We’re recapping the best of 2018. Unfortunately, it can’t all be positive. Sadly, for one reason or another, here’s who and what left us disappointed this year.
We’re recapping the best of 2018. Unfortunately, it can’t all be positive. Sadly, for one reason or another, here’s who and what left us disappointed this year.
They charged money for it. Subscribers couldn’t access it once they paid for it. Pay-per-view providers ended it up giving it away for free. The telecast lagged. The players didn’t talk. The side action was capped. And the golf - you know, the ostensible product - was just bad. The only thing that delivered was a makeshift, under-the-lights, off-the-putting-green playoff we would have never seen had The Match ended in regulation. Woof.
The Ulsterman got our hopes up with an early, authoritative victory at Bay Hill, but he came up small in two big Sunday spots. He never challenged Patrick Reed in the final round of the Masters and he provided little more than good company for Tiger Woods at East Lake. He remains without a major victory since 2014. He hasn’t won on the European Tour since 2016.
This was going to be the year of Rickie Fowler. He was going to win that first major and the floodgates were going to open. Instead, he exits 2018 without a win of any kind. When is it finally going to be his time?
This marked the first winless year of Jordan Spieth’s professional career. Just when it looked like it was going to shrug off his struggles and retain the claret jug, Spieth failed to deliver on Sunday at Carnoustie. Tied for the 54-hole lead, he carded a birdie-free 76 in the final round. He was one of the few American players to end this year’s Ryder Cup with a winning record, but we’ll remember who he didn’t play with (Patrick Reed) more than who he did play with (Justin Thomas).
Jim Furyk’s first three Ryder Cup selections - Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods - combined to go 0-9-0 in Paris. At least Tony Finau went 2-1!
Le Golf National was set up to expose a U.S. team that arrived ill-prepared to find the fairway. The Americans’ winless streak on European soil now stands at 25 years. They’ll have a chance to keep the drought from reaching a third decade in 2020. For more, see the previous slide.
The most successful year of Finau’s promising young career was also the most disappointing. In the 2017-18 season, Finau racked up 11 top-10 finishes with three runner-ups. He finished second two more times in the fall, at the WGC-HSBC Champions and at the Hero. He did it all without a win.
Is it unfair to call a three-win season disappointing? Absolutely. Just like it was probably unfair to call his four-win 2017 a disappointment. But for a player of DJ’s stature, a year without a major title qualifies as disappointing. Just when it looked like he was going to assert himself as the new Mr. U.S. Open at Shinnecock, he failed to keep pace over the weekend with his buddy Brooks Koepka, who this year passed him in the U.S. Open count, the major victory column, and in the Official World Golf Ranking. Their reported but denied dust-up following the Ryder Cup was ... odd. DJ’s run of dominance as world No. 1 gave way to a revolving door atop the rankings by the end of 2018.
Lydia Ko ended her nearly two-year winless drought in April. For the first time, she cried after a victory. But the former world No. 1 is outside the top 10 in the world and has a lot of work to do with her new coach Ted Oh to compete against the likes of Ariya Jutanugarn, Sung Hyun Park, and a host of other players who appear to have left her in their wake.
The 26-year-old missed the cut in 14 consecutive events this season. He failed to break 80 eight times. Finally, in August, Kaufman announced he was shutting down his season and filing for a medical extension, citing an inflamed elbow. “It has been the toughest year, year-and-a-half of my life, golf wise,” he said in an interview. “It sucks being really good for so long and feeling like I forgot how to play.” When he returns, he’ll have five starts to retain his Tour status.
The typically steady Hideki started the year fifth in the world and very quietly slipped outside the top 20. He hasn’t won since August of 2017.
We thought we were finally going to witness the return of a healthy, in-form Michelle Wie. Nope! Wie won for the first time in four years back in March, and at the time it seemed unthinkable she’d wind up on this list. But an avulsion fracture, bone spurs and nerve entrapment in her right hand marred the second half of her season and eventually led her to surgery. Our 2019 New Year’s resolution? Keep the Big Wiesy out of the hospital.
Tony Romo had his share of opportunities to impress in 2018. He did not. Before he could make his first PGA Tour start, Romo withdrew from a mini-tour event after 27 holes following a first-round 81. Once he did tee it up on the Tour, via an unrestricted sponsor exemption at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, he finished dead last at 15 over par with rounds of 77-82. He later failed to make it out of local U.S. Open qualifying and saw his attempt to secure a Web.com card end in the first stage of qualifying. “I just think the direction I’m going, its positive,” Romo said. “You know I’m excited about the improvement that’s taking place over the last four or five months. It’s safe to say that you’ll see me again (out here).”
She entered the year No. 1 in the world but fell outside the top 10 when she failed to win an event in 2018. As Lydia Ko can attest, if you’re standing still in the women’s game, you’re losing serious ground.