One Final Go-Round for PGA Tour 2010

The PGA Tour season ended Sunday -- 45 weeks and 46 tournaments after it began the first week of January.

There were 39 different winners. Ninety players earned more than $1 million each. Jim Furyk topped the tour in wins -- three -- including the Tour Championship. Matt Kuchar, with only one victory but 11 top 10s, claimed the money title with $4,910,477.

Europe beat the U.S. to win the Ryder Cup. Tiger Woods went oh-for-2010, the first winless season of his pro career. Vijay Singh, ranked among the world's top 20 players since 1997, finished this year 86th.

England's Lee Westwood, despite only one 2010 win worldwide and still without a major championship, took over the world No. 1 ranking, bumping Tiger from top the spot after 281 consecutive weeks.

Matt Every was suspended for three months of the season after a marijuana possession arrest in his hotel room in Silvis, Ill., while at the John Deere.

John Daly wasn't arrested.

Dustin Johnson missed a chance to win the PGA Championship because of a two-stroke penalty incurred on the 72nd hole for grounding his club in a bunker that he didn't know was a bunker -- because he didn't bother to read the local rules sheet.

Fred Couples turned 50 and went to the Champions Tour.

Paul Goydos (first round of the John Deere) and Stuart Appleby (final round, Greenbrier) shot 59s.

John Daly didn't get divorced.

Phil Mickelson won the Masters for his fourth career major, but other than announcing he was going vegetarian, didn't do anything interesting the rest of the year.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy became the season's youngest winner -- 20 year, 11 months, 28 days -- at Quail Hollow.

Rocco Mediate was the oldest -- 37 years, 10 months -- winning the Frys.com.

John Daly didn't trash a hotel room.

And you thought the year was boring.

Actually, there were more memorable moments than the statistics might suggest:

STANDUP GUY AWARD

Brian Davis, 35 and trying to win his first career PGA Tour title, was on the first playoff hole of extra action against Jim Furyk at Hilton Head, S.C.

In a greenside hazard and needing an up-and-down to save par, Davis ticked a loose reed during his backswing Sunday. Although no one noticed, the Englishman immediately confessed to rules officials and was penalized two shots, giving Furyk the win.

"I didn't feel it. But I was pretty sure I saw -- I was actually closing my eyes coming down into the sand," Davis said. "It was one of those things I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye."

TV replays then confirmed it.

"That will come back to him spades, tenfold," tour rules official Slugger White said.

Not yet. Davis continues to seek his first title, but did win a lot of admiration.

BEST BLOW-UP

Scott McCarron called Phil Mickelson a cheater.

It was early in the season and golf's new rules on grooves had just going into use, but Mickelson was one of a small handful of players who were using a loophole in the restrictions to play a 20-year old Ping-Eye2 wedge with square grooves.

It made for some interesting dialog.

"It's cheating, and I'm appalled Phil has put it in play," McCarron said.

Mickelson took exception to the charge, insisting his use of the club was an effort to show displeasure with the new grooves rules. McCarron later apologized for his choice of words, and the loophole was soon closed.

SEASON'S BEST WISDOM

"It's one of those things. I think you can play golf on no sleep if you haven't been drinking. Drinking is what makes it hard when you get no sleep. You couldn't do it every night, you'd get tired, but we're all semi-athletes. I mean, you can play golf off three or four hours of sleep."

-- Aussie Geoff Ogilvy

TRUE COLORS

The morning after winning the Masters, Phil Mickelson put on his green jacket, loaded his kids in the car and motored to the drive-thru window of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in Augusta, Ga.

"My kids wanted doughnuts, and I said we'll go to Krispy Kreme and grab some," Mickelson said. "It was a little chilly, so I threw on a jacket and went through the drive-thru."

The store manager asked to take a picture and gave Mickelson the doughnuts for free.

The photo quickly went Internet viral -- before Mickelson made it home that same afternoon.

"We took off, flew a couple hours, and when I landed, it was -- I had gotten texts and emails saying that it was all over the Internet," Mickelson said.

BEST INSIGHT

"It's amazing how good golf transpires into being a smarter person. A few years ago, nobody cared what I thought."

-- Steve Stricker, who climbed to No. 2 in the world rankings during 2010, before finishing the season No. 5

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS SPREADS QUICKLY

"Anthony Kim is an animal 115 bottles then to top it off a 25k bottle of Dom, which he showered the dance floor with."

– Palms Casino's DJ Exodus tweeted at 3:02 a.m. Tuesday, which sparked controversy over Kim's withdrawal from the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

"That stuff is way, way exaggerated. There have been some crazy reports, like I was drinking 100-year-old cognac. I don't even know what cognac tastes like."

– Anthony Kim, defending his decision to withdraw from the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open due to a thumb injury and not for excessive partying.

RED, WHITE AND FEELING BLUE

Of the four majors and four World Golf Championships, Americans had only two victories in 2010 - Phil Mickelson (Masters) and Hunter Mahan (Bridgestone Invitational).

With England's Westwood currently at No. 1 in the world, there is a strong possibility the 2011 season will began without a PGA Tour member holding the top spot since 1994 when Nick Faldo help the position.

WOODS AIR ASSAULT

Because of reasons you know, Tiger Woods made himself a pretty easy target for 2010.

The best shot, however, was delivered from the air.

In late January, barely two months after the sex scandal began to unfold, Woods was still keeping a low profile, and skipped the PGA Tour stop in San Diego, where he had won six times.

That did not mean he had protective cover.

A plane flew over the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines pulling a 120-foot long banner: "WE MISS YOU TIGER! -- DÉJÀ VU SHOWGIRLS."

The next day, another flow over followed: "WE MISS TOO, TIGER -- DREAMGIRLS."

And finally, after Woods publicly faced up, acknowledged his issues and announced he would find strength from Buddhism, there was one more flyover during the Masters: "TIGER, DID YOU MEAN BOOTYISM?"

SURPRISE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Matt Kuchar won the 1997 U.S. Amateur and was expected to quickly become one of golf's marquee names. But going into 2010, he had two career PGA Tour victories, the last coming in 2005.

During nine years on the PGA Tour, only twice did he finish better than 70th on the season money list ... until this year.

Kuchar won the Barclays, a FedEx Cup playoff event, recorded 11 top 10s, played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team and carried off a couple of year-end awards.

By winning the season money title with $4.91 million, Kuchar will receive the Arnold Palmer Award and receives a five-year PGA Tour exemption through 2015.

In addition to the official money title, Kuchar also claimed the Byron Nelson Award for low adjusted scoring average (69.61).

"For me to go from a guy that just wanted to keep his card a few years ago, to winning the Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer Awards is pretty overwhelming," said Kuchar.


SHOT OF THE YEAR

In a sudden-death three-way playoff at Las Vegas, Jonathan Byrd went to the fourth extra hole and knocked a 204-yard, 6-iron into the cup for a hole-in-one.

It was the best shot of the year that no one saw.

Because of the late finish, darkness was all but official. Tournament officials were making plans to return the next morning in the playoff needed to go any further.

It wasn't necessary.

Byrd hit first on the hole and gazed into the dusk.

With hand on hips, the 32-year-old former Clemson Tiger was still standing gazing blindly into the distance when his ball landed on the green.

He couldn't see that it landed 12 feet in front of the pin, took three short bounces and rolled the final four feet smoothly into the cup.

"It was almost like I thought I heard somebody say it went in, and then I wasn't sure, and then my caddie said, 'I think it went in,' " Byrd said. "I didn't know."


SHOT OF THE YEAR, ACTUALLY SEEN

Phil Mickelson's approach shot on the 13th hole in the final round of the Masters even made non-golf fans stop at look at the replays, over and over again.

With his tee shot having come to a stop in pine straw and two trees blocking his view, Lefty threaded a 207-yard 6-iron shot through a four-foot gap and landed it just three feet from the pin.

He did miss the eagle putt, but did go on to victory.

"I think most people would have chipped that one out, but that's what great players do – they pull off great shots at the right time," observed runner-up Lee Westwood.

YEAR'S TOP INVESTMENT

Jim Furyk won the Tour Championship ($1.35 million) and the FedEx Cup ($10 million bonus) in September at Atlanta's East Lake GC, using a pre-owned putter he purchased a few weeks earlier from a discount golf shop for $39.

Furyk said the putter which he discovered at Joe & Leigh's Discount Golf Pro Shop outside of Boston had a nick on the topline that actually helped him line up the ball perfectly.

"The reason I picked it up, to be honest with you, it's the only one in the shop --a heel-shafted putter," Furyk said. "It was the only one in the shop of about 300 putters. At the time I didn't think it was all the that pretty to be honest with you, but it's getting a lot better looking every day."