19th Hole
Vincenzi: DeChambeau will win his 2nd major championship (and 4 other predictions for 2024)

Last year, I wrote “5 Predictions for 2023.” Here’s how they turned out:
1.) Viktor Hovland will rise to world No. 1: This prediction didn’t quite come true. However, Hovland had the biggest improvement of any player in the world in terms of strokes gained.
The biggest Strokes Gained changes YoY.
Viktor Hovland jumped from 1.05/rd to 1.69/rd.
Obviously it’s all relative — Rory McIlroy was better than Hovland but was coming off a career year in 2022.
To the surprise of basically no one, both Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele… pic.twitter.com/Nw4UEg42ft
— Rick Gehman (@RickRunGood) December 18, 2023
His star rose exponentially, and he climbed to 4th in the OWGR from 10th at the start of 2023.
2.) The European Team will win the 2023 Ryder Cup: This prediction came true in dominating fashion. At the time of writing it, the European team were +200 to win the Ryder Cup.
3.) Dustin Johnson will win a major championship: This prediction was the worst of the five. Although DJ did finish 10th at the U.S. Open, he underachieved in the majors in their entirety during the 2023 season.
4.) The Masters will see a drastic uptick in TV ratings: This prediction passed with flying colors, as the 2023 Masters was the most-watched edition of the tournament in five years.
CBS Sports' Masters Marathon delivers 16.251 million combined total viewers on CBS for coverage of Sunday's Third and Final Rounds.
Details: https://t.co/pusqP8aDYm pic.twitter.com/HMs7WuFAKl— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) April 11, 2023
5.) Rory McIlroy will remain stuck at 4 major championships: Rory came close at the U.S. Open, finishing 2nd to Wyndham Clark, however, he remained stuck at four majors and will now officially go at least a full decade between major championship victories.
Now, on to the predictions for 2024.
1. Bryson DeChambeau will win a major championship
Contrary to what many believed heading into the 2023 season, LIV golfers performed admirably at the major championships. Brooks Koepka was in the final pairing with Jon Rahm at the Masters and finished in a tie for 2nd alongside fellow LIV player Phil Mickelson. LIV Golfers have also been on a recent hot streak, winning five of the past six DP World Tour events. Regardless of how people feel about the LIV Golf product, it’s been proven that the players remain motivated in majors and other events that feature players from other tours.
DeChambeau took some time to begin playing up to his standards, but once he got going, he finished the season strong. After finishing 4th at the PGA Championship (he was also the first-round leader), he went on to finish 2nd at LIV Valderrama and won both LIV Greenbrier and LIV Chicago.
After a few years of substandard play, it finally seems as if DeChambeau is once again becoming the player that won the U.S. Open in 2020 and was one of the best players in the world. I can see Valhalla (PGA Championship) and Pinehurst N0. 2 (U.S. Open) as excellent course fits for the 30-year-old.
2. Justin Thomas will win 3 times
After a dismal 2023, Justin Thomas has slipped all the way to 26th in the OWGR. The two-time major champion missed six cuts in twenty starts on the year and finished better than 10th just twice.
Peaks and valleys in the careers of top professional golfers have been a constant throughout the history of the sport, and Thomas is no exception. In terms of talent, JT is still one of the best players in the world, and I have no doubts that after an off-season of work, he will return in good form for 2024.
I expect Thomas to win three times in 2024 and return to the upper echelon of golfers on the PGA Tour.
3. The Presidents Cup will allow LIV golfers to participate
In 2022, LIV golfers were not allowed to play in the Presidents Cup. Unlike the Ryder Cup, the International players on the Presidents Cup team make up a large portion of the potential best players on the team. The LIV threat was new at the time, so it wasn’t a major surprise that the defectors were banned from the event. However, some players still were shocked by the decision, including South African Louis Oosthuizen.
“There’s no rule that says I need to be a PGA Tour member to play the Presidents Cup, especially as an International team player,” Oosthuizen said after he was banned at the press conference for LIV Golf Chicago. “I didn’t think I did anything wrong. I made my decision where I am playing golf. But I didn’t do anything wrong while I was a PGA Tour member.”
In addition to Oosthuizen, Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Marc Leishman, Abraham Ancer were also banned from the event. The result was predictable. Despite a valiant effort from Trevor Immelman’s International side, the United States won convincingly, 17.5-12.5.
Since 2022, the golf landscape has changed significantly. Jon Rahm has signed with LIV and that means there will likely be a change in the qualifying system for Ryder Cup. Rory McIlroy, who’s been one of the most outspoken anti-LIV voices, has called for a change to allow for Rahm to play at Bethpage Black in 2025. I expect his wishes to be accommodated and for the Presidents Cup to tweak the language allowing LIV players to participate in 2024.
4. Michael Thorbjornsen will emerge as a star
Towards the end of the 2022-2023 season, the golf world became mesmerized by the emergence of the young Swede, Ludvig Aberg. In a time where the emergence of a star was greatly needed, the now 24-year-old won the Omega European Masters and followed the victory up with a sensational debut in the European Ryder Cup victory.
Towards the back half of the season, I expect Michael Thorbjornsen to flash a similar trajectory. The Stanford senior is currently No. 1 in PGA Tour University’s first ranking for 2024 and should earn a PGA Tour card if he continues to play well until through the NCAA Championship. Once he begins to earn consistent starts on Tour, he has the game to make an immediate impact.
Thorbjornsen has the look, swing, and pedigree to win immediately at the highest level, and I believe he will do so in 2024.
5. Tommy Fleetwood will earn his first PGA Tour victory
Last season, Tommy Fleetwood came torturously close to victory on multiple occasions. The Englishman lost the RBC Canadian Open to Nick Taylor with a nearly 70-foot bomb on the 4th playoff hole and he had five total finishes of T5 or better in 2023.
It’s been a long time coming for Fleetwood, who has six DP World Tour victories, but always seems to come up short on the PGA Tour. In 2024, a handful of the world’s top 15 players will be playing on LIV, including their newest signing, Jon Rahm. The lack of depth on the PGA Tour in conjunction with Tommy’s continuous improvement on the PGA Tour should result in the fan-favorite finally notching a win on United States soil.
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
Jbone
Jan 3, 2024 at 7:20 am
Think about how much media props up Max Homas top 10 at this years British Open. Now he’s primed to win a major lol. Compared that to Brysons top 10 at the British Open last year… they ignored it and acted like he was finished as a pro golfer and that it wasn’t a good sign of him coming back into form.
Popye
Jan 3, 2024 at 3:00 am
Bryson TheShambo ain’t winnin’ no majors on ANY platform!
Jbone
Jan 3, 2024 at 7:10 am
Well he already did
Andrew J
Jan 1, 2024 at 10:12 am
Bryson wins another Major only if engages a P&SI-EGOS and becomes the best putter on Tour. on ebay
Geno
Dec 30, 2023 at 12:50 pm
Damn, James. Why don’t you tell us how you really feel…..sheesh
james
Dec 29, 2023 at 9:27 pm
Who really cares what your predictions are….You have never been much besides a wind bag who really doesn’t know anything more than your readers.
Jbone
Jan 3, 2024 at 7:13 am
Here you are commenting… if he picked Rory to win the masters you’d probably drop your pants and be typing one handed.