This is the beginning of our 2013 end of the year lists for sports. I know we will do one for MLB, CFB, CBB, NBA, PGA and NFL. I probably will do a top 20 list of overall moments and if we get real frisky, maybe top 20 figures in sports giving away our first annual Tapper of the Year or something dumb like that. Also as always, these are my lists and I can imagine you have a different one, cool story.
As the calendar year comes to a close, it is time to reminisce about the year we just lived through. Now, I am not referencing your family memories or your career accomplishments; it is time to take a look at the outstanding season we witnessed courtesy of the PGA Tour.I do not want to pound you with stats during this holiday season; I would rather paint a picture of an image to go back to from months ago. We all have our favorites but let’s take a look at my top 10 memories from this year:
10) Phil Dominates Overseas
This storyline is pretty self-explanatory but Phil flew across the pond a week before The Open to get a little time in at The Scottish Open. Phil being a guy who does not waste his own time, won that leading up to his outstanding performance at the British. Muirfield was playing like a sheet of concrete but Phil used his flair for the dramatic to coast to a huge major victory.
9) Tiger dominates everything, except the Majors
Tiger Woods started off the year but stumbling in Arizona, at the WGC-Match Play but that was certainly not a preview of things to come. Tiger won at ease it seemed, but struggled to finish the job in majors. Tiger’s biggest victory came at The Players Championship, where he went head to head with Sergio Garcia, which turned out to be easier than he could have thought.
8) Stenson Close All Year, Crowned Season-Long Champ
Henrik Stenson was a name that we constantly saw hanging around the leaderboard all season long. Because of this, Stenson found himself in prime position come playoff time. He won the last two tourneys of the year to put an exclamation point on one hell of a season.
7) Furyk Shoots Elusive 59
Earlier in the year, Tiger flirted with the idea of shooting the 6th sub-60 round in Tour history, but was not able to finish the job. You could say that Jim finished what Tiger started. At the BMW Championship, Furyk carded a 59, punctuated by birding 2 of the last 3 holes. Furyk has the weirdest swing you will ever see, besides my father’s, but he is a mighty fine ball striker.
6) Tiger Misplaces His Ball at Augusta
Friday afternoon at Augusta National and Tiger Woods is in the 15th fairway, right in the thick of it. His approach smokes the flagstick and ricochets back into the creek. From here it seemed simple: drop in the drop area or drop from the previous shot location, no closer to the hole. We thought at the time that Tiger obeyed this rule. Nope. Tiger dropped his ball incorrectly and was penalized come Saturday morning, a deficient he proved unable to fight back from.
5) Duf Daddy Wins his 1st Major, finally!
4) Sergio Finds the Water, Twice.
After a few days of heated remarks and misplaced anger, Sergio and Tiger were neck and neck down the stretch at Sawgrass. Was Sergio really back? Could he fight those Tiger demons to emerge as The Players Champ? We quickly found out that the answer to both of these was a No. Sergio launched his first tee shot on the famous 17th island hole, right in the water. As if this was not degrading enough, he teed up again, and plunked another one in the drink. Oh Sergio, this is why so many love to hate you.
3) Rose defeats Merion at U.S. Open
Justin Rose was/is one of those guys that is always hanging around. We have just been waiting for him to break through. No one was quite sure what to expect from the players where they arrived at Merion but we quickly learned what the course had to offer. Merion was an absolute beast. Rose remained calm, settled in with the fact that there was not going to be a lot of birdies, and beat out Phil and Jason Day to win his first major title. And he did it all for his father, it does not get much better than that.
2) Spieth Wins Playoff at Deere Run
Jordan Spieth wins. I wanted to keep it simple because that is a line that we will have to get used to reading in the upcoming years. Spieth is a stud, and he has all the skills to compete on the Tour now and long time to come. He edged out the defending champ, Zach Johnson, to win his first PGA Tour Event and get his all-important Tour card. I may be biased to this storyline as Spieth is a young guy like me and his victory came on one of my favorite courses to tee it up, but I do not care. J. Spieth is the man.
1) Scott 1st Aussie to Win the Green Jacket
Not only is Adam Scott easy on the eyes for the lady fans, he is an amazing golfer. Scott seemed to have lost his swagger there for a couple years but he was back with a vengeance at Augusta. He stuck his approach on 18 to put himself in control of his first major. If it were not for the effort of the ageless Angel Cabrera, the roars of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” would have echoed through GA, but things did not come that easy. El Pato took Scott to the playoff but Adam sunk his putt, in the pouring rain, to get the monkey off his back, and win the jacket for Australia.
Sure I might have missed some moments but if these tidbits did not bring back some memories, something is wrong with you. Stay tuned for more golf on the way, as the 2014 season kicks off in a few weeks, and we will be back in full force.
Cheers.
Bryan
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