At the end of six hectic weeks in the most compressed summer of major championship golf ever, who are the biggest losers?
The USGA. Nobody does video replay worse – not even the NFL or Major League Baseball. Dustin Johnson looked truly snakebitten when informed, against his protestations, he was probably at fault when his ball rotated a dimple-width on the 5th green in the final round. At least he overcame his penalty to win, very much against type; Anna Nordqvist lost her US Women’s Open playoff to Brittany Lang because an HD camera spotted a grain of sand shifted by a grounded club. Players both guilty and bystanding were notified long after the fact in both cases, Johnson himself already having been cleared of wrongdoing by the rules official following him. Is golf now the only sport where the players can’t be sure of the score?
The PGA of America. Squeezed between the Open Championship and the Olympics in a crowded calendar, the PGA felt even more afterthought-ful than normal. But it deserved even worse; not starting early to beat the Saturday thunderstorms was a TV-driven decision which should have backfired. Only Mother Nature saved the organizers from themselves; had the Sunday weather been as forecast, more lightning could have caused a Monday or even Tuesday finish.
The “Big Four”. 2016 was supposed to feature major duels between Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy. But Spieth failed to contend after his Augusta collapse, Fowler barely registered, and McIlroy missed the US Open and PGA cuts shortly before Nike – his main sponsor – exited the golf business. Only Day, who ran Jimmy Walker close at the PGA and tied for eighth at Oakmont, can hold his head high.
Danny Willett. Willett’s results since the Masters: MC, T23, 3rd, T37, T72, T80, T53, T79. That’s one podium finish at Wentworth, one missed cut at the Players, and a whole lot of nothing; at Hazeltine next month, Willett could be the sort of sleeper agent the USA too often sends to Ryder Cups, an early-season major winner well out of form by the sharp end of September.
Phil Mickelson. Arguably the best major loser ever: now second only to Jack Nicklaus in runner-up major finishes, at the Open Championship he came closer to shooting 62 in a major than anyone since Nick Price at the 1986 Masters, and his final round 65 was the second-best final round in any major this year. Unluckily for him, Henrik Stenson’s 63 at Troon was the best. Worse still, he saved his major push until after he’d missed the Olympic qualifying cut, so the only American golfer who actively craved a place at Rio didn’t get to travel there.
Lovers of dramatic finishes. The brilliance of Johnson, Stenson and Walker deprived us of 72nd hole excitement, Day’s late eagle at Baltusrol notwithstanding. In fact, only two of the last 14 men's majors have gone to proper photo finishes. I think that makes me the biggest loser, actually.