Who Needs a Major the Most? - Henry Shimp

With 3 majors down and one more to go, I have been doing a lot of ruminating on this year’s major champions to date, and most pertinent to The Open Championship, who our last major champion of the year may be. It’s always amazing how many guys feel like “they have to win one this year” and every single time, we just come to realize how hard it is to win even one major across a career with the number of incredible players on tour.

Turning this into a slightly different thought piece. Rather than focus on who will win, I would like to share a few brief thoughts on who needs to win a major the most. Two of these guys have not won a major, and one of them has.

Now before I get going here, let’s set our Northern Irish savior aside for the time being. We all know he needs one, wants one, deserves one, etc. so I would rather focus my attention elsewhere.

• *** It’s coming, Rory. We all may just have to endure a bit more (as if not enough already) pain before we all get to enjoy what will surely be a celebration of the game as a whole. (*Near whole. Looking at you, Greg Norman)

PLAYER 1: Viktor Hovland

Now, allow me to explain. Viktor doesn’t NEED a major just yet, but, *but I’m here to argue he does.

I am of the belief that players only get so many chances to win a major before they start to realize the task’s difficulty which becomes a snowballing effect and lands you exactly in the place of Xander Schauffle, a player who for my money will never win a major (that take won’t end well).

It’s truly an Icarus sort of concept. You fly too close to the sun for too long trying to touch it and you just flat melt. If you are able to accomplish your goal and come back down to earth, it feels possible to keep winning. This is what the last nine years of Rory’s career have looked like, whereas his first 4 majors were the opposite. He got that first US Open fairly quickly and then started to win like crazy because the monkey was off his back and he was able to just free wheel it.

Viktor Hovland is a guy that is firmly beginning to enter the chat of “top guys ready to win a major” and again, although he probably is not feeling any heat yet, too many more close calls and the wax may begin to melt a bit.

Hoylake is a ball striker’s course and he has shown form over seas before. Bettors take note. My track record on picks is, dare I say, better than most…

PLAYER 2: Jordan Spieth

Sadly, really f****** sadly, I don’t know if it’s even reasonable to put Spieth in the conversation for Hoylake, (let’s pretend he shows up healthy) but for the sake of my sanity surrounding Yordan Spief’s future on the biggest stage, I’m doing this.

Jordy has been hiding. Hiding behind Rory’s now 9 year major drought. The golden child, GC for short, hasn’t won one in 6 full years himself, but the real issue isn’t even the win drought. The issue is that this mans hasn’t even been flirting with it. Not only is it not raining, hell there aren’t even clouds in the sky. The grass is dead and it feels like we’re in the middle of the Sahara.

We give Rory a tough time on the “back door top 10’s” which is fair enough, but at least as of late he’s been a legitimate part of the late Sunday storyline more than a few times in the big ones. GC just isn’t showing up. Period. End of story.

Yes he makes a yearly “run” at Augusta. I know. Believe me, I ride the “GC gonna shoot 62 and win it!!!” train as hard as anyone, but that’s not a real major run. That is a man who was built in a lab (a Jekyll and Hyde sort of lab at that) to play Augusta and when there’s nothing to do but try to make a last-ditch effort, he gives us all false hope.

In a world where it feels impossible for the likes of Scottie, Rahmbo, Rory net Georgia, and a small handful of other guys to NOT be a part of the storyline more times than not, GC just isn’t of the same cut these days, and I legitimately want my fingers to break for typing these words but that’s just the state of affairs.

It’s in there. It is. For the sake of my heart and passion for this game, please allow me to believe it is. But I don’t know where exactly to find it at the moment.

Look, as a man who picked last year’s winner at The Open Championship pre-tournament because of his F’ing haircut, (not evenly remotely humble brag) it should be fairly apparent that I enjoy a total piss take of a reason to bet someone going into a major. But even my most wishful, zany, absurd, sick, twisted, desperate methods for coming up with a winner cannot produce a second jug for *Mr. Jordan Spieth going into this one.

Shoot he doesn’t even need a win right now, he needs to contend. He needs to show he is on the list of guys who can still do it. He needs to give us all a bit of hope.

• ** While I cannot come up with a theory as to why Jordan would win Hoylake, I do believe in the power of slander as a catalyst for change. I’ll just leave this here…**

PLAYER 3: Patrick Cantlay

Golf seems to live on 3 things these days: DJ Khalid, Nooners, and Controversy. (Honorable mention @blockie)

Rollback, the Saudis, Jay’s incessant back-peddling, LACC sucking (I cannot overstate how terrible of a take this will forever be), Viktor’s wardrobe selections, and of course, pace of play. Turtle nation unite, Patty Ice has entered the chat.

Look, I’m going to make this simple. Here’s the take: Cantlay is well documented as being Xander’s closest confidant on tour, and although I think they go down in a very similar class when it’s all said and done and every tournament is contested with the berj-khalifa as the backdrop, Cantlay will ultimately be the man who wins A (as in one) big one.

He really hasn’t had many real runs at majors and by in large has been one of those “back door top 10” warriors, but I don’t believe that fully excludes him from being a reasonable pick to win at any given major.

The guy just plays an absurd amount of good golf and although he does have 6 PGA Tour wins (netting out the 2 Zurich wins, not a chance I’m counting those), it’s really hard to be ranked consistently in the top 6 in the world for a couple years now and not have more really big wins. This just shows he is almost always playing well and coupled with proof that when he has his best stuff he can get it over the line, Cantlay is always a reasonable bet.

Now, why is he on a “needs one” list? Well, he’s getting just old enough at age 31 that if he doesn’t start contending in more majors and giving himself chances soon, he will quickly rise to the top of the best player without a major list, and if history tells us anything, that list can be awfully hard to break off later in your career if you aren’t just flat too good to not win one. DJ for example was just never not going to win a major, and Cantlay as good as he may be, is no dumb-dumb, I mean DJ.

Back to where we started, the game is full of controversy, and Cantlay has been involved in more than his fair share this year with his pace of play track record. He also seems to be a guy who not only doesn’t care what people think, but even plays into a bit and likes playing a minor villain sort of role. I can already see the vastly faster-paced mindset Northwestern English crowds gagging as Cantlay takes 90 seconds to hit every shot on Sunday en route to clipping old mate Rory by a single shot to get that one major he seems destined to win. Not necessarily to the dismay of the masses, but not exactly to the great pleasure either. Just sayin.

Those are my thoughts. Hope you enjoyed them. Hit me back with some of yours if you want to banter a bit about this or anything else in the golf, or not golf (preferably), world you are interested in.

Until next time.

- HS