5 reasons why golf will be even better in 2020 than it was in 2019 - Golf.com

3. NELLY KORDA IS GUNNING FOR THE TOP

Fans of American women’s golf have been on the lookout for their next breakout star, and in 2019 Nelly Korda staked a compelling claim to that title. She began 2019 with a win in Australia and never looked back, winning three times and racking up top finishes as she jumped from No. 23 in the world to a year-end rank of No. 3. Oh yeah, and she’s just 21 years old. In 2020, Korda will be gunning for the top spot in the Rolex Rankings, but she’ll have her work cut out for her. While S.H. Park (6.77 points) is within striking distance of Korda (6.53), Jin Young Ko has established herself as the unquestioned No. 1 player in the world with 9.45 points. No American has reached the top of the rankings since Stacy Lewis in 2014; watching the best in the world battle it out for that coveted title will be worth the price of admission.

4. IT’S ON BETWEEN BROOKS AND RORY

By the end of 2019, two players had separated themselves from the rest of the PGA Tour. Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy traded blows all year long, with Koepka winning the lion’s share until the season-ending Tour Championship, where McIlroy stared him down and took home $15 million in the process. Koepka’s still holding on to the top spot in the World Ranking — and has made it clear he’s not interested in any action in his rearview mirror — but McIlroy is very much interested in chasing down the man ahead of him. Here’s hoping for more weekend showdowns in 2020. Of course, there are a few other players who might have something to say about this, like misters Rahm, Thomas, Johnson or Woods. But Brooks-Rory feels, for now, like the main event.

5. IT’S AN OLYMPIC YEAR!

This may be me, a lifelong Olympics nerd, speaking on behalf of the game of golf, but this feels like the year we begin to feel proper Olympic cheer. Apathy and Zika kept top players away from Rio four years back; besides Olympics grinch Adam Scott, it sounds like the world’s best will be gunning for Tokyo this summer. Qualifying for the U.S. men’s team — only four golfers deep — will be as hard as anything in the sport, save for perhaps the South Korean women’s team. Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, etc., who’s getting left out?

Of course, it’s hard for me to write about the Olympics without a mention that it remains a damn shame there’s no team, or match play, or mixed-gender element to the action in Tokyo, and that having another 72-hole stroke-play event seems like a mega-miss, but there will be time for that. It’s the start of a new year, after all. Not a bogey on the scorecard yet.

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