The Best of the Best In Golf This Year

By ESPN

1. The best of the best

Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas won the four major championships in 2017. A victory in a major by itself makes it a great year, and any other wins -- Spieth has two others, Thomas three -- turns it into something special.

But how do you determine who had the best year in the majors, period?

Out of that foursome, only U.S. Open winner Koepka and The Open champion Spieth made the cut in all four majors.

Koepka's worst finish was a tie for 16th at the PGA Championship won by Thomas. Koepka was 11th at the Masters and sixth at The Open. Spieth also tied for 11th at the Masters, but was 35th at the U.S. Open and 28th at the PGA. So the nod there goes to Koepka.

What about all who made the cut in each of the majors? There were 13 players who did so, and Matt Kuchar tied Koepka with an average finish of 7.75 in the four tournaments. Kuchar's best was a second at The Open and his worst a 13th at the U.S. Open. That is some excellent consistency, but Koepka's U.S. Open victory would break any ties.

Hideki Matsuyama's run in the majors was also impressive, with no finish worse than 14th (at The Open) and two top-10s.

The others to make the cut in all four majors were Paul Casey, Russell Henley, Rickie Fowler, Steve Stricker, Lee Westwood, Charley Hoffman, Marc Leishman, Kevin Kisner and J.B. Holmes.
2. What does it mean?

Sustained success in the major championships over a year is difficult. To make the cut in all four, as those 13 players did, is an accomplishment, to be sure, and shows just how difficult it is to make the leap and contend in all of them.

And it highlights just how special the year was for Spieth in 2015 when he placed 1-1-4-2, just a few shots away from a Grand Slam. Only Ben Hogan (1953) and Tiger Woods (2000) have won three majors in the same year since the Masters began in 1934.

Woods in 2000 went 5-1-1-1 in the majors -- and completed the Tiger Slam by winning the 2001 Masters, giving him four in a row. In 2005, he went 1-2-1-4.
3. It wasn't a dream

After his PGA Championship victory -- his fourth win this season on the PGA Tour -- Thomas wondered if it had all really happened.

4. Tiger's recovery

On Monday, Woods' toxicology report was released in the aftermath of his DUI arrest in May. Also on Monday, he offered a statement about how he's handling his pain medication recovery -- as well as his recovery from the back fusion surgery he had on April 19.

Given the fallout from his arrest, Woods is probably looking forward to the day the questions return to being about his back surgery and comeback.

The recovery from fusion surgery was estimated to be slow, with the likelihood of six months passing before he could begin swinging a club.

"Regarding my back, I recently spoke to my surgeon and he's very pleased with how my fusion is healing,'' Woods said in his statement. "I'm doing some light lifting, riding a stationary bike and putting a little.''

Woods looks fine based on his Twitter photo with Thomas on Monday. But the process of getting back to golf will take time, as expected. If the timeline is correct, Woods is still several weeks away from being able to take full swings.

5. Reed's best major

Given Patrick Reed's love of the big stage -- especially in the team events -- it's a mystery that he has never finished among the top 10 in a major. He finally did so at the PGA Championship and had an outside chance before tying for second, two shots behind Thomas.

Reed, who made his major debut in 2014, admitted there was a learning curve. "My first two years at the majors, I was putting too much pressure on myself,'' he said. "I was making them way bigger than they needed to be. They are still golf tournaments. There's still 72 holes. You've got to go out and play some good golf.

"I played the smart, sensible shots all day. I didn't get ahead of myself. That's key. That's kind of what I take from this week.''
6. Presidents Cup boost

Reed's PGA finish jumped him into ninth place in the U.S. Presidents Cup team standings, and Kuchar moved up to eighth after his tie for ninth at the PGA. If they can stay there, that would be a big help to U.S. captain Steve Stricker, who will make two at-large selections to fill out the 12-man team after the qualification period ends following the Dell Technologies Championship, the second playoff event. Stricker would likely pick both players if they don't automatically qualify.

The Presidents Cup is Sept. 28-Oct. 1 at Liberty National against a team of International players outside of Europe.

Dustin Johnson, Spieth, Thomas, Daniel Berger, Fowler, Koepka and Kisner fill out the first seven spots, with Hoffman in the 10th position.

Johnson, Spieth, Fowler, Koepka, Reed and Kuchar give the U.S. team plenty of experience. Thomas and Berger are obvious stars who will be on teams for years to come. The question for Stricker will be: Does he pick Phil Mickelson, in 17th position but in poor form, for his veteran leadership and his overall role in the future of Presidents Cup/Ryder Cup teams? Mickelson has played in every Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup dating to 1994.
7. Louis, Louis

Louis Oosthuizen, who won the 2010 Open at St. Andrews, lost in a playoff there in 2015, lost in a playoff at the Masters to Bubba Watson in 2012, was tied for second at the 2015 U.S. Open and now has finished runner-up at the PGA Championship -- giving him runner-up finishes in all four major championships. (Greg Norman lost all four in playoffs.) Oosthuizen had quite the way to express his feelings about it in the aftermath.

8. Amazing stat

When Thomas won the PGA Championship three weeks after Spieth's victory at The Open, it marked the first time since 1923 that different players age 25 or younger won consecutive major championships (Thomas is 24; Spieth turned 24 a week after The Open). That year, Bobby Jones won the U.S. Open, the first of his seven professional major titles, at Inwood Country Club. Gene Sarazen won the PGA Championship at Pelham Country Club in a match-play final that went to 38 holes. Both players were 21. That year, the U.S. Open was played in June, followed by The Open in July and the PGA in September.
9. Feeling inspiration

Count Berger among those taking motivation from Thomas' win. Along with Thomas and Spieth, Berger was part of the high school class of 2011.