SPIETH RISES TO TOP
At 22, Jordan Spieth became golf’s first $22 Million Man, winning a PGA Tour-record $12 million-plus in prize money and a $10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup. He won five times, including the Tour Championship, to become the youngest FedEx Cup champion and youngest five-time winner since Horton Smith in 1929. But it was in the major championships that he made his biggest mark, winning the Masters and U.S. Open and openly talking about his chances of becoming the first player to win the Grand Slam in a single season. He came close, too, finishing one shot out of a playoff at the British Open and second at the PGA Championship, joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to finish in the top four in all four majors in a season. At the Masters, he became the first player to reach 19-under par, and his U.S. Open victory featured more drama, as he squandered a three-shot lead with three holes to play but prevailed when Dustin Johnson, standing over a 12-foot eagle putt to win his first major, 3-putted to lose by one. Not surprisingly, Spieth was PGA Tour Player of the Year and rose to No. 1 in the world rankings.
DAY EMERGES AS STAR
Long considered a rising star, Jason Day took his game to the next level in 2015 with five victories, $9.4 million in earnings and, for a time, the No. 1 ranking. His career year began with a victory at Torrey Pines, but he periodically battled vertigo, most notably at the U.S. Open where he collapsed because of dizziness on the last hole of the second round before finishing the hole. Though leading after three rounds he faded to a ninth-place finish. There was more disappointment at the British Open, where he again had the 54-hole lead but left a birdie putt short on the 72nd hole and finished one shot out of a playoff. Those performances, however, became footnotes when Day won the Canadian Open and three more times in the next five tournaments – at the PGA Championship, The Barclays and BMW Championship. His most impressive victory came at the PGA when he finished at 20-under par, the lowest 72-hole total ever in a major. Day also had a chance to challenge Jordan Spieth for the FedEx Cup title until finishing 10th at the Tour Championship.
TIGER’S AILING BACK
How low can Tiger Woods go? Not on the leaderboard, but in the rankings. On Nov. 1, Woods was No. 362, right behind a 20-year-old from Thailand named Jazz Janewattananond. Seriously. That ranking came a few days after Woods announced he had undergone another medical procedure on his back – his second in as many months and third in 18 months. Remember when the only numbers that mattered were how many PGA Tour events (79) and majors (14) he had won? Now we count the surgeries, comebacks, missed cuts and new swing coaches, because he hasn’t won a tour event since late 2013. He missed four months in 2014 after his first back surgery and apparently came back too soon. This year, he came back at the Masters and tied for 17th, then missed the cut in the final three majors for the first time. There was optimism when he had a share of the lead going into the weekend at the Wyndham Championship, but he finished tied for 10th and missed the FedEx Cup playoffs for the second straight year. Then came more pain and another microdiscectomy in September. When will he return in 2016? No one knows.
FOWLER EARNS RESPECT
Before the Players Championship in May, a Sports Illustrated survey of anonymous tour pros branded Rickie Fowler as the Most Overrated Player in Golf. That was curious, considering that a year earlier Fowler had become the third player in history to finish in the top five in all four majors, joining a couple guys named Nicklaus and Woods. Even if he didn’t need to silence his critics, Fowler did it anyway in 2015, winning three times – at the Players, Scottish Open and Deutsche Bank Championship – to move up to No. 5 in the world rankings. Fowler, 26, won the Players in spectacular fashion, making up a five-stroke deficit to Sergio Garcia by finishing birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie to force a playoff, then stuck a gap wedge inside 5 feet on the island-green 17th at TPC Sawgrass for a clinching birdie on the fourth extra hole. He also birdied three of the last four holes to beat Matt Kuchar by a shot in the Scottish Open. And after winning the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, he was third in the FedEx Cup standings entering the Tour Championship. Overrated? Hardly. People talk about the new “Big 3” of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy. Maybe it’s time to make it the “Big 4” and include Fowler.
TRACKING THE JOHNSONS
Dustin Johnson held or shared the first-round lead at three of the four majors this season – the U.S. Open British Open and PGA Championship. He also led after two rounds at the British and was tied for the lead going into the final round at the PGA. But he wasn’t the Johnson who won a major this year. That was Zach Johnson, who stayed under the radar at St. Andrews until firing a 6-under 66 in the final round of the British Open to overcome a three-shot deficit and force his way into a playoff, where he outdueled Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman to nail down his second major championship. Meanwhile, Dustin Johnson, the 36-hole leader at St. Andrews, shot 75-75 on the weekend and finished 49th. At the U.S. Open, Dustin missed a 12-foot eagle putt on the 72nd hole that would have won his first major, then missed a 4-foot birdie putt that would have forced a playoff the next day. After his opening-round 66 at the PGA Championship, Dustin shot 73 in the second round and finished seventh. Until he wins one he’ll be stuck with the label of best player without a major championship.
PRESIDENTS’ DRAMA
There had been speculation that the Presidents Cup was headed toward extinction because the International team had won the biennial competition against the U.S. only once in the first 11 matches, but the thrilling finish at this year’s matches in South Korea might have breathed life back into the event. The U.S. continued its winning streak by holding off the Internationals, 15½-14½, but the score doesn’t begin to tell the story of the drama and emotion that filled the final hours of the three-day event. A rally by the Internationals during Sunday’s singles matches gave the home team hope and then, as if scripted by Hollywood, the Cup came down to the final singles match between American Bill Haas and Korean star Sangmoon Bae. Bill is the son of U.S. captain Jay Haas, who had chosen Bill as one of his much-debated captain’s picks, and Bae was the home-country favorite who had electrified the galleries all week. In the end, it was Haas who made his father proud by holding off Bae, who flubbed his third-shot chip, bent over in anguish and soon thereafter conceded the hole and match to Haas, who got a celebratory hug from Dad.
LANGER WINS AGAIN
The closest Schwab Cup points chase in the history of the Champions Tour came down to a three-man race between Colin Montgomerie, Jeff Maggert and Bernhard Langer heading into the season-ending Schwab Cup Championship in Scottsdale. And it was Langer, 58, who was the last man standing – again – as he captured the Cup title and $1 million bonus despite losing the final tournament in a playoff to Billy Andrade. It was the second straight Cup title and record third for Langer, who also won the tour money title for the seventh time in eight years as well as the tour scoring title for the fourth time. It was the closest finish in Schwab Cup history because Maggert won four Champions Tour events, including two majors, and Montgomerie won the Senior PGA Championship amid a torrid stretch in which he finished first, second or third in six consecutive starts. … In the regular season-ending Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club, UCLA alumnus Duffy Waldorf won his first Champions Tour title in 73 events, setting a tournament record at 20 under. Also this year, Paul Goydos of Coto de Caza won his second tour title and finished 16th in the points race, while former Irvine resident Esteban Toledo won his third tour event and finished eighth in points.
KO RULES LPGA
Lydia Ko could turn out to be the most dominant professional golfer of all time. Yes, that includes Tiger Woods. Of course, there’s a long way to go before she could lay claim to that distinction, but consider a few comparisons. At 18 years, 6 months, Ko became the youngest player to win 10 tournaments on any major tour when she captured the LPGA Taiwan Championship in late October. Woods (currently stuck on 79 PGA Tour wins) didn’t win his 10th until he was 23. Nancy Lopez, who held the LPGA record that Ko broke, won her 10th at 22 years, 6 months. The Taiwan Championship was Ko’s fifth LPGA victory of the season and vaulted her past Inbee Park to the top of the women’s world rankings. It also gave her a commanding lead in the season-long Race to the CME Globe standings going into the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., in late November. All told, Ko has eight tour wins in her first two years as a pro, to go along with two LPGA wins as an amateur and four other worldwide victories. That’s dominance. At 18.
BY THE NUMBERS
At 51 years, 4 months, Davis Love III won Wyndham Championship to become the third-oldest winner in PGA Tour history behind Art Wall (1975 Greater Milwaukee Open: 51 years, 7 months) and Sam Snead (1965 Wyndham Championship: 52 years, 10 months). … Late in the season, the No. 1 world ranking changed hands four times in four weeks – from Rory McIlroy to Jordan Spieth to McIlroy to Jason Day. The last time that happened was the summer of 1997, when Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Greg Norman and Woods had the No. 1 ranking in consecutive weeks. … Spieth was the first player in PGA Tour history to top $12 million in earnings, but it was also the first season in history that six players topped $5 million. Day, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose also did it. … Spieth and Day became the fifth and sixth players since 1980 to win five or more PGA Tour events in a season. The others were Tom Watson (1980), Nick Price (1994), Vijay Singh (2004) and Woods, who has done it 10 times. … There were 42 aces on the PGA Tour and 11 first-time winners this season. … Woods shot 85 in the second round of the Memorial and capped his career-worst round with a quadruple-bogey 8 on No. 18.
