We’re closing in on the conclusion of 2022. This week we’re going to look back at some of the highlights of the past year. Last week we reviewed the individual accomplishments of the major winners on the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour and the PGA Champions Tour. Because competitive golf is close to a 12-month endeavor, there were a lot of highlights that didn’t occur during the weeks of the grand slam events. There were also some feel good moments.
Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy would probably contend that 2022 was not a truly successful year because he didn’t win a major. Nonetheless he had a memorable year. McIlroy won a most entertaining Canadian Open in June, carding a final-round 62 to beat Tony Finau by two strokes. He would win the Tour Championship in late August and bank the $18 million for finishing atop the Fed Ex Cup standings. He defended his CJ Cup title in October and then finished his year by finishing atop the DP (European) Tour Race to Dubai. McIlroy owns four major titles but hasn’t prevailed in one since the 2014 PGA Championship. The Masters, the one major Rory hasn’t won, is just four months away. Maybe, just maybe …
Tom Kim was a veritable unknown last January. In a most unexpected twist, the 20-year-old South Korean won PGA Tour events in Greensboro and Las Vegas this year and was the star of the International team this September at the Presidents Cup. Kim speaks four languages fluently, is highly entertaining, and has real game. He has never even played in the Masters, but we need to expect that he just might be the next great golfer on golf’s center stage.
Max Homa has been on golf’s radar since he shot a first-round 61 at the Pac 12 Championship in 2013 as a senior at UC Berkeley. Homa then went on to win the NCAA individual title. He didn’t win on the PGA Tour until 2019 and then won twice last year. He won a second Wells Fargo this past June and then had a memorable September. Homa chipped in on the final hole to defend his title at the Fortinet at Silverado in Napa. The following week he was the American star at the Presidents Cup as he recorded a 4-0 record and sunk the winning put for Team USA.
It was quite the head scratcher when 17-year-old Tony Finau turned pro in 2007. After struggling for a number of years he finally won in Puerto Rico, nine years later in 2016. Tony didn’t break through for a second PGA Tour win until August of 2021 at the Northern Trust. This year was a big year for Finau as he won in back-to-back weeks of July in Minneapolis and Detroit. Finau then had a great Presidents Cup and added a third 2022 victory at the Houston Open in November. Tony has been a pro for 15 years and is just now reaching his prime.
While she didn’t win a major this year, the top golfer on the LPGA Tour was Australian Lydia Ko who won the season-ending CME Tour Championship. Nelly Korda lost her top spot in the world golf rankings because of a blood clot. She missed three months of competitive golf. However, she bounced back with a big victory at the Pelican Championship in Florida in November and returned to the top of the rankings. This year marked a new world order on the LPGA Tour as there were 11 first-time winners coming from nine different countries. There were 32 tourneys on the LPGA Tour in 2022 with combined purses of $87 million. The LPGA is becoming big time.
Steven Alker of New Zealand was the senior golfer of the year. A 51-year-old, he spent most of his career on the mini-tours. Steven has won a senior major and three other PGA Champions Tour events since August of 2021. Bernhard Langer turned 65 years old this August. A two-time Masters winner who won 42 times on the European Tour, Langer remains the ageless wonder among the senior set. Langer won the Chubb Classic in Florida this past February and then won again in November at the Timber Tech Championship, also in Florida. Langer now has won 44 times on the Champions Tour. He is one short of Hale Irwin’s record 45 senior tour wins.
The United States Golf Association runs 15 tournaments annually. Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick won the U.S. Open at the historic Country Club outside Boston in June. Minjee Lee won the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles in North Carolina. She broke the 72-hole scoring record at the Women’s Open. Irishman Padraig Harrington, who won three majors during his PGA Tour career, turned 50 this year and promptly won the U.S. Senior Open. Harrington has been golf’s ultimate “tinkerer” and during the course of the past year he has worked extensively on speed training in an effort to hit the golf ball farther. His program obviously worked for the short term as he averaged a tour-best 310 yards off the tee at the Senior Open. He won three other senior events this year, including the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, overwhelming the field by seven strokes. Jill McGill won the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.
While the USGA runs four national championships for professionals, its other 11 championships are oriented toward the amateur game. The USGA brought the game to unique settings as it held the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur in Alaska and the U.S. Women’s Four Ball (better ball) in Puerto Rico. The PGA Tour also visited a different state site when the BMW Championship (formerly the Western Open) was contested in Delaware. While I usually don’t go out of my way to watch the U.S. Boys Junior Amateur, I did this past August for two straight days. It was held at the visually beautiful Bandon Dunes in coastal Oregon. The top women amateurs representing Team USA won the Curtis Cup over the Great Britain and Ireland team in June at the iconic Merion Golf Club.
To its eternal credit, the USGA held its inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open this past July at the No 6 course at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. The Adaptive Open recognizes eight categories of championships for men and women in categories such as vision impairment, multiple limb amputee, intellectual impairment, and neurological impairment, among other flights for both men and women. Kim Moore, the women’s golf coach at Western Michigan University, was the overall women’s champion. She was born without a right foot and her left foot is severely clubbed. Reaching out to handicapped golfers earns a well-deserved tip of the golfing cap to the United States Golf Association for its development of the Adaptive Open.
Next week we’ll conclude our look back at golf in 2022 with a review of the Lake County golf scene. Best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas.
