During the course of the past two weeks, we’ve reviewed all that happened in the world of men’s golf and major championship golf during the 2016 calendar year. However, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson and the Ryder Cup Matches are not the only things that went on in the world of professional golf the past 12 months. This week we’ll take a look at all things relevant when we consider the goings on with pro golf’s seniors and women.
The LPGA Tour is truly an international golf tour as evidenced by its leading players and its worldwide schedule. If one were to look at the leading money winners among the women, they’d find Aniya Jutanugarn of Thailand atop the money list followed by Lydia Ko of New Zealand, Brooke Henderson of Canada, In Gee Chung of Korea and Shanshan Feng of China to round out the top five. For my jingoistic friends out there, the LPGA Tour does include a number of very talented American golfers, including Brittany Lang, Stacy Lewis, Lexi Thompson, Gerina Piller, Mo Martin and Jessica Korda, all ranked in the world top 20.
The LPGA Tour holds five major championships each year, just like the senior men do. This past year Lydia Ko won the ANA Inspiration, formerly known as the Dinah Shore, in Palm Desert. Brooke Henderson won the LPGA. Brittany Lang captured the U.S. Women’s Open, and we’ll have to tell you more about that tourney a few paragraphs down. Ariya Jutanugarn won the Women’s British Open and In Gee Chun, the dominant player on the Korean Tour, took home the Evian in France as an LPGA non-member.
It’s not just idle talk to call the LPGA Tour an international tour because of the variety of nationalities and homelands of circuit members. The tour itself is worldwide as well. After struggling to build its circuit at the turn of the century, the LPGA Tour is on much more solid financial footing. Tournaments are up to 33 events annually and there are no longer the three- and four-week gaps that were pervasive some 10-15 years ago. Of those 33 tourneys, 19 were contested in the United States. The other 14 tournaments were held in the Bahamas, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, England, Korea, Japan, Mexico and Malaysia. Three tourneys were played in China and two events were contested in Canada. Yes, an active member on the LPGA Tour does get a whole lot of frequent flier miles during the course of the season.
For those of you who see the women’s game as a lesser product that the men’s, I need only point out the fact that the United States Golf Association, those fine folks who messed up the U.S. Open during the Dustin Johnson debacle, do have a sort of evenness policy when it comes to the Women’s U.S. Open. Fans of the women’s game can also shake their heads in mass confusion when one relives the playoff at the Women’s National Open between Brittany Lang and Anna Nordqvist. In the midst of the playoff, the media jockeys for the USGA noticed on slow-motion replay that Nordqvist had grazed some sand on her backswing from a fairway bunker. Of course, they were inconsistent in their notification of the act and its subsequent penalty. Lang ended up winning the Open because of the penalty, but that was small consolation as the USGA awarded its perpetual trophy to “Bethany” Lang instead of the real champion, Brittany Lang. The USGA is equal opportunity when it comes to its ability to mess up a national championship of note.
The Champions PGA Tour for golfers ages 50 and older had another one of those seasons where two-time Masters champ Bernhard Langer took home the hardware and the big bucks. Langer was once again the senior circuit’s leading money winner. He won the season ending Schwab Cup race and he also won his sixth senior major at the Senior Players Championship after winning The Tradition earlier in the season. Other senior major winners included Rocco Mediate at the Senior PGA, Paul Broadhurst at the Senior British Open and Gene Sauers at the Senior U.S. Open. For Rocco, Broadhurst and Sauers, it was their first senior major and the biggest wins of their entire golfing careers.
Colin Montgomerie finished second on the senior money list this year followed by Joe Durant and Miguel Angel Jimenez. In fifth and sixth place on the senior money list were a duo of California boys, namely Scott McCarron and David Sutherland. They are both from Sacramento. Michael Allen of San Mateo, who used to be best known for winning the NCGA’s Hangtown Open in Placerville in 1981, finished 14th on the senior money list. Esteban Toledo who lived in Milpitas and struggled on the mini-tours locally for close to two decades, won the senior event in Boca Raton in February and came in 33rd on the money list.
While I actively root for the California contingent on the Champions Tour, mainly because I knew them when they were either collegians or mini-tour regulars, the very fact that Scott McCarron and David Sutherland are top-10 performers is also what makes the senior tour less viable than it was in the days of Palmer, Nicklaus, Trevino and Irwin. As we already stated, Bernhard Langer, a two-time major champion on the PGA Tour, was the leading money winner on the Champions Tour this year. After Langer, one must go all the way down to past British Open champ Tom Lehman in 28th place to find another past major winner currently residing on the senior tour. Larry Mize, who won a stunning overtime battle over Greg Norman to capture the 1987 Masters, is the only other golfer within the top 40 with a grand slam pedigree. While the Champions Tour does feature excellent golf, I don’t believe many fans of the game are putting down big money to watch golfers such as Joe Durant, Woody Austin and Duffy Waldorf, all of whom finished within the top 10 on the money list this year.
Next week we’ll review the year that was on the Lake County golf scene in 2016, from the perspective of the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit, high school golf in the Redwood Empire, and junior golf in Lake County. Meanwhile, for those of you who might cringe with all the abuse I’ve been hurling toward the USGA during the past two weeks, relief is on the way. The USGA will no longer mess up one of our national championships like they did this year’s U.S. Open during the Dustin Johnson affair. You might wonder, how can I be so sure? Well, that’s because earlier this week the USGA changed the rule about who did or didn’t make the ball move on a green. It’s no longer a penalty either way. Finally, good news from the United States Golf Association as we start the countdown for the final two weeks of 2016.
