Danny Willett – What’s Next for the Masters Champion? (Video)
How does Danny Willett stack up again the US Open, The Open & PGA Championship field?
Danny Willett is the embodiment of Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man.” If Dusty Springfield played golf – and there’s absolutely no evidence that the sexually repressed and mentally unstable Springfield ever teed it up anywhere, or even thought about golf, even for a minute – she might be enjoying Danny Willett’s new celebrity.
The well-traveled golfer from Yorkshire, England and son of an actual preacher man has stamped his name on the game. A green jacket does that for a golfer. With his Masters victory Willett has solidified himself as a mainstay of the game for years, perhaps decades to come.
What’s next on Willett’s list? We shall see, let’s look ahead.
Willett has been playing pro golf on the European Tour since 2008. He’s long been regarded as one of the up and coming talents in the game, but there were questions about when he would finally win the big one. He did it in fine fashion at the 2016 Masters. Could it be that like Rory McIlroy, that glimmer in his eyes of future major championships and the career grand slam has gotten just a bit brighter?
The man with the magical short game, a crucial tool in his belt, showed that a game with precision and a golden touch around the greens is key to winning at Augusta. But let’s look ahead to some of the other venues coming up this summer and how they fit the Englishman’s game.
Danny Willett and the 2016 US Open
Oakmont Country Club (US Open), located in Plum/Oakmont, PA is considered to be the oldest top ranked course in the world and also the site of its first major championship in 1922 won by Gene Sarazen, is the first on Willett’s list. It’s a notoriously tough venue and is sure to show its teeth.
There have been 8 US Opens held at Oakmont and 1 US Women’s Open, in 2010, won by Paula Creamer. The winning score has ranged from a high of +13, Tommy Armour’s 1927 final score, to a low of -5, recorded by Ben Hogan in 1953 and again by Johnny Miller in 1973.
When you look at what it takes to succeed at Oakmont, it takes precision, first and foremost. Seeing that Willett won the Masters with a game that epitomized targeted shot-making, it’s hard not to consider him as an early favorite in the second leg of the majors.
Danny Willett and The Open
Second on Willett’s list is Royal Troon in Syrshire, Scotland and the Open Championship. Arthur Havers won The Open Championship in 1923, Arnold Palmer followed in 1963, Tom Weiskopf in 1973, Tom Watson in 1982, and Mark Calcavecchia in 1989. All captured championships at the historic venue. Danny Willett will be stepping into some huge footsteps.
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Being able to play into the wind will be key in the conditions of the notoriously balmy and breezy confines of Troon in Scotland. Augusta National certainly provided its share of testing conditions during the 2016 Masters. It was Jordan Spieth, not Danny Willett, who struggled to manage the Augusta National spring breezes.
Over time, a lot of players from the other side of the pond have had success in the wind. Graeme McDowell at Pebble Beach at the 2010 US Open and Rory McIlroy at the 2012 US Open at Kiawah Island come immediately to mind as UK players who have excelled at managing windy conditions. So you might assume that Willett has the advantage in this sense, but when it comes to golf, nothing is given. We will see.
Length will be crucial to success at Royal Troon. Although Willett doesn’t stick out as the longest hitter on tour, his short game prowess, and mental toughness will be key in determining whether or not his name is on or near the top of the leaderboard.
Danny Willett and the PGA Championship
Last, but certainly not least, this years PGA Championship will be held at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, NJ, founded in 1895, and designed by A.W. Tillinghast. Hall of Famer Jack Nicklaus twice has won the PGA Championship, in 1967 and 1980, at this very venue.
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As of 2010, Baltusrol Golf Club, named by Golf Magazine as one of “The First 100 Clubs in America” in 1995, holds the distinction of being the only two-course club to ever host both the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Open Championships on both of its courses, an interesting caveat.
This year, the Lower course will be the spot of the pros to play on for the first time since it was last held at Baltusrol, back in 2005. Phil Mickelson claimed the Championship that year with a winning score of -4.
There has only been one winner on the European side, Willie Anderson, back in 1903, on the now defunct Old Course. A.W. Tillinghast was hired by Louis Keller, the original owner of the Baltusrol GC, to overhaul the course.
Keller originally wanted to have Tillinghast, who served as the club’s architect until his death in 1942, to add a second 18 to compliment the Old Course. A.W. thought otherwise and he recommended the course be plowed over and built into two different courses. Today the first contiguous 36-hole design built in the United States – and opened to the public in 1922 – is referred to as the Upper and Lower courses.
Years after opening, refinements were made to prepare these dual darlings to be suitable for championship play. The first national championship held on the Lower was the 1926 United States Amateur. The first national championship on the Upper was the U.S. Open in 1936.
In 1948, Robert Trent Jones was retained to update and lengthen the Lower course for tournament play and it was extended again by his son Rees Jones in 1992 to prepare it for readiness at the U.S. Open in 1993. Jones also updated and lengthened the Upper course in advance of the 2000 U.S. Amateur.
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On both the Lower and Upper courses, Jones and his senior designer Steve Weisser reinstated and restored various Tillinghast design features which had been lost over the years. Some famous golfers to win tournaments at Baltusrol include notables such Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, and Phil Mickelson.
The Jersey sun will surely be a test for those who aren’t accustomed to the conditions, but as we all known, in order to win a major championship of any kind, you need to brave all the elements.
At these three world class venues, Danny Willett, a virtual unknown just a few years ago, has to be considered a sure favorite to attempt to put hands on more hardware, maybe capture a grand slam all in one year. Maybe, maybe not, we’ll see.
But other opportunities surely lie ahead for the amiable Englishman, such as commercials and the like. Will it be too much in the spotlight, or will he embrace the limelight? His mettle will surely be tested.
On top of all of the other responsibilities ahead for Willett, he has accepted a PGA Tour membership, exempting him through the year 2021, but it’s not all peaches and cream for the major winner. He has to keep pushing to make his hay, advance into and ultimately make the playoffs. For him to do so, he has to finish in the top 125 in FedEx Cup Rankings after the time of the Wyndham Championship on August 18-21, 2016. The countdown is on for Danny Willett.
Next: Predicting Major Winners in 2016
Danny Willett’s Masters victory has catapulted him into the pro golf spotlight. Willett is likely to discover, as has Jordan Spieth, that the spotlight must be managed and, As Jason Day has realized, that there’s a price to be paid for the celebrity that comes with the winning of a major golf championship.