Top 10 stories of the year

What a year it was. We saw a new side of Patrick Cantlay emerge during his FedExCup-winning campaign, a strong roster of major winners and the United States’ Ryder Cup rout.

As 2021 comes to a close, let’s take a moment to look back at some of its biggest moments. Enjoy.

1. CANTLAY CAN DO

In addition to the $15 million, Patrick Cantlay earned a new nickname, one that will likely last just as long as the winner’s check he earned at East Lake. “Patty Ice” they called him for the way he holed important putts against Bryson DeChambeau a week earlier at the BMW Championship. Then he locked up the season-long prize with a clutch approach to East Lake’s par-5 finishing hole to hold off the World No. 1, Jon Rahm.

Beating the best players in the game is what Cantlay did all season. It started at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in his native California, where Rahm and Justin Thomas were runner-up. Then Cantlay beat Collin Morikawa at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday (after Rahm bowed out with a positive COVID diagnosis). And finally, Cantlay bested DeChambeau and Rahm in the final fortnight of the season.

Beat the best to be the best. That’s what Cantlay did to win a season-high four times, including the TOUR Championship. It fulfilled the promise that Cantlay showed a decade ago in that magical summer of 2011, when he shot 60 at the Travelers Championship, was low amateur at the U.S. Open (T21) and finished in the top-10 in another TOUR event (RBC Canadian Open). 

Personal tragedy and injury derailed his career, however. But when he returned four years ago, he quickly earned a reputation as one of the TOUR’s most consistent contenders. In an age of data and analytics, Cantlay is unwavering in his old-school approach, preferring for stability instead of tinkering. That slow build came to a crescendo this year. His four wins were twice as many as he’d earned entering this season. 

“With each passing year, he’s been better in these situations, better dealing with the crowds, better in the media,” his caddie, Matt Minister, said. “His interviews are fantastic; you see it with each passing year, his maturity and how comfortable he is being out here.”

He was comfortable beating the best. And now, at the end of 2021’s Super Season, he lay claim to being the best.

2. MORIKAWA SHUTS DOORS ON DOUBTERS

Sometimes it can be hard to just accept greatness when you see it.

Collin Morikawa made his first 22 cuts as a pro and was a winner in just his sixth start, at the 2019 Barracuda Championship. But we didn’t fully comprehend how special he was.

Then he won twice in his sophomore season, including the PGA Championship. 

But the naysayers were quick to point out that there were no crowds at TPC Harding Park so he didn’t face real pressure.

With his win at the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession, he joined Tiger Woods as the only players to win a major and WGC before turning 25. 

But we still didn’t fully appreciate his greatness. Then it became abundantly clear at The Open Championship at Royal St George’s. He made it obvious that he possesses the intangible qualities that all the greats have, the ones that can’t be measured by Trackman or ShotLink.

A week earlier, he struggled with his ball striking at the Scottish Open, his first foray into links golf. So he adjusted to new irons and also had the temerity to change his putting grip between long and short putts.

He then put on a clinic over four days in front of huge crowds including a stone-cold Sunday effort as Jordan Spieth and Louis Oosthuizen, among others, lurked. He was impervious to the pressure and proved, at just 24, he is the real deal.

Then he was solid as rock in front of the rowdy crowds at the Ryder Cup, securing the United States’ clinching point in its record rout by rifling a 221-yard tee shot at the par-3 17th to within 3 feet of the hole. Morikawa capped off a dream year by winning the European Tour’s season-ending event, the DP World Tour Championship, to become the first American to win the Race to Dubai.

3. RAHM’S RUN AT NO. 1

What a year for the Spaniard. His first child was born, he won his first major and he ended the year ranked No. 1 in the world.

If not for one ill-timed COVID infection, he could have won the FedExCup and PGA TOUR’s Player of the Year award, as well.

Still, Rahm was the steadiest player on TOUR this year. He finished in the top 10 in 15 of 22 starts in the 2021 season, becoming just the fourth player to finish in the top 10 in more than two-thirds of his starts while playing at least 20 events. The others? Tiger Woods (1999, ’00) and Dustin Johnson (2016).

Rahm finished the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in Tiger-like fashion, holing birdie putts of 24 and 18 feet on the final two holes to win by one.

Rahm returned to World No. 1 after winning the U.S. Open and held that position for all but one week for the remainder of the year.

4. TIGER’S TOUGH YEAR

For a moment we feared the worst.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Feb. 23, the news was humming around the golf world that Tiger Woods was involved in a serious car accident. Details were sketchy at first.

Then we learned that the 82-time TOUR winner suffered serious injuries to his right leg, and that amputation was even considered.

He told Golf Digest that the rehab process was “more painful than anything I’ve ever experienced.” He was bedridden for months and admitted that sometimes he would just sit outside to hear the birds chirp. There were few updates of his progress, except for the occasional clandestine photos and videos posted on social media.

Woods posted a video of his swing in November and, while he said at his Hero World Challenge that his future was as a part-time player, he also hit balls several days during that week in The Bahamas. A return to PNC Championship, where he and Charlie thrilled the crowds in 2020, marked Woods’ return to competitive golf. Just seeing him on the course again, and alongside his son, is extra special after all he’s been through this year.

5. PHIL THE THRILL

While Phil Mickelson was still wowing us with the occasional epic bomb or filthy flop shot, most fans figured the 50-year-old veteran had moved into the ceremonial section of TOUR events.

Winning a couple of times in a row on PGA TOUR Champions after going past the half-century mark was cool but really only fed into the above narrative.

That all changed at the PGA Championship, where a windswept Kiawah Island design allowed Mickelson to display his creativity and shotmaking skills.

He was a nice side story when he sat three back after the opening round. Tying for the lead at the halfway point was a neat story. But when he took a one-shot lead into the final round, it all seemed possible.

Brooks Koepka produced a two-shot swing on the opening hole of the final round but Mickelson continued to stay the course and by the final hole the crowd couldn’t contain their excitement – breaking through the ropes to swarm their hero as he closed out an incredible and historic two-shot win.

Mickelson, just shy of his 51st birthday, became the oldest major winner in the history of the game at 50 years, 11 months and 7 days. He also became the sixth-oldest TOUR winner.

He ended 2021 by claiming two more events on PGA TOUR Champions, the inaugural Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS and the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship. He has four wins in six career starts on the senior circuit.

6. THE DROUGHT BREAKERS

Stewart Cink, with his win in the season-opening Fortinet Championship, set the pace for a 2021 season that saw plenty of players end winless droughts. The Fortinet was Cink’s first win since tearing up the storybook quest of Tom Watson in the 2009 Open Championship. Of course, Cink went on to win again at the 2021 RBC Heritage, becoming just the fourth player to win multiple times in a season after turning 47.

Cink did so with his son, Reagan, on the bag, who is the same age as many of Cink’s PGA TOUR peers. Stewart’s first PGA TOUR title came the same year that Collin Morikawa was born.

Cink was one of just several players to re-enter the winner’s circle this year after lengthy waits, providing all of us with a bit of inspiration and showing the power of perseverance. 

Jordan Spieth didn’t have to wait nearly as long, but no one on this list had to answer more questions about a next victory. Like Cink, Spieth’s win this was his first since hoisting the claret jug.

Spieth’s win in the Valero Texas Open came nearly four years after his famous “Go get that” victory at Royal Birkdale. It was a stunning span of time for a player who won three majors before turning 25. We found out later that the win came weeks after Spieth learned that his wife was expecting the couple’s first child.

Hideki Matsuyama also ended a winless drought that stretched back to 2017 by winning the Masters and becoming the first Japanese man to win a major. Matsuyama then claimed THE ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in his home country.

Though he didn’t have to wait four years, Rory McIlroy was in the winner’s circle twice in 2021 after a span that was too long for his liking. His win at the Wells Fargo – his third triumph at Quail Hollow – was his first since 2019. He added the CJ CUP @ SUMMIT in the fall to become the 39th player to win at least 20 times on the PGA TOUR.

And we can’t leave out Tony Finau. Since his 2016 triumph at the Puerto Rico Open, Finau had eight runners-up, three of those in a playoff, and 11 finishes in the top three without another win. But he surged home at Liberty National over the back nine of the THE NORTHERN TRUST before beating Cameron Smith in a playoff.

Lucas Glover won for the first time in a decade after making birdie on five of the final seven holes of the John Deere Classic.

Xander Schauffele didn’t earn his first official PGA TOUR TOUR victory since the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions, but he did claim Olympic gold in Tokyo and did so while playing with home favorite Hideki Matsuyama in Sunday’s final group. And then there’s Jason Kokrak, who had to wait until age 35 to win for the first time on the PGA TOUR but has won three times since the start of the 2021 season. Only FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay has won more in that span.

7. BONUS GOLF GALORE

The 2021 season was full of close finishes. Fourteen playoffs were needed to decide winners, including a stretch late in the year of four straight weeks where 72 holes wasn’t enough to crown a champion.

There was an eight-hole playoff at the Travelers Championship (won by Harris English) and a seven-man showdown for the bronze medal in the Olympics.

The final playoff, at the BMW Championship, was arguably the best.

Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay had already started the final round at Caves Valley three clear of the pack and quickly were in a match-play scenario. When DeChambeau took a one-shot lead on the 16th hole in regulation and Cantlay put his tee shot on 17 into the water, it appeared over.

But Cantlay made a huge bogey putt to stay within one and then made a birdie bomb on 18 to ultimately stay alive. During the first five extra holes, both players missed chances to win or made great saves to stay alive. DeChambeau recovered from a water ball of his own and Cantlay responded to one DeChambeau dart with a better one.

In the end another great 17-foot birdie on the sixth extra hole was enough for Cantlay to prevail and take the FedExCup lead to East Lake – ultimately very important as he held on for a one-shot win over Jon Rahm to win it all.

8. MATSUYAMA’S MAGICAL YEAR

Ten years earlier, Hideki Matsuyama almost did the unthinkable. He debated whether he should accept an invitation to Augusta National. These were exceptional circumstances, however. His homeland was devastated by a tsunami and competing in a golf tournament, even one as prestigious as the Masters, didn’t feel appropriate. He was encouraged to go, however, and serve as an inspiration to his reeling countrymen.

The teen-aged schoolboy went, and was an inspiration indeed, shooting a third-round 68 and earning low-amateur honors while holding his own against the best players in the world. That Saturday score proved to Matsuyama that a professional career was an attainable dream.

A decade later, he returned to Augusta National and again he was part of the trophy ceremony held late Sunday evening on the club’s practice putting green. This time, he was having the Green Jacket slipped on his shoulders, however. His Masters win was his first victory since 2017. Matsuyama had become the first male major champion from golf-mad Japan.

Anticipation was high for his return to his homeland for the Olympics but Matsuyama suffered a heartbreaking finish. He missed a short birdie putt on the final hole that would’ve won him the bronze medal, then lost in the seven-man playoff for that prize.

He was victorious in his next event in Japan, however, claiming the ZOZO Championship in emphatic fashion, with an eagle on the 72nd hole.

9. POWER BALL

The revolution may have stalled, but Bryson DeChambeau’s incredible transformation still made us rethink the way the game is played. His dominance at Winged Foot led others, including Rory McIlroy, to follow DeChambeau’s lead, only for them to find that swinging out of your shoes isn’t as easy as it seems, even when armed with a 460cc driver. DeChambeau even backed off from his original plan, dropping pounds as the season wore on in the name of consistency.  

So, we may not see a cadre of bulked-up brutes swinging for the fences on a weekly basis but credit to DeChambeau for thinking outside the box. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in 2021, and led the TOUR in driving distance for the second consecutive season.

He wowed at the Ryder Cup, hitting a 417-yard blast that left him just a wedge into a par-5 and drove the first green in his Singles match against Sergio Garcia.

Then he showed a week later that he could hang with the longest hitters in the world. He went from Whistling Straits to the Mesquite Regional Sports and Event Complex to compete in the world long-drive championship, eventually advancing to the quarterfinals. He promised to come back even stronger in 2022.

10. A RYDER CUP ROUT

For the U.S. Ryder Cup team and its fans, it was worth the wait.

The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the biennial team competition against the best of Europe for a year, but when the two squads finally hit Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, a new wave of young American talent produced an epic performance.

Captain Steve Stricker oversaw a 12-man team sporting eight players under 30, six of whom were Ryder Cup rookies, and they didn’t disappoint. The final score was 19-9, the largest margin of victory in the modern Ryder Cup since the rest of Europe was added to the team from Great Britain & Ireland.

It was the first time since 1993 that either Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods was not part of the lineup, although Mickelson was a vice-captain and Woods stayed in contact with inspirational messages to the team from home as he recovered from injuries sustained in his car accident.

The ‘old man’ of the team, 37-year-old Dustin Johnson, led the way by becoming just the fourth U.S. player to go 5-0-0 in a Ryder Cup. He formed a lethal pairing with Collin Morikawa in team play (3-0-0), while the duo of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele (3-0-0) also looked phenomenal. All 12 players gained at least a point for the team and five of them were undefeated.

For Padraig Harrington’s Europe it was a somber affair. Travel restrictions diluted their already outmatched fan base and while the Spanish duo of Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia (3-0-0) were the bright light of team play, the rest of the squad struggled against the youthful juggernaut.

In the aftermath, the Americans partied hard but warned they intended to turn this demolition into a dynasty. The U.S. hasn’t won in Europe since 1993 but with time on their side this team hopes to change that.