, however, took a step back as he went through a myriad of swing instructors looking for a quick fix. He revived his career last year and recorded his fifth top-10 finish in the past 12 months at the RSM Classic (T-6) since finishing fifth at Mayakoba a year ago. He’s surged to No. 33 in the world, which is counter to the trend of world No. 300 and above winning, but all that’s left for him to achieve is that elusive victory.

“If I keep getting myself in these positions, it’s going to happen,” English said.

Maybe even this week and at the site of his last triumph.



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