The calendar on the wall tells us that we have just a few weeks remaining in 2018. During the course of the next several weeks, we’ll review the past year in the world of golf from the perspective of the professionals, the game itself, and the local scene. This week we’re going to review the best players in the game from the perspective of the major championships.
Avid fans of the game can simply look back upon a year and reproduce the highlights from the perspective of the majors. If you were to consider the 1986 season, you’d recall Jack Nicklaus’ final Masters’ win, Raymond Floyd’s U.S. Open triumph at Shinnecock, Greg Norman’s first major triumph in the British Open at Turnberry, and Bob Tway’s final-hole sand shot at the PGA. In 2015 Jordan Spieth won the Masters wire to wire, was given the U.S. Open when Dustin Johnson three-putted the final green, missed the British Open playoff won by Zach Johnson by one shot, and finished second to Jason Day in the PGA at Whistling Straits. Throw out a year, and you can usually come up with two or three great moments, such as Larry Mize’s overtime chip-in at the 1987 Masters, Tom Kite’s battle in the elements to win his one and only major at Pebble Beach in 1992, and Henrik Stenson’s battle with Phil Mickelson at the 2016 British Open.
While there was a lot of drama to the 2018 major championship season, little of it will be memorable in the years to come. Only the 2003 season with majors won by Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel can match the lack of history that this year provided.
Patrick Reed opened play at the ’18 Masters with a 69 to find himself three shots behind Jordan Spieth. A second-round 66 put Reed two strokes ahead of the field as Spieth shot 74. His third-round 67 opened up a three-shot lead over Rory McIlroy with Rickie Fowler in third place five shots back. Spieth was nine shots off Reed’s pace. Reed shot a safe 71 on Sunday while Rickie carded a 67 to finish one shot back and Jordan put up an impressive 64 to finish two strokes back in third place. Reed put on the green jacket that Sunday evening and had his first major triumph. A member of golf’s new breed, Reed has always been an intense outsider with his small circle of family supporters. He’ll never be one of the boys like Rickie, Jordan, Justin Thomas and the rest. While his Masters win was impressive, he certainly didn’t generate great love or interest because of it. Golf is a singular sport and Patrick Reed is a most singular linkster. He didn’t make millions in endorsement dollars, but he probably doesn’t care all that much either. Fans will probably remember his 2018 Ryder Cup over his 2018 Masters.
Sad to say, but we’ll remember the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock for the questionable course setup by the bluecoats at the USGA. How many of us will remember anything Brooks Koepka did in light of Phil Mickelson’s putting histrionics on Saturday afternoon? While Koepka isn’t the single solitary figure that Patrick Reed is, he is one of the quietest golfers on tour. He has real game and in time he may grow on us. Nonetheless, Brooks Koepka doesn’t exactly move the needle. That may change over time but right now he is way under the radar.
Brooks opened play on Thursday with a non-descript 75 to put him six shots off the pace. A rock-solid 66 on Friday put him back in the hunt. While he moved up to fourth place, he was still five shots behind Dustin Johnson. DJ came back to earth with a 77 on Saturday, Koepka carded a 72, Daniel Berger and Tony Finau shot matching 66s, and suddenly there were four names atop the leader board with Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson one and two back. Koepka shot a final-round 68 to win by one while Tommy Fleetwood shot a 63 to finish second. Brooks joined Curtis Strange and Ben Hogan with back-to-back Open victories. Quite the threesome.
The British Open returned to Carnoustie and the golf course was colored yellow because of Scotland’s summer-long drought. Italian Francesco Molinari, a European Tour regular, prevailed at the game’s oldest championship to take home the Claret Jug. Carnoustie is the most punitive course on the Open rota and Molinari used expert ball striking to prevail. Molinari shot rounds of 70-72 and was nowhere near the leaders, namely Kevin Kisner, Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth. However a third-round 65 put Francesco in fifth place, and his final-round 69 on a day when all the rest faltered was good enough for a two-stroke win over the quartet of Kisner, Schauffele, McIlroy and Justin Rose. Molinari is about as quiet a personality as Brooks Koepka and spends the majority of his season in Europe. Nonetheless his week at Carnoustie was a most impressive display of solid, consistent ball striking.
Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship at Bellerive this past August. Koepka’s first-round 69 left him five strokes behind journeyman Gary Woodland, but his dynamic 63 on Friday moved him up the leader board to third place, two strokes behind Woodland and one behind Kisner. A third-round 66 gave Brooks the outright lead by two strokes over Adam Scott, and his final-round 66 was good enough to maintain his two-stroke lead over a surprise runner-up, namely Tiger Woods, who carded a final-round 64. It was Koepka’s second major of the year and third within 14 months.Yet I sometimes wonder if anyone has noticed.
With regard to the major champions of 2018, Patrick Reed is seen in a negative light while Brooks Koepka and Francesco Molinari are quietly talented. In retrospect, fans of the game will look back on 2018 and have a hard time recalling the exploits of the aforementioned trio.
The LPGA Tour has five majors as does the Champions Tour. This year Pernilla Lindberg won the ANA (Dinah Shore), Ariya Jutanugarn captured the U.S. Open, S.H. Park prevailed in the Women’s PGA, Georgia Hall won the British Open, and Angela Stanford won the Evian.
Among the senior set on the Champions Tour, Miguel Angel Jimenez won both the Tradition and the Senior British Open, David Toms came through in the U.S. Senior Open, Paul Broadhurst won the Senior PGA, and Vijay Singh captured the Senior Players Championship. Perhaps the most impressive major win this season was way off the radar as Laura Davies of England captured the U.S. Senior Women’s Open by beating Juli Inkster by a stunning 10 strokes.
If there ever come a day when Brooks Koepka wins a dozen majors, we’ll look back on 2018 as the start of his impressive major career. However, for the moment there was nothing terribly stunning about the major champions and their major accomplishments this year.
Next week: More from the world of professional golf.
