By Dave Wells
Gary Woodward
Let’s begin 2020 with a look back at professional golf in 2019. I’ll begin in one of my favorite golfing havens, Scottsdale, AZ, and the most televised golf highlight of 2019! The attention-grabbing story was about a young lady golfer named Amy Bockerstette representing the Special Olympics of Arizona.
The story unfolded at the Waste Management Golf Tournament in January 2019, at the TPC Stadium Golf Course in north Scottsdale. PGA pro Gary Woodland asked Amy on the 16th Tee to play the renowned par three golf hole with him during his practice round prior to the tournament. The result was one of the greatest golf stories ever seen on YouTube that has been viewed millions of times. Amy parred the hole and overwhelms the golf gallery on the world famous 16th hole saying, “I’ve got this,” on each of her three golf shots. Gary then responds to Amy and her golfing abilities – “You’re an inspiration to us. You’re our hero.” That’s what golf is all about.
VideoNext, let’s move on to the four major golf tournaments in 2019. These tournaments are the most historical tournaments, which will always be defined as the best competition in the game of golf.
”THE MASTERS” – Always in early April, this year’s first major in Augusta brought one of the greatest golfers ever to the forefront again. The golfer would be Tiger Woods, who won his 15th major with a one stroke victory. It was his first major tournament victory in a decade and Tiger kicked off the extreme excitement again for golf in 2019.
“PGA CHAMPIONSHIP” – This major, normally played in August, was moved to May in 2019. It was held at the Bethpage State Park Golf Course (Black Course) in New York with Brooks Koepka defending his 2018 title. There was plenty of excitement in this second major as the top PGA Pros including some PGA Club Golfers were in the mix. The winner of this major in 2019 was Brooks Koepka. This was his fourth major title and that meant two straight PGA championships for Brooks.
“U. S OPEN” – A top notch major tournament under the direction of the USGA with a history going back to 1895. This tournament was held in June 2019 at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Gary Woodland won his first major by a three-stroke margin. According to the press, scrambling at Pebble Beach is always the key and Gary was the best at it at Pebble Beach
Brooks Koepka
‘THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP” – The final major golf tournament for 2019, which dates to 1860, was at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. Shane Lowry, an Irishman, won his first major by six strokes with the final day being played in tough weather.
So, there you have it on the four majors but there was more to come as 2019 continued to fill the air with golfing excitement.
The PGA Golfer of The Year in 2019 was Rory Mcllroy, who won The Players Championship in March at TPC Sawgrass Then the prestigious 2019 Fed Ex Cup Title at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, which concluded the 2018-2019 PGA Tour in August 2019.
TPC Southwind hosted its first World Golf Championship in 2019 with the top ranked golfers in the world showing up in Memphis for this July event. The final pairing on Sunday featured Rory Mcllroy and Brooks Koepka competing for this championship with attended by a record-breaking crowd in attendance. Brooks was the winner of the first WGC in Memphis.
One more feature in the 2018-2019 PGA Tour season. There were 14 First Time Winners, an extremely high number of winners. That has only happened three times since 1970.
I’m from Memphis and a story that I’ve bookmarked in my 2019 memory bank was the immediate appearance of Doug Barron on the Champions Tour. Doug is from Memphis and he appeared in July at The Seniors Open Championship in England. After qualifying he finished tied for 5th in this Champions major, his first Champions Tournament.
Then Barron moved on to his next Champions event, two weeks later in Endicott, NY. It was The Dicks Sporting Goods Tournament. Doug qualifier again and then led the tournament wire to wire for his first Champions golf victory. A great start for Doug in his first year on the Champions Tour!
Enjoy your golf time in 2020. Don’t get frustrated. If Amy can do it, so can you!
Amy Bockerstette
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