Tiger Woods regained the world number one ranking after an absence of two-and-a-half years.
But former world No. 1 Rory McIlroy struggled through an up-and-down in the year, save for a late-season resurgence that saw him hold off Masters champion Adam Scott to win the Australian Open.
Woods owes his return to the top spot to his wins in five tournaments, but crucially he came up short once again in the four majors, failing to end a drought that dates back to June 2008 when he won his 14th major title at the US Open.
Instead, four players shared the honours in the tournaments that are the crown jewels of golf.
Scott finally smashed the Aussie jinx at the Masters, Justin Rose became the first Englishman to win the US Open in 43 years at Merion, Phil Mickelson took the British Open at his 20th attempt and Jason Dufner was a popular winner of the PGA Championship.
With his 38th birthday coming up on December 30, Woods can hardly be called a veteran just yet, but he admits that the golfing landscape around him is changing fast.
“It’s a whole different generation of guys,” he was quoted by AFP as saying during the week.
“I’ve played probably more head-to-head matches against Ernie (Els) than anybody because we played around the world; and Vijay (Singh) would probably be the second and Phil (Mickelson) would probably be third.
“But along the way … I had Goose (Retief Goosen) in there and (David) Duval in there as well for a number of years.
“It’s a different crop of guys. All those guys are in their 40s and 50s. So we got a whole new crew, and I think the youngest probably being Rory (McIlroy).
“But there’s a lot of guys who are in their late 20s, early 30s that are right in their prime.”
McIlroy, in fact, started the year as the world number one but, after a change of golfing equipment, his year went rapidly downhill as he became distracted by business affairs and a clear loss of form.
Still there were some signs that he can put all that behind him and he has plenty of career time left to significantly add to his majors haul of two.
“Golf’s a long career and I’m 24 years old,” McIlroy said in Sydney earlier this month after overhauling Scott to win the Australian Open — his first and only tournament victory of the year.
“I get a little impatient at times and if I actually just took a step back and looked at the bigger picture, it hasn’t been too bad a year.
“It’s obviously been made a lot better with the win. You know you have to go through the lows and I’m not saying it was a low this year. It’s not like I plummeted off the face of the earth.
“I’m still sixth in the world so it’s not too bad. It’s not the level that I feel like I can play to but I feel I’m getting back there, so it’s very pleasing.”
McIlroy’s win in Sydney prevented Scott from becoming just the second player to achieve the Down Under “Grand Slam” of Australian PGA, Australian Masters and Australian Open which would have brought down the curtain splendidly on a breakthrough year for him.
Long touted as set to become a dominant figure in the game, Scott had — until April — flattered to deceive. But all that changed at Augusta National — where he beat Angel Cabrera in a drama-filled playoff.
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