In each of his first three years on the PGA Tour, Cameron Champ ranked first, second and third in driving distance, averaging 317.9 yards, 322 yards and 317.1 yards respectively. It’s not just that the 6ft Texan blows it past most players in the game, but rather how he manages to do so. There’s not the explosive twitchiness and brawn of Bryson DeChambeau, he isn’t built like the sinewy and freakishly athletic Dustin Johnson and he doesn’t have the tightly wound torque and uncoiling of Rory McIlroy. Rather, at first glance he looks simply, well, normal, with a stance that’s slightly narrow and a smoothness that belies the prodigious power he produces.
Champ also isn’t just a one-trick sideshow. The 26-year-old already has three career victories, the first of which came at the 2018 Sanderson Farms Championship in what was just his ninth career start on tour. Wins followed in 2019 and this year at the 3M Open in Minnesota, where he fended off dehydration and dizziness on his way to five birdies and a bogey-free 66 in the final round.
Even rarer, though, Champ – whose father is black and whose late grandfather grew up in the segregated Jim Crow South and later taught his grandson the game at a golf course in Texas – has become a provocateur for change, calling attention to continued racial and social imbalances within golf and beyond in the USA. He recently sat down with GM to talk about that, his burgeoning career and much more...
What players did you look up to when you were a child?
Bu hikaye Golf Monthly dergisinin November 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Golf Monthly dergisinin November 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Is it Time for the Presidents Cup to Be Scrapped? - The next instalment of the USA v Internationals match takes place in Canada at the end of September. But should the one-sided affair continue?
The next instalment of the USA v Internationals match takes place in Canada at the end of September. But should the one-sided affair continue? Why would anyone even suggest such a drastic course of action? It may sound harsh, but since the inaugural event in 1994, the International team has managed just one victory and one tie while the American team has won 12 times, including nine straight from 2005. It is 26 years since the International team's solitary success in 1998 at Royal Melbourne under the captaincy of the late Peter Thomson.
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