Tour Insider: The Year In Review

Tim Rosaforte, Golf World's Tour Insider, goes over the 2007 season and selects the year's best performances on the PGA Tour

By Tim Rosaforte

October 23, 2007

On the clubhouse steps at East Lake GC in Atlanta on a late Sunday afternoon in September, Tim Finchem was one happy commissioner. The Coca-Cola CEO had just walked away smiling and Tiger Woods was in the media center after winning the daily double of both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup. For Finchem, who endured a season of criticism and second-guessing as though he were wearing a Kevlar body suit, the season ended just the way he hoped: With his franchise player buying in to the playoff concept and using it to cement another Player of the Year Award.

Seven wins, one major, and over $10 million (not including the FedEx bonus) was enough for Woods to say I told you so more than once in his news conference at East Lake, but through the British Open, this did not look like a Tiger Woods year. He shot 43 over his final nine holes at Bay Hill, won the CA Championship at Doral with a Sunday 73, lost the Masters to Zach Johnson, the U.S. Open to Angel Cabrera and never looked comfortable at Carnoustie. Rory Sabbatini may have been out of line for saying Tiger was never more beatable, but the truth was, for the first seven months of 2007, Tiger was not as sharp, not as focused and not nearly the player who ripped off five straight wins at the end of 2006.

Something crystallized at one of Woods' old stomping grounds, Firestone CC in Akron, Ohio, during the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. From that point forward, over the last two months of the season, the "new Tiger" donned his cape and was nearly unbeatable, finishing in a run that included four victories in his last five appearances, going 1, 1, 2, 1, 1 in big-money, high-profile events that included victories a major (the PGA Championship), a World Golf Championship gathering (the Bridgestone), a FedEx Cup tournament (BMW Championship) and the season-ending Tour Championship.

Woods wouldn't kiss the trophy when the commissioner asked, but he literally carried the FedEx Cup on his back, branding it and validating it as something more than a convoluted, confusing and controversial marketing gimmick cooked up by Finchem and his staff as a way to reinvent the schedule and up the TV ante. Thanks to Woods, with cameo roles from Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson, the playoffs came together and the embattled commissioner was vindicated. Pro golf had its big-bang finish and Tiger was still king.

For Moment of the Year, it had to be Woody Austin turning the Presidents Cup into his starring role as Aqua Man. After nearly submerging himself in the cold waters of the 14th hole at Royal Montreal, then coming back to birdie the last three holes -- and taking all the ribbing in style -- Austin identified himself as more than a quirky, overly nervous, self-abusive character who could never catch a break. By donning a snorkel mask Sunday, even though he was losing to Cabrera, Austin was such a good sport and so good for team spirit that the Payne Stewart Award and reserved spots in future Ryder and Presidents Cups were mentioned in the same breath as his name.

While Woods repeated as POY, the Tournament of the Year was the one major where he did not play well, the British Open at Carnoustie. "That last hour was the best hour of golf on television this year," said Geoff Ogilvy, "even if it wasn't well played." Padraig Harrington went from nearly pulling a Jan Van de Velde to making the best double bogey of the year. Sergio Garcia provided the reaction picture of the year when he bent over his belly putter in agony after missing the putt on the 18th green to win the Claret Jug. And the 18th hole, made famous by Van de Velde in '99, was clearly the Hole of the Year as well, with all its calamity and controversy.

The Wow of the Year was Phil Mickelson leaving Rick Smith for Butch Harmon (Tiger's former instructor) and winning the Players Championship -- then coming back from a wrist injury to beat Tiger at one of his own tournaments, the Deutsche Bank Championship. And if finally closing out Tiger wasn't enough in Duel of the Year, Mickelson solidified himself as perennial candidate for Newsmaker of the Year by using his win as a platform to take a shot at Finchem and announce he was skipping the BMW Championship in Chicago.

Tiger created a new category by naming Steve Stricker Comeback-to-Back Player of the Year, but the Comeback Player of the Year was probably Mark Calcavecchia -- although coming back from 120th on the money list, the onset of middle age, a case of putting demons and one too many cold lagers hardly qualifies as the kind of rebirth for which, say, Ben Hogan was famous. At least Calc was there at the end of the Tour Championship, grinding with Zach Johnson for the second-place check, ultimately earning the 27th runner-up finish of his career. The Comeback Player Within The Year went to Arron Oberholser, who recovered and rehabbed from a disc injury in his back at Kapalua to nearly qualify for the Tour Championship. The pain returned for Oberholser when he withdrew from the BMW with a broken bone in his hand. He'll have surgery on the hand Oct. 30, which is why he pulled out of the World Cup he'd committed to playing with Sean O'Hair in China next month.