The calendar on the wall says we’re in the final month of 2016. With just a few more weeks remaining in the year, it just so happens to be that time when we give our review of the past golf season on the professional, collegiate, local amateur, and local high school levels. This week we’ll take a look back at the memorable moments of golf’s four major championships as well as some of the trends that occurred in majors in 2016.
As January of 2016 rolled around on the calendar some 11 months ago, the world of men’s professional golf was on an ever-rising high as a foursome of young 20-something golfers were dominating the leader boards at grand slam events. Rory McIloy of Northern Ireland already had four major titles to his name while Jordan Spieth had won the Masters and the U.S. Open, and Jason Day had showed total domination in capturing the PGA Championship. Throw in Players champ Rickie Fowler and you had comparisons to the 1960s and Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Billy Casper. As it turned out, such would not be the case in 2016.
Instead, the majors of 2016 ended up resembling the major season of 2003. That year Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel won their first and only major titles. In 2016, golf’s four major champions added a first grand slam title to their golfing resumes.
At the Masters in early April, it looked as if the new breed would continue its winning ways. Playing under difficult weather conditions, Jordan Spieth entered Augusta’s back nine looking like he would defend his Masters title as well as win his third major, all by the age of 22. Carrying a five-shot lead into the back nine, Spieth went bogey-bogey-quadruple bogey on the 10th, 11th and 12th holes to fall from first to fourth. He did work his way back up the leader board, but ended up coming in second place, three strokes behind the eventual winner.
That eventual winner was Danny Willett, the only 20-something to win a major title this year. Willett was the first Englishman since Nick Faldo to win the Masters. An active member of the European Tour, Willett played in 25 tourneys overseas and finished second to Henrik Stenson in the season-long Race to Dubai. It also was a memorable year for Danny as his first child was born just before the Masters. Willett just may become one of those one-hit wonders and the 2016 Masters might be best remembered for who lost it instead of who won it.
If only the United States Golf Association were so lucky. Instead, the 2016 United States Open at Oakmont will be best remembered for its Sunday final-round-of-rules chaos. I recently received my USGA calendar for 2017 and the cover letter’s opening line pointed out that “the dramatic 2016 USGA championship season was officially in the record books.” Luckily for the USGA, Dustin Johnson played so well that he made sure there was nothing dramatic about our National Open. Yes, lucky for the USGA and its blueblood amateur rules buffoons.
During the final round, Johnson was in the process of addressing his ball on Oakmont’s lightning-fast fifth green when he saw it move slightly. Johnson contended that he didn’t do anything to make the ball move. His playing partner, Lee Westwood, concurred. The walking rules official did so as well. The golf went on. Six holes later the USGA’s rules people came out to the course to notify Dustin that he “could” be penalized for the fifth green issue and that it would be figured out at the conclusion of his round. When he knocked in his birdie putt on the 18th green, Johnson had either shot a 68 or a 69. He would win the U.S. Open by either four strokes or three strokes. The USGA rules guys ended up penalizing Johnson because they believed he had indeed made that ball on the fifth green move, regardless of what the player, his playing partner and the rules official said. The whole thing reeked of incompetence.
Of course, none of this is shocking. The USGA’s botch job this year falls in line with other issues that have occurred in past U.S. Opens at the Olympic Club and Shinnecock. I have nothing but positive things to say about the USGA and its commitment to the game of golf. Yet maybe, just maybe, they just don’t have what it takes to run our national championship.
For pure golfing drama, the 2016 British Open at Royal Troon last July was a great two-man shoot-out as 40-year-old Henrik Stenson of Germany won his first major title over 46-year-old Phil Mickelson, a five-time major winner. Stenson’s final-round 63 was good enough for a three-stroke victory over Phil while J.B. Holmes was 14 shots back in third place. The final twosome of Henrik and Phil played a combined 16-under-par game that day with a classic demonstration of brilliant shot-making and clutch putting. The Open Championship was golf at its very best.
It turned out to be a very good year for Stenson as he came in second at the Olympics and finished atop the European Tour’s standings in its Race to Dubai. I always figured that Henrik would never putt well enough to win a major, a thought I similarly have about Sergio Garcia, and yet this year’s Open Championship will forever be remembered for its great final round.
Journeyman Jimmy Walker was 0-for-187 during the earliest stages of his career on the PGA Tour. Since October of 2013, the 37-year-old Texan has won six times, played in two Ryder Cups and a Presidents Cup, and now has a PGA Championship on his golfing resume. Walker shot 65-66-68-67 at storied Baltusrol to outlast a hard-charging Jason Day and capture the PGA by a one-stroke margin. Jimmy played college golf at Baylor, turned professional in 2001, and has spent about half his career on golf’s mini-tours. At various times he qualified onto the PGA Tour, only to lose his card after one year while finishing outside the top 125 at 207th, 202nd and 185th place. His magic moment came in 2009 when all the stars converged and he finished exactly 125th on the PGA Tour’s money list. From that moment on, Walker has steadily improved, becoming a top-10 money winner during the past three seasons.
The 2016 PGA Tour major championship series featured four first-time grand slam winners, namely Danny Willett at the Masters, Dustin Johnson at the U.S. Open, Henrik Stenson at the Open Championship, and Jimmy Walker at the PGA Championship. It was a season of three surprise winners on great golf courses alongside Johnson’s first major after a handful of close calls. It also was about who lost, in this case Spieth, Mickelson, Day and the USGA.
