Even after two surgeries, it’s hard to believe Tiger Woods missed an entire season. Click here for the biggest surprises of 2016.
Even after two surgeries, it’s hard to believe Tiger Woods missed an entire season. Click here for the biggest surprises of 2016.
Since winning her first major, the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst, Michelle Wie has been mired in a slump and hampered by injury. In 2016, she missed 12 cuts and withdrew once in 25 starts, posting just one top-10 finish. Wie, who started the year 29th in the world after a largely lackluster 2015, is now 173rd in the Rolex Rankings.
Tiger Woods has long been known for racing back from injury and pushing his body to its limits - but not this time. After two back procedures in Fall 2015, Woods sat out the entire 2015-16 season before making his competitive return in December at the Hero World Challenge. Woods will renew his assault on the record books in 2016, after missing 16 valuable months.
He didn’t win in 2016, but it sure feels like he did. Phil Mickelson was one roll away from firing the first 62 in major history and one Henrik Stenson away from winning his second claret jug. In September, he went 2-1-1 at Hazeltine, winning back the Ryder Cup and validating his task force.
Only one other player in golf (Hideki Matsuyama) had more worldwide wins than Alex Noren in 2016. Noren quietly put together a four-win season - taking the Scottish Open, the European Masters, the British Masters and the Nedbank Challenge - to go from 96th in the world to ninth.
Wesley Bryan has gone from making trick shot videos with his brother and competing on Golf Channel’s “Big Break” to the PGA Tour. Bryan won three times on the Web.com Tour in 2016, becoming the 11th player since 1997 to earn a “battlefield promotion.”
After Inbee Park staggered her way to the LPGA Hall of Fame eligibility while playing through a thumb injury, there was a genuine question as to whether she would ever play again. The former world No. 1 withdrew from two events in the spring and finally crossed the HOF finishing line at the KPMG Women’s PGA, where she missed the cut. Two months later, she showed up and stunned the golf world by winning the first gold medal ever awarded for women’s golf. She hasn’t played a competitive round since.
Jimmy Walker played his first 188 PGA Tour starts without a victory. Three years later, he’s a six-time winner and a PGA champion. During a rainy, start-and-stop week sandwiched between The Open and golf’s return to the Olympics, Walker scrambled for par on the 72nd hole to edge Jason Day at Baltusrol, capping off a remarkable transition from journeyman to major champion.
“I can’t wait to get back to [North Middlesex Golf Club], get hammered and see my mom and brother and spend time with them and just celebrate.” And with that line after his victory at the Open de Espana, Andrew Johnston became an overnight sensation. The affable Englishman turned into the toast of the golf world over the summer, finishing T-8 at The Open. Shortly thereafter, “Beef” picked up a sponsorship from Arby’s and secured PGA Tour status via the Web.com Finals. From outta nowhere, indeed.
Thomas Pieters became a European captain’s pick after firing a first-round 9-under 62 while in the same group with captain Darren Clarke at the Made in Denmark, which he went on to win. Although he got off to a shaky start at Hazeltine, losing his first match with the slumping Lee Westwood, Pieters would soon find a new partner in Rory McIlroy and prove unbeatable. McIlroy and Pieters won three straight matches before Pieters took down J.B. Holmes, 3 and 2, in singles.
Billy Hurley held a news conference at the 2015 Quicken Loans National asking for help in finding his missing father, who died two weeks later of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 61. At the same event one year later, Hurley, a former Naval lieutenant who resides just an hour from Congressional Country Club, picked up his first PGA Tour victory. “It’s been a hard year, it’s been a really hard year. It’s nice to have something go well,” he said.
Ariya Jutanugarn went from missing 10 straight cuts in 2015 to winning five times in 2016, including three events in a row and her first major at the Ricoh Women’s British. Her unexpected run of dominance advanced her to No. 2 in the Rolex World Rankings and pushed her past No. 1 Lydia Ko for the Player of the Year Award and the Race to the CME Globe’s $1 million jackpot.