With the Tour Championship on the horizon this week, the 2005 PGA Tour season is quickly coming to an end. The top golfers on tour will do all kinds of different things in preparation for next season. Some will play in charity events, skins games, etc. Others will simply use their free time to work on their golf games and spend much-needed time with family.
That being said, this season has left us with many memories, both good and bad. The season started off the same way it did in 2004 with Stuart Appleby winning the Mercedes Championship. There were 12 first-time winners on the PGA Tour, including Sean O’Hair and Jason Gore. And the United States finally learned how to play as a team, defeating the International squad in the Presidents Cup.
Chris DiMarco once again came up short in his bid for a green jacket, Michael Campbell won the U.S. Open, Jack Nicklaus said goodbye to major championship golf once and for all, and Lefty proved his 2004 Masters victory wasn’t a fluke. And, oh yeah, Tiger Woods is officially back!
All in all, this season has been awesome for golf! I haven’t been into golf as much as usual the past couple years, but this year changed all of that. I’m going to break down the 2005 season with some awards, including player of the year, rookie of the year, best tournament, etc. Also, I’m going to talk about some of the most notable disappointments and surprises. So buckle up for Thrash Talk’s 2005 PGA Tour season in review.
Player of the Year
The award for player of the year usually comes down to the last couple events of the season. That wasn’t the case this year, however. Tiger Woods wins this award in decisive fashion. I’m not the biggest Tiger fan in the world, but there is no doubting his dominance in 2005. Woods won two major championships (The Masters and British Open), and he has accumulated almost $10 million in earnings up to this point (despite, I might add, playing 2/3 as many events as Vijay Singh did last year).
Tiger Woods also finished strong in the other two major championships, including a runner-up finish to Michael Campbell at the U.S. Open and a tie for fourth at the PGA Championship. Tiger also won two of the World Golf Championship events (WGC-NEC Invitational and American Express Championship). The other victories on Tiger’s résumé in 2005 include the Buick Invitational and Ford Championship at Doral. There is definitely no question about this award.
Rookie of the Year
Like the player of the year award, the rookie of the year award has been wrapped up for a month or two. There have been a lot of young golfers playing their way into the spotlight this season, but Sean O’Hair is the only true rookie that made a big statement in 2005. O’Hair’s story was well-documented, and it was great to see him play to his potential this season.
Sean O’Hair really started making waves at the Byron Nelson Championship in May. O’Hair was in contention on Sunday and finished in second place. He went on to win the John Deere Classic the week before the British Open, and he followed that up with a tie for 15th at the British Open at St. Andrews. O’Hair has won over $2 million in 2005 and will be making an appearance at the Tour Championship this week. He has overcome all of his obstacles quite well, and 2005 was only the beginning of what will be a great career for O’Hair.
Best Tournament and Best Finish
The Masters is quickly becoming the best tournament in golf. The U.S. Open has been my favorite for a long time, but The Masters is gaining ground every year. This year was no different. It’s no secret that Chris DiMarco is one of the best golfers in the world without a major championship, and The Masters is the tournament he wants more than all the others. He came very close to winning the green jacket in 2005 for the second time in as many years.
Chris DiMarco found himself at the top of the leaderboard after the first two rounds. Tiger Woods made a huge charge in the third round to take the lead going into the final round. Woods and DiMarco battled it out in the final round, with Woods staying in front the entire day. The tide was about to change at the 16th hole, when Tiger hit one of the best shots in the history of golf. DiMarco had a very makeable birdie putt, and Woods had a difficult chip. Woods judged his chip perfectly, as the ball stopped for a second before finding its way into the cup. DiMarco missed the birdie putt and fell two shots back with two holes to go.
Tiger bogeyed the 17th and 18th, while DiMarco made par saves on both to force a playoff. Was Tiger really going to choke at Augusta? No. Tiger saved three great shots for the 18th hole the second time around and made birdie to defeat DiMarco. The television coverage is awesome for The Masters, and the golf played lived up to the hype. This year’s Masters had one of the best finishes I have ever seen.
Favorite Moment
If Chris DiMarco would have won The Masters, that would have been my favorite moment. He didn’t, however, so I had to find another favorite moment. Fast forward about five months to the Presidents Cup. The United States team finally found a recipe for victory in team competition. Tiger Woods was paired with Jim Furyk, and Phil Mickelson was paired with Chris DiMarco. Both pairings had a lot of success.
My favorite memory of 2005 came in the singles matches of the Presidents Cup. Fred Couples made a birdie putt on the 18th to defeat Vijay Singh, and that put the pressure on Chris DiMarco and Phil Mickelson to close out one of their respective matches. DiMarco and Stuart Appleby fought back and forth all day, and the Presidents Cup hung in the balance on a Chris DiMarco birdie putt on the final hole. DiMarco confidently rolled in the putt to give the United States team the much-needed victory. The Presidents Cup may be the little brother to the Ryder Cup, but it sure made a name for itself this year!
Surprises
There are a couple surprises that stand out to me from this season. First off, Jason Gore’s impact on the PGA Tour has been incredible. Gore was about to give up the game of golf until his wife talked him out of it. He qualified for the U.S. Open, played in the final group on Sunday, and won over the hearts of many Americans along the way. If that wasn’t enough, he won three Nationwide Tour events in a row to earn a battlefield promotion.
To top off an incredible 2005, Jason Gore won the PGA Tour’s 84 Lumber Classic. The guy has an awesome attitude, and the fans have really jumped onto his bandwagon for good reason. Jason Gore really deserved everything that came his way this year, regardless of what I previously stated in a recent Thrash Talk.
Also, on the list of surprises is Tiger’s two missed cuts on the PGA Tour in 2005. I already talked about how great of a year Tiger had, but it amazed me that he missed two cuts. I wasn’t nearly as surprised about the first one because his awesome streak had to end eventually. However, I thought he would start another incredible streak after missing the cut at the Byron Nelson Championship. Tiger missed his second cut at last week’s Funai Classic. After making the cut 142 consecutive times, it was very surprising to see Tiger miss it twice in his last 11 starts.
Disappointments
I could easily talk about how big of a disappointment Charles Howell III and Ernie Els have been, but I will refrain from that at this time. I am actually proud of Howell III for battling it out and finishing in the top-30 on the PGA Tour money list and qualifying for the Tour Championship. Els, on the other hand, fought injuries in 2005, and I refuse to judge him for that. The Big Easy wasn’t all there in 2005, but he will be back in 2006.
Two disappointments stick out in my mind from 2005, and the first one deals with Retief Goosen’s collapse at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. This could also be included in the “surprises” list, but I am a huge fan of him. That makes it much more disappointing to me. Goosen was in cruise control heading into the final round at Pinehurst and was on his way to claiming his third U.S. Open victory in five years. A final-round 81 came out of nowhere and left Goosen wondering what went wrong. The Goose usually finishes the deal, but he was awful on Sunday at Pinehurst this year.
The other disappointment that comes to mind was Vijay Singh’s piss-poor performance at the Presidents Cup in September. Not only was his record lackluster, his attitude towards the event seemed to be pretty crappy as well. Vijay didn’t seem to care the entire event, and his game showed it. I was very glad to see Fred Couples whip him in singles action, and it didn’t hurt my feelings to see Vijay miss two cuts in a row the past couple weeks. The least he could have done was put forth 100% effort. Singh also skipped out on the Battle at the Bridges this past summer, which didn’t make me a fan either.
The Final Say
This PGA Tour season may not compare to the record-breaking 2000 season, but it was very good nonetheless. All four major championships were settled on the back nine on Sunday (or Monday morning at the PGA Championship), and all were very exciting! The Big Four or Five dominated headlines at the beginning of the season, but Tiger made sure it was the Big One by the end of the season. The other four guys just couldn’t keep up with Tiger this season.
There were first-time winners and great comebacks and collapses. There were a few golfers that bounced back after horrible years last season, and then there was David Duval who still hasn’t found his game yet. There were exciting tournaments, and there were very boring tournaments. The year was pretty much like any other year in recent memory. All in all, the 2005 PGA Tour season gets a thumbs up from me, and I hope the same can hold true for 2006.
That’s all I have to say this week. These are my awards only, and I hope you all have others that stick out to you. What were some of your biggest surprises and disappointments of 2005? Also, what was your favorite tournament of 2005? And finally, what was your favorite golf moment from this past season? If you have anything to add, and I hope you do, please feel free to comment below or discuss it in our forum. Thanks for reading this week’s Thrash Talk and enjoy the season-ending Tour Championship!
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