As the curtain is about to close on another year, we give you a reminder of some of the talking points from the world of golf.
JANUARY
It started with an eagle. It ended with one. Justin Thomas shot an 11-under 59 in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. His 59 was the seventh in PGA Tour history and the first with multiple eagles. The 23-year-old is also the youngest to break 60. A week later Canada’s Adam Hadwin carded a 13-under 59 in the third round of the CareerBuilder Challenge.
Also: Graeme Storm won the SA Open, Tommy Fleetwood won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Jeunghun Wang claimed the Qatar Masters and Thomas won the Tournament of Champions and Sony Open on the PGA Tour.
FEBRUARY
Ernie Els played a round with US President Donald Trump and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, at Mar-a-Lago Club. The four-time Major champion said he took some ribbing from his buddies who don’t like Trump.
‘A lot of my own friends were not for him,’ Els said. ‘They kind of needled me a little bit, saying I was a suck-up. I just said, “Go eff yourself. I’ve played with the president and you haven’t.” You can’t please everybody. It was one of the most special groups of people I’ve been around. I’ve played with the queen of Malaysia and other presidents, but this is the most powerful guy in the world and to see him with his full security detail is impressive.’
Dustin Johnson became the world No 1 for the first time after winning the Genesis Open. The US Open champion took the lead in the second round and never relinquished it, winning by five shots. Johnson needed to win, and hope Jason Day finished lower than a three-way tie for third, to top the rankings – and the outgoing No 1 could only manage a tie for 64th.
Also: Sergio Garcia won the Dubai Desert Classic and Darren Fichardt the Joburg Open, while Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Johnson and Rickie Fowler all won on the PGA Tour.
MARCH
Australian Marc Leishman sank a monster eagle putt at the par-five 16th and stormed to a one-shot victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida, in the first staging of the tournament since the legend passed away in 2016.
Also: Johnson won two WGC titles – in Mexico and the Dell Technologies Match Play, while Dean Burmester cleaned up at the Tshwane Open.
APRIL
World No 1 Johnson withdrew from The Masters just before his group was about to tee off. He was forced to withdraw after he suffered a back injury when he fell on the staircase at his rental home. ‘I can’t swing full,’ he said. ‘I can’t make my normal swing and I didn’t think there was any chance I could compete.’
Lexi Thompson was cruising to her second Major, at the ANA Inspiration, when she was told at the end of the 12th hole of the final round that she had been handed a four-stroke penalty. A TV viewer had noticed an infraction and sent an email to the LPGA. Thompson hadn’t replaced her ball in the same spot she picked it up from, which resulted in a two-shot penalty and another two shots for signing an incorrect scorecard. Her two-stroke lead became a two-stroke deficit. Despite the setback, Thompson forced a playoff with So Yeon Ryu, which she lost.
Also: Garcia won his first Masters at Augusta in his 74th Major appearance.
MAY
Tiger Woods was charged with driving under the influence by police in Florida. The 14-time Major champion was booked into the Palm Beach County jail after he was arrested during a traffic stop at 3am, near his home in Jupiter, Florida. He was released at 10:50am, with a mugshot posted online showing the golfer looking bleary-eyed and unshaven. Woods had the active ingredient for marijuana, two painkillers and two sleep drugs in his system when he was arrested, according to a subsequent police report.
Also: Denmark won the inaugural Golf Sixes, while another Scandinavian, Alex Noren, won the BMW PGA Championship and Si Woo Kim prevailed at the ‘fifth Major’, The Players Championship.
JUNE
Phil Mickelson, the five-time Major winner and three-time Masters champion, split with caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay after they had been together for 25 years and 41 professional triumphs. The 47-year-old left-hander and the bagman he met at 1992 US Open sectional qualifying in Memphis parted ways as friends, each releasing a statement saying as much. ‘After 25 rewarding and memorable years, Bones and I have mutually decided to end our player-caddie relationship,’ Mickelson said. ‘Our decision is not based on a single incident. We just feel it’s the right time for a change.’
Also: Frittelli won his first European Tour event, the Lyoness Open, while Brooks Koepka became a Major champion for the first time at the US Open and Spieth won the Travelers Championship.
JULY
Branden Grace became the first man to shoot a round of 62 at a Major, in the third round of The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, but he was unaware of the landmark. There had been 31 rounds of 63 in the previous 441 Majors, but never a 62. Grace insisted he had no idea of what he was about to achieve as he was heading down the 18th.
‘I honestly didn’t. You know, I was just so in the zone of playing, hole after hole,’ he said. ‘I knew I was obviously playing really well, and making the turn in five under was pretty special. I thought if I could make a couple more on the back nine, it would be a great score. I had no idea 62 was the lowest ever.’
Also: The Open Championship was won by Spieth after a dramatic final round, while there were also wins for Fleetwood, Jon Rahm and Rafa Cabrera Bello.
AUGUST
Els and Mickelson made their 100th appearance at a Major, at The PGA Championship. Els won his first Major in 1994 at the US Open at Oakmont. Mickelson didn’t win his first Major until he was 34, at The Masters, and it came at the expense of Els when he holed an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole. Els, who was on the putting green hoping for a playoff, heard the ground-shaking roar, picked up his golf balls and walked off. They became the 13th and 14th players to reach 100 Majors.
Louis Oosthuizen completed a career ‘Grand Slam’ of runner-up finishes when he tied for second at The PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. The 2010 Open champion shot a one-under-par 70 to finish six under, 278, two shots behind American Thomas. Oosthuizen, who also finished second at the unofficial ‘fifth Major’, The Players Championship, joined Greg Norman as a runner-up at all four Majors.
Shortly after The PGA Championship, Oosthuizen boarded his plane and posted a video to Twitter of him miming to the song ‘Rise Up’ by Andrea Day.
Also: Thomas picked up his first Major at The PGA Championship, while Haydn Porteous won his first European Tour event, the Czech Masters, and on the PGA Tour Dustin Johnson won The Northern Trust.
SEPTEMBER
PXG founder Bob Parsons took one of his rival equipment manufacturers to court. Parsons sent a tweet to nearly 44 000 followers indicating that he had filed a suit in federal court over a potential patent infringement relating to the new P790 irons from TaylorMade. TaylorMade released the P790 line with a price tag of $1 299 per set.
When Adam Rolston sank an eight-foot putt on the Mt Bogd Golf Club in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, he brought to a close a 2 011km journey. along with caddie Ron Rutland, by setting out on the opposite side of Mongolia in the hope of playing the world’s longest golf hole; 20 093 shots later, their dream had been realised. But terrible weather, testing terrain, stolen belongings and ill-timed injuries meant the adventure hardly ran smoothly.
‘We estimated before the par was going to be 14 000 shots and I think we were extremely naive with that,’ said Rolston. ‘We ended up playing 20 093 shots – 6 093 over par.’
Rory McIlroy admitted he could not wait for the season to finish after he missed the cut at the Dell Technologies Championship in Boston. The world No 4 has not won a tournament in 2017 and has posted one PGA Tour victory in almost two and a half years. For most of 2017 McIlroy was suffering from a lower-back injury.
Also: England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick won the European Masters and Xander Schauffele the Tour Championship, but Thomas won the $10-million FedExCup jackpot and Team USA proved too strong for the International team at
The Presidents Cup.
OCTOBER
Justin Rose staged the biggest comeback of the season to win the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai after a record collapse by world No Johnson. The American took a six-shot lead into the final round – and was eight shots clear of Rose. But while Johnson slumped to a 77, Rose came home in 31 stunning shots for a 67 and a two-shot victory.
Johnson joined Garcia and Norman with the record for the largest blown lead in surrendering a PGA Tour event. Garcia lost at Quail Hollow in 2005, with Norman’s famous meltdown coming at the 1996 Masters.
It was Rose’s first win since his Olympic triumph in Rio de Janeiro. He made it back-to-back victories by also winning the Turkish Airlines Open.
Also: Tyrrell Hatton won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Italian Open. Garcia celebrated his first win since The Masters when he lifted the trophy at the Andalusia Valderrama Masters, hosted by his own foundation.
NOVEMBER
Grace wins the Nedbank Golf Challenge edging Scott Jamieson in the final round to end a 10-year wait for a local winner. A week later Burmester and Frittelli run close but Rahm won the DP World Tour Championship and Fleetwood won the Race to Dubai.
Also: Jacques Kruyswijk, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Justin Walters all qualify for the European Tour via Q-School.
DECEMBER
Woods made his comeback at his own Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. The former world number one opens with rounds of 69 and 68 before a third round 75 prevents him from contending. Fowler produces fireworks in the final round as he reels off seven straight birdies to storm past Charley Hoffman for the win. Woods closes with a 68 to finish T9.
Also: Rain wrecks havoc with the Joburg Open but not with Shubhankar Sharma. The unheralded Indian won at Randpark after going bogey free for his final three rounds with Erik Van Rooyen in second alone. The duo along with another South African Shaun Norris earned a place at Carnoustie for 2018’s Open Championship.
