With 2012 nearly upon us, it’s time to bid adieu to 2011 – a topsy-turvy year in golf that managed to entertain, start to finish, with or without Tiger Woods on stage. Here are one blogger’s picks for the year’s best – and best forgotten – people, moments and assorted objects.
Putter of the Year: Long (by a grip handle over Belly)
Putt of the Year: Keegan Bradley, PGA Championship, 17th hole of the final round
Quote of the Year: “As long as it’s legal, I’ll keep cheating like the rest of them.” – Ernie Els on using a belly putter
Prize of the Year: Cured Spanish ham
Headline of the Year: Saltman wins body eight in ham for hole-in-one
Ham of the Year
Ham of the Year: Ben Crane
Player of the Year, Men: Luke Donald
Player of the Year, Any Gender: Yani Tseng
Youngster of the Year: Lexi Thompson
Streak of the Year: Donald’s 449 holes without a three-putt
Meaningful Meaningless Win of the Year: Tiger Woods, Chevron World Challenge
Performance for the Ages of the Year: Rory McIlroy’s eight-shot victory at the U.S. Open
Cutthroat of the Year: McIlroy, who dumped his girlfriend and his agent in 2011
Gag-Inducing Celebrity Couple Nickname of the Year: Wozzilroy (McIrloy and his new squeeze, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki)
Resurrected Career of the Year: Tie -- Sergio Garcia and Thomas Bjorn
Celebrator of the Year: Open champion Darren Clarke
Beverage of the Year
Beverage of the Year: Guinness Stout
#$!*& of the Year: Steve Williams
Innocent Bystander of the Year: Adam Scott
Captain of the Year: Fred Couples (Presidents Cup)
City of the Year: Jupiter, Fla. (aka the “new Orlando”)
Amateur of the Year: Patrick Cantlay
Lowlife of the Year: John Daly (who has officially retired this dubious honor)
Tags: Adam Scott, Darren Clarke, Ernie Els, Fred Couples, John Daly, Keegan Bradley, Lexi Thompson, Long Putter, Luke Donald, Presidents Cup, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Steve Williams, Thomas Bjorn, Tiger Woods, Yani Tseng
Could 2011 have ended any better for golf fans?
All signs point to a thrilling 2012, and beyond, as the stars aligned in spectacular fashion during the latter stages of this season. Here just a few recent developments that signal a looming golden age:
- Tiger Woods regains winning form at the Chevron World Challenge.
- Luke Donald cements No. 1 ranking by topping the U.S. and European money lists.
- Wunderkind Rory McIlroy follows up his U.S. Open triumph with another victory (Hong Kong Open) and six top-sixes in his last eight starts.
- Sergio Garcia claims two titles in his native Spain.
- Young Americans Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson and Bill Haas dominate the FedEx Cup playoffs.
- Jim Furyk goes 5-0 to pace the U.S. Presidents Cup effort.
Luke Donald aims to keep his No. 1 ranking.
I could go on, but you get the picture. Professional golf is flush with great players in or entering their prime, aging stars with gas left in the tank, and emerging lads with big games and matching personalities.
Never has golf’s international talent pool been this deep or wide. For proof, here’s a breakdown of current standouts by age group:
Young guns (under 30): Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Alvaro Quiros, Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson, Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel, Nick Watney, Hunter Mahan, Keegan Bradley, Bill Haas, Ryo Ishikawa, Matteo Manassero
Prime-timers (30-somethings): Tiger Woods, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson, Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley
Elder statesmen (40-plus): Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, David Toms, K.J. Choi, Thomas Bjorn, Miguel Angel Jimenez
Getting excited yet? Me too.
Tough stuff
Grrrr... The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.
Back in the day, Golf Digest’s list of America’s toughest courses was its de facto list of the country’s top courses. When folks stopped equating difficulty with quality, the magazine introduced new criteria – like design balance and shot values – and changed the rankings to America’s best courses.
Now it’s doing both. Golf Digest is out with an updated list of the 75 toughest tracks in America, and it is indeed a Murderers Row.
No. 1 is the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, and I can vouch for its nastiness firsthand. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the remainder of the top five: 2. Pine Valley GC (N.J.) 3. Oakmont CC (Pa.) 4. Spyglass Hill (Calif.) 5. Bethpage Park, Black Course (N.Y.)
Others of note include TPC Sawgrass (7), Pinehurst No. 2 (10), Pebble Beach (14) and Augusta National (31).
Of course, tackling any of these courses is even tougher when you’re paired with one of Golf Digest’s 18 Most Annoying Golf Partners, whose aggravating ranks include our personal No. 1, the Cart Girl Schmoozer.
If the cart girls at these places are as mean as the courses, methinks our buddy would incur a rather harsh penalty.
Tags: Augusta National, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Luke Donald, Pebble Beach, PGA Tour, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Tiger Woods, Webb Simpson
Oh, to spend Halloween playing Pumpkin Ridge, the famed Oregon club whose Witch Hollow and Ghost Creek courses scare the knickers off the heartiest golfing souls.
Instead, we’re summing up this weekend’s action from the pro tours while waiting for the trick-or-treaters to trickle in.
Luckily, there’s plenty to report. Golf’s global reach was apparent as a slew of U.S. stars battled in Malaysia and Rory McIlroy won a non-official but highly lucrative event in China, where Taiwan’s Yani Tseng continued to terrorize her so-called competitors.
Our idea of a Cinderella costume
We’ll make this week’s rundown quick. Gotta slip into our Carl Spackler costume for tonight.
Golf Claps
Bo Van Pelt: The 36-year-old has quietly become one of the PGA Tour’s steadiest performers, but has had trouble closing the deal when in contention. He practically slammed it on Sunday, winning the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic in Malaysia by six shots. Van Pelt’s final-round 64 earned him a cool $1.3 million and a big shot of confidence from beating Camilo Villegas, Vijay Singh, Robert Allenby and other stars in the Asian Tour event.
Sergio Garcia: It’s fitting that on Halloween, we’re comfortable declaring this of the former poltergeist: He’s baaaack. Garcia followed up his victory at the Castello Masters with another at the Andalucia Masters, beating countryman Miguel Angel Jimenez by a shot. Home cooking has been kind to Garcia, who became the first Spaniard to win a stroke-play even at storied Valderrama.
Rory McIlroy: The international man of mystery pocketed $2 million – golf’s biggest payday – by fending off Anthony Kim in a playoff at the Shanghai Masters. It didn’t get him any closer to Luke Donald’s No. 1 world ranking, but the win confirmed that McIlroy remains plenty hungry following his U.S. Open triumph.
Yani Tseng: The game’s top female made the most of her own trip to China, winning the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open for her 11th worldwide victory this year. That includes a pair of majors and marks Tseng the clear choice as golf’s most dominant player, regardless of gender.
Silent Treatment
450-yard par 4s: For the first time ever, average driving distance on the PGA Tour eclipsed 290 yards for an entire season (290.9 to be precise). To put that in perspective, Lee Janzen’s average tee shot in 2011 was 290.1 yards. In 1993, the year Janzen won his first of two U.S. Opens, he averaged 257.1.
He was 29 then. He’s 47 now. Frightening how much equipment has changed, isn’t it?
All hail Luke Donald, the undisputed No. 1 golfer in the world.
Luke Donald
Finally.
Technically, Donald has stood atop the world golf ranking since May 29, when he unseated fellow Englishman Lee Westwood. But there’s been plenty of clamor in the meantime, his critics arguing that Donald hadn’t done enough to earn the top spot.
Nevermind that no one else had, either, since Tiger Woods abdicated the throne last year. The major-less Donald, who went five years without a PGA Tour win (2006-2011), was an easy target.
With his incredible come-from-behind victory at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic in Orlando, Donald silenced the doubters. Six straight birdies and a closing 64 were his polite way of saying “Shut up,” in proper King’s English, of course.
As a bonus, Donald leapfrogged Webb Simpson to claim the tour’s money title with a cool $6,683,214 on the year. That’s even more impressive when you consider how much he plays overseas. In fact, Donald’s in position to win the European Tour’s money race as well, which would make him the first person to take both in the same year.
Yeah, he’s No. 1.
Now on to our cheers and jeers, golf style, for the weekend that was:
Golf Claps
Luke Donald: Did we mention that he played alongside Simpson for all four rounds of the CMN? Or that Donald was two shots behind his playing partner, and four shots off the lead, with eight holes to go?
Disney trappings aside, this was a gutsy performance. It may just have locked up PGA Tour Player of the Year honors, too. Donald was one of seven players with a pair of wins this season (not counting two in Europe) and by far the most consistent of the bunch.
The lone missing piece to his resumé remains that elusive major. At age 33, his time is now.
Sergio Garcia
Sergio Garcia: While Donald was busy stamping his signature on the 2011 season, Garcia marked his resurgence complete with an 11-shot victory at the Castello Masters. The Spaniard thrilled a home crowd with a final-round 63 to lap the field, dedicating his win to the late, great Seve Ballesteros.
Having emerged from the oblivion that was 2010, Garcia may be poised to finally fulfill the potential he flashed as a teenager and 20-something. Welcome back, El Niño.
Silent Treatment
David Duval and Ben Curtis: A pair of former Open Championship winners, Duval and Curtis failed to earn exempt status for the tour in 2012. Duval, who seemed to be inching (ever so slowly) back to something like his old form, slipped to 152nd on the money list by missing the CMN cut. Curtis did likewise to finish 149th for the year.
Finally! The ball that TaylorMade has been working on for 3 years is finally starting to show up on tour. Players like Sergio Garcia and Ratief Goosen will be gaming the new TaylorMade Penta TP during next weeks PGA Championship at Hazeltine. The Penta was just added to the USGA's conforming ball list last Wednesday. Unfortunately, it will not become available to the public until December 1st, but I'm sure we'll end up seeing numerous black market sales as a result of early caddy kick downs.
The main goal of the Penta is to optimize performance in driving, long irons, middle irons, short irons, and wedge shots. Funny, they were gutsy enough to claim performance increases in just about every area, why not throw in a lie about putting performance?
SpyGolfer's Opinion
TaylorMade expects the Penta to be the new "be all and end all" to their golf ball lineup. Their auspicious marketing and design departments claim that it is perfect for all types of golfers, due to the fact that it utilizes 5 layers in a consecutive order, based on swing speeds. At a first glance this seems like a good idea; however, once we read the descriptions for each individual layer, we began to realize that it will most likely just be another good ball that good players will experience the best results from. Each layer is designed to work with specific clubs, but the swing speed required to activate the layers that correlate to those clubs, is based on tour swing speeds. And while it is true that players with slower swing speeds will activate the outer layers, they will not receive its initially intended performance results based on the situations they are in. So it's probably not worth the extra money for the slower swinging player, but definitely worth the extra buck for players that can utilize all of its layers.
The 5 Layers
The cover is a soft urethane material(beware of cart paths and flop shots, this cover is as strong as Phil Mickelson after a yoga routine) similar to the one on the Pro V1, which is great for feel, just doesn't last long. It's used to promote a high spin rate with low trajectory on wedge shots and pitches for more control.
The outer mantel layer under the white cover is the most compressible and was designed to create optimal spin and flight when the ball speed is below 120mph (short irons for pros).
The middle layer has a medium firmness which was designed to be compressed on shots with a ball speed between 120 and 140 mph (mid-irons).
The next inner layer was created for high-luanching, low spinning shots for a ball speed between 140 and 160 mph (long irons).
The center of the ball is the core which is made from a low compression substance that only fast swingers will be able to activate. According to TaylorMade, those who do reach high enough swing speeds to activate the center will see more ball speed and less spin on drives for increased distance.
Immediately after his round he said, "I don't like it, to tell you the truth. I don't think it is fair. Even when it's dry you still get mud balls in the middle of the fairway. It's too much of a guessing game."
And when asked what he would change, he said, "They can do whatever they want. It's not my problem. I just come here and play and then go home."
Not too shocking, considering his past outburst about Carnoustie, and the simple fact that he didn’t play particularly well. After shooting 3-over-par 75 on Saturday, and 2-over-par 74 on Sunday, he tied for 38th place. This is hardly how a player of his caliber would expect to play, and for this we can sympathize with his frustration, sort of. We also feel refreshed by the fact that somebody is willing to express any emotion at all. Especially, in a sport that looks down upon any kind of negative reactions to anything. We can only guess that its done in order to preserve the sacred code of conduct that comes with a “gentleman’s game”, but damn it can become a yawn fest. The only problem is that his statements about the course’s condition do seem a bit insane. Augusta is only talked about as being one of the most perfectly conditioned courses in the world, and he’s whining about mud balls. Either way we don’t think Sergio needs to be slammed for his statements. If anything, they just make him look ignorant.
Tuesday after the Masters, Sergio’s management company released this apology statement:
“Following my final round at the Masters, I made comments in an interview that I regret and want to apologize for. Out of frustration, I blamed the golf course instead of putting the blame where it belongs, on myself.”
“I didn't get it done this week. Augusta National is one of the most iconic golf courses in the game and playing in the Masters each year is an honor. I apologize to the members of Augusta National and the fans who rightfully treasure this golf course."
Nice, but clearly damage control issued by the people that are feeding off Sergio’s success.
