Record performance for player from South Carolina

The long-hitting 36-year old American Dustin Johnson earned his first Masters green jacket at Augusta National Golf Course, USA in 2020 with a record score of 268 (20-under par).  The two times Major winner from South Carolina was 5 strokes ahead of IM Sun-jae (South Korea) and Cameron Smith (Australia).  In a few hours’ time, (8 April) DJ will tee-off in defence of his title.  It looks as if he’ll be happy again without spectators in attendance.  Corona times can be very calming.

 

More about the Masters:  The 84th edition of the Masters, which is normally played as the first Major of the golf season in April, teed-off with a specially invited list of 92 players in November 2020 as the final episode in golf’s catalogue of the big four.  It was only the Open Championship at Sandwich, Kent that didn’t take place in June.  The other three Majors went ahead without the thrust and energy of the public alongside the fairways.

 

Johnson’s Sunday lead:  Dustin Johnson teed-off on the final Sunday with a 4-stroke lead.  Previous to that the best Masters score was produced by Tiger Woods (1997) and Jordan Spieth (2015) who both scored 18-under par.  Johnson broke all records finishing on 20-under par: 65, 70, 65 and 68.

 

World rankings:  Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm (Spain) and Justin Thomas (US) were among the 5 players who shared the halfway lead.  It was the first time that the top 3 players in the world rankings had shared the first time lead in a Major.

 

Defying the odds:  Former Masters Champion from Germany, Bernhard Langer, defied the odds in November when he became the oldest player aged 63 to make the cut in the Masters with a score of 3-under par.

 

Casey’s first day lead:  Englishman Paul Casey took the lead on the first day of the 2020 Masters on a score of 65 (7-under).  Due to electrical storms, play was delayed for a few hours which resulted in Dylan Frittelli and Dustin Johnson joining Casey at the top of the leaderboard the next day.

 

Best Brit:  The “Best Brit” at Augusta was Rory McIlroy.  The player from Northern Ireland crunched a 75 on day one which he followed up with a dapper 66, 67 and 69 for a 277 tally and a tie for 5th place with Dylan Frittelli.

 

How about the 2021 Masters?  Well, hold on to your peak cap … it starts today 8 April 2021 and concludes on Sunday, 11 April.  The greatest players in the world are gathered at Augusta National GC.  Watch out for DJ … he’s got the Masters bug!

 

 

Main photograph: Dustin Johnson en route to become new Masters Champion in 2020.