Biggest golf stories in 2006

December 28, 2006

It was a year of birdies and bogeys, incredible victories, monumental collapses, inspiring comebacks and shots off of rooftops.

Tiger Woods continued to dominate men’s golf, Annika Sorenstam was dethroned, and both made headlines by missing cuts.

2006 also will be remembered as the year when the game lost several personalities and a pair of legends.

There were plenty of big stories, including these 10:

Tiger Woods
Despite taking a two-month break after the death of his father, Earl, in May, Woods won eight titles, including two majors, in just 15 events and was named PGA Tour Player of the Year for the eighth time. He ended the season with six consecutive victories and 47 consecutive rounds of par or better. His scoring average of 68.17 was the lowest in tour history, and no one was asking why he replaced swing coach Butch Harmon with Hank Haney. He also got a little help from the golf gods when he hit a 9-iron off a roof and into a parking lot, received a preferential drop and salvaged a bogey on his way to victory in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Phil Mickelson
Using two drivers, Mickelson won his second Masters and second consecutive major, and in the final round of the U.S. Open, talk of a “Mickel-slam” began. It ended quickly on the 18th hole at Winged Foot, where he needed a par to win his third major in a row and ended up with a double bogey, losing by 1 shot to Geoff Ogilvy of Scottsdale. That pretty much ended the season for Lefty, who failed to contend in the British Open or PGA Championship, skipped the Tour Championship and struggled in the Ryder Cup.

Lorena Ochoa
The pride of Mexico dethroned the queen of the LPGA Tour, taking the money title and Player of the Year honors. Ochoa, who won six times, ended Sorenstam’s five-year reign as the tour’s top player. All that was lacking was a major Championship. She came close, losing in a playoff to Karrie Webb in the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Ryder Cup
Led by captain Tom Lehman of Scottsdale, unity was the focus of the U.S. team that hoped to end Europe’s dominance at the K-Club near Dublin, Ireland. Unfortunately, that didn’t translate to more clutch shots and important putts. Inspired by Ireland’s Darren Clarke, whose wife, Heather, had died of cancer a month before the event, Europe rolled to an 181/2-91/2 victory. The thrashing prompted the PGA of America to overhaul its points system and will give 2008 captain Paul Azinger four at-large picks.

Michelle Wie
The talented teen had a wild ride in her first full year as a pro, prompting equal doses of praise and criticism. She finished in the top five in her first six LPGA events, including three majors but failed to win. She also made her first cut in a men’s event in Korea but struggled mightily in her next five men’s tournaments with a stroke average of 76.08 and didn’t come within 4 shots of making the cut in any of them. She ended the year by shooting 81-80 in the Casio World Open, declined to join the LPGA Tour and announced that she will enroll at Stanford next year.

Hootie Johnson
During his controversial eight-year tenure as Masters and Augusta National chairman, Johnson thumbed his nose at just about everyone, including women’s rights leader Martha Burk. Johnson, who stepped down in May, also oversaw two renovations to the course, which stretched its length to 7,445 yards, despite criticism from Jack Nicklaus and others. He was replaced by Billy Payne, who is best known for bringing the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta, somehow convincing the International Olympic Committee that the average temperature in that city is 75 in July.

The commissioners
As the first female commissioner of the LPGA Tour, Carolyn Bivens sought to change its business structure and met with controversy that included a media boycott, the departure of three top executives and a backlash from the Tournament Owners Association. Things quieted down by the end of the year, but four tournaments have been replaced by new events. Tim Finchem negotiated a new TV deal for the PGA Tour and announced plans for the FedEx Cup seasonlong points race, but even some of the tour’s top players remain confused about how it will work and whether it will produce the big finish he envisions.

The comebackers
Steve Stricker started the year with no status on the PGA Tour but nearly played his way onto the Ryder Cup team. Stricker posted seven top-10 finishes, including ties for sixth in the U.S. Open and seventh in the PGA Championship, and was 34th on the money list. On the LPGA Tour, Webb ended a 21-month winless streak with five victories and finished second on the money list. She also hit the shot of the year, holing out from 116 yards on the last hole to force a playoff in the Kraft Nabisco, which she won.

The seniors
No longer the domain of legends such as Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus, “young seniors” have taken the Champions Tour reins. That happened this year when rookies Jay Haas and Loren Roberts battled back and forth all season. Haas came out on top in the final event, but Roberts gets an asterisk as he missed two events late in the season to serve a Ryder Cup vice captain and attend Byron Nelson’s funeral.

The legends
Along with Earl Woods, Heather Clarke and swing coach Dick Harmon, golf lost two of its greatest players and ambassadors with the deaths of Nelson and Patty Berg. Nelson set records that probably are untouchable with 18 wins, including one stretch of 11 in a row, in 1945. Berg, one of the 13 founders of the LPGA Tour, won 60 titles, including a record 15 majors.
Source: azcentral.com

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