18 Predictions Revisited
The official 2002 PGA Tour season ended last weekend, with Vijay Singh capturing the Tour Championship, and rookie Luke Donald picking up his maiden win at the rain-shortened Southern Farm Bureau Classic.
Season in review reports will abound in golf media for weeks to come, but before we at Suite101.com joins the fray, let's revisit the 18 inane (but fairly prescient, as you shall find) predictions written last December for this season. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/pga_...
- A left-handed golfer will win a major, and, yes, it will be his first one. But it may not
be who you think. No lefty won a major this year. The one I had in mind then was Canadian Mike Weir, who failed to record even a top-10.
- Tiger Woods will return, although he's never really left, and capture six events plus two majors. Woods won five PGA Tour tournaments and one European Tour event. Two of his victories were major championships.
- Tiger will win; Mercedes, Pebble Beach, TPC, the Masters, Byron Nelson Classic, the Western Open, the PGA and the Canadian Open. Tiger won Bay Hill Invitational, the Masters, Deutsche Bank Open in Germany, the U.S. Open, the Buick Open and the WGC-American Express Championship.
- With two majors going to Tiger and one to a lefty, the other remaining one will go to an international player. Candidates are Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke. Els did win the Open Championship, and Harrington finished in the top-10 in three of the four majors.
- Charles Howell III will win a couple of tournaments and finish in the top-10 on the money list. CH III went through a mild slump in summer, but ended with a bang thanks to his first win at Michelob Championship and the runner-up finish at the Tour Championship. He wound up ninth on the money list.
- Team USA will win the Ryder Cup, hands down. There won't be any need for a
1999-like comeback. Team Europe won the Ryder Cup, hands down. Americans couldn't pull off a 1999-like comeback.
- Vijay Singh will break out of his winless streak that lasted entire 2001 season. Singh won twice; Vijay means victory in his native tongue Hindi.
- Here's an easy one; Robert Allenby will win a tourney-in a playoff. Allenby didn't win, but he did have eight top-10s and two second places.
- David Toms, seventh-ranked player in the world, will continue to develop as a world-class golfer and crack the top-5 in the World Golf Ranking. Although he shockingly went winless on the year, consistent Toms ended the year as the fifth-ranked golfer in the world. And hardly anyone was hotter down the stretch than Toms, easily the best American on the Ryder Cup squad.
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