Golf highlights in 2016 included a combination of highs, lows, surprises and inspirational moments. Let’s take a look:
A LIFE WELL-PLAYED
Arnold Palmer, arguably the most popular and charismatic golfer in history and its greatest ambassador, died on Sept. 25 at a Pittsburgh hospital, where he was preparing to undergo heart surgery. He was 87. “He was the king of our sport and always will be,” said Jack Nicklaus, Palmer’s longtime friend and professional rival. Three days after Arnie’s memorial service in his hometown of Latrobe, Pa., there was a moment of silence and play was suspended for one minute during the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club, the first PGA Tour Champions event after his death. Fellow Wake Forest alumnus Jay Haas, a longtime Palmer friend who attended the service, said the tribute in Pennsylvania inspired him to win the Toshiba Classic. Palmer won 92 tournament titles during his career, including 62 PGA Tour events and seven major championships. In the 1960s, it was Palmer and his magnetic personality who helped turn the gentleman’s game into a major TV and participatory sport. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1974.
RORY SAVES BEST FOR LAST
It was a frustrating summer for Rory McIlroy on the PGA Tour, especially with a putter in his hands. But in golf, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that matters most. And McIlroy finished with a flourish, winning two of his final three events, both during the FedEx Cup playoffs, to earn the biggest payday in his career: $11.53 million. Winless until the final month, McIlroy came out of nowhere to win his first FedEx Cup trophy. He began the four-event playoffs ranked 36th on the points list but roared into contention by winning the Deutsch Bank Championship. Then Dustin Johnson became the FedEx frontrunner by winning the BMW Championship, meaning McIlroy would need to win the Tour Championship and get help. It happened. Trailing by three shots with three holes to play, he holed out for eagle on the 16th hole and birdied the 18th to get into a three-man playoff with former UCLA star Kevin Chappell and Ryan Moore. Then Rory won it all with a birdie on the fourth playoff hole – a title worth $1.53 million, plus a $10 million bonus for the FedEx Cup – as Johnson faded to sixth. If Chappell or Moore had won the final event, DJ would have won the FedEx Cup. But it was McIlroy who celebrated.
GOLDEN MOMENT FOR GOLF
The headlines were not positive leading up to golf’s return to the Olympics after a 112-year hiatus. There was more talk about the Zika virus threat and the big names who decided not to play – Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott among them – than on the men and women who were excited to be competing in Rio de Janeiro. Fortunately, all of that was forgotten when England’s Justin Rose held off Sweden’s Henrik Stenson in a riveting final-round duel for the gold and silver medals, with American Matt Kuchar grabbing the bronze on the strength of a final-round 63. And there were nothing but proud smiles on the medal podium, as was the case in the women’s competition the next week, when seven-time major champion Inbee Park of South Korea ran away from the field for the gold, with world No. 1 Lydio Ko of New Zealand taking the silver and Shanshan Feng of China earning bronze. The galleries were huge and enthusiastic, which should be a factor when the International Olympic Committee decides if golf remains an Olympic sport after the 2020 Games in Tokyo. If Los Angeles gets the 2024 Summer Games, look for Riviera Country Club to be the host venue.
DJ SPINS A HAPPY TUNE
Dustin Johnson is no longer “The Best Player Never to Win a Major.” After too many close calls to document, including a heart-breaking 3-putt from 12 feet on the 72nd hole to lose last year’s U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, Johnson won the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont in spectacular, and typically controversial, fashion. Unlike another heartbreaking defeat at the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, where he was assessed a two-shot penalty for a dubious rule violation, Johnson overcame another questionable ruling to post a three-shot victory over Jim Furyk, Scott Piercy and Shane Lowry. This time a USGA official informed DJ on the 12th tee of the final round that he might be assessed a one-stroke penalty for his ball moving on the fifth green, though he insisted he hadn’t touched the ball or grounded his club. Fortunately, Johnson circumvented another controversy by making a spectacular birdie on the 72nd hole and happily accepted the moot penalty before hoisting the trophy. “Luckily, it didn’t affect the outcome,” DJ said afterward, laughing. “It’s just one more thing to add to the list, right? I’ve been so close so many times, it’s just an unbelievable feeling.”
CHUNK IN THE ARMOR
Turns out, Jordan Spieth is human. But what happened to him on the back nine at Augusta National, as he tried to repeat as Masters champion, was nothing short of shocking. A year after winning the Masters in record-breaking fashion at age 22, on the way to winning the FedEx Cup and $22 million in prize money and bonuses, Spieth seemed to be rolling to another Masters triumph. Four consecutive birdies to close the front nine Sunday increased his lead to five shots over the field. Then the unfathomable happened: he still had the lead after bogeys at Nos. 10 and 11, but not for long, as his 9-iron on the 150-yard, par-3 12th hole hit the bank short of the green and bounced into the water. He still could get up and down from the drop area for bogey, but instead hit his sand wedge fat from 80 yards out. Splash again. Then he found sand in a back bunker. A triple-bogey 7 turned his commanding lead into a three-shot deficit. Englishman Danny Willett was the instantaneous beneficiary, and he went on to win the green jacket by carding a 5-under 67 to beat Spieth (back-nine 41) and Lee Westwood by three shots. “It’s just crazy,” Willett said. “It’s surreal.”
DUEL PERSONALITIES
At 46 – the same age that Jack Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters – Phil Mickelson arrived in Scotland for the British Open and played four rounds of superlative golf at Royal Troon, capped by a bogey-free 65 on Sunday, to finish at 17-under par. By the way, he lost by three strokes – to Henrik Stenson, the stoic Swede who tied a major championship record by shooting an 8-under 63 to finish a record 20 under and win his first major at age 40. Call it “Duel in the Sun II,” only better than the epic Jack Nicklaus-Tom Watson showdown at Turnberry in 1977. Mickelson birdied the first hole to take a one-shot lead, but Stenson birdied Nos. 2, 3 and 4 before Phil eagled No. 4 to keep pace. It was that kind of day as the final twosome distanced themselves from the field. It was punch and counterpunch for 14 holes, as both players were never more than a shot apart, until Mickelson ran out of answers. Stenson made 10 birdies, five on each side. It was championship golf at its best. Stenson: 68-65-68-63–264. Mickelson: 63-69-70-65–267. “We both played some great golf,” Stenson said. “It makes it more special to beat a competitor like Phil.” It was a duel for the ages (and aged).
USA! USA!
The drought finally ended for the U.S. Ryder Cup team at Hazeltine National in late September. Until then, Team USA had defeated the Europeans only once this century. OK, that’s hyperbole, but the truth is the Americans had lost three Ryder Cups in a row and 8 of 10 when Davis Love III’s team steamrolled Darren Clarke’s Euros, 17-11. It was the first U.S. win since 2008 at Valhalla and the second since the Miracle at Brookline in 1999. And, yes, it’s a cliché, but it was a total team effort, with all 12 players earning at least a point for the first time since 1975, when Arnold Palmer was captain. This was also the first time since ’75 that the U.S. got off to a 4-0 start, in Friday foursomes, with Palmer’s golf bag standing on the first tee as inspiration a few days after his death. Patrick Reed (3-1-1) was the emotional leader on the course, his 1-up win over Rory McIlroy igniting 7½-4½ romp in Sunday singles, with Brandt Snedeker (3-0) and Brooks Koepka (3-1) also notching three wins. Other big singles wins came from captain’s picks Rickie Fowler (1 up over Justin Rose) and Ryan Moore (1 up over Lee Westwood). Next goal is winning the 2018 Cup in France to end a drought overseas dating to 1993.
NOT OUT OF THE WOODS
In 2016, for the first time in his record-breaking career, Tiger Woods did not play in a PGA Tour event. He announced Nov. 1 on his website that he intends to play in his annual charity event, the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, the first weekend of December, but who knows? After all, Tiger committed to play in the Safeway Open in Napa in mid-October, but two days later – after tournament officials announced he was being paired with Phil Mickelson – he withdrew and said he wasn’t ready for tournament competition. This is what we do know: Tiger turns 41 this month, is still rehabilitating from a microdiscectomy in September 2015, his third back surgery in an 18-month period. He hasn’t won since the Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013 – the most recent of his 79 PGA Tour victories – and hasn’t competed in a tour event since finishing 10th at the Wyndham Championship in August 2015. His golf highlights in 2016: attending the champions dinner at the Masters and serving as a vice captain for Davis Love III during Team USA’s streak-snapping Ryder Cup victory. And, on Nov. 1, Tiger’s official world golf ranking had plummeted to No. 831, a career worst.
LANGER’S SENIOR MOMENTUM
Bernhard Langer turned 59 this year, but you couldn’t guess that looking at the PGA Tour Champions leaderboards every week. He was so dominant on the tour for 50-and-over pros that he already locked up the money title (his eighth in the past nine years) and likely his third consecutive player-of-the-year honor before the inaugural Charles Schwab Cup playoffs began at Sherwood Country Club in late October. A virtual German ATM machine, Langer racked up $2.7 million in earnings during the Champions regular season, nearly $1.2 million more than second-place Miguel Angel Jimenez. That’s because he won four tournaments, including two majors, and posted 16 top-10 finishes in 19 events. No wonder fellow pro Duffy Waldorf calls him “the Tiger Woods of the Champions tour.” The only thing that kept Langer from clinching his third consecutive Schwab Cup trophy (and fourth overall) was the points reset going into the season-ending Schwab Cup Championship in Scottsdale in November, enabling any of the top five players on the points list to clinch the Cup with a win.
