They say you should never look back.
Unless, of course, you're being chased down the high street by an angry mob and want to check how much distance there is between you and your heavily armed pursuers before deciding when exactly the right moment is to start shrieking and wailing in boggled-eye panic as you turn round again and realise there's another murderous mob charging towards you. Yes, Christmas shopping can be a terrifying affair. So, at this time of the year for quiet, fireside reflection, let's have a peek at some of the key moments of the golfing year.
MAGICAL MCILROY ENGAGES WITH GOLF
With wedding invitations flying around like, well, confetti at a wedding, Rory McIlroy's decision to call off his engagement to tennis playing fiancée, Caroline Wozniacki, was seen as a callous, wretched act of public humiliation which had the entire female population forming a chain of hands across the continents in a unified show of sisterhood. Or so it felt like. Yes, his decision was a sore one but for McIlroy it clearly was the right one. Just days after facing the media music, he won the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and went on to capture back-to-back majors during a shimmering summer which saw him barge his way to the top of the world rankings again. The single life would have an astonishing impact on his sporting life as McIlroy became the game's dominant force.
THE DOORS SWING OPEN AT THE ROYAL & ANCIENT
Given that there was the small matter of a referendum on Scottish independence taking place on the same day, the Royal & Ancient's own Yes/No vote on female membership didn't attract the frenzy of coverage it would have done had it been held at another date. Thus, there were no circling helicopters, armed guards and burning effigies of Peter Dawson outside a besieged St Andrews clubhouse. The 'ayes' won it convincingly - 85% of members voted in favour - and Dawson, the chief executive who retires in a couple of months, will be assured of a lasting legacy. The rising, widespread criticism of the R&A over the male-only issue was, undoubtedly, undermining its authority as guardians of the game, a cherished role that has been forged and nurtured over a couple of hundred years . That authority, and a much stronger moral footing, has been safeguarded by this, inevitable and welcome, progression.
A STAR SPANGLED SPANNER IN THE WORKS
A Ryder Cup that Scotland can be rightly proud of saw Team Europe soar majestically at Gleneagles. Team USA, on the other hand, plummeted to the ground like a flock of pheasants that had just been blasted out of the air with a shotgun. The aftermath was just as messy....minus the pile of feathers and twisted beaks. Phil Mickelson's humiliating and withering assessment of Tom Watson's captaincy in the Sunday night post-mortem was as excruciating as a medieval amputation. Wrong place, wrong time? Certainly, but Mickelson's public spearing at least gave the USA's half-cocked approach to the captaincy a much-needed slap of reality. While a dominant Europe march on with a line of succession, a clear continuity and a confidence, the Americans muddle about with confusion and a lack of cohesion. The launch of a baffling Task Force, charged with concocting a winning formula for the US, simply highlights the desperate straits into which they have been plunged.
THE TWISTS IN TIGER'S TALES
Not since Quasimodo burst into the spotlight has there been such interest and intrigue is someone's back. The aches, pains, hirplings, hobblings, comebacks and setbacks suffered by an ailing Tiger Woods provided an on-going sub-plot to the 2014 golfing year. As McIlroy took charge of the global order, Woods, the former superpower, creaked around like a man twice his age.
During a thoroughly desperate season in which he missed great swathes of the campaign following microdiscectomy surgery, didn't win, didn't claim a top-10, made hasty returns and painful withdrawals, and slithered to 29th in the world, Woods remained a headliner. On his last comeback, Woods made a telling admission; a declaration that he will look to the past in order to shape his future. Having been through more swings than Benny Goodman, Woods has gone back to something resembling the approach he adopted in his youth. It seems he has finally realised that it is about refinement, not reinvention. If he can maintain this new belief in his old self - and stay fit, of course - there may be yet another telling twist in the Tiger tale.
Merry Christmas, folks.
ENDS
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