The best player of the year award for my money is free of politics and top secret votes. Unfortunately, it lands well before 2020’s schedule has played out. With two majors to go, the PGA of America has opted to acknowledge the PGA Tour’s wraparound schedule pandemic push that centered around the FedExCup holding its dates, followed by a “new” season this week in Napa.

In return, the system used to determine winner failed to acknowledge the FedExCup champ in the top 4 spots despite an incredible run by Dustin Johnson, putting the playoff’s place in a surprising historical context given the shortened season placing even more emphasis on those events (theoretically at least).

PGA Tour players and the Golf Writers Association of America will award POY winners in September and December, respectively.

For Immediate Release:

JUSTIN THOMAS CAPTURES SECOND CAREER PGA OF AMERICA PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD

Webb Simpson wins his first Vardon Trophy

The PGA Tour was one of the first sports back in mid-June. With that return came questions. The biggest was this: Would it finish what it started? Aside from a hiccup here and there, the PGA Tour season concluded Monday. Here's how it did it.

2020 BLUETOOTH SPEAKER BUYER’S GUIDE

What’s your favorite band? The Beatles? Queen? Red Hot Chili Peppers? No matter what music you’re into, you can listen to it  (at a reasonable volume) on the golf course with a Bluetooth speaker.

This year’s test had speakers with clips that attach to your golf bag, magnetic strips that secure to the cart and speakers that can relay GPS distances to the green.

During testing, some models stood out for their sound quality and robust features. No matter your budget, you can buy a speaker to keep you swinging to the beat.

With an ever-increasing number of options, finding the right Bluetooth speaker to fit your needs can be a bit overwhelming. That’s where we come in. We put the top speaker devices on the market to the test to ensure you have the best information available when it comes time to buy.

Whether you’re looking to buy a Bluetooth speaker today, some buying advice to get started or just want a closer look at what’s on the market, this guide will help you find the right speaker to fit your needs.

Mike Dougherty of the Rockland/Westchester Journal News stopped in at Winged Foot where the rescheduled U.S. Open is set to start next week.

The focus appears to be on winning scores and rough, which is too bad since such projections rarely end well.

There is plenty of good stuff about the agronomic shift the club had to make due to the pandemic and the tournament’s new mid-September playing.

Speaking to superintendent Steve Rabideau about the hoped for outcome of preparations, it seems a high winning score would be gratifying.

As he reached into the rough to retrieve the golf ball Tuesday, Rabideau quietly offered a familiar refrain.

“Plus-8. Plus-8. Plus 8. … That would cap a very difficult summer,” he said. “And my guys know that’s what I’ve been thinking.”

Several of them were applying fertilizer to the rough nearby.

While it’s hardly a surprise that September in the greater Palm Springs area is dangerously hot, seeing the forecast for this week’s rescheduled ANA Inspiration still elicits the obvious question: why?

Obviously television and other tournament needs somehow left this date to the women for 2020’s second major championship.

Still, the Desert Sun’s Larry Bohannan tackles the very legitimate question: how hot is too hot?

The LPGA decided last week to allow caddies to use carts.

My daily Tour Championship Mindfulness session started after the 15th hole and ended with Dustin Johnson in the 18th fairway. In between I had this strange dream that he announced he was donating a nice chunk to a Tour charity hit hard by the pandemic AND finally marry Paulina. That’s why they’re called dreams.

Anyway, the 2020 playing at East Lake was mildly interesting at times, but without fans and only two dangerous shots to a PGA Tour (as Paul Azinger noted…8th and 15th tees), this 2020 Tour Championship will elicit as many fond memories as the year it was played.

Year two of the staggered scoring system ultimately rewarded the best player in the playoffs, where Dustin Johnson was -45, well clear of next closest competitor Jon Rahm (-29). But due to the staggered start, Johnson had to work much harder than necessary given his playoff dominance. I point this out for those taking seriously the importance and excitement of the season long race and playoffs.

The twist: a legit scoring system would have been even less dramatic Sunday if the old format was in place, with Xander Schauffele winning a Tour Championship and Johnson the FedExCup.

As Brian Wacker reports for GolfDigest.com, this is Johnson’s 23rd PGA Tour win and installs him as the favorite at Winged Foot in just over a week. The FedExCup as a piece to his Hall of Fame puzzle was noted by Sean Martin at PGATour.com.

Dustin Johnson has had quite the run. He has earned some serious cash. But in this altered season, he's not done yet. The U.S. Open is coming soon. The Masters lurks two months from now. Can he keep it going?

Utilizing some critical putts late in the round, Dustin Johnson finally won the FedEx Cup on Monday, outlasting Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele in the Tour Championship.

The “3-iron into some guy’s bedroom” (Hogan) at 190 yards will play 214 this time around, so 3-irons are unlikely even with the added length to offset better absorption of Vitamin D fueling linebackers-turned-golfers.

What is so charming about Winged Foot’s 10th when, on paper, it’s seemingly pretty simple?

There is the aesthetic factor, for starters. As Tom Nieporte, the club’s long time pro once said, “it’s like a painted picture, every time you play it”.

The hole is undeniably beautiful, simple and crying out to be painted. Most of the best holes sit on a landscape in ways that are attractive to an artist.

There is also the 10th’s location in the round. Buried elsewhere on the West Course it would undoubtedly be a much-talked about par-3. But put it in front of the clubhouse and the 10th takes on a different majesty, particularly since so few clubhouses in the world are accented by views of a par-3.

Our Job is Your Game

Game improvement irons are a constant in the golf industry, promising ego-boosting distance mixed with forgiveness across the face. While blades are sexy, game improvement irons are the foundation of nearly every manufacturer’s lineup. Good, bad or ugly, they offer something for almost everyone.

We are here to help you navigate the “Wild, Wild, West” that is the game improvement market. The category is loaded with distance, forgiveness and, believe it or not, looks. This stagecoach has 18 different models on board so hop on, strap in and get ready for this wild ride.

If you are in the market for game improvement irons, the 2020 Most Wanted Game Improvement Iron test is for you.

Most Wanted: Titleist T300 and Mizuno JPX 921 Hot Metal

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Performance Grades

Below is the Best Player’s Distance Iron 2020 broken down by performance grades for each iron length. The percentages displayed for each iron represent the frequency at which each was among the best performing irons for each tester across the test pool. For more information about how we arrive at these results, see our How We Test page.

2020 has been positive in one very small sense: it has spawned some spectacular, even unprecedented “playoff” naps. We’re talking circa 2012, 2014 level melatonin injections after mere minutes of tuning into the PGA Tour’s three season-ending non-thrill rides.

While I enjoyed some drool-inducers during Olympia Fields week, nothing has come close to Sunday’s third round siesta extraordinaire.

You know the kind: wake up to a golf telecast with no idea what day it is, what year it is, or what tournament is making that background noise.

The affairs at East Lake have been made worse by a random confluence of factors. There is the soul-crushing sight of watching the Johnson brothers reading greens, Feherty buttoning up in fear of a 904 party-pooper questioning his jokes, and the traditionally energy-light venue which somehow feels even more moribund than usual. I’m almost pining for the East Lake Cup college mascots to make a cameo. Almost.

Juxtapose this stagnant $45 million snoozer against compelling NBA games, NBC’s impressive Kentucky Derby coverage (where no controversy was ignored), and Sunday’s bizarro Djokovic U.S. Open antics, and the PGA Tour’s Super Bowl seems more unimaginably dull than normal.

He started this FedEx Cup out in front, giving him the benefit of a few shots on the field at the Tour Championship. Even though Xander Schauffele has played better so far in this FedEx Cup finale, it likely won't matter.

Dustin Johnson is now is one round away from capturing the FedEx Cup and its $15 million prize.

Titleist TSi Driver – Key Takeaways

Two Titleist TSi drivers (TSi2 and TSi3) have hit the USGA Conforming ListThe TSi3 features an updated track weighting systemReplacements for the TS1 and TS4 are not listed at this time

The surprisingly good TS2 and TS3 did plenty to shake Titleist’s reputation as a company that makes spinny drivers. With the new for 2020 TSi Drivers (TSi2 and TSi3), it seems reasonable that Titleist will look to build on that to further make the case that it belongs in the same conversation with Callaway and TaylorMade when golfers are deciding which clubs to take into the hitting bay.

The Tsi2 and Tsi3 are hitting the PGA and European Tours this week. The official story is that the Titleist TSi drivers are undergoing their final validation before average golfers will get a crack at them.

Hopefully, everything goes well. I’d hate for reality to ruin a good story, but final validation or not, the TSi drivers well past being done. There’s no doubt the factory is already hard at work cranking them out in the numbers necessary to be ready for launch day.

And speaking of, this isn’t going to be a PING situation where the driver hits tour now, but golfers will have to wait until 2021 to get their hands on it. There was certainly plenty of COVID-related should we go, or should we wait at Titleist, but ultimately the company appears to have decided to launch. I can’t give you an exact date, but I don’t think we’ll have to wait long for the TSi drivers to hit retail.

John Catlin became the first American since Tiger Woods to win at Valderrama on Sunday and denied Martin Kaymer another chance to end a six-year drought.

The first par-5 reduced to a par-4 in 2006 returns to its three-shotter roots for the 2020 U.S. Open.

However, due to the influx of brussel-sprout based dieting and more players incorporating standing one-arm preacher curls into their workouts, a driving hitting the fairway should set up a long iron into the green.

The putting surface shape and contouring here is masterful, with the wide front gradually shrinking as the green goes. A simple looking green has so much going on with seemingly random contours and bumps, meaning even with its reachability, it should serve as a much better short par-5 this time around.

No. 9 at Winged Foot is a straightaway, 565-yard par 5 that played as the longest par 4 in #USOpen history to that point in 2006. Its greenside bunkers will pose a challenge for players attempting to reach the green in two.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/FlvkEKZjO9

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) September 4, 2020

Golfweek.com’s Adam Schupak reports on the Sanford International (September 11-13) becoming the first COVID-19 era event to welcome back the paying public.

Played at Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s Minnehaha Country Club the event is sponsored by the PGA Tour’s official COVID-19 testing partner and while typically well-attended, will be playing it extra things carefully knowing they are the first.

Schupak spoke to tournament director Hollis Cavner and writes:

All spectators are encouraged to take their own temperature before heading to the tournament. Upon arrival, FDA approved non-contact wrist thermometers will be utilized at each parking lot prior to spectators getting on a shuttle bus. Temperature checks will also take place at the main entrance for those that arrive without taking a shuttle. Anyone with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher will be turned away and asked to seek medical attention.

Fans will be given free masks, if needed, as well as gloves, if requested. The golf course has been roped so fans won’t be able to get as close to the players as usual. Stationary hand sanitizer units will be placed at entrances to public bleachers, hospitality structures, and the clubhouse. Portolets and restroom trailers will each be equipped with sanitizer pumps and handwashing stations as well. For the safety of the players and gallery members alike, autographs will be prohibited.

“We’re on 250 acres. Spacing people on 250 acres is like 12 people inside a Super Wal-Mart,” Cavner said. “We’re the guinea pig for bringing people back to golf with live crowds, so we’ve gone overboard to make sure we don’t have any issues.”

Not likely to be welcome at the tournament: retired company founder T. Denny Sanford, who is currently under investigation.

He's not in the Masters field, despite being sixth in FedEx Cup points and 13th in the world. His people reached out, and the folks at Augusta National didn't say yes to a special exemption -- but they didn't say no, either.

Dustin Johnson didn't have a great day, but it still led to an even-par 70 and a 1-shot lead over Sungjae Im after the second round of the Tour Championship on Saturday.

American golfer John Catlin takes a two-shot lead into Sunday's final round of the Andalucia Masters.