GOLF IN 2008

Sudeshna Guha Roy Indian Golf The year 2008 saw golf at its peak in India. Our country not only became host to many Asian and European tour events, our golfers won many major tournaments on various circuits. Where on one hand, Jeev Milkha Singh grabbed the top honours in the Asian tour circuit; on the other hand, SSP Chowrasia surprised everyone by clinching his first European tour victory on home land.The year for Indian golf started with SSP Chowrasia emerging as an underdog and winning the Asian and European tour sanctioned inaugural Emaar MGF Indian Masters tournament at the Delhi Golf Course in February. “Chip-putt-sia”, as he is known for his excellent chip and putt game, left the greats of Ernie Els, Thomas Bjørn, Maarten Lafeber, Arjun Atwal and Gaurav Ghei behind to win his first European Tour cup. His artistic short game favoured him to card a 9-under par, thus making him the only golfer to have all the four under-par rounds. With this he not only became the first golfer to win a European Tour at home; but he also became the third Indian golfer after Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal to claim a victory on the European circuit. The trophy gave him 227 points, to reach his career best ranking of 161st from 388th. February 2008 was a month of international golf for India. After the Indian Masters at the Delhi Golf Club, India hosted two other major events, the SAIL Open Golf Championship and the Jaypee Greens at Greater Noida and the Johnnie Walker Classic at the DLF Golf and Country Club at Gurgaon. New Zealand’s Mark Brown bagged both the events back-to-back as none of the Indian golfers could claim the titles. Brown took a three-year exile after his father’s death and decided to return back on the circuit in 2006. The New Zealander had not had much success until in 2007 when he registered four top-ten finishes in the Asian Tour. He also finished 15th on the Order of Merit. In March, Arjun Atwal further carried forward the Indian golfing baton to win the Maybank Malaysian Open at the Kota Permai Golf and Country Club, Malaysia. Atwal defeated defending champion Peter Hedblom in the play-off to win the tournament for the second time; last time he won the event was way back in 2003. Jeev Milkha Singh: not only India’s, but Asia’s best Jeev Milkha Singh emerged as the star of Indian golf in 2008 when he again went on to win four tournaments in a year, thus, repeating the feat of 2006. With one victory on the European Tour circuit, one on the Asian and last two on the Japan Tour, Jeev won his second Order of Merit crown in three years. Looking at his sparkling form he was also named as the Players` `Player of the Year` at the Asian Tour`s Awards Gala 2008. Jeev’s first victory of the season, and third on the European tour circuit, came to him when he lifted the Bank Austria Golf Open trophy in June at the Fontana Golf Club. The win came to him after eighteen long months. The previous two European victories came to him in 2006. The next month itself, Jeev bagged his second victory, but this time on the Japan circuit. He claimed a record setting win at the North Country Golf Club when he won the Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup. He carded 13 under-par 275, the best ever score in the tournament and a record which in the past has been set by only one golfer; Lin Keng-chi in 2005. Jeev reinstated his supremacy again in the Barclays Singapore Open. With a kitty of USD 5 million, the tournament saw the participation of 150 golfers; Phil Mickelson, Padraid Harrington from Ireland, Adam Scott from Australia, South African Ernie Els, Choi Kyung-ju from Korea and Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke and Rory Mcilroy to name a few. The victory helped Jeev grab 38 world ranking points and he moved to the 46th spot. A couple of weeks after the win, Jeev partnered with Randhawa to represent India at the Omega Mission Hills Golf World Cup in China and finished 17th. The Swede team of Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson emerged as the winners of the Cup. In the month of December, the last tournament of the Japan tour, Golf Nippon Series JT Cup, was just round the corner, when a personal tragedy struck Jeev. His wife, Kudrat, gave birth to a stillborn baby and was still recovering in a local hospital in Tokyo. The ace golfer had initially decided not to participate in the championship, but after repeated requests by his wife, he decided to be a part of it, and as a matter of fact, he also won it. With this, Jeev claimed his second Japan tour title. His sensational form assured him the Asian Tour Order of Merit title. A spectacular 2008 enabled the Indian to end the year at the 36th spot in the World Rankings and berth in all the four Major tournaments next year. The best of all came in the last to Jeev; soon after he singed out from the Volvo Masters with a par, he was officially crowned as the 2008 Asia’s Best golfer. International golf World No 1 Tiger Woods set a milestone in the history of international golf when he won his fourteenth Major title while his knee gave him the worst of pains on the fairways. Woods indeed fought like a “Tiger” to clinch the US Open trophy at the Torrey Pines leaving compatriot Rocco Mediate behind in the 19-hole play-off. Though the year seemed more spectacular for Padraig Harrington as he won the season’s last two grand slam events, Woods performance was remarkably the best of all. The first half of the year could easily be dedicated to Woods. He teed-off with his winning ways with the starting of the season itself when he won the Buick Invitational at California in January, the Accenture Match Play Championship at Arizona in February and the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Florida in March. However in the month of April, Woods got caught in a closely fought duel with Trevor Immelman as the latter put a comma to his winning streak and snatched the Masters trophy from him at the Augusta National Golf Club. The victory gave Immelman his maiden Green Jacket for he became the first South African since Gary Player in 1978 to win the tournament. He carded a score of 8 under-par 280 to beat the American by three shots. The US Open- Performance Par Excellence An arthroscopic surgery on left knee and a double stress fracture of his left tibia soon after restrained him from entering the golfing circuit for over two month. However, he jumped back to action in the month of June to claim his 14th Major title, the US Open. A neck-to-neck competition with fellow American Mediate gave a tough time to Woods. He holed a 15-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Mediate. Both the golfers tied their scores at the end of the 18-hole playoff and thus went in for an inevitable sudden death playoff, that started on hole number 7. Victory came to Woods on the first sudden death hole itself as he scored a par round, whereas Mediate carded a bogey. Despite the pain, Woods displayed remarkable stamina and concentration on the greens and went out to clinch the “best ever” victory in his career. “I think this is probably the best ever,” Woods said. “Winning the US Open for my 14th major title was an amazing accomplishment. It was the biggest win of my pro career.” The second half of the season then saw Woods’ complete absence from the circuit as the rookie chose to give his knee some rest and the European golfers a chance to grab some laurels for themselves. So be it… Padraig Harrington sealed the next two Major titles back-to-back and became the fourth golfer ever to do so.The Harrington Effect Ireland’s golfer Pádraig Harrington went on to retain the (British) Open Championship this year as well at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, despite a wrist injury that almost forced him to withdraw from the tournament. He carded a 3-over par 283 to become the fifth golfer in the last fifty years to retain the Open Championship trophy. He earned 750,000 pounds from the victory. Harrington continued with his winning ways to win the last Major tournament of a golfing season, the PGA Championship; the victory got him his second consecutive major title and the third overall. After twelve long years, the Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan opened its doors for a Major tournament, and what could have been better for the golfers than them playing their “Glory’s last shot”. The Ryder Cup After the European golfers enjoyed a short-term reign in the PGA circuit in the latter half of the season, the American golfers jumped back to action as the clinched the 37th edition of the Ryder Cup in September. The tournament saw the Americans coming back in style as they won 16½ - 11½ to end Europe’s streak of three consecutive victories. The US team, sans Tiger Woods, who was still recovering from the knee surgery, displayed some excellent stroke play as they registered their largest margin victory ever since 1981. Winning the cup for the first time since 1999, Paul Azinger’s team clinched the victory over Nick Faldo’s team with Jim Furyk securing the winning point. The year in the PGA circuit, was thus, predominantly attributed to the United States. Woods presence in the Ryder Cup might have increased the victory margin for the US. It is not sure if the ace golfer would be seen early next season, but he has almost confirmed his candidature for the first Majors, that is, the Masters in April. “I certainly am excited for him to come back,” American left-hander Phil Mickelson said. “I miss him as a player. I miss him as a person. I miss trying to track him down because that always is a great challenge.”