Thought for the Day:
The hardness of the butter is inversely proportional to the softness of the bread
That Was The Year That Was
It has been a great year for sport but a mixed one for golf. Here are my awards for the 2012 golf season
Bulging-eyed Raving Lunatic of the Year
The Ryder Cup was won by the Americans in less than two days. Until that final Saturday fourball when Ian Poulter launched his own one-man crusade, birdied the last five holes and gave his team-mates the sliver of self-belief they needed to romp through the singles and snatch the unlikeliest of victories.
Depressing Read of the Year
Hank Haney’s book The Big Miss revealed Tiger to be, at times, spiteful, aloof and mean-spirited. We may have suspected as much but did we really need to have it confirmed?
Event of the Year
The Ryder Cup – it’s the only contender.
Worst Shot of the Year
Jeff Fleming, whose house overlooks Lakeridge GC in Reno, Nevada, objected when a golf ball broke one of his windows. So he shot the golfer responsible (thankfully, the man only received superficial injuries).
Best Shot of the Year
Bubba Watson. On the first playoff hole of the Masters he was deep in the woods on the 10th. He hit a 55° wedge 140 yards, hooking it 40 yards onto the green.
Procrastination of the Year
After 30 years, the USGA and R&A finally made a decision about long putters. Expect an announcement any day soon on the legality of those new-fangled gutta percha balls.
Comeback of the Year
Paul Lawrie. Great to see the big man on the winner’s rostrum again.
Michael Campbell. He hasn’t won but please let his recent resurgence be an indication of things to come.
Worst Major of the Year
A tie between the Open and US Open. Webb Simpson crept so quietly through the field at Olympic Club over the weekend that we only noticed him as he played the last couple of holes. And at Lytham, Ernie Els holed a putt on the 72nd but no-one expected it to be for victory because Adam Scott just had to par one of the last four holes. He didn’t.
Detestable Upstart of the Year
Rhein Gibson. He’s a 26-year-old Australian who, in a Golfweek National Pro Tour event shot 55 over the 6,698-yard par-71 River Oaks Golf Club. He made four pars, 12 birdies, two eagles and an enemy of every overweight, middle-aged golfer in the world.
Best Major of the Year
The US PGA. Rory underlined his status as the best in the business.
Law Enforcement Officer of the Year
Pat Rollins, deputy police chief of Lombard, Illinois. He’s the man who got Rory McIlroy to Medinah with 11 minutes to spare before his singles match against Keegan Bradley in the Ryder Cup. If he had not, the USA would have won.
Disappearance of the Year
Yanni Tseng started 2012 exactly as she had finished 2011, sweeping all before her and winning three of the first five events on the LPGA Tour. And then nothing – or at least by her standards, very little. Thankfully she did manage three top-10s in October and November so perhaps the fall is temporary.
Heartwarmer of the Year
Melissa Reid’s victory in the Prague Masters, just four weeks after her mother, Joy, a popular presence on the Ladies European Tour, died in a car crash in Germany.
Caddy of the Year
Mathias Vinson. At the BMW International Open in Germany, the bagman for Jose Manuel Lara (who knew nothing of what was about to happen) went walkabout in the bushes. It transpired that he noticed an extra club in his employer’s bag and decided to dump it in the undergrowth. He was thrown out of the event and advised not to come back.
Collapse of the Year
Adam Scott closing with four consecutive bogies at the Open to throw away the claret jug. Even at a distance of five months the memory gives goosebumps of the wrong sort.
Continuing Misery of the Year
Lee Westwood’s serial inability to win a major. He seems to be going backwards.
Golden Oldie of the Year
Miguel Angel Jimenez, who set a new European Tour record as oldest winner, at 48 years and 318 days.
Tosspot of the Year
A dead heat between Andrew Dudley and an anonymous fan. The former is the idiot who interrupted the US Open prize-giving ceremony with nonsensical screeching noises. The latter yelled at Keegan Bradley that he was a cheat (for using a long putter, now that they are to be banned).
Unique Statistic of the Year
Because of the astonishing comeback of the GB&I Curtis Cup team at Nairn in June, for the first time ever all four major team trophies – the Ryder, Solheim, Walker and Curtis Cups – are held on the same side of the Atlantic.
Desperate Act of the Year
The American PGA picking Tom Watson as its Ryder Cup captain. Do they really believe that the captain is that important, and that there are no other contenders who could do the job?
Player of the Year
Do you really have to ask?
Quote of the Week
Humiliations are the essence of the game. They derive from the fact that the human anatomy is exquisitely designed to do practically anything but play golf
Alistair Cooke