First to one and all a very loving, warm and fun filled Christmas and all the good luck you can stand for 2012, I'll take any you can't use.
My top 10 Christmas list for Golf 2011 is just a compilation of what grabbed me this year, it is not case of this shot was better than that one.
In general 2011 had a tough act to follow, after the European Tour took most all the honours in 2010 with the Ryder Cup, and McDowell, Oosthuizen and Kaymer winning 3 of the 4 Majors, and Westwood, Kaymer and McDowell at the top of the World Golf Rankings, but damn it they have pulled it off again this year.
Charl Schwartzel (Masters Tournament), Rory McIlroy (US Open) and Darren Clarke (The Open Championship) completing six successive victories by European Tour Members in the Major Championships
Apart from the play of Webb Simpson who won twice in his magical August, and Keegan Bradley's win at the PGA, the story for me on the PGA Tour was parity, 38 different winners including 14 first-timers, and 16 titles for guys in their 20's.
Also on the women's side,Yani Tseng is simply amazing, arguably the best golfer pound for pound in golf, the European Team win in Ireland in the Solheim Cup was thrilling.
In a poor year for Canadian men and women,the play of Adam Hadwin at our Canadian Open at Shaughnessy was the highlight for me..
So here is my top 10.
10. One of my heroes Seve Ballesteros left us all far too soon. He died after losing his battle to overcome a brain tumour and passed away overnight on May 7th at his home in Pedrana with his three children, sons Baldomero and Miguel and daughter Carmen at his bedside along with his ex-wife Carmen. He was only 54.
He was the inspiration behind the European Tour and the revival of the Ryder Cup Lee Westwood, whose tribute to Ballesteros included the words; “We have lost an inspiration, a genius, a role model, a hero and a friend"
9. In a year of parity on the PGA tour as I mentioned earlier, Webb Simpson emerged from the pack and made the race for the money title a thriller when he won the $936,000 at the Wyndham Championship (formerly Greater Greensboro) and then $1.4m at the Deutsche Bank all in a space of 3 weeks.
8. The US win or the International Team loss, however you view it, was great in the middle of the night Presidents Cup viewing with so many story lines, eg Jim Furyk salvaging something from a dismal year with a 5-0 record, Yang and KT Kim beating Woods and Johnson, Allenby a captains pick going 0-4, Woods getting the clinching point beating Baddeley 4and 3. The final 19-15 score was anti-climatic especially after the International team, hammered all week in the foursomes raced out and won the first 5 matches of the singles..
7. When I watched Team Europe defeat Team USA, 15 to 13, to win the 2011 Solheim Cup at Killeen Castle in Ireland I thought this is just the result women's golf needs. It was huge for the LET to win in such dramatic fashion. The teams entered the final day tied, 8-8, and Europe won it with late heroics from Suzann Pettersen and Caroline Hedwall.
Pettersen who was rock solid all week birdied the final three holes of her match against Michelle Wie to win, 1-up. And Hedwall was 2-down to Ryann O'Toole with two holes to play, but won those last two holes to gain the halve. It was Hedwall's half-point that was the clincher, and the emotion on display underlines that this event and the Ryder Cup are not only the best in golf, but perhaps in sports.
6. Yani Tseng has had a year in golf that was even better record wise than Luke Donald. She was #1 in scoring average, driving distance, birdies and rounds under par and won her second consecutive player-of-the-year award.
She won 7 LPGA victories, had 14 top-10 finishes in 22 events and for good measure won 4 titles worldwide. She won 2 majors, and now has 5 and she is only 22 years old.
She is set to eclipse most all LPGA records if she stays healthy, and decides not to have a family. She would be getting a lot more main stream press if she were American, but she is from Taiwan. There is nobody in women's golf from the States that can match Yani right now... nobody in the world either.
5. Charl Schwartzel made history when he won the Masters. Never before had European Tour Members held all 4 Major Championships at the same time, but Schwartzel changed all that with an electrifying four-birdie finish to his final round at Augusta National. He is one of those guys that moved his game up a notch in 2011. Rory was getting all the ink with his final 9 hole meltdown, but it is Charl who has taken the green jacket to every tourney he has played in this year.
4. Darren Clarke at Royal St George’s in July, moved me and everyone else as he fought off Phil Mickelson's hot front nine, and Dustin Johnson's determined bid in at times atrocious weather as we cheered him to the highlight of his career, Open Championship immortality. He hasn't played worth a damn since, may never again, but rounded out a sensational 2 years for Northern Ireland. He will forever be the Open Champion and the official spokesman for Guiness..
3. Rory McIlroy at 22 won not only his first Major, but he shattered records at a very tough Congressional GC in doing so. In winning the 2011 US Open championship with a record low score of 268, 16 under par, he demolished a great field by a margin of 8 shots and this on the heels of his disappointment at Augusta 2 months earlier fresh in everyone's mind. It was a display that matched that of Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in 2000, a performance acknowledged by many as the greatest in the US Open history.
2. This year Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood solidified their reputations even further by dominating the world #1 position. Westwood started the year at #1, Kaymer succeeded him; Westwood then repossessed it before Donald claimed control at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. He has stayed there for 30 weeks. Many in the US don't like it, but along with McIlroy, now #3, these guys are "the man" in golf..
1. This is easy this year, after Luke Donald made golfing history, lost his Dad and with wife Diane welcomed Sophia Ann to the world at 2.11am on November 11 so 11-11-11..
He launched his incredible year when he won the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, beating Kaymer in the final. I mentioned his win at the BMW PGA Championship 3 months later in an epic battle with Westwood, then he won the Barclays Scottish Open at Castle Stuart Golf Links in July the week before the Open Championship.
He was also leading The Race to Dubai which he won by finishing 3rd at the season-ending Dubai World Championship to become the first player in history to officially finish the leading money winner on both The European Tour and the US PGA Tour in the same season. He earned a record €5,323,400 for finishing first on The Race to Dubai and $6,683,214 for being top of the USPGA Tour money list and remember he did that by beating Webb Simpson out by winning the season finale at Disney in dramatic style with a closing 64.
He has set the standard has this quiet little Englishman, a standard that will take some beating, and a standard that is acknowledged by all his peers world wide, if not by the media on this side of the pond, who are all hanging their ratings hats on Tiger's return in Dubai this coming February.
So once again Merry Christmas to all and to all a Goodnight !!
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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