Golf Asia - February 2018

44 GOLF ASIA

GOLFING

SCENE

LAST MAN

STANDING

“I can’t believe how far I’m hitting the golf ball. I’m back to

hitting it my full numbers and not really trying to do that”

Tiger Woods cranks up The Comeback, and raises our hopes once again

N O V

In an act deemed by many to be

daylight robbery, Bernhard Langer

misses out on a fourth consecutive

Charles Schwab Cup by not winning

the season-ending Charles Schwab

Cup Championship. Those people

point out Langer’s seven victories this

season make him a more suitable

recipient than Kevin Sutherland,

whose win at the final event is his first

on any tour since 2002. “It was never

meant to be fair,” shrugs Herr Langer. It

was meant to be play-offs.”

Lexi Thompson wins the season-long

CME Race to the Globe in the LPGA

Tour’s final event of the year, and

with it the $1m bonus, plus the

Vare Trophy for lowest scoring

average on Tour at 69.114. Which

is good news. But it overlooks the

fact that by missing an

unmissable two-foot putt on

the 18th, she misses out on

the play-off for the CME

Group Tour Championship,

the LPGA player of the year title

and, likely, top spot in the women’s

rankings. Still, US$1m!

PGA Tour rookie Austin Cook

lands his first title, a four-stroke

victory in the RSM Classic. Luke

Donald withdraws from that

tournament and is admitted to

hospital with chest pains, though

happily he soon receives the all-

clear. And Donald Trump posts his

first handicap-counting round since

becoming president of the United

States. His 68 is met by disbelief.

US$40m

The amount

Arnold Palmer

earned in

the year since

his death. He

is now

Forbes’

second

highest-paid

dead

celebrity, way

behind

Michael

Jackson

(US $75m).

WINNERS
& LOSERS

In what is first a marathon 47-event season, then a

single-tournament sprint, the European Tour’s Race to

Dubai comes down to the final round of the DP World

Tour Championship. Three men enter the final day with

the season-long title still a mathematic possibility: long-

term leader Tommy Fleetwood, Masters champion

Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, the latter chasing a hat-

trick of victories to seal his late charge. And with seven

holes remaining, things look good for the 2013 US

Open champion and Golf World columnist, four-under

for the day and two shots clear. But Justin rose and then

Justin fell, three bogeys in the next five holes derail his

charge and hand the tournament to Jon Rahm and the

Race to Dubai to Fleetwood. The hirsute Englishman

crawls over the line with a T21 finish, taking the title and

its near-£1m bonus.