A big golf year is about to hit full swing

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A big golf year is about to ramp up

The current PGA Tour season technically started way back in September, but it truly gets going Thursday when the Players Championship (aka "the fifth major") tees off at TPC Sawgrass (the course with the iconic island green). Rory McIlroy, who won in 2019, is still the defending champion because last year's tournament was abandoned after one round when the pandemic hit.

Besides being one of the more fun events on tour, the Players opens an exciting stretch of men's golf that includes the Masters (April 8-11), the PGA Championship (May 20-23), the U.S. Open (June 17-20) and the British Open (July 15-18). And if we're calling the Players the fifth major, then we could say there's a sixth this year too — the Tokyo Olympic tournament July 29-Aug. 1.

After that comes the three-week FedEx Cup playoffs, which conclude on Labour Day weekend. Unfortunately, for the second straight year, there will be no Canadian Open. Organizers cancelled it yesterday due to the logistical nightmare that is cross-border travel during the pandemic.

Three players to watch this week at Sawgrass and throughout the season:

Dustin Johnson: The world's No. 1-ranked player has been on quite the tear since last year, when he won the Masters for the first time, came close at the other two majors (the British Open was cancelled), and won the FedEx Cup and the $15-million US bonus attached to it. He hasn't cracked the top seven in the three tournaments he's played since the start of the calendar year, but DJ is the betting favourite at the Players and will probably be favoured to win his second consecutive green jacket next months. No one has done that since Tiger Woods in 2001 and '02.

Bryson DeChambeau: Remember when they had to "Tiger-proof" courses because the young sensation was threatening to render them obsolete with his revolutionary power? Well, they might have to think about Bryson-proofing them now. Like Woods before him, the big-hitting 27-year-old American sometimes seems to be playing a different course than everyone else. That's largely a product of DeChambeau's frightening distance off the tee — he's averaging a Tour-best 323.5 yards this season. But what makes him so interesting is the brains (and guts) behind that brawn. The former physics major packed on dozens of pounds last year to give himself the power to hit the hyper-aggressive drives he reasoned were the best path to winning golf tournaments. At the same time, he was one of the best putters on tour during his breakthrough 2019-20 season. We got the full Beefy Bryson experience last week at Bay Hill when he used Long Drive Contest-grade swings to hammer drives of 370 and 377 yards over the lake on the par-5 sixth and also drained putts of 40 and 50 feet on Sunday to close out the win.

Corey Conners: His third-place finish at last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill pushed him to a Canadian-high 44th in the official men's world rankings. Data Golf's statistical model thinks even more highly of the 29-year-old from Listowel, Ont., ranking him 20th. Tee to green, Conners has been one of the better players on tour this season. When his putter heats up, he's a threat to win. At the moment, he's the front-runner to land one of the two spots Canada is likely to get in the Olympic men's tournament. The 60-player field will be determined by the world rankings on June 21 (right after the U.S. Open), with caps to ensure a wide array of countries are represented. Two other Canadian men are currently ranked in the top 100: Mackenzie Hughes (53rd) and Adam Hadwin (96th).

Canada's best hope for an Olympic golf medal will likely be Brooke Henderson. She missed the women's podium by just two strokes in 2016 and is now ranked sixth in the world. The LPGA season began in January, but only three tournaments have been played so far. The next one starts March 25, and the first major is the ANA Inspiration beginning April 1.

Quickly...

The NHL has a new American TV deal. This is the last season of NBC's 10-year contract for the exclusive U.S. rights to nationally televised games. Starting next season, multiple networks are expected to share him. The NHL confirmed today that a large portion will go to Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN. As part of the seven-year deal, NHL games will return to ESPN for the first time since before the 2004-05 lockout, and four Stanley Cup finals will be shown on ABC. The other three will presumably go to another company. NBC is reportedly among the bidders for the remaining rights, with CBS and Fox also reportedly interested. The NHL's Canadian national rights are controlled by Rogers through the 2025-26 season under the 12-year agreement struck in 2013. Read more about the NHL's new U.S. deal here.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are back on top. Last night's overtime win at Detroit, coupled with Toronto's third consecutive loss, pushed the defending Stanley Cup champs to first place in the overall standings. Tampa has won eight of its last nine games, and Andrei Vasilevskiy could be headed for his second Vezina Trophy in three years. He leads the league with 20 wins and, among No. 1 goalies, is second to Vegas' Marc-Andre Fleury in goals-against average (1.79) and save percentage (.936).

Wayne Middaugh is the best story of the Brier. He's won the tournament at three different positions — as the second for Russ Howard in 1993, as a skip in '98 and as the third for Glenn Howard in 2012. Middaugh's career looked like it might be over after he suffered a horrible leg injury while skiing in 2016, but another recreational mishap opened the door for him to return. After Glenn Howard broke several ribs in a recent snowmobile crash, he asked his old pal (emphasis on old — Middaugh is 53) to fill in for him at the Brier. Good call: Middaugh had skipped the rink to a 4-1 record heading into this afternoon's game vs. New Brunswick. Read about today's Brier results here and watch That Curling Show with Devin Heroux and Colleen Jones live at 7:30 p.m. ET on YouTube or the CBC Olympics Twitter and Facebook pages. Tonight's guest is the great Kevin Martin.

Tomorrow on CBC Sports

Freestyle skiing world championships: Watch the aerials team event live from 4-5:30 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca and the CBC Sports app.

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