The good news? The USGA and R&A continue to make strides when it comes to revising and—perhaps more importantly—simplifying the Rules of Golf. The bad news? Golf is still, and will always be, a complicated game with complicated rules no matter how straightforward they are.
Tiger Woods and son Charlie followed a 13-under 59 on Saturday with a seven-under 65 on Sunday, their 20-under total leaving them six back of eventual winners, Vijay Singh and his son, Qass. For Team Woods, the event became about other things: The bonding experience between father and son, and their family friends on Team Thomas.
The exchange lasted only about two minutes – Player was due on the tee soon – but it was jam-packed with the kind of information that had the assembled crowd leaning in curiously.
Vijay and Qass Singhs’ 26-under 118 total at the PNC Championship—accomplished by becoming the first team to shoot back-to-back sub-60 rounds in the 25th playing of the event—allowed them to hold off another comeback challenge from John Daly and his son John II, the defending champs, who shot a closing 59 to finish two shots short.
For every child whose enjoyment of the sport is enhanced by the spark of competition is one whose passion is crushed by the pressure applied by his or her parents.
Although he averaged 290.2 yards off the tee – 6.4 yards longer than driving distance leader Davis Love III – in the 17 events and 51 rounds he played that year, Daly’s name is not included among the official stats leaders.
As for how we can actually use this information to improve our own games, The Putting Engineer says to aim a little lower than the greatest of all time.
It’s been quite a year in golf. A dramatic one, if nothing else. And like any good drama, the stage was set with different characters, hitting their lines, playing their parts in moving the story along. So, now, with that analogy not tortured enough, let’s dive into to the key plot points of the year, and what they meant at the time.