This season has produced plenty of intriguing stories, hot takes and debatable topics of conversation in golf.
At the start of the year, it was all about the Big Three. Then it was Jordan Spieth's collapse and Danny Willett's coming out party at the Masters. After that, we had Jason Day winning the Players, his third win of the year, and we wondered if he could run away and hide at No. 1 in the world. Then Dustin Johnson buried his major demons by winning the U.S. Open and ripped off a ridiculous run of golf (that's still happening). And two weeks ago, Henrik Stenson likewise put an end to his major championship woes with a record-breaking performance at The Open Championship.
There's been little time to breathe in the golf world with the condensed schedule, much less take stock of the season as a whole, so I asked five members of CBS Sports' golf broadcast team -- Jim Nantz, Dottie Pepper, Ian Baker-Finch, Gary McCord and Nick Faldo -- what they felt was the biggest story or theme that they were interested in seeing play out at Baltusrol Golf Club.
Jim Nantz: "We're going to react to what's happening, but I'm just anxious to see how the three guys from last couple years [Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day], who set the world on fire, haven't done anything in a major since Jordan made 7 at 12. I want to see how those guys perform here."
Dottie Pepper: "There's been no domination; I think that's been the best story. It's not a year like Spieth had last year. There's not a Tiger year. We've had the last four major champions be first-time major champions. I think there's that sense of, we don't know ... or we don't have any targeted expectations. I think you've got a lot of guys playing well. You've got a Dustin Johnson. You've got all these stories like last week [with Jhonattan Vegas at the Canadian Open], where you go, 'Where'd that come from?' And I think you could see that again this week. The setup is very much like you see week in and week out, so the chances for that 'where did that come from' are there."
Ian Baker-Finch: "I think there's more than one theme and really there are a lot of storylines, but I guess all new winners of the past four majors would really be it. I think the depth of the top 10 of the world is really a big theme. Last four majors won by first timers. Certainly all four of them very capable of winning more. Danny Willett is a young star on the rise. Dustin Johnson finally got his first one; he's definitely going to win more the way he plays. Henrik Stenson at 40 getting his first one, now he believes in himself and might go on and get another one now that guys are bigger and stronger in their 40s. And Jason Day, of course, here defending, No. 1 in the world for 22 weeks. You've got a golf course here, as any major championship course should, that suits the best players, the best ball-strikers. This is really a man's sized golf course."
Gary McCord: "The whole thing is the compression of the Tour at this particular part of the year. Major, Canadian Open -- for them, major, right? -- and then another major and then the Olympics and then on and on, so put your hard hat on and go. So that's the whole theme. And how these guys manage themselves. How do you go manage yourself to compete at this high level for a long period of time. They're really not used to that. They're used to, OK, first of the year I'm going to play these three, take a week off. Then I'm going to go up in the Hamptons and hang there and do the whole thing. So now what do I do and keep my game at that level. That's the whole thing right now. We're going to find out who is playing well and what they're doing to keep it up if they can keep it up."
Nick Faldo: "You come to the end of the year and all the guys who haven't won a major and believed or visualized or whatever that they could win a major this year [still] haven't done it. So that's exciting because it's the last shot of the year to put all their learning from the last three majors and the summer into one go at one more major. You know the obvious names; you've got the big guys at the top that want to prove to everybody that, yup, we're not just the Fab Four or Big Three who went quiet. And everyone's trying to fine tune it and jostle it into position to make it happen. So, it should be on paper really good. I think the golf course is setting up that way, and we have more than a dozen really good players who have a shot this week."
