There's one more piece of major hardware to be delivered, though the engraver is hardly on standby and the spelling won't exactly be foreign to him.
Tiger Woods won six times on the PGA Tour, twice as much as the next guy, had the best stroke-adjusted average by a staggering 1.24 shots and threatened to break the single-season earnings mark. So when the Player of the Year award is announced in mid-December, keeping your feelings of shock and awe in check won't be difficult.
As for the rest of the global landscape, Lorena Ochoa eked out the LPGA's top player honors Monday by the narrowest of margins over Jiyai Shin, while resurgent Brit Lee Westwood clinched the inaugural Race to Dubai title a day earlier in the United Arab Emirates.
Westwood played the most impressive golf of his career over the past few months. In incredibly clutch fashion, Ochoa birdied the last hole on the final day of the season to secure her fourth Player of the Year trophy. Woods didn't win a major, but he was otherwise as dominant as ever, his superiority as the top dog never in question.
The trophy races are over. Elsewhere, they settled for atrophy.
On the opposite side of the success fence are the Flayer of the Year candidates, those who didn't remotely live up to lofty expectations, take home any chrome or fulfill their promising potential. Many canned their coaches, caddies and girlfriends, suffered various professional indignities and in multi-part harmony counted down the moments to when 2009 would end.
They hacked, chopped and mostly got skinned. Nobody would have believed in January that the list of 2009 flops would include so many luminaries -- which we humbly submit, for your disapproval.
Call it the Order of Demerit.
Many smelled like rear end until year-end. They put the stink in distinction.
Unlike with the three top-player honors, which are decided by various means and indices, the readers get to alternately dis and decide the most disappointing player of the year. What a fertile crop it was:
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| Stuart Appleby |
Rank Jan. 4: No. 38
Current rank: No. 145
Distinguishing skidmarks: The Australian veteran laid claim to one of the most notable pedigrees in the game. He had played in every World Golf Championship event and major championship since 1997, the longest streak in the game. Thanks to his unbelievably sloppy performance in 2009, that's coming to an ignominious end. Appleby, a check-cashing machine for most of his career, mustered one top 10 finish in the States all season and finished outside the top 125 in earnings. Worse, down the stretch, he went back to Australia to play rather than fight it out in his Orlando backyard at Disney World, where he still had a chance to secure his card. He elected to skip going back to Q-school, too, and will play next year with reduced status. The former Presidents Cup regular skidded so far down the pecking order so quickly, a Nationwide Tour player from Australia, Michael Sim, currently has a higher world ranking. So does 19-year-old Kiwi Danny Lee, who turned pro about 10 minutes ago. Across the board, Appleby conceded that his playing statistics were abysmal, but you didn't have to be a bean counter to understand that. Appleby had a combined winning percentage against his fellow pros of 47.9 percent worldwide this year, which means he was beaten by more than half the field the majority of the time. Egads.
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| Anthony Kim |
Rank Jan. 4: No. 12
Current rank: No. 21
Distinguishing skidmarks: So much was expected after a two-win season in 2008, which included leading the U.S. Ryder Cup team to victory, that an encore was unlikely. But Kim spread himself so thin by chasing appearance fees and comely females that the '09 season was a huge disappointment by almost any yardstick. Blessed with as much inherent talent as any player in his 20s, with the possible exception of Rory McIlroy, Kim seems intent on throwing it away, much to the chagrin of veterans like Robert Allenby, who chided him publicly about his perceived party-boy antics. Kim canned another caddie and, outside of a renewed effort at getting into better physical condition, showed few signs of becoming a more disciplined player. He finished third at a couple of midseason events in the States but was thoroughly outplayed by Tiger Woods at Congressional Country Club in what might have been a reputation-salving opportunity. Instead, Kim flipped clubs around on TV and showed he has a lot more room to grow, as a player and person. He still has another huge hurdle to jump -- he's 0-24-1 against Tiger Woods in common events.
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| Adam Scott |
Rank Jan. 4: No. 15
Current rank: No. 55
Distinguishing skidmarks: The world ranking is a little misleading, since Scott actually rallied in October and November after tanking as a captain's pick at the Presidents Cup. Finally showing signs of life, Scott reeled off three consecutive top seven finishes in Singapore, Australia and Dubai to give his legion of fans a glimpse of hope about 2010. As it was, '09 was a complete disaster. Scott overhauled his swing, parted ways with swing coach and father figure Butch Harmon and seemed utterly lost for most of the season. It didn't help his public persona that he seemed more interested in his dalliances with starlets and famous sports figures than he was in his game. His fall from grace was fast and furious -- Scott was No. 3 in the world at the 2008 U.S. Open, but had skidded to 76th just four weeks ago. Scott is a class act, a credit to the game, and took extreme exception to those who suggested his priorities were out of whack. He finished second this season at the Sony Open in Hawaii, so it won't take long before we'll get a glimpse of whether, as it relates to his play, his late-season surge was the rule or the exception. But at least he was treated better in print this year than his hero and countryman, Greg Norman. Then again, who wasn't?
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| Sergio Garcia |
Rank Jan. 4: No. 2
Current rank: No. 8
Distinguishing skidmarks: Garcia was one of the sports world's most compelling storylines entering 2009, and the same cannot be said as we pull the ripcord at season's end. In fact, just as the Spaniard seemed poised to give Woods a run for his money as world No. 1, he tanked badly, his heart broken, his game sidelined by an apathetic mood that lasted for weeks. With Woods still sidelined by his knee, Garcia had a true shot at overtaking him as No. 1, but he didn't contend for a title in the States until Greensboro, against one of the thinnest fields of the year. Garcia, usually defensive about his personal life, opened up a vein and admitted that he was derailed when Norman's daughter declined a marriage proposal, sending him into a lengthy funk. After contending to the wire at majors in 2007 and 2008, Garcia never sniffed a Grand Slam title this year. After three worldwide wins in 2008, including at the talent-laden Players Championship, he'll have to prove himself all over again in 2010.
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| Camilo Villegas |
Rank Jan. 4: No. 7
Current rank: No. 22
Distinguishing skidmarks: Like Kim, Villegas had a breakout, two-victory season in 2008 and the PGA Tour fast-pushed him as a marketing lynchpin because of his exotic, Banderas-style good looks. Then he went from smoldering to moldering. Like Kim, Villegas chased a few appearance fees along the way, and he never remotely duplicated his 2008 success, which included finishing second in the FedEx Cup race. Villegas, whose putter is a mercurial device at best, didn't seriously contend on Sunday all season. But there's little question that he's one of the hardest workers in the game -- and certainly one of the best-conditioned -- so it's doubtful he'll make the same mistakes in 2010. He played 26 times worldwide in 2009 and seemed to run out of gas. That's simply too many tournaments. As he undoubtedly has learned during the long-distance bike rides he uses to stay in shape, pacing is extremely important. Like Kim, Villegas must demonstrate that he can beat Woods. Villegas has had better luck than Kim, but is 5-42-1 against Woods when playing in common events. The four combined wins of Kim and Villegas in 2008, of course, came when Woods was sidelined after his knee surgery. There is much left to prove.
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| Paddy Harrington |
Rank Jan. 4: No. 4
Current rank: No. 6
Distinguishing skidmarks: He only dropped two spots from the first world ranking of the season to the last. So why is the affable Irishman on the list? Because for two-thirds of the year, half the guys in the Irish press contingent out-earned him. Making yet another in a career-long series of swing tweaks, Harrington was lost for most of the year and didn't begin digging himself out of his self-inflicted hole until he blew a lead at the Bridgestone Invitational with three holes to play on Aug. 9. Then he made it a habit, bashing balls into hazards, trees and parking lots over the remainder of the season, including two shots into the water in the European Tour finale while leading in the first round. Harrington had 32 penalty strokes in his 20 PGA Tour-sanctioned events, more than double the tour average. It had been a decade since he went winless in sanctioned tour play. In nine head-to-head pairings with Woods in 2009, Harrington was beaten eight times by a cumulative total of 24 shots. Because he's one of the most interesting guys in golf, more than any other player on this list, we're anxiously awaiting 2010 to see whether he'll recapture the form that made him a double major winner in 2008.
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| Vijay Singh |
Rank Jan. 4: No. 5
Current rank: No. 24
Distinguishing skidmarks: With Woods out for half the year, the flying Fijian won the money title last season, but he finally broke down physically in 2009, requiring knee surgery in January. Singh came back too quickly, never seemed himself, and went the entire year without trading important blows on a Sunday back nine. His best finish of the year was a T6 at Colonial. While the hard-working Singh, who turns 47 in February, is surely getting long in the tooth -- he became the oldest player to lead the tour in earnings in 2008 -- keep in mind Kenny Perry won twice this year and almost claimed the Masters at age 48. Singh is slowing down, either because of age, because it's prudent, or both. The warhorse played only 22 times worldwide in 2009. That's probably for the best.
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| Justin Rose |
Rank Jan. 4: No. 19
Current rank: No. 68
Distinguishing skidmarks: Coming off his first Ryder Cup appearance in 2008, Rose all but disappeared for six months after finishing second in Dubai to Rory McIlroy last January. Even a late-season rally and a change of coaches couldn't disguise the fact that he'd slipped greatly, especially from his 2007 standards, when he led the European Tour money list. There were extenuating circumstances. Rose and his wife welcomed their first child earlier this year, always a life-changing event. He had three top five finishes in the fall but will need to improve the pace markedly to make another Ryder team in 2010. Unlike some other players on this list, he's an easy kid to root for.
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| Paula Creamer |
Rank Jan. 5: No. 3
Current rank: No. 6
Distinguishing skidmarks: The fact Creamer only dropped three spots can't camouflage the fact that she had a substandard year by her own yardstick. In fact, it underscores the parity in women's golf -- particularly among players from the United States -- that Creamer could go winless in 2009 and retain such a lofty perch. Once again battling a series of stomach maladies, Creamer sputtered through a rough season. She managed 10 top 10 finishes and was often in the peripheral hunt on the weekend, but she never got over the hump, and her season ended with a forgettable T55 on Monday in Houston. Clearly the best U.S. player under age 30, Creamer and compatriot Michelle Wie are the marketing and magnetic future of the LPGA. Without victories from Americans on an annual basis, the tour will continue to lose relevancy in the States. Maybe whatever stomach bug is haunting her was caught from her U.S. peers, who had a dismal year all told. Creamer, Wie and fellow U.S. poster girls Morgan Pressel, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome and Natalie Gulbis mustered a total of three wins in 2009.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images
