Review of the year 2012 - Part 3(c): THE TOURS IN 2012 AUGUST-DECEMBER

A U G U S T

The week following the PGA Championship was the final regular PGA Tour event before the Playoffs and the rain affected Wyndham Championship in North Carolina. Sergio Garcia was on the outside looking in as the race to be in the European Ryder Cup team came down to the wire, but a stellar performance saw him claim his first win in America since the 2008 Players Championship and move into the automatic qualification places for the Ryder Cup team. Charl Schwartzel finished in a tie for 14^th and remained outside the world's top 20. The month of August concluded with the Johnnie Walker Championship on the European Tour, the tournament has been the final qualifying event for the European Ryder Cup team since 2008 but this year it didn't have an impact upon the selection of the team, it was won by a player already secure in the knowledge he would be on the plane to Chicago in September. Paul Lawrie continued his resurgence with a second win of the year and third title in under 2 years.

In the same week as the European Tour determined its Ryder Cup team the PGA Tour began its Playoffs for the FedEx Cup. Nick Watney was victorious over the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in New York. Schwartzel's consistency was in finishing in the top 30 over the summer and that continued at Bethpage, finishing 24^th. Louis Oosthuizen however was to start a run of form which was comparable to that of his early year form rather than that he showed during the summer. Following a 4^th placed finish at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational he was in the top 25 at the PGA Championship and then at Bethpage he finished 5^th. This upturn in form would continue into September.

S E P T E M B E R

The PGA Tour Playoffs have now started to succeed in their mission and provide competitive events following the PGA Championship on the PGA Tour, and in the second week of the series we had a compelling final round headed by Rory McIlroy and Louis Oosthuizen. Oosthuizen started the final day at 19-under with a significant four shot lead over McIlroy and six over Tiger Woods, by the end of the day the three were to be separated by just 2 shots as both McIlroy and Woods produced fine golf in contrast the Oosthuizen's final round struggles. The South African finished at 19-under, where he started, in contrast to the 66 and 67 from Woods and McIlroy respectively. Again in the final round Oosthuizen had a double-bogey, following on from the final rounds of the Volvo Golf Champions and Shell Houston Open, when scores of double-bogey and worse cost him the titles in South Africa and Texas. Rory McIlroy claimed his second win in three events and took the lead in the FedEx Cup.

But not even a highly impressive second successive PGA Tour win in the following week in Indianapolis was enough to guarantee McIlroy the FedEx Cup. The World Number One confirmed his status as the best player in the world by duelling with Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Lee Westwood over the four days, coming out on top of arguably the strongest field in world golf in 2012. Oosthuizen and Schwartzel finished 16^th and 28^th respectively.

THE TOUR Championship was the conclusion of the Playoffs and should have been the coronation of Rory McIlroy as FedEx Cup Champion, but once again the system denied the player that should have been the champion of the so-called season long competition. Brandt Snedeker was one of the top five players who had “control of their own destiny” along with Phil Mickelson, Nick Watney, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Snedeker played well and deserved to win, but how can the winner of 2 tournaments in a season finish as FedEx Cup champion ahead of a player who won four times and twice in the playoffs? It is a puzzle to all golfers and golf fans outside of the USA, and something that needs to be addressed.

O C T O B E R

Following the Ryder Cup was the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. This week was particularly painful for me to watch, l knew I should have been there, and I was watching people I knew caddying in Scotland's biggest European Tour event. With most of the Ryder Cup team declining to make the journey from Chicago to Fife it was a great opportunity for the chasing pack to close in on Rory McIlroy as the Race to Dubai picked up pace. Branden Grace claimed an impressive fourth win of the year, in contrast to his countrymen Schwartzel and Oosthuizen who finished 66^th and missed the cut respectively.

Oosthuizen accepted an invitation to play in the Nanshan China Masters opposite the European Tour's Portugal Masters, Louis finished in a tie for fourth place and would go on to post a sixth place finish in the BMW Masters two weeks later in Shanghai. Peter Hanson claimed a one stroke win over Rory McIlroy at Lake Malaren in the first official edition of the European Tour event. Charl Schwartzel played in the inaugural ISPS Handa Perth International in October, but he needn't have paid for the air fare as he missed the cut and continued his mainly disappointing season.

Controversially Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods decided to skip the final WGC of the season but appeared in the made for TV match “The Duel at Jinsha Lake” in China on the Monday following the BMW Masters. McIlroy won but it won't be something that any of the tours would like to see repeated in the future.

N O V E M B E R

November was another month in which Louis Oosthuizen will feel he should have won at least twice, especially in China and Singapore. Ian Poulter and Matteo Manassero walked away with the trophies, but again key mistakes by the 2010 Open Champion cost him two big wins which would have completely changed the entire complexion of the Race to Dubai. McIlroy's third place finish at the Barclays Singapore Open was enough secure his first European Tour Order of Merit, but it could have been so different if Louis Oosthuizen had eliminated key errors at key times throughout the season.

McIlroy missed the cut at the UBS Hong Kong Open, but the penultimate week of the European Tour season was all about keeping the card or qualifying for the DP World Tour Championship. Henrik Stenson traveled thousands of miles from Florida and came away with his first European Tour win in five years and earned just enough to make it to Dubai. Charl Schwartzel finished in a tie for fifth, at the time it was unnoticed, but that fifth placed finish launched Schwartzel's best period of form since winning The Masters in 2011.

Both he and Oosthuizen contended at the DP World Tour Championship, finishing 3^rd and 4^th behind Rory McIlroy in Dubai. McIlroy finished with five birdies to win by 2 from Justin Rose for his fifth worldwide win of 2012.

D E C E M B E R

Oosthuizen and Schwartzel then joined 10 other stars at the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City, and Charl continued his improved run by finishing second to Martin Kaymer. So a fifth, a third and a second placed finish in three tournaments, much better from Schwartzel. But that was just the starter for the feast of golf that the 2011 Masters Champion was set to provide over the next couple of weeks.

Following a one-week break the European Tour season began in South Africa at the Nelson Mandela Championship at the Royal Durban Golf Club. Unfortunately the tournament was ravaged by the weather, and rather than cancel the event entirely the tournament organisers changed the par of several holes and played it over 36 holes in order to get the first tournament of the 2013 season completed. Scott Jamieson claimed his first European Tour title by beating Steve Webster in a playoff. Charl Schwartzel decided to join Lee Westwood and Bubba Watson in Thailand rather than stay in South Africa. It was a very good decision. 12 months earlier Schwartzel finished a distant second to the rampant Lee Westwood by seven shots, he clearly watched and learned from the Englishman. He returned to Amata Spring and proceeded to smash Westwood's records from the first edition of the Thailand Golf Championship, winning by an incredible 11 stroke margin.

A remarkable end to his year one could be allowed to think. But what followed at Leopard Creek was even more extraordinary, Schwartzel won by 12 shots. Two wins in two weeks by a total of 23 shots. Add the 5^th, 3^rd and 2^nd placed finishes to the two wins and you have the most in form golfer heading into 2013.

At times in 2012 Schwartzel and Oosthuizen proved that they can be the new Els and Goosen, they certainly are by their global schedules, and they have both won a Major already. Both will feel they could have had even better years but in 2012 I can see the beginnings of a new big four in golf, and just maybe the two South Africans will be a part of that in 2013.