Sure you remember the big stuff that happened in 2016: the U.S. Ryder Cup win, golf's return to the Olympics, Arnold Palmer's passing, etc. But what about the smaller things that made news in the moment but faded away with the next story or controversy? A lot went on that you might have forgotten took place this year. So lets jog your memory with this list.
The USGA and R&A's long run-up in telling the golf community of the ban on the anchored stroke makes it easy to forget that the new rule actually went into place officially on Jan. 1, 2016.
Greg Norman was dropped from Fox Sports golf team in January after working just one year as the network’s lead analyst. He was replaced by Paul Azinger and Brad Faxon.
In the days leading up to his Northern Trust Open victory at Riviera C.C. in February, Bubba Watson also 1) passed a kidney stone, 2) filmed a cameo on the TV show “Girl Meets World” and 3) went to a Clippers-Warriors basketball game.
Ranked 447th in the world and winless on the PGA Tour since 2005, Vaughn Taylor improbably beat Phil Mickelson by a stroke to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Just how off the radar Taylor was evident by the fact he used a stand bag during the victory.
The PGA Tour veteran teed it up at RBC Heritage in April, seven weeks after suffering a heart attack after finishing his second round at the Honda Classic. Bohn, 43, made the cut by one stroke at the Honda, then asked to see a medical staff. He said that had he not made the cut, he likely would have traveled home that night, and potentially might have died from the attack.
While Tiger Woods was sidelined for most of the year recovering from back surgery, his son Charlie finished second in boys 7-year-old division at a U.S. Kids Golf event in June.
Andrew Landry had never finished better than T-41 in a PGA Tour event prior to the U.S. Open at Oakmont, but the 28-year-old held the lead after the first round at Oakmont and was in the final twosome on Sunday before a closing 76 left him T-15.
After the second round of the PGA Tour Champions’ Legends of Golf, Scott McCarron and Jenny Klein had a spur-of-the-moment wedding at the Chapel of the Ozarks at the resort hosting the tournament (McCarron finished T-22).
Stewart Hagestad was four down with five holes to play against Scott Harvey in the final of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, only to make four birdies to send the match to extra holes, then another birdie on the 37th hole at Pennsylvania’s Stonewall G.C. to take the title and earn a spot in the field at Augusta National in April.
In April, an Augusta National Golf Club sign that hung outside the club on Washington Road sold in an online auction for more than $25,000. The impressive sum was dwarfed in December when one of Arnold Palmer’s Masters trophies went for $444,012.
Ernie Els found himself making the wrong kind of Masters lore when he posted the highest score tournament history on the par-4 first hole at Augusta National G.C., making a quintuple-bogey 9 thanks six-putting from six feet.
The PGA of America announced in March the end of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, an event played (mostly) annually since 1979. Martin Kaymer was the last official winner in 2014.
Sergio Garcia won the Byron Nelson Championship, ending a nearly four-year winless drought on the PGA Tour and tying Seve Ballesteros for the most career tour wins (nine) by a Spaniard.
In April, “Seve: The Movie” had a limited release in the U.S. The Ballesteros’ bio pic mixed dramatic recreations of events in five-time major champion’s life along with archival footage.
Ryan Herrington is deputy editor of GolfDigest.com. He has reported from major championships for 20 years and spearheaded the company’s college and amateur golf coverage. He has never won the U.S. Amateur, but has held the Havemeyer Trophy on multiple occasions.
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