Although the title would suggest that I am likely to review 2010 in golf, I'd like to start by re-living that night of Nov. 27, 2009. As all golf fans know, this was the night when Tiger Woods, one of the biggest golfers to ever play the game, came crashing down. On a personal level, the begin of the whole saga was rather surreal. I used to be sitting enjoying a couple of drinks with university friends, and one of the subjects we discussed was who the best sportsmen in our lifetime had been.
With us all becoming about 18-25, immediately Woods name was thrown into the discussion and no 1 disagreed. Like a prospective journalist, I always like to maintain up to date with the news, so moments later I went on my telephone to check the headlines. I had been taken aback when it was revealed Tiger had been in a vehicle crash. When I heard one hour later he was fine, I thought that was the finish of it. I had been utterly stunned when stories of his affairs with countless ladies arrived on the scene, like porn stars, but let's forget about that. I would like to point out to readers that i'm a enormous fan of Woods. He has entirely transformed golf for my generation and he is among the greatest sportsmen to view every week when he plays. Nonetheless, this year meant it actually turned out to be one of many reasons why it has been a superb year for golf. What I mean by which is, many young golfers and established ones discovered hot form as Tiger lost his, and this to me was superb. It's a rarity once you get almost all the majors producing four days of excellent golf, but that's what we should got this year. Only the Open was the exception, but even then we were treated to a superb performance by Louis Oosthuizen at St Andrews.
Firstly, the Masters at Augusta was among the best in years. Naturally this was the 1st tournament where Tiger Woods came back, and a lot of men and women have forgotten he produced a fantastic performance and finished tied for fourth. However, the tournament was about Phil Mickelson, who picked up his third green jacket having a spectacular final day performance, blowing Augusta and Lee Westwood apart. Westwood is one of my favourite golfers, so it was disappointing to see him miss out once more on acquiring his initial, but Mickelson's play was merely breathtaking. Talking of breathtaking, Anthony Kim's play was spectacular as he shot a 65 on the final day to move into third location.
Next was the US Open at Pebble Beach in June. Once more, a brilliant four days of golf was produced, and a first-time main winner in Graeme McDowell from Northern Ireland emerged. Back in 2000, Woods ripped up this course, and arguably he was just about as ideal a golfer you could ever wish to determine. But these times, conditions had been tougher. McDowell had played solid golf within the very first 3 days, but have been overshadowed by American Dustin Johnson, who went to the final day 3 shots ahead. No golf fan might have predicted what occurred next, as Johnson blew track of an 82 to finish 5 shots behind McDowell. I had been also fascinated by the performance of journeyman Gregory Havret from France. While he would be a prior winner of the Scottish Open, he'd by no means carried out something in the majors till this, and to determine him outscoring Woods (an additional fourth place criminally forgotten by a lot of) was fantastic.
The Open at St. Andrews was the poorest of the majors, but still had some memorable moments, including the performance of Louis Oosthuizen. To score 18-under over the four days at among the toughest courses was a brilliant performance. The first day also saw a memorable nine-under 63 shot by Rory McIlroy, who sadly fell away with an 80 on the second day. Once again Lee Westwood, who had been struggling with a personal injury prior to the tournament, produced a powerful performance at a significant and completed second, albeit by seven strokes to worthy winner Oosthuizen. The ultimate significant of the year in August, the USPGA championship, produced the most controversy. An enthralling championship came to a controversial conclusion when Dustin Johnson (him again) was penalised two shots for apparently grounding his club in a bunker, something which to me seemed hard to think in hindsight. Nevertheless, this led to a playoff in between German Martin Kaymer and American Bubba Watson, two of golf's most thrilling young talents in 2010.
Kaymer ultimately won, having played the more sensible golf (Watson was too aggressive and found water), so the German had become the third first-time key winner this year. And finally, what a Ryder Cup we were treated to in 2010. Although it had to be extended to a Monday finish the very first time ever, this produced it better still. Coming down to the final singles match to determine the outcome was brilliant viewing which i could not take my eyes off. Every one of the 24 players contributed over the 4 days at Celtic Manor, a thing that doesn't constantly happen. The two captains, Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin, each instilled a lot of passion in their teams, as might be noticed with their reactions to gaining even half a point. All things deemed, Tiger Woods demise wasn't pretty to view, however it led to new talents emerging within the Majors, a thing I believed wouldn't have happened otherwise if Woods had continued to experience nicely. The Majors themselves were all enthralling in their own way and produced four worthy and different champions.
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