From Jordan Spieth’s bid for the Grand Slam to Rickie Fowler’s historic comeback at The Players, we count down the top 10 tournaments of 2015.
Tiger-mania hit the Wyndham Championship this year as the 14-time major champ played the North Carolina stop for the first time in his career. Woods was in the thick of things late on the weekend, but when it was all said and done, it was another star past his prime holding the trophy. Davis Love III used a Sunday charge to become the third-oldest winner in PGA Tour history at 51.
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In his fifth event back after taking time off for “personal reasons,” which may or may not have been a Tour-mandated suspension, Dustin Johnson won the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral. While several big names in contention, including Bubba Watson, Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson couldn’t break 70 on Sunday, DJ fired a 3-under 69 and came from five strokes back to win his second WGC title and his ninth career PGA Tour event.
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Jordan Spieth put the PGA Tour on notice a month before the Masters, out-dueling Ryder Cup teammate Patrick Reed and Sean O’Hair in a Valspar Championship playoff. The stretch run was easily one of the most exciting on Tour this year, with Spieth making a a series of improbable up-and-downs on the last three holes to get into the playoff, then winning it with a 28-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th to become the he third-youngest player in Tour history to win multiple PGA Tour events.
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It was a familiar result with the U.S. coming out on top for the sixth straight time, but the Presidents Cup came down to the final hole. The Americans never trailed, but the scrappy Internationals fought back in Sunday singles and had a real chance to win until Jay Haas’ son and captain’s pick Bill Haas secured a 15 1/2 to 14 1/2 victory by winning the final match over Sangmoon Bae, the only Korean on the International team, playing in front of a home crowd in what was his final event before two years of mandatory military service.
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A Monday finish at St. Andrews saw Zach Johnson win the Open Championship in a four-hole, three-man playoff over Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen. Johnson’s second major victory ended Jordan Spieth’s historic bid for the Grand Slam. Spieth came up one shot short of getting into the playoff after making bogey on the 71st hole and then just missing a long putt for birdie on the 72nd.
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After experiencing nothing but major heartbreak in his career, including coughing up 54-hole leads at this year’s U.S. and British Opens, Jason Day finally broke through at the PGA Championship, holding off Jordan Spieth and finishing at 20 under, the lowest score in relation to par in major-championship history. The win propelled Day to two FedEx Cup Playoff wins, a brief stay at No. 1 in the world and some consideration for Player of the Year.
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Facing a 10-6 deficit entering Sunday singles, the U.S. stormed back to an improbable and emotional 14 1/2 to 13 1/2 victory at the Solheim Cup, breaking a six-year drought in the process. The comeback took some of the string out of “Gimmegate,” a controversy that swung the last fourball match when American Alison Lee picked up a putt that she thought had been conceded by the Europeans, only to have Suzann Pettersen insist that it had not.
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Though it’s hard to mention the U.S. Open without bringing up the sub-par greens and Dustin Johnson’s infamous three-putt on the 72nd hole, Chambers Bay crowned a deserving champion in Jordan Spieth and gave life to his Grand Slam bid. After nearly costing himself the tournament with a double-bogey on 17, Spieth rebounded on the home hole with a birdie which was good enough to win by a shot. Spieth became the youngest Open winner since Bobby Jones in 1923 and the sixth player ever to capture the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year.
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A week after being voted “most overrated” by his peers in an anonymous poll, Rickie Fowler starred in the most exciting finish of the PGA Tour season at The Players Championship. Fowler played the final six holes of regulation in 6 under par to get into a playoff with Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner, then birdied the famed island green 17th twice in extra holes to secure the biggest win of his career.
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After coming up short to Bubba Watson at the 2014 Masters, Jordan Spieth came into Augusta this year more determined than ever ... and he delivered. Spieth went wire to wire and set a number of records in the process, including low 36-hole score (130), low 54-hole score (200) and most birdies (28). Spieth also became the first player in Masters history to reach 19 under par, but bogeyed the 72nd hole to miss out on breaking Tiger Woods’ Masters scoring record.
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