2007 Golf year in review
The year 2007 for competitive golf had some predictable results as usual, but enough quirky things also happened, that kept it interesting. Let me offer a few highlights on the year as I saw them.
Tiger Woods won the Buick Invitational, his 7th straight tour win, and his 3rd straight Buick, and put the boys’ on-notice that the cat was on the prowl. Watch out for Tiger in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, the site of the Buick Open in San Diego. Brandt Snedeker opened with 61 at the Buick as part of a great season that earned him Rookie of the Year honors.
Locally, Phil Mickelson won at Pebble Beach by 5 shots, over Kevin Sutherland from Sacramento, and that set up a very nice year for Kevin. The defending champion, Aaron Oberholser was in attendance, but did not play due to injury.
Fred Funk won on the PGA-Tour after turning 50, and he would also win on the Champions Tour.
Mid-Western hero Zack Johnson won the Masters, and would follow-up a month later to win in Atlanta. He now has 3-wins, all in the state of Georgia.
How can we forget the 2 chip-ins by Boo Weekley to win at Harbor Town Golf Links? When asked a few weeks later about playing golf in Scotland, near the home of golf, St. Andrew’s, he said he thought the home of golf was where he was from.
K.J. Choi won “Jack’s Tournament”, The Memorial, which was a very personal win for K.J., as he grew up learning golf by reading about Jack Nicklaus, and watching his videos…Only in America.
The U.S. Open at the historic Oakmont CC was spectacular, with Angel Cabrera the eventual champion, holding off Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk right down to the last hole.
The British Open was another great story with Padriag Harrington winning in a playoff over Sergio Garcia. Amazing up’s and down’s over the last few holes and always a great event to watch in general.
Tiger would only win one major in 2008, the PGA, over a hard charging Woody Austin. Tiger would win the FedEx Cup, but his highlight of the year was the clearly the birth of his daughter, Sam.
Woody Austin would earn a spot on the President’s Cup team, and steal the show by falling into a lake after hitting a shot and submerging in the water. This was the moment of the year.
The young stars on the LPGA Tour won events, with Paula Creamer winning the inaugural tour event in Hawaii, Morgan Pressel taking The Nabisco, and Natalie Gulbis winning the Evian Masters. These wins were the first for all these fine young players. But, the LPGA story of the year was Lorena Ochoa being named player of the year, with 8-wins.
How about clunkers of the year? Women’s Division: Michelle Wie, for pulling out of Annika Sorenstam’s tour event with the apparent fear of not breaking 90, and being banned for a year. Wie would claim a sore wrist, but was hitting balls the next day.
Men’s Division: As I look down the money list, I see Scott Gump, who entered 12 events, and won only $7,850. But a bigger story was Craig Perks, who won the Players Championship in 2002, would enter 15, events, and never make a cut. In November, Perks announced his retirement from the game.
