Ranking the top 10 PGA Tour events of 2015-16 regular season
Let's rank the top 10 PGA Tour events of 2015-16
The 2015-16 PGA Tour regular season is finally over, and the FedEx Cup Playoffs are here. The choice for best tournament of the regular season is quite easy, but the rest of the top 10 is actually kind of difficult. I took into account how good a tournament's finish was, how big the stars involved are and the level of golf played.
Here's what I came up with. Winner in parentheses.
10. CIMB Classic (Justin Thomas): Some of my fondest memories of golf tournaments have come in the middle of the night (i.e. the last four Opens). Thomas' first PGA Tour win over Adam Scott took place in Malaysia in the middle of the night here in the United States in November. It doesn't get more obscure than that, but that putt to secure win No. 1 was pretty amazing.
9. Dean & Deluca Invitational (Jordan Spieth): We're in "I don't know what to do with the rest of the events" territory. We could go with Jason Day's match play win here. Or Brandt Snedeker at the Farmers Insurance Open I suppose. Or maybe Bubba Watson at the Northern Trust Open. Or Scott at the Honda Classic. But Spieth at Colonial juiced the masses a little bit. It had been a few months since Spieth won his last tournament (Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in January) so it was pretty great to see him involved near his hometown for win No. 2 on the season. Shots like this didn't hurt either.
The man of the hour.#QuickHitshttps://t.co/t3jbQOCtYh
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 29, 2016
8. Phoenix Open (Hideki Matsuyama): Another one that gets lost because it was Super Bowl weekend. I'll never forget Rickie Fowler choking up in the press conference after losing to Matsuyama at the very end of the tournament. Not the greatest event in the world, but a duel between two studs that ended poorly for Fowler. This one meant something to him, and I can't help but wonder if he wins here how much differently his 2016 goes.
7. Cadillac Championship (Adam Scott): This one gets a little lost because of how long ago it was, but Scott held off a murderer's row of Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy, Danny Willett and Phil Mickelson to take the second WGC event of the season. And he did it with this up and down at the final hole.
A flop from Scott. #QuickHitshttps://t.co/rMfrejLpVF
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 6, 2016
6. Olympics (Justin Rose): It's tough to know where to properly rate this. It was a good tournament and a terrific ending, but it came in one of the more average fields of the year. Part of me thinks that if the Olympics was in, say, May instead of August, we would remember this tournament more fondly. So many golf fans start shutting down after the PGA Championship though. When you combine that with the fact that most of the top players pulled out of this event, I can't put it any higher than 6th.
5. PGA Championship (Jimmy Walker): The majors have to be incredibly boring to not be among the five best tournaments in a given season, and this one nearly was. The runner up (Day) ironically saved it on his last hole of the tournament with a 2-iron straight out of the Tiger Woods playbook. If Walker had bogeyed No. 18 to go to a playoff, then this could have risen into the top three.
Jason Day at the PGA Championship ...
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 1, 2016
2015: 1st 🏆
2016: 2nd
He saved his best for last, though. https://t.co/gHZAL85Ja8
4. Players Championship (Jason Day): This tournament had a little bit of everything. A great champion. One of the great rounds of 2016. One of the cutest moments of 2016. And 3,933 (approximately) of the hottest takes in golf history about Spieth.
Even Jason Day's son is destroying the competition. pic.twitter.com/Y7QgDSO0Mm
— SkratchTV (@skratchTV) May 15, 2016
3. Masters (Danny Willett): This is not Jordan Spieth-approved, but when I think of the 2016 year in 20 years, one of my first memories will be of Spieth laying the sod over that second shot into the water on No. 12. It feels like we're falling apart, buddy is a phrase I'll use for the next decade on the course with my pals. Historically great? No. But nonetheless historic.
2. U.S. Open (Dustin Johnson): I'm biased because I was there, but what Dustin Johnson did on the back nine at Oakmont on Sunday was spectacular. Throw in the insane rules controversy and an all-time course, and you get one of the top U.S. Opens in recent memory. We didn't get a showdown between two players like we did at Royal Troon, but we did get a duel between Johnson and the USGA which was nearly as good. And thankfully Johnson saved us from a Jim Furyk-Scott Piercy playoff.
One for the ages. This tournament was probably the best I've seen since I've been at CBS. It had it all. Two terrific stars. A great course. Nasty weather. Historic scores. And the best final-round duel maybe ever at a major championship. It was pretty easily No. 1.
Stenson-Mickelson best perf by top 2 in majors since 1983 - by 9 strokes! Phil runner-up in 4 of top 10 major duels. pic.twitter.com/QgRXaOolRN
— Mark Broadie (@MarkBroadie) July 19, 2016
















