As a golf enthusiast, I’ve spent countless early mornings glued to the TV watching tournaments. I’ve driven out of town to watch local pros tee it up in big tournaments.
In high school, I skipped school on a Friday (Day 2) to walk beside Fred Couples at the Orchard Golf and Country Club at the Johnnie Walker Classic.
A bit more recently, I got to watch the BMW Championships at Wentworth, England.
Golf isn’t just a game we play, we watch and follow it outside the course too. Aside from watching tournaments, social media has also made access to everything golf that much easier.
The golfing world in 2023 had its fair share of excitement.
Let’s look back at how the year went.
(PAUL J. RICHARDS/agence france-presse) Misty water-colored picture of greats Fred Couples (left) of the United States and Greg Norman of Australia during practice round of the 1992 Masters. They have since gone on far, far different routes.
The Majors
It’s always been a ritual between my dad and I to wake up early for the majors.
It started in the 1990s when live golf was shown on cable TV. Depending on the tournament and who was leading or near the top, we’d wake up anywhere between 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. to watch live coverage.
As a kid, I wasn’t really into golf. I remember seeing Betamax tapes labeled US Open 1983 or Masters 1985 and thought nothing of them.
When I finally got to playing golf in my teens and fell in love with the game, I realized that those Betamax tapes were rented from Wack Wack and my dad never got to return them.
Before live golf, I guess people taped tournaments in the US and sent copies here, available to rent at your local home course. So old school! Okay, so back to the 2023 majors:
The Masters — Jon Rahm was a popular winner of the Green Jacket this year. He won by four over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, both LIV stalwarts.
At the time, this could be viewed as a sort of PGA Tour vs LIV thing. Coming into the final round trailing Koepka by 2, Rahm kept steady and came out on top.
Ironically, Rahm started the week in the worst way. He four-putted on his first hole to start the week with a double bogey. Talk about a comeback!
PGA Championship — The PGA was held at Oakhill in 2023 and Brooks Koepka avenged his Masters meltdown in emphatic fashion by winning the following major.
The talk of the week however wasn’t Koepka but PGA Club Pro Michael Block. Not only did Block make the cut and finish inside the top 20, he even made a hole-in-one in the final round to the delight of the fans!
US Open — The US Open went all Hollywood this year (literally), as it was played in Beverly Hills at the Los Angeles Country Club. The course had its critics, there were much less fans than usual, but as for the golf, relative unknown Wyndham Clark outlasted all the stars and took their glitter away.
The Open Championship — The Open was held at Royal Liverpool, Hoylake.
Surprise winner was lefty Brian Harman who dominated the much bigger, much longer tour stars.
Harman navigated the course and the wet conditions to win by six shots. Hooray for steady play and course management!
Fedex Cup — Golf’s version of the playoffs was won by Viktor Hovland in 2023.
He actually went back to back, winning the BMW and then The Tour Championship the week after to claim the Fedex Cup.
He won $3.6 million for the BMW and $18 million for the Fedex Cup. What a hot couple of weeks can do to one’s wallet!
Ryder Cup — Team Europe dominated the Ryder Cup from day one at Marco Simone Golf Club, Rome. The final day singles was more of a battle, but the result was never in doubt.
The Americans were bludgeoned in the first two days. Unsurprisingly, one of the week’s big heroes was Viktor Hovland.
Coming off his Fedex Cup win, Hovland continued flawless form into the Ryder Cup. This was highlighted by an astonishing 9&7 victory of team Hovland/Aberg over Koepka/Scheffler in day-2 foursomes.
Local Golf — Jhonnel Ababa and Daniella Uy led the way in 2023 for local professionals.
They both topped the PGT and LPGT respectively. Miguel Tabuena ended the year as No. 2 on Asian Tour.
For amateur club players, Federation Golf was won by Eastridge Golf Club. Southwoods won PAL Interclub Men’s Division, while Luisita won the Seniors Division. At the Fil-Am, Southwoods again won the Men’s Division while Luisita Seniors also triumphed.
2023 was another great golfing year.
Hoping for continued growth for golf in 2024 and beyond.
Happy New Year!
