Best performers of the 2021 Major championship season
By Bill Felber
Who didn’t make it
Some of the game’s most respected names had very ordinary Major seasons, finishing well down the list of players in the biggest events. Examples:
- Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, failed to develop his 2021 Major season into anything approaching a breakthrough to greatness. In fact DeChambeau failed to seriously contend in any of the four Majors. He tied for 46th at the Masters, for 38th at the PGA and for 26th at the U.S. Open. The average standard deviation of DeChambeau’s Major performances was an uninspiring +0.11, ranking him 19th among the 54 who competed in at least three events.
- Shane Lowry, the 2019 British Open winner, found his season sunk by a bad U.S. Open. Tying for 21st at Augusta and for fourth at the PGA, Lowry managed only a tie for 65th at the U.S. Open, dropping his season-long average to -0.16, 13th on the list, six spots ahead of DeChambeau.
- Justin Thomas missed the cut at the PGA, killing an otherwise indifferent season in which he tied for 21st at the Masters, for 19th at the U.S. Open and for 40th at the British. His season-long score was +0.66, 32nd overall.
- Defending his 2020 Masters title, Dustin Johnson missed the cuts there and at the PGA. Despite a tie for 19th at the U.S. Open and for eighth at the British, that stranded Johnson back in 36th place overall with a disappointing average of +0.91.
- Rory McIlroy continued his Major slide into mediocrity. McIlroy, too, missed the cut at Augusta and tied for 49th at Kiawah. That meant his tie for seventh at the U.S. Open and for 46th in England couldn’t save him. His average of +0.61 placed him in 31st spot overall.