(December 27, 2016) -- Once again the golf season
did
not disappoint and as 2016 comes to a close it is
time to
look back at the top-10 moments from the year that
was. With thousands of tournaments contested
worldwide over the past 12 months it is impossible
for
us to give every great moment its do but we hope
the
list we have compiled will more than suffice. So
without
further ado here are the top-10 moments from the
2016
season.
No. 10
Joseph Deraney had a
breakout year in 2016
winning three Majors of Amateur Golf and
positioning
himself to be a force for years to come.
No. 9
Recently
Bronte Law turned
professional
but before she did the former UCLA star left her
mark
on the amateur game with her biggest victory
coming in
July's
European Ladies
Championship.
No. 8
Illinois junior
Dylan Meyer nearly
pulled
off the improbable double-double this summer,
winning
the
Western Amateur, only to
run
out of steam about two weeks later in the
quarterfinals of the U.S.
Amateur. In both events Meyer's outdueled Florida
standout Sam Horsfield.
No. 7
When
Chip Lutz won the 2015 U.S.
Senior
Amateur a dream became a reality as he punched
his
ticket into the 2016 U.S. Senior Open. Once Lutz
arrived
at Scioto Country Club he made sure the trip wasn't
short
lived and as the only amateur around for the
weekend
he won
low amateur
honors. His signature moment of the week
came in
the second round when he shot a 1-under 69 to
make
the cut.
No. 6
With a drama filled 3-2 win over Stanford in
the
championship
match
Washington won their first
NCAA Division I Women's
Championship in program history.
No. 5
Ellen Port continued her success in
USGA
events,
winning the
U.S. Senior
Women's
Amateur. The victory gives her seven career
USGA
victories and leaves her one behind all-time
women's
wins leader
JoAnne Gunderson Carner.
No. 4
Eun Jeong Seong made USGA history
this
summer when she won both the
U.S. Junior Girls Championship and
then
the
U.S. Women’s
Amateur two weeks later to become the first
player to hold both titles at the same time.
No. 3
Curtis Luck changed the course of his
career with a week of remarkable play at the U.S.
Amateur. Playing at Oakland Hills Country Club, the
native of Australia won
eight straight holes at one point
during
the championship match to win the U.S. Amateur
and
all the spoils of victory.
No. 2
The 2016 NCAA Division I Championship was
played at Eugene Country Club and host
Oregon wasn't
all that welcoming to their guests. First Oregon star
Aaron Wise
earned
medalist honors and
then
after winning just once the rest of the year the
Ducks
won a thrilling
championship match over
No.
1 Texas.
No. 1
Is there really any other option? The comeback
victory by
Stewart Hagestad in the U.S.
Mid-
Amateur
title
match
is our top moment of 2016. Hagestad was 4 down
with
five holes to play in the match against 2014
champion
Scott Harvey before rallying to tie the match on the
36th hole and then won it on the first extra hole.
HONORABLE MENTION:
-Arizona State senior and Canadian native
Jared du
Toit started the final round of
RBC Canadian Open one-
stroke
back before finishing tied for ninth.
- In his final event as an amateur
Bryson
DeChambeau spent much of the first half of
Masters week near the lead before finishing tied for
21st
and as the winner of the
Silver Cup.
-With one spot remaining and five players tied
all
Chris Crawford did was roll in a
40-foot birdie
putt
to qualify for U.S. Open at Oakmont.
-As a freshman
Virginia Elena Carta
captured the
NCAA Women's Individual title.
-In the month of July nobody had a better four
week stretch
than
Will Zalatoris of Wake Forest.
Zalatoris
captured the
Trans-Mississippi
Amateur and then a short time later the
Pacific
Amateur.
-Michigan sophomore
Nick Carlson,
playing in his home state of Michigan at the U.S.
Amateur took the
golf world by storm with his run to the
semifinals at
Oakland Hills Country Club. Carlson entered the
week as
a relative unknown and ranked nearly 2,000 in the
World Amateur Golf Rankings.