Hauser: A dozen quick reflections on 2011

text size

Ehrmann/Getty Images

Keegan Bradley scored a win for the twentysomethings and a very big win for the long-putter craze at the PGA Championship.

Now that the season is winding down -- really it is, we promise -- it seems to be the perfect time to sit back and start reflecting on 2011.

What did we think we knew that we really didn't? What had everyone talking? What boggled our minds? What did we ignore until it smacked us in the face?

Glad you asked.

We thought about it, reviewed a few notes and came up with a quick primer on 2011 -- just in case you need a reminder or simply need to know because for a moment or two your mind wandered elsewhere. So take a minute to sift through the list -- it's in absolutely no certain order -- and then come up with a few of your own.

1. Never say never. How many times did you hear someone harrumph about a long putter? Swear they'd never use one? We said pish-posh to the broomsticks, too. And then ... hey were everywhere. Keegan Bradley earned an asterisk to go with his PGA Championship -- first major won with a long putter. Won the HP Byron Nelson Championship with one too. Phil Mickelson put one in the bag. Phil Mickelson? Brad Faxon, another pure putter, had one sent to him. Webb Simpson won a pair of events with them. Adam Scott made wielding one cool.

They used to be for the old guys with yips. Now they're trending into 2012 and beyond. Some are so long they're almost to a player's shoulders. Some are anchored to the chest or stomach and produce a pendulum action. All of them are legal. We can't begin to count the ways we disagree with that, but the USGA doesn't and so people are putting them in bags and winning with them. For the most part we're partial to what Ernie Els said: "As long as it's legal, I'll keep cheating like the rest of them."

2. Consistency. Never thought that top-10s would trump a major, but this year that just might happen. Think Luke Donald, who has won twice (including the World Golf Championships-Accenture World Match Play), finished second twice, collected 14 top 10s in 19 PGA TOUR events and more than 500 world ranking points. Webb Simpson, another contender, won twice, had three seconds and 12 top 10s in 26 events.

3. The kids. They're better known as twentysomethings and they're pretty fearless. And seriously resilient. Think Rory McIlroy for starters. He follows a major meltdown at the Masters with a walkaway at the U.S. Open. Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner go head-to-head at the PGA Championship. Rickie Fowler hangs in there and finally picks up his first professional win halfway around the world. Simpson is in the Player of the Year mix at 26, Bradley at 25. Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson ... we could go on. Bottom line? They one-upped the veterans more often than not. Don't tell them what they can't do. They know no limits and, honestly, no time when a guy named Tiger Woods dominated.

4. The real young'uns. Let's just say the future of the game is pretty darn healthy. Amateurs Russell Henley and Harris English both won Nationwide Tour events. John Peterson was a runnerup. Englishman Tom Lewis led the British Open after round one at an amateur, while playing with his namesake and Open legend Tom Watson, then wins his third start as a pro. Bud Cauley became just the sixth player to play his way onto the TOUR straight from college, doing it in eight events. Whew. Not enough for you? Right behind them are Texas freshman Jordan Speith and UCLA's Patrick Cantlay, both of whom have played pretty well in TOUR events. We'd go on, but there's not enough room.

5. Getting out of your own way. Sounds like a little self-help babble, right? Wrong. Harrison Frazar, Sean O'Hair and Darren Clarke all took that route this year and ... Frazar was ready to change careers, O'Hair was just struggling period and Clarke was wondering if his major window had come and gone. Then they let go and had incredible life-changing weeks. So it's not babble. It's a roadmap to finding one of those weeks when everything works and everything falls into the hole. Trust. Accept. Stop trying to direct and let it happen. Frazar and O'Hair are back, Clarke's the Champion Golfer of the Year and has a year to sip out of the Claret Jug. Life lessons.

6. Twitter. Amazing what u can say in 140 characters. And if you're not tweeting? You're way behind. Players are reaching out to their tweeps with everything from photos from their rooms to what they're having for dinner to how they feel about everything from winning to politics to their cell phones. They're digging each other, unfollowing former friends and campaigning for your vote on a Facebook page so they could be on the cover of EA Sports' new Tiger Woods video. Face it, it's a news stream now. Where else can you find out what Ian Poulter or Fowler are wearing? Or that Diane Donald -- Luke's wife -- didn't go into labor when she was jumping around the house as her husband was birdying six holes on the way to the TOUR money title last week? Golf writers, managers and caddies are weighing in on anything and everything too. You want to know, they deliver.

7. Showing off your other side. It all started with Watson and Fowler riding Razars and daring each other in twitvids. Now? Well, Ben Crane has taken his Crane-ium stuff to a new level with his pre-shot routine, dance video and, of course, The Golf Boys, which prompted four European Ladies Tour players to shoot The Golf Girls parody. Twisted? Funny? Whatever you think, they go viral and give players a chance to walk on the wild side. Poulter does it too, usually just in pictures.

8. Break-ups. They happen all the time on TOUR. Player-caddie, player-coach, player-manager. But this year, the 24/7 news cycle, social media and ... well, we're not sure what else, pushed them to tabloid headline status and trending topics on Twitter. Tiger-Steve Williams. Adam Scott-Tony Navarro. Mark Steinberg-IMG. Fred Couples-Joe LaCava. LaCava-Dustin Johnson. Rory McIlroy-Holly Sweeney. McIlroy-Chubby Chandler. Ernie Els-Chandler. Padraig Harrington-Bob Torrance. O'Hair-Sean Foley. Oh my. Sometimes people just need a change. Yes, they get our attention, but never thought golf splits would rival Hollywood splits did you?

9. Parity. No one wins more than two events -- so far. Fourteen first-time winners and two of them won twice. Four first-time major winners. We're so used to seeing someone -- think Tiger or Vijay Singh or even Phil Mickelson -- that we're not sure what to do when it's anyone's tournament every week. This isn't the first time we've seen such a wide variety of winners, just the first time it's been truly wide open since Tiger started his run back in the late 1990s.

10. Orthokine therapy and trips to Dusseldorf. Still somewhat experimental treatments -- proteins are spun out of a patient's blood and injected into the problem areas -- that worked for both Fred Couples and Singh. Singh climbed back into the top 30 money winners, while Couples won twice on the Champions Tour. Something tells us that if those two go back for a few more treatments, others may just follow. You always hear there are just so many swings in a golfer's back. Maybe this will add a few more. Maybe not. Like we said, there's much more to learn here.

11. Sudden death. We always hear what the possible playoff holes are every Sunday afternoon, but this year we saw them what felt like more often than not. Yes, there were a 18 of them. A record. Two more than the record of 16 set in 1988 and 1991 and one that produced the shot of the year -- Bill Haas' shot out of the water on the second playoff hole at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.

12. Arnold Palmer is still the King. Forget that he's retired from the game and the left seat of his Citation X. No matter where he goes -- a Wake Forest fund raiser, his Arnold Palmer Invitational, a pro-am, people can't get enough of his wink and smile. Oh wait. We already knew that. Just one more reason there will never be another Arnie.

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM and can be reached at melaniehauser@gmail.com. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR. Follow her on Twitter @melaniehauser.