Champions Tour

Ranking the Top-10 Golf Stories of the 2016 Calendar Year (Part II)

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:17 p.m. ET

Fansided, Kathlene Bissell/FanSided via Pro Golf Now

Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

As we reflect on a year that was jam-packed with fascinating stories, which players and performances rank among the biggest of the year in golf? In the second of two parts, we count down the rest of our top-10.

Every year brings us exciting tournaments and some new personalities in golf.

This year, for example, we met Beef, otherwise known as Andrew Johnston, who converted his name and popularity to an endorsement from Arby’s.

The magnitude of interest in a player depends on the what have they done lately thinking as you’ll see from Part I of Top 10 Golf Stories of 2016.

Only a handful of players performed well enough to dominate the headlines, constantly hold our attention and deserve merit among the biggest stories in the game during 2016.

In our first five of the top 10 stories, we covered Rory McIlroy finally winning the Tour Championship and FedExCup to salvage what had been an average year for this remarkable talent; Jason Day’s victory highs and back problem lows; Jordan Spieth’s disappointing finish at the Masters; and Dustin Johnson’s first major.

Without further ado, here are the final five picks.

5. Golf Returns to The Olympics

Despite the fact that many male golfers chose not to participate, some courageous ones did. Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar gave us a final round to remember at a course that will soon be forgotten.

On the women’s side, Inbee Park, who came back from injury to play, stomped on the field to take gold.

As Bubba Watson said, “We’ll probably shed a tear or two just saying that we’re Olympians. What an honor and a privilege to represent the United States, the country that we love very much, and somehow we’re athletes now.”

Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

4. Tiger Woods Commits to Genesis (LA) Open

While this may not seem like big news to some, the fact that Tiger Woods committed to ANY tournament two months before it happens is news.

He is known for waiting until the last minute to say he’s going to play, and that is actually all he is required to do according to PGA Tour rules which say players have to commit before 5pm on Friday before the next week.

Now if we just knew for certain which other events he will play over the winter because many people will actually plan around this.

Mandatory Credit: Ian Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports

3. Henrik vs. Phil at The British Open

If the final round of the British Open didn’t have you on the edge of the sofa watching as Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson hurled lightning bolts of golf shots at each other, then you simply aren’t a golf fan.

It was brilliant play, and both men devastated the rest of the field. Stenson won at 20-under with Mickelson second at 17-under. Third place, J.B. Holmes, was 6-under, an astonishing 14 shots behind the winner.

Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

2. Tiger Woods Plays Tournament Golf Again

After a stretch of more than 470+ days Tiger Woods returned to play golf at his own tournament the Hero World Challenge. He didn’t finish last. ‘I’m not dead,’ he said, ‘and I want to be out here so bad.’

While Woods was not in major championship form, he did finish all four rounds and had enough good shots to start the Tiger Countdown to 15 Majors watch.

The other good news in this is that he will have to play a considerable amount of golf to get in golf shape to play the Masters.

Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

1. U.S. Wins Ryder Cup

Since Tony Jacklin turned around Europe’s losing Ryder Cup record starting in 1985 at Muirfield Village, the Euros had won 12, tied one, and lost just four Ryder Cup matches.

The U.S., on the other hand, had won just four and tied one until last September, when Davis Love III and his band of co-operative vice captains finally found the secret sauce and a method to defeat team Europe by 17-11 points, the biggest U.S. margin since 1981.

Granted, the U.S. has a large historic victory record in the biennial event, but that was before Europe had the quality professional tour that it enjoys today.

Counting the days until 2018!