YEAR OF THE TIGER
Moliwood bromance and a stirring Ryder Cup but it was still...
From New York to Paris and plenty of less exotic stops in between, this was a year to savour. This was the year of the nice guy — and girl — as Francesco molinari, Justin rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Georgia Hall took turns on centre stage. We witnessed the return of the biggest star of all, a comeback that, by the end, had gathered such steam that the entire sporting world was on its feet to applaud. Here’s my top ten highlights from 2018.
1 TIGER’S RETURN
AT the start of the year, you were waiting for his back to go yet again. Then you were fearing that his game had become just plain ordinary. By the summer solstice, however, a true sporting miracle was emerging as the mighty Tiger Woods challenged for the open and then the USPGA.
By September, he was hitting the ball as well as ever . . . and then it arrived. A victory, his 80th in all, in the final event of the PGA Tour season. The sight of all those fans walking behind the pied piper as he played his stirring tune down the final hole at the Tour Championship — well, was there really a better moment in sport this year than that?
2 HOORAY FOR MOLIWOOD
mANY elements need to come together to complete a ryder Cup success but there’s always one heartbeat. At Hazeltine in 2016, it was Patrick reed. At medinah in 2012, it was Ian Poulter.
This time, at Le Golf National on the outskirts of Paris, it was a pair of swells who had everyone cheering them from the rafters.
By the end of three tumultuous days that changed the lives of both for ever, Francesco molinari had become so popular he stopped the traffic at Gare du Nord for his journey home to London.
As for his other half, Tommy Fleetwood is now so important to European golf they have given him his own tournament to host next year, before he has even reached the age of 30.
3 KING KOEPKA
WE have all seen the way the game has gone in recent years, as the jokes about whether golf is even a sport have faded away amid the overwhelming evidence presented by the athletic specimens at the top. But you still have to putt and possess the requisite amount of nerve.
Last summer, in holding off first Fleetwood at the US open and then Woods at the PGA, Brooks Koepka showed he is so much more than just a jock. The cool manner in which he wafted away both adversaries, matching their birdies with more of his own, was quite something.
4 SWEET GEORGIA
AS if golf in this country was not lucky enough to have Fleetwood as a figurehead, on the female side it has a mirror image in Georgia Hall, the daughter of a golf-mad plasterer. Born during Sir Nick Faldo’s masters win over Greg Norman in 1996, Hall gave an uncanny impression of the great man as she claimed the women’s British open at royal Lytham.
Doting dad Wayne was her caddie — and you did not need to ask what was going through his mind as he lifted his daughter into the air after she sank the
winning putt (left).
5 RYDER CUP
THE only major sporting event where you gather in the morning while the moon is up and leave in the evening when it is high in the sky once more.
At perhaps the finest ryder Cup venue of all, there were so many moments to treasure, including this one. As Sergio Garcia teed off on Sunday, a great swell of ‘Sergio!’ echoed from the fans behind the first green and bounced off the same chant emanating from The monster, the enormous grandstand behind the first tee. No wonder the Spaniard felt invincible. No wonder, four hours later, he became the leading ryder Cup points scorer of all time.
6 ROSE IN FULL BLOOM
No disrespect to Justin Thomas and Koepka, who also became world No1 for the first time this year, but it was the sight of Justin rose reaching the summit after 20 rollercoaster years as a pro that most resonated. Fancy starting out with 21 missed halfway cuts in a row in 1998 and yet still having the guts to reach the mountain top all these years later. The icing is that he has done it all with a touch of class.
7 MOLINARI THE MACHINE
THE Italian is not just the European golfer of the year by the length of a par five, his season is right up there with the banner year for any European golfer. Just look at the five highlights: winning for the first time in America; winning Europe’s flagship event; becoming champion golfer of the year; first European to win five ryder Cup points out of five; claiming the race to Dubai. Each of them alone would have made it some season. rattling off all five in the space of six months was extraordinary.
8 ENGLISH SUCCESS
IT BEGAN with Ian Poulter’s remarkable victory in Houston to get into the masters, while, in recent weeks, we have had one memorable Sunday after another as the English players have taken it in turns to win tournaments.
There is always a feelgood element to any win, of course, but the maiden successes for richard mcEvoy and Paul Waring, after years of trying, and the comeback victories for Tom Lewis, Lee Westwood and Danny Willett, in particular, must have brought a smile to every golfer’s face.
9 MR 59
LooK up oliver Fisher’s statistics for the year and you could be forgiven for thinking his season was bang average. But look up his second round at the Portugal masters and it is clear he had his day in the sun. Europe was the last major tour to witness a 59 and it arrived thanks to the Londoner keeping his nerve on the Algarve.
10 MASTER REED
NoT the most popular masters triumph, if truth be told. Patrick reed’s parents, with whom he has no contact, were watching at their home a few miles away, while there was also plenty of one-handed clapping from those representing Augusta State University, where he went to college. It was impossible, however, not to admire the manner in which he stared down rory mcIlroy on Sunday, and the sterling efforts of rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth.