Golf’s most underappreciated moments of 2023

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When we recall 2023, there will be plenty of things we remember from the year in golf, from the good (a drama-filled Ryder Cup), to the bad (PGA Tour vs LIV saber-rattling) to the, well, unexpected (Michael Block). Conversely, there were a variety of things that happened over the last 12 months that were notable yet risk falling through the cracks of time. Each of the nine items listed below had its moment of newsiness, and each had the potential to be even more memorable (for better or worse) with even the slightest additional twist of fate. All are worth one more acknowledgement as the calendar prepares to turn and we get ready to ring in a new year.

Sam Bennett’s Masters run

No professional golf tournament makes as big deal about its amateur participants as the Masters. That became evident once again last April when Sam Bennett, the 23-year-old reigning U.S. Amateur champion, played his way into solo second place after 36 holes at Augusta National with back-to-back 68s and became a social media sensation. The fifth-year senior at Texas A&M showed off an impressive game while also carrying himself with grace in the wake of his personal story. Bennett’s father, Mark, died in June 2021 after a battle with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Sam kept the last note that Mark wrote to him and had the message, in his father’s handwriting, made into a tattoo on his arm as a tribute. In rough weather over the weekend, Bennett came back to earth with rounds of 76-74, yet still finished T-16. He didn’t get a prize money payout, but a business expert estimated his performance likely was worth high six figures in future endorsement earnings. He also used that celebrity to also earn sponsor’s exemptions after turning pro in June, eventually earning conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2024.

Phil Mickelson’s T-2 at Augusta

A three-time Masters champion, Mickelson had skipped playing the major most dear to him in 2022 amid the chaos of his eventual jump to LIV Golf and his controversial comments in the run-up. And he appeared to be on his best behavior this year at Augusta, reportedly not speaking at all during the Champions Dinner on Tuesday. But when his game looked rusty on Friday he still told the media he felt ready for a break through. Sure enough on Sunday, a final-round 65 allowed him to put a scare into Jon Rahm and the others in the hunt down the stretch.

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Patrick Smith

What’s truly remarkable about Lefty’s eventual T-2 finish are these stats:

  • He had finished in the top 10 in just one of his previous 20 major starts (his 2021 PGA win at Kiawah)
  • He didn’t finish in the top 50 in the year’s remaining three majors.
  • Just once in the rest of 2023 did Mickelson have a top 10 finish (T-9, LIV Golf Bedminster).
  • He was 52 when he posted the T-2.

Lilia Vu’s career turnaround

You hear stories about players struggling with their games and pondering whether the grind of pro golf is worth it. But those players are usually older than 26 and don’t necessarily have the track record of Vu, who was college golf’s player of the year at UCLA in 2018 and the Epson Tour player of the year in 2021. Still, the California native took her self-doubts that surfaced after quickly losing her LPGA card as a rookie in 2019 (and resurfaced again after a shaky return in 2022) and rechanneled them in 2023 to have a career year that included four wins on the LPGA Tour, including two majors, and a vault to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s Rankings.

Part of the inspiration to not give up came from the memory of her grandfather, Dinh Du, who fled Vietnam with his family on a homemade boat in 1982, eventually coming to America and laying the foundation for Vu’s future in golf.

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Warren Little

“When I get down on myself I kind of think, okay, grandpa didn’t do all this for you to get upset over one shot,” Vu explained earlier this year.

Vu’s historic season made her the first American to win LPGA player of the year honors since 2014 and the first player to win multiple majors since 2021.

The NCAA’s wiped-out round

It’s the biggest tournament of the year, no matter what division of college golf you’re playing. And with the D-III women’s title on the line at a course that frequently hosts the championship, Mission Inn and Resort’s El Campeon Course in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., what happened amid the third round was truly shocking. A bad pin placement on a sloping part of the green at the par-4 sixth hole caused havoc, viral videos of short putts rolling every which way but in the hole creating nightmares.

The majority of the 151-player field had finished the round, which was stopped in the afternoon due to inclement weather, when the NCAA Division III women’s golf committee decided to wipe out the results and shorten the tournament to 54 holes.

“Throughout Round 3 on Thursday, and despite efforts to improve conditions, it became apparent that the pin placement on hole No. 6 … was unplayable,” the committee said in statement provided to GolfChannel.com. “After play was suspended due to lightning late Thursday afternoon, the committee analyzed numerous different options on how to complete the tournament in the time allotted.”

The tournament reverted back to the standings through 36 holes and a cut was created to get the third and now final round finished the next day. George Fox University eventually walked off with the title.

Nick Taylor’s win in Canada

It was one of the too-good-to-be-true moments of 2023, and came at a perfect time. Earlier in the week, the golf world had been stunned off the course when the PGA Tour, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the DP World Tour announced their “framework agreement.” Amid speculation about what this meant for the future, Nick Taylor got revenge on 69 years of past heartbreak for golfers from the Great White North by holing out this monster eagle putt in a playoff to win the RBC Canadian Open.

By holing the longest putt of his PGA Tour career, Taylor became a national hero, the first native son to win the title since Pat Fletcher in 1959.

Matthew Jordan’s hometown moment at the Open Championship

In a parallel of sorts to Taylor’s big moment in Canada, Matthew Jordan became a local hero/legend thanks to his stellar play at the Open Championship. The 27-year-old Englishman who plays on the DP World Tour is a member at Royal Liverpool, so earning a spot in the championship during a 36-hole final qualifying earlier in July was an awfully big deal. He was given the honor of hitting the first tee shot during Thursday’s opening round, but played like much more than a ceremonial golfer when he posted a two-under 69 to find his way atop the early leaderboard.

“I saw so many different members; it’s hard to put a number on it,” he said on that Thursday. “To have that level of support and have people want you to do so well, it’s just amazing. If I focus on each shot, then obviously it doesn’t matter, and then afterwards with some of the holes like we described 1 and 17 and stuff like that, that can take over, and I don’t mind showing emotion as long as I’m ready for the next one.”

Jordan was more than a one-day wonder, finishing T-10 come Sunday (albeit nine shots behind runaway winner Brian Harman). He jumped inside the top 200 in the World Ranking and clinched a spot in the 2024 Open with his performance.

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Charlie Crowhurst/R&A

“To be able to play and perform under kind of the pressure that I felt all week,” Jordan said, “like I haven’t felt calm or normal really the whole time. Which is great because it lets me focus and it kind of makes every shot mean something.”

Steph Curry’s hole-in-one at the American Century Championship

Pro athletes with a side-passion for golf is nothing new, but NBA star Steph Curry’s infatuation feels different. And that came across once again during his participation in the American Century Championship in July. Come Sunday, the 35-year-old nine-time All-Star with the Golden State Warriors went on to claim the title, aided by this remarkable shot during Saturday’s third round at Edgewood Resort in Lake Tahoe.

There’s a way to watch Curry’s celebration and find it over the top. But that would be taking an awfully cynical view of things. Better to let him have the moment, as he did again in wrapping up a title that seemed nearly as satisfying as his four NBA crowns.

Caroline Hedwall’s out-of-nowhere Solheim Cup charge

Team Europe was eyeing an unprecedented third straight victory over the U.S. in the biennial matches, but the task was starting to look too tall on Sunday at Spain’s Finca Cortesin. But suddenly things started to break in favor of the home team, thanks in no small part to the effort of one of the most unlikely players on Suzann Pettersen’s roster. Hedwall, a 34-year-old Swede ranked 122nd coming into the event, was facing Ally Ewing in Sunday singles. A four-time Solheim Cup player, Hedwall was 3 down through 12 holes only to birdie five of the last six to flip her match. Hedwall’s 2-up win prevented the Americans from squeezing even a half-point that was all that was needed for an overall victory. Instead, the final result was a tie between the two sides that actually felt like another win for the Europeans, who got to retain the cup.

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JORGE GUERRERO

“I was just trying to stay patient,” Hedwall said. “I didn’t make any putts on the front and it was frustrating, for sure, and the wind was turning around. But somehow I just felt like it has to turn around at some point and it truly did, which I’m very happy for.”

Steve Stricker’s monster senior season

There have been plenty of players who have had dominant seasons on the PGA Tour Champions over the years, but that doesn’t make Stricker’s accomplishments any less remarkable. In 16 starts, the 56-year-old from Wisconsin won six times, had 14 top-five finishes, 15 top-10s, claimed three majors. His lead in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup points race was so large that he clinched the title after just one of the three playoff events was contested. While 2023 will be remembered as well for Bernhard Langer eclipsing Hale Irwin’s career PGA Tour Champions win record, Stricker was the true bright light of the season.

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David Berding