They were a breath of fresh air in 2018
It’s awards season everywhere, so it’s only fitting that I have mine to reflect 2018 in the world of golf.
My players of the year are Francesco Molinari and Georgia Hall.
Hats off to Brooks Koepka for winning the US Open and US PGA and ending the year as World No.1, but what Francesco did over the summer was remarkable.
To claim The Open Championship, the BMW PGA at Wentworth and his first win on the PGA Tour with an eight-shot lead was stunning.
And we all know what happened at the Ryder Cup. He was invincible over his five matches and had that special pairing – Mollywood – with Tommy Fleetwood.
When Francesco had a short putt on the 18th at Carnoustie to win The Open, he would have missed it a few years ago.
I had no such worries this time. That was the area in which the Italian has made such a big improvement.
In this era of power hitting, it’s refreshing that someone who focuses on finding the fairways and then landing on the green can still be successful.
After all, that is what we try to teach people when they first pick up a club!
It was uplifting that Francesco was named the World Sports Star of 2018 at the BBC Sports Personality show last Sunday.
Molinari is so modest, and he may not be regarded as having the same superstar status as Roger Federer or Usain Bolt.
But his achievements were just as stellar.
It was a great win for golf as it was an entirely public vote. The popularity of our sport is obviously greater than the doom-mongers would have us believe.
On that sunny afternoon at Royal Lytham & St Annes in August, you couldn’t help but root for Georgia Hall.
To see her win the Women’s British Open, with her father Wayne acting as caddie, was special.
That was my moment of the year, and a crucial one for the female game in this country.
Georgia is a real home girl, and she would probably love to stay and focus on playing in Europe.
Sadly, with the current state of the Ladies European Tour, that is not a viable option. She has to go and play in the United States.
I sincerely hope she embraces the challenge and makes a real success of it, because she certainly has the talent.
In terms of events, nothing comes close to the Ryder Cup. To see upwards of 50,000 fans in Paris was quite a spectacle.
As a former captain, I must congratulate Thomas Bjorn on the job he did to lead Europe to a convincing triumph. He fired up his players like a football manager and reaped the rewards.
However, I must confess that I was a little disappointed. While I wanted a European win, I would have loved a closer match.
But that wasn’t our fault. It was all down to the poor golf from the Americans, who couldn’t find the fairways at Le Golf National.
Chief among those was Tiger Woods. His golf at the Ryder Cup was so poor.
It is also the lasting image I have of him from the year.
That’s a shame after the way he had revived his career, including his first win for five years at the Tour Championship.
Tiger turns 43 a week today. He is not going to dominate golf as he once did, but if he finds form on the right week, Major No.15 is a distinct possibility.