Best performers of the 2021 Major championship season
By Bill Felber
10. Brooks Koepka, -0.41
When there are only four Majors, a bad performance in just one of them can handicap a player’s overall score.
That’s what happened to Koepka when he delivered Thursday-Friday rounds of 74 and 75 at Augusta National in April. He missed the cut by two strokes and left early.
Among the top 10 players in 2021 Majors, Koepka was the only one to miss a cut. That he could still post one of the 10-best season-long scores says something about the rest of his Major season.
At Kiawah Island in May, he tied for second, two strokes behind Mickelson. Last month at Torrey Pines, Koepka tied for fourth, four strokes behind Rahm. And this past weekend, his Sunday 65 closed Koepka within seven strokes of Morikawa. He tied for sixth.
Still that Masters letdown dragged the standard deviation of Koepka’s performances at the four 2021 Majors down as follows:
Masters 2.90
PGA -1.77
U.S. Open -1.40
British Open -1.38
Average -0.41
9. Viktor Hovland, -0.48
Hovland did not qualify for the U.S. Open, but he had steady showings in the other three Majors.
He tied for 21st at the Masters, for 30th at the PGA and had his best showing at St. George’s, tying for 12th.
These were his standard deviations in those events
Masters -0.14
PGA -0.36
U.S. Open DNP
British Open -0.94
Average -0.48