12 DAYS OF GOLF
AS THE SPORT STARTS ITS CHRISTMAS BREAK, HERE’S DEREK LAWRENSON’S...
That was some year, wasn’t it? Never mind the 12 days of Christmas…. by way of a farewell column for this year, here are my 12 days of golf that made this such a fabulous season.
SUNDAY AT THE OLYMPICS
a month earlier there had been only acrimony and now we had what can only be described as pure gold. how perfect that the two poster boys for golf’s return to the Games should slug it out, with Justin Rose edging it for Britain over henrik Stenson from Sweden. the shootout attracted the biggest television audience ever in Britain and Sweden for a golf event.
SUNDAY AT THE RYDER CUP
It might not have gone down to the wire like all the best editions, but it was still spellbinding. at the heart of the final day’s singles were Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia’s hell-bent attempt to birdie every hole, while the first nine holes of Rory McIlroy against Patrick Reed was as good as golf gets.
SUNDAY AT THE MASTERS
Forget the fact that it went pear-shaped for Danny Willett at the Ryder Cup; pear- shaped for most of the summer, in fact. the Yorkshireman will always have augusta and that’s worth a bad six months for any golfer. the story of the man who celebrated the birth of his first child one week and turned up and won a green jacket the next is one of those that explains why we love sport.
SUNDAY AT THE OPEN
a run of curious winners of thee Claret Jug at Royal troonn came to an emphatic end following an n almighty shootout between henrik k Stenson and Phil Mickelson. It spokeke of the quality that Stenson had d to come up with perhaps the finest st round in Open history to see off thehe american and finally get his hands on a major.
SATURDAY AT THE RYDER CUP
a stunning second day of unrelenting drama, as Sergio Garcia cia and Rafa Cabrera-Bello evoked the he spirt of Seve Ballesteros and Josese Maria Olazabal to join a raging Roryory and his quiet sidekick thomas Pieters ers to inspire a morning comeback — only nly for Europe to throw it all away again in the evening shadows.
SUNDAY AT THE US OPEN
We all love a tale of redemption and adding to Dustin Johnson’s was the bout of lunacy he had to put up with on the final day when the USGa’s rules officials stepped in when they were not needed. thankfully, Johnson had been through enough in his life not to lose his head, and closed out his maiden major success with a classic six iron to the last.
SUNDAY AT THE US PGA
american Jimmy Walker held off world No 1 Jason Day with a bogey-free round of 67. If you want to know how hard it is to win majors these days, consider this: all four winners this year were first-timers and yet all four played nerveless, perfect golf down the stretch. No one seems to get handed these titles anymore.
SUNDAY AT THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
We should have guessed that when Rory McIlroy finally got his hands on the FedEx Cup and its extravagant $10million bonus it would be through playing otherworldly golf down the stretch, holing an eagle on the 16th on his way to overturning a three- shot deficit with three holes remaining in atlanta. a birdie at 18, after a chip from a bunker, sealed his place in the play- off. the gutsy Ryan Moore took him to the fourth extra hole and even there he holed a 20ft putt for par, only for Rory to follow him in from similar length for a match-winning birdie.
THURSDAY AT THE OPEN
One day a golfer will shoot 62 in a major but until then the gods are chortling mightily at keeping us all in suspense. Phil Mickelson looked to have completed the perfect round but his 20ft birdie putt on the 18th somehow missed by a hair’s breadth. It was the 26th round of 63 seen in majors. ‘It’s heartbreaking,’ said Mickelson, with all the feeling of a 46-year-old who knew his chance would not come again.
SUNDAY AT THE DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
they say Matt Fitzpatrick doesn’t have the wow factor of some but he’s certainly come up with plenty of wow moments for a man just turned 22. a birdie-four down the last to beat compatriot tyrrell hatton, claim £1.3million and become the youngest Englishman to win three times on tour? that’s wow enough for me.
SUNDAY AT THE IRISH OPEN
For a pretty quiet year by his own standards, Rory still created plenty of highlight-reel moments to remember. here he delivered in style at the K Club, with two of the shots of the year in the space of a half-hour on the 16th and 18th to turn a one-stroke deficit into a three-shot lead and win on home soil for the first time.
SUNDAY AT THE HERO WORLD CHALLENGE
true, the event was meaningless, but there was no disguising the frisson of excitement at the sight of arguably the greatest sportsman of the past quartercentury clad in a red polo shirt once more. Best of all was the fact tiger Woods looked healthy and played more than enough good golf to leave us eager to see what 2017 has in store.