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2020 GOLF UMBRELLA BUYER’S GUIDE

The elements are always a factor on the golf course. Fortunately, there’s an abundance of equipment to combat them. Golf umbrellas are designed for all sorts of weather including sun, wind and, of course, rain.

This year, we tested the usual suspects along with offerings from some of the bigger OEMs, some of which outsource their umbrella manufacturing to experts in the category. That’s neither surprising nor uncommon; it just makes sense. There are zero reasons why club guys should also be umbrella guys. The logo doesn’t matter, though we’re here to tell you that not every umbrella is the same.

With all the options, finding the right umbrella can be a bit overwhelming. That’s where we come in. We put the top golf umbrellas 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 an umbrella today, seeking 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 golf umbrella to fit your needs.

Oh, and that amazing putt helped Rahm claim the BMW Championship in a thrilling finish over Dustin Johnson, who also made a doozy to send the tournament into overtime.

But I digress. Why focus on the BMW when the real story is next week’s Thursday leaderboard? While we’re in the midst of this playoff let’s send it down to Steve Sands for more. Will JT be four back or two back next Friday? Could Rahm cut into his deficit next week with a win this week? Inquiring minds do not need to know.

Fourteen years into this FedExCup, we’re still subjected to the hard sell. I realize there is a gargantuan sum of money at stake. And a season-long sponsor demanding full value for their investment even at the expense of other sponsors trying to have their moment. Yet once again, a compelling final round on a penalizing parkland course was mostly overshadowed by the effort to push FedExCup narratives that no sane individual cares about in the best of times. During a pandemic, it’s nails-on-the-chalkboard stuff. Especially with a fascinating final round featuring a better-than-most variety of characters.

As NBC’s Paul Azinger noted on Saturday, the FedExCup is a “pretty prestigious” competition. That was an apparently slight he mopped up after an 904 area code undoubtedly popped-up on someone’s screen. This overall demand to focus on the perennially lame “playoff’ race was more of a shame than normal. The NBC team really never got to go deep on any topic or even do something mildly in-depth on the difficult setup conditions. There were just too many non-BMW obligations to juggle.

Even Mackenzie Hughes’s putt to get into the Tour Championship, while dramatic, felt like NBC’s team turning it into Ouimet beating Vardon and Ray. The hard sell brings down genuinely great moments.

Dustin Johnson made a 45-foot birdie on the 18th to force a playoff. Jon Rahm answered with a 66-footer on the opening hole of that playoff, winning the BMW Championship. Johnson, though, stays at No. 1 in the FedEx Cup going to the Tour Championship.

Winged Foot’s 243-yard third is in that sour spot no one likes unless they’re standing on Cypress Point.

With a classic Tillinghast bunkering scheme, the steeply pitched green should welcome today’s 4 and 5-irons unless tournament tees are moved up. A particularly goyish house behind the green also highlights OB lurking, though such a costly outcome seems unlikely on a hole of this length.

No. 3 at Winged Foot is a long, demanding par 3 where players will be happy to take par and move on.

1959 #USOpen champion Billy Casper famously laid up, and made par, in all 4 rounds, choosing not to take on the narrow, well-bunkered green.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/0TvqETe1S3

Austin Ernst shot a 63, rallying from four strokes back to edge out Anna Nordqvist to win the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

The full list of the 30 players in the season-ending Tour Championship. They are all chasing the $15 million prize that comes with winning the FedEx Cup.

Jon Rahm made a mistake and cost himself a shot on Saturday. Normally, his temper would have gotten the best of him. Not this time. He won the BMW Championship and showed a new side of himself.

Tiger Woods had four over-par rounds in the BMW and failed to qualify for the Tour Championship.

Danish teenager Rasmus Hojgaard rallied from a five-shot deficit Sunday with a 7-under 65 and won the U.K. Championship at The Belfry on the second playoff hole against Justin Walters of South Africa.

Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack, at one time believed to be the most arse-kissed executive in golf, deservedly lost his allure around 2014-15 after the whole PGA pro firing thing that set off a ridiculous blaming of revenue falls on golf’s “structural decline”, and then realizing it was nonsense and golfers might take business elsewhere, backtracked.

As retail sales decline, Stack also appears less powerful with the move to direct-to-consumer online commerce. That all said, even though his past actions and assessments suggest he’s all about the bottom line, his company and the people briefing him remain important observers of industry trends.

Thanks to reader Steve for Myles Udland’s Yahoo Finance story on golf’s positive numbers during the pandemic and this assessment from Stack on junior golf.

And a standout during the quarter is what the company saw in its golf segment. An area that Dick’s management expects will continue to be a point of strength for the company through the rest of the year.

“The golf business has been great both at Dick’s and [Golf] Galaxy,” said Dick’s CEO Ed Stack on the company’s earnings conference call on Wednesday.

The 484 yard second is highlighted an audacious green enlargement/restoration that took place under Hanse Design’s supervision.

The tee shot features a bend to the right and kind of odd looking outside-the-dogleg fairway bunker at 300 yards, in other words, only a minor annoyance to most in the 2020 Hale America 2/U.S. Open tournament.

Don’t hesitate to hit pause when the flyover reaches the green. Most will focus on the overhanging tree—certainly an odd hazard on a classic course. But spend more time looking at the putting surface shape. You can see a lot of intricate movements, no small feat in the era of USGA Green construction that has made contours and extreme shapes quite cumbersome to create.

Yet it’s those corners, bends and wings that add more interest and natural lines, all things you’d expect in a revered design. For more on Winged Foot’s effort to rebuild greens and retain contours, the USGA produced this video two years ago.

Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama both scratched out a 1-under 69 to share the lead Saturday at the BMW Championship.

Rory McIlroy could miss the Tour Championship in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, with his wife expecting their first child any day now.

South African golfer Justin Walters doubled his lead to two strokes with a 3-under 69 in the third round of the U.K. Championship on the European Tour on Saturday.

Tiger Woods shot 2-over 72 at the BMW Championship on Saturday -- just the third time in a non-major that he's opened with three straight rounds over par.

The countdown begins to Winged Foot and this year’s delayed U.S. Open and as is the tradition here, all 18 flyovers will be posted. While not as cool as this dreck for Executive Committee members to see youth outreach as envisioned by “adults”, we like to stick to the important stuff here.

This year’s tournament will be played September 17-20, meaning, with 18 holes it’s time to chip away at the memory banks since the West Course has not hosted since 2006’s Geoff Ogilvy win.

Much has changed, as Hanse Design oversaw restoration work of A.W. Tillinghast’s original. Out of the chute we get the drive-and-pitch first with its diabolical green. Squared corners and refreshed bunkers look superb.

At just 451 yards, a nice drive sets up a likely wedge for today’s decathletes. Maybe a Pelz nine on a cooler early fall morning.

Since 2003 I’d somehow forgotten what an absolute snoozer Olympia Fields can be on TV. As in, get out the hair dryer-to-deal-with-pillow-drool-dull, confirms the blogger coming off two amazing BMW Championship afternoon power naps.

That said, if par-protecting-fests-to-make-up-for-the-apparent-indignity-of-Jim-Furyk-winning-your-U.S.-Open, Olympia Fields is certainly a contrast from last week’s birdiefest. However, with a logjam of masterful venues in the queue, the USGA likely shrinking things down to a rota, several bigger name classics offering restored designs, Olympia Fields is not getting a U.S. Open anytime soon.

Dylan Dethier with some of the more extreme numbers for a regular Tour stop.

Billy Horschel says its fair, so in addition to deep naps, I’ll sleep so much better tonight.

The Chicago Tribune’s Teddy Greenstein is reveling in Olympia Fields playing like a U.S. Open course, reporting on the odd USGA shot taken by 36-hole co-leader Rory McIlroy.

Also, Alexander Hughes parred the first and last hole at South Lakes in greater Tulsa to post 55.

From Adam Woodward at Golfweek:

Hughes, a former player at Central Oklahoma, tied the Guinness Book of World Records’ lowest score in a single round of golf with a 55 on Thursday at South Lakes Golf Course in Jenks, Oklahoma.

After making par on the first hole, Hughes made a hole-in-one on the 155-yard par-3 second, followed by another par. Then he got hot, birdieing Nos. 4-8 with an eagle on No. 9 to make the turn at 9-under 26. His birdie streak ended on No. 10 with a par on 11, but the four-year letter winner at Central got to 10 under with a birdie on No. 12.

The card and last hole attempt at birdie.

BIG NEWS: Alexander Hughes ties world record for lowest round in golf history with a score of 55(-16) at South Lakes Golf Course in Jenks, Oklahoma.

The other 55(-16) was shot by Rhein Gibson at River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond, Oklahoma. pic.twitter.com/l5gYUr1KU2

A tough, even seemingly irrational call was made by LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan and the LPGA to remain firm on September 10-13th’s ANA Inspiration: the field set for earlier this year remains in place, despite Sophia Popov’s improbable Women’s Open win.

Some context from Julie Williams at Golfweek summing up the tough situation and membership “category” issues created by the pandemic rescheduling. From Whan:

“You don’t have to like that, you don’t have to agree with me on that,” Whan said. “But that way, from the very beginning we knew that a winner there was going to qualify for the 2021 ANA.”

As for limited membership, Whan points out it has happened before – and recently.

“I’ve been commissioner 11 years. I’ve seen plenty of non-member wins at majors,” Whan said. “And I’ve seen almost all of those non-members go onto long and storied careers on the LPGA.”

Tiger Woods has plenty of work to do this weekend at the BMW Championship, where he's tied for 55th after a 5-over 75 Friday and needs a major run over the next two days to qualify for next week's Tour Championship.