The American PGA Tour and the European PGA Tour have the big-name stars, compete for massive amounts of money, and are squarely on golf”s center stage as far as the corporate world, television and golf”s fan-base are concerned. Nonetheless, there is some pretty entertaining golf being played beyond the score of men”s professional golf, and 2011 was a season of excitement and excellence on the PGA Champions Tour, for senior golfers aged 50 and older, and the LPGA Tour, the home of the best of women”s golf.
While it has been difficult to find a dominant male linkster in the world of men”s golf during the past three seasons, there is no doubt that Yani Tseng of Taiwan is the best female golfer in the world. She won seven times on the LPGA Tour this year, won four other worldwide titles and captured two majors, winning the LPGA Championship and the Women”s British Open. Seven wins is pretty impressive when you consider that the LPGA competes on 24 times from February to December with half of the events held outside the United States.
Tseng showed her ability to adapt to time zones and jetlag by winning early in the season at the LPGA Honda of Thailand, and then had a great summer with wins in Springfield (Ill.), Rochester (N.Y.), the British Isles and Arkansas. She closed out the LPGA campaign with late-season wins in South Korea and her homeland.
Karrie Webb, Brittany Lincicome and Suzann Petersen won twice this year on tour while 16-year-old Lexi Thompson won in Alabama in mid-September to send shockwaves throughout the game. It was an off year for Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie, Natalie Gulbis and Christie Kerr ? all American golfers who were winless in 2011. Also on the winless front, the European team prevailed in the biennial Solheim Cup matches this autumn at Ireland”s Killeen Castle Golf Course against the USA.
The LPGA didn”t visit Northern California this year after consistent appearances at Blackhawk, The Ridge, Half Moon Bay and Hiddenbrooke during the past decade. The longtime Springfield tournament will be off the 2012 schedule although the Australian Open will be a new LPGA event. In the end, the LPGA Tour is a rock solid and entertaining product with many gifted stars. It just doesn”t sell all that well in the Western Hemisphere.
The PGA Champions Tour, the senior division of the PGA Tour, is in a similar situation to the women”s tour in that it will only play 23 times next year from January to November, with no tourneys scheduled for September and none set for overseas except for the Senior British Open.
Tom Lehman was the tour”s Player of the Year, pocketing $2.08 million in winnings for 21 tournaments. He won three times in the first half of the year, coming through at Boca Raton (Fla.) in February, Biloxi (Miss.) in March and Shoal Creek (Ala.) in June. Lehman parlayed his early start to the overall Charles Schwab Cup title at the season”s conclusion. He is the only golfer to hold player-of-the-year titles on the Nationwide (then Ben Hogan), PGA and Champions tours.
Among those finding the winner”s circle at Senior Tour events this year were Bernhard Langer, Nick Price, Tom Watson, Freddie Couples, Jeff Sluman and Mark Calcavecchia ? all past major champions. Longtime journeymen Olin Browne, Jay Don Blake, John Cook and Russ Cochran had wins in 2011, and Bay Area native Michael Allen finished 11th on the money list. Speaking of Northern California, the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach will be held on July 6 to 8. The Schwab Cup moves from San Francisco”s Harding Park to Arizona in 2012.
Finally, in the out-of-nowhere category, Rod Spittle of Ontario, Canada won $731,144 in 24 events to finish 22nd on the senior money list. It was good enough for another exempt year for the longtime amateur who only turned professional in 2004. Of course while Spittle is largely unknown, he just didn”t appear at Senior Tour qualifying and start charging up the leaderboards. He played college golf in the 1970s at Ohio State and his better-known teammates were Cook and Joey Sindelar.
Beyond the scope of who won and how much they earned, the year in golf had its fair share of offbeat moments. The most bizarre event featured the reaction of caddie Steve Williams, the longtime looper for Tiger Woods, who was on the bag for Aussie Adam Scott during his victory at the World Golf Championship tourney at Firestone in Akron, Ohio.
Allow me to reiterate that it was Scott who was victorious in Akron. Nevertheless, the caddie got interviewed at the end of the round, calling it his greatest victory ever. Personally, I remembered an old caddie mantra (“show up, keep up and shut up”) and shook my head in bewilderment at Williams and the press. Yes, it”s certainly a different world of golf nowadays.
Speaking of different worlds, the belly putter burst onto the scene in 2011 because of 20-somethings Keegan Bradley (the PGA Champion) and Webb Simpson (No. 2 on the money list). Between them, they won four events this year, all with a belly putter in their bag. Long putters used to be the crutch for aging veterans with bad nerves. Now, kids without bad nerves (and without bellies for that matter) use them with great success.
Finally, youth was served in 2011. Tseng and Rory McIlroy are the future of golf as well as its present. She is one U.S. Women”s Open title away from a career grand slam, and McIlroy will be adding majors to his mantelpiece in the coming years. Yes, golf is a historic game with many old-time traditions, but it is also the game of a great many young and gifted players who found their way to the game”s center stage during 2011. Best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas.
