Best of the decade: The ultimate listicle

Another decade has come and gone, leaving us to ponder the most indelible moments of the last 10 years on the PGA TOUR. Who hit the best shot? Who had the best season? Who pulled the most heartstrings? The answers are highly subjective, which is to say the following list is a mere conversation starter, something to get the arguments started. Here are the moments that stood out and demanded to be counted when sorting through the last decade. BEST OF THE DECADE: Top 10 players | Stats of the decade | Equipment developments BEST SEASON Jordan Spieth, 2014-2015 Five wins and a FedExCup in the year he turned 22. Spieth was phenomenal on the way to 15 top-10s from 25 starts. Along with wins at the Valspar Championship and John Deere Classic, he claimed the Masters and U.S. Open to give hope of a calendar grand slam. The Texan was one shot out of a playoff at The Open Championship and runner-up at the PGA Championship. He finished the season by winning the TOUR Championship and FedExCup. Four total runner-ups, a third and two fourths also on the resume. Add an unofficial win at the Hero World Challenge, a Presidents Cup, and a win at the Australian Open and that was a season to savor. Honorable mentions: Justin Thomas, 2016-17 (five wins and the FedExCup); Tiger Woods, 2013 (five wins). BEST WIN – THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP Rickie Fowler, 2015 Fowler prevailed in the greatest finish to THE PLAYERS Championship ever. Over the final hour, six players had hopes of winning, and four of them were tied for the lead. Fowler played the final four holes of regulation in birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie to set the pace in the clubhouse. But both Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner made huge birdies on the island 17th to join him setting up the first three-hole aggregate playoff over the 16th, 17th and 18th holes. Fowler and Kisner made two birdies each to eliminate Garcia, so on to sudden death at the island green. Kisner took dead aim and hit it to 12 feet. Fowler responded in style, throwing a dagger to five feet. After Kisner’s birdie attempt came up short, Fowler birdied the hole one more time for the biggest win of his career. Honorable mentions: Tiger Woods, 2013 (11 years after his first PLAYERS win); K.J. Choi, 2011 (playoff against David Toms). BEST WIN – WORLD GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS Jason Day, 2014 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play The epic final match between Day and Frenchman Victor Dubuisson was incredible theatre. Day had a 2-up lead through 16 holes and appeared to be heading to victory until Dubuisson produced magic in the Arizona desert. He birdied the 17th from a fairway bunker and watched Day three-putt the 18th to send it to extra holes. It looked a short reprieve when Dubuisson found the dreaded jumping cholla cactus on approach, but an incredible recovery shot kept him alive. One hole later, he ridiculously again escaped a trapped lie around the green to extend. It took five extra holes before Day prevailed. Among others, Day had beaten Louis Oosthuizen and Rickie Fowler to get to the final, and the win was a precursor to his dominance in 2015-16. Honorable mentions: Tiger Woods 2013 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational; Phil Mickelson 2018 WGC-Mexico Championship BEST WIN – FEDEXCUP PLAYOFFS Rory McIlroy, 2016 TOUR Championship Three shots behind with three holes to play, McIlroy holed a pitching wedge from 137 yards for eagle on the par-4 16th to catapult into contention. His 6-under 64 got him into a three-way playoff against Ryan Moore and Kevin Chappell with the FedExCup and $10 million on the line for the Northern Irishman. Four playoff holes later, back at the 16th, McIlroy knocked in his 15-foot birdie putt to win the TOUR Championship and the FedExCup in dramatic fashion. Honorable mentions: Tiger Woods, 2018 TOUR Championship; Dustin Johnson, 2017 THE NORTHERN TRUST BEST WIN – MAJORS Tiger Woods, 2019 Masters No surprise here. Nearly 11 years, plus multiple back surgeries and other upheavals removed from his 14th major (2008 U.S. Open), Woods picked up No. 15 at the 2019 Masters. Many thought the day would never come, and for a while even Woods was among them. Honorable mentions: Adam Scott, 2013 Masters; Darren Clarke, 2011 Open Championship; Sergio Garcia, 2017 Masters; Shane Lowry, 2019 Open Championship FIVE MOST MEMORABLE SHOTS Bill Haas: 17th hole, East Lake Country Club, 2011 TOUR Championship, Round 4 With the FedExCup and $10 million on the line Haas pulled his approach on the penultimate hole of the tournament into the lake in Atlanta. Miraculously it sat in the mud, half submerged in the water, and Haas played a spectacular recovery shot to save par and ultimately take home the season-long championship. Phil Mickelson: 13th hole, Augusta National, 2010 Masters, Round 4 Mickelson had just taken the outright lead with birdie on 12 but hit his driver on 13 into the pine straw and behind two trees. Instead of just laying up, he convinced himself the percentage play was a 6-iron to the green on the iconic par 5. The incredible strike from a terrible lie, through a small gap and over the greenside creek, settled 4 feet from the pin and sent him on the way to a third green jacket. Jonathan Byrd: 17th hole, TPC Summerlin, 2010 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Playoff Byrd was locked in a three-man sudden death playoff with Martin Laird and Cameron Percy that had gone three holes without a winner. With darkness falling, the players were given the choice to come back Monday; Byrd said he’d let the others decide. They chose to go one more hole. Byrd then promptly made an ace on the 204-yard 17th with his 6-iron to secure the win. Bubba Watson: 10th hole, Augusta National, 2012 Masters, Playoff It was fitting that a “Bubba golfâ€� shot helped him secure his first Masters. On the second playoff hole against Louis Oosthuizen, the dogleg-left, par-4 10th, Watson sent his tee shot deep into the trees and onto the pine straw. With 163 yards left blocked by trees, Watson took a 52-degree wedge and hooked it an astonishing 45 yards onto the putting surface to help him close out the tournament. Jordan Spieth: 18th hole, TPC River Highlands, 2017 Travelers Championship, Playoff Stuck in a greenside bunker after two shots and his opponent Daniel Berger on the green in regulation in sudden death, Spieth produced a perfect sand shot to win his 10th TOUR title. The ball bounced twice and rolled right into the pin and dropped. Spieth’s club toss and chest bump with his caddie may be the most memorable celebration of the decade. FIVE BIGGEST DEVELOPMENTS IN GOLF Youth Infusion: Thanks to players like Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama, 20-somethings won seven straight tournaments in 2015, the most since 1986, then did it again in ’16-17. As recently as the 1990s, golfers were thought to reach their competitive peak in their 30s, but now we don’t even bat an eye when players like Joaquin Niemann, 20, break through with victories (A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier) on the PGA TOUR. The Tiger effect? Yep. They’re flexible, they hit it a mile, and they just keep coming. Tiger’s resurgence: Back in 2017, it was easy to think Woods was finished, even if very few dared say it. He’d been through so much; his body, it seemed, had aged double-time, and even he suggested he might be done when he told the press he wasn’t sure what his future held, or even what he had to look forward to. But his spinal fusion surgery was a smashing success, and against all odds he reeled off his 80th, 81st and 82nd victories at the TOUR Championship, Masters, and ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, all in a span of just 13 months. Finished? Hardly.   Rules and schedule changes: Admit it — when you came up in the game, you never envisioned a time when we would all be putting with the flagstick in. You thought the process of taking a drop was pretty much set in stone, forevermore. Oh, and the PGA Championship, once dubbed “Glory’s Last Shot,â€� was the fourth and final major of every season, and THE PLAYERS Championship was held in May. Well, so much for all of that. Thanks to the USGA, PGA of America and PGA TOUR, the Rules of Golf and the flow of the professional tournament schedule have evolved, looking drastically different than a decade ago. TrackMan/data revolution: Bo Van Pelt, 44, returned to the PGA TOUR this season after missing nearly five years with a mysterious right shoulder injury that turned out to be a torn labrum. Naturally, he was asked if everything looked as he remembered it. “Yeah, except for the TrackMan,â€� he said of the measuring device that breaks down shots by launch angle, ball speed and spin rate, among other characteristics. “When I was out here before, only one or two people had them. But when I came back and looked around, everyone had them.â€� Never before have the best players in the world, and others, been so well positioned to match their equipment and specifications to their unique swings. Task force: After another deflating Ryder Cup loss to Europe at Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2014, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods were among a handful of American stars who went to work on the creation and development of a U.S. task force to get better at major team competitions. Since then, the U.S. has gone 3-1 in Presidents and Ryder Cups, and is heavily favored to make it 4-1 at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, Dec. 12-15. FIVE MOST EMOTIONAL WINS (NON-MAJORS) Bubba Watson, 2010 Travelers: After crying on his wife’s shoulder after his first PGA TOUR victory, Watson explained it all in his post-round interview: “My dad’s battling cancer right now. Dad, I’m praying for you. I love you.â€� Four months later, Gerry Watson passed away. Charlie Beljan, 2012 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic: Won with his TOUR status in jeopardy and two days after suffering a panic attack that sent him to the hospital after his second round. Charles Howell III, 2018 The RSM Classic: Broke an 11-year win drought (4,291 days to be specific). He teared up as he hugged his wife, Heather, and their two kids, neither of whom had previously seen him win. Nate Lashley, 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic: Walking up 18, he thought about his parents, who along with his girlfriend died in plane crash after watching him play in a college event in 2004. Cameron Champ, 2019 Safeway Open: Triumphed just down the road from Sacramento, where his grandfather, Mack, who taught him the game, lay watching in hospice care. MORE BEST OF THE DECADE Fastest finish: Kevin Streelman made seven straight closing birdies to win the ’14 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut. “I was in blackout mode,â€� he said. Best comeback (career): After not winning for over five years, Tiger Woods won three times in 13 months at the TOUR Championship, Masters, and ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. Best comeback (one week): Feel-good story Kyle Stanley won the Waste Management Phoenix Open just one week after giving up a three-shot lead on the last hole and losing a playoff to Brandt Snedeker at the 2012 Farmers Insurance Open. Best comebacks (single round): Stanley again, as he came from eight back to catch a faltering Spencer Levin at the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open; Justin Rose also came from eight back to catch a faltering Dustin Johnson at the 2017 World Golf Championship-HSBC Champions. Most likely record to fall that didn’t: Sam Snead winning the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open (Wyndham Championship) at 52 set the record for oldest to win on TOUR. It was a mark that seemed destined to fall, but somehow it survived the decade despite a few close calls. Davis Love III won the 2015 Wyndham at 51 years, 4 months, 10 days, becoming the third-oldest to win on TOUR. Vijay Singh, at 56, was just a shot back through 54 holes at The Honda Classic last season before carding a final-round 70 for solo sixth place. The record remains, but for how long? Most unusual feat: Brian Harman made two holes-in-one in the final round of the 2015 The Barclays at New Jersey’s Plainfield Country Club. He had never had a single ace on TOUR, and had double-bogeyed one of the holes (the third) the day before. Only twice had a player accomplished the feat of double aces in a single round, according to TOUR records: Bill Whedon at the 1955 Insurance City Open, and Yusaku Miyazato at the 2006 Reno-Tahoe Open. Best drama: Phil Mickelson hadn’t won in three years. Henrik Stenson hadn’t won a major, and indeed no Swedish man had. They clashed at the ’16 Open Championship at Troon, where Stenson was 20 under, Mickelson 17 under. (J.B. Holmes, their closest pursuer, was 6 under.) The final round was epic: Mickelson’s bogey-free 65 was his best final round in a major, but Stenson made 10 birdies, becoming the second player to win a major with a final-round 63. He also became the first Swede to win a men’s major. “It’s probably the best I’ve played and not won,â€� Mickelson said. Best week: Justin Thomas was near-unconscious during the 2017 Sony Open in Hawaii. Having already won at the Sentry Tournament of Champions the week before, Thomas opened with a historic 59 at Waialae Country Club and then added rounds of 64-65-65 to finish at 27 under, win by seven, and set a new PGA TOUR scoring record of 253 for 72 holes. Any questions? Best round: Jim Furyk had already shot a 59 at Conway Farms in the 2013 BMW Championship. Then came his 12-under 58 at TPC River Highlands in the 2016 Travelers Championship, the round of the decade and still the lowest ever on TOUR. Furyk had an eagle and 10 birdies while hitting 13 of 14 fairways and all 18 greens in regulation. He even had a putt for 57 on the final green. “I had an amazing 18-hole stretch,â€� he later told the PGA TOUR. “I had an amazing four hours. Would I trade it (for a win)? It’s a nice feather in my hat. It’s over. I did it. Someday I’ll be sitting back with a cocktail in my hand and my feet kicked up and I’ll tell the story.â€� Best streaks Dustin Johnson won at least once every season of the decade, including a three-event stretch in 2017 in which he won, in consecutive starts, the Genesis Open, World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship and World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Rory McIlroy won The Open Championship, World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship and PGA Championship in consecutive starts in the summer of 2014. Kevin Chappell tied the PGA TOUR record of nine straight birdies on the way to shooting a 59 at the 2019 A Military Tribute to the Greenbrier. Brendon Todd’s 12 consecutive rounds of 68 or better in the just-completed fall portion of the 2019-20 season was the longest such streak of the decade. Honorable mention: Phil Mickelson made every available Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup team of the decade until this upcoming 2019 Presidents Cup.

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