For today’s players and newer golf fans, the mixed-team event was a first.
OK, so it’s not exactly a new idea. A mixed-team event was on the PGA Tour and LPGA schedules most years from 1960 to 1999.
But for today’s players and newer golf fans, the Grant Thornton Invitational was a first and refreshing year-end addition in 2023. And, given the upheaval that surrounds the game, a much-needed distraction.
Lilia Vu and Joel Dahmen during the first round of the Grant Thornton Invitational at Tiburon Golf Club on December 08, 2023 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Douglas DeFelice/Getty Images)
With the Grant Thornton held at the same venue as the longstanding QBE Shootout, another unofficial limited-field event, it was easy to compare notes between the two. The mixed event had double the fans and concession sales than QBE, and the hospitality areas sold out.
Many of the PGA Tour players said they hoped that a successful Grant Thornton would lead to more opportunities between the men and women.
“There’s no reason we can’t have more mixed-team events,” said Joel Dahmen, who paired with World No. 1 Lilia Vu.
“There are so many events on the PGA Tour, ratings aren’t always amazing in some of those fields. To bring in the women’s game would be awesome.
“I was completely outclassed today by Lexi (Thompson).”
The Male Player of the Year Award was one of two that were unanimous decisions by the Golfweek staff.
As the month of December winds down and January approaches, it’s time to look back on 2023 and reward some of the best moments the game of golf provided fans over the last year.
There were just two awards that produced unanimous votes from the esteemed Golfweek staff: the Female Amateur of the Year and the Male Player of the Year. The former was a repeat winner, while the latter is a first-time Golfweek Award recipient.
The discussion was brief and centered around a pair of multiple-time major champions as well as the winner of the 2023 FedEx Cup. Here are Golfweek’s honorable mentions for Male Player of the Year, as well as the consensus winner.
Last January, few would’ve put anyone on this short list in the LPGA Player of the Year conversation.
At the start of the 2023 season, it’s safe to say that few would’ve put anyone on this short list in the LPGA Player of the Year conversation.
The start of the year seemed primed for another Lydia Ko show, especially after she opened 2023 with a victory on the LET in Saudi Arabia. Nelly Korda won late in 2022 after an injury-plagued year. Would she continue what she started in 2021?
Instead, both Ko and Korda were among the winless on the LPGA this season, while three new heavy hitters emerged.
In the end, the winner was clear. Without further ado, here’s Golfweek’s Female Player of the Year …
A handful of events ranging from the PGA Tour to the LPGA featured in the Tournament of the Year discussion.
As the month of December winds down and January approaches, it’s time to look back on 2023 and reward some of the best moments the game of golf provided fans over the last year.
The discussion among the Golfweek staff for “Tournament of the Year” was a rather lively one, so much so that our group of reporters and editors could not come to a consensus pick for the best week of the year.
This year in golf was a busy one off the course, but the players stepped up and provided some memorable events all season long. From major championships to team events to late comebacks and stellar pro debuts, here are Golfweek’s best Tournaments of the Year in 2023.
The 2023 Golfweek Award winner for Male Amateur of the Year goes to …
What a year it was for men’s amateur golfers.
Players dominated the college game and others took over the scene during the summer. An amateur legend further cemented his legacy while one of the up-and-comers continued to make a name for himself.
When it came to selecting Golfweek‘s Male Amateur of the Year, there were plenty of candidates to choose from, but one stood out among the rest. This player did something this summer that had only ever been done once by a guy named Tiger Woods. I wonder what he’s up to these days.
The 2023 Golfweek Award winner for Male Amateur of the Year goes to …
The 2023 Golfweek Award winner for Female Amateur of the Year goes to …
For the second straight year, there wasn’t much conversation among Golfweek‘s staff when it was time to decide the Female Amateur of the Year.
There were plenty of remarkable performances and stellar athletes across the globe who shined bright during the 2023 calendar year. There were defending champions proving their worth, plenty of first-time winners and veterans standing out when the lights were brightest, but one female golfer stood out among them all.
In the end, it came down to four athletes, three who made honorable mention and the Golfweek Female Amateur of the Year. This year’s winner only built on her legacy and cemented herself as the greatest female amateur of all time. The 2023 Golfweek Award winner for Female Amateur of the Year goes to …
Nick Taylor’s drought-ending eagle putt on the fourth playoff hole in Canada claimed our Shot of the Year.
Nick Taylor’s ball travelled more than a foot for every year Canadian golf fans had waited for one of their own to win the RBC Canadian Open.
North of the border they refer to it simply as “The Putt.” Amid a steady rain, the 72-foot eagle bomb at Toronto’s Oakdale Golf and Country Club by Abbotsford’s own Nick Taylor on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff ended a 69-year drought of a Canadian not winning its national open.
CBS’s Jim Nantz delivered the exclamation on the TV call: “Glorious and free,” he said.
Quite simply, it was Golfweek’s Shot of the Year for 2023.
“Do it, Do it, DO IT!,” shouted Adam Hadwin, kneeling greenside and holding a bottle of champagne, as the ball neared the hole.
It DID IT!
Canadian Mark Zecchino calling the action on Sirius/XM’s PGA Tour Network lost his mind as he went on repeat: “The drought is over, the drought is over…History! History!”
Taylor tossed his putter into the air and leaped into the arms of caddie Dave Markle, a former teammate on Canada’s amateur team, after the longest made putt of his PGA Tour career. Out of the corner of his eye, Taylor recalled seeing Hadwin, who grew up at the same course, Ledgeview Golf Club, get tackled by a security card as he attempted spraying Taylor with champagne in what became an even more viral moment than the winning putt.
Fellow Canadian players Mike Weir, who left the property and returned to witness history, and Corey Conners were among those who ran onto the green to congratulate Taylor. The partisan crowd was so loud – they had serenaded Taylor with a rendition of its “O Canada” national anthem during the day – that CBS’s Amanda Renner had to delay the post-round interview because she couldn’t hear.
“This is for all the guys that are here. This is for my family at home,” Taylor said with tears in his eyes. “This is the most incredible feeling.”
Nick Taylor celebrates with his caddie after making an eagle putt on the 4th playoff hole to win the RBC Canadian Open at Oakdale Golf & Country Club on June 11, 2023 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
The last player from Canada to win the Canadian Open had been Pat Fletcher in 1954 at Point Grey in Vancouver. Technically, Fletcher was born in England; Carl Keffer had been the only Canadian-born champion, winning in 1909 and 1914. Weir had come close, losing a playoff to Vijay Singh in 2004. The 35-year-old Taylor, who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, won for the third time on the PGA Tour. He did so despite shooting 75 in Thursday’s opening round.
“I was just hoping to make the cut,” Taylor said.
Wife Andie, who was back home tending to the couple’s second child, a daughter named Harper, who they had welcomed just five weeks earlier, gave him a much-needed pep talk via phone between rounds.
He rallied with a 67 on Friday to make the cut by just one shot. Taylor vaulted into contention by firing a course-record 9-under 63 on Saturday to move within three shots of the lead entering the final round. Five birdies over his first ten holes propelled Taylor to a three-shot lead at 16 under with eight holes to play, but there would be a couple hiccups coming home at Nos. 11 (offset by a bounce-back birdie at 12) and 16, which meant he needed to drain an 11-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to close in 6-under 66 and finish at 17-under 271, walking backwards with his fist raised as the ball disappeared into the hole.
A putter flip remembered across the country.🏌️♂️
The Canucks honoured RBC Canadian Open champion Nick Taylor before their game against the Sharks tonight. 👏 pic.twitter.com/vbh0dVfJGA
Fleetwood could have played spoiler in regulation, but he missed his tee shot right at the par-5 18th, laid up into an awkward lie in the right rough and two-putted for par to force the playoff.
The players traded birdies on their first time playing No. 18 in the playoff, then both parred 18 on a second playing and the par-3 ninth before heading back to 18 for a third go at it.
Taylor’s tee shot found a divot in the fairway, but he ripped his second shot from 221 yards to the front of the green, while Fleetwood laid up after his drive found a fairway bunker. Fleetwood hit his third shot to 12 feet, but Taylor ended the playoff in dramatic fashion when his uphill eagle putt hit the flagstick and dropped.
“Ever since I’ve been on the PGA Tour this is one that we want to do as well as we can in, and the crowd support was the most unbelievable thing I will probably ever experience in my life,” Taylor said that Sunday. “To break that curse, if you want to call it, is, I’m pretty speechless.”
Following a seemingly endless array of media interviews that night, Taylor was the last player to leave the premises around 10:30 p.m. and his stomach was growling. Jason Logan of Score Golf recounted the scene of Taylor pulling into a McDonald’s just before the Highway 401 on-ramp to load up on Chicken McNuggets. But just as they were about to order, Taylor’s phone, connected to the car’s Bluetooth system, rang and the caller’s name flashed on the display panel was none other than hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.
“I don’t have him in my phone but his name pops up for whatever reason and I look at the guys and I’m like, ‘I should probably take this call,’” Taylor recalled to Score Golf.
As Logan pointed out, that personifies how Taylor authored one of those proud Canadian sporting moments akin to Sidney Crosby’s golden goal, Joe Carter’s World Series-winning home run and Donovan Bailey’s 100-meter Olympic gold medal. It’s such a memorable moment that the RBC Canadian Open changed its logo to reflect Taylor’s histrionics.
It’s why Taylor likely will never have to buy a Molson (or Labatt’s) at a 19th hole in Canada for the rest of his life, Adam Woodard wrote in his lede to the Golfweek game story on Taylor’s triumph.
Taylor told the “Subpar” Podcast, he hadn’t been to a bar much to test this out, but at the U.S. Open the following week in Los Angeles he grabbed drinks with an old college roommate and someone recognized him and bought his round.
“This is going to start happening,” he said. “It’s not so bad.”
Seventy-two feet to win your national open in a playoff? It doesn’t get much better than that and it was an unanimous choice for Golfweek’s Shot of the Year.
There were almost too many on-course moments to chose from in golf over the last year.
As the month of December winds down and January approaches, it’s time to look back on 2023 and reward some of the best moments the game of golf provided fans over the last year.
The staff at Golfweek originally had plans for a “Moment of the Year” but there was too much that happened both on and off the course to pick just one, so we’ve split the honor into two different awards.
From the Solheim Cup to the Masters to the PNC Championship and the World Wide Technology Championship, here are the Golfweek staff’s favorite on-course moments of the year in 2023.
There were almost too many off-course moments to choose from in golf over the last year.
As December winds down and January approaches, it’s time to look back on 2023 and reward some of the best moments the game of golf provided fans over the last year.
The staff at Golfweek originally had plans for a “Moment of the Year” but there was too much that happened both on and off the course to pick just one, so we’ve split the honor into two different awards.
From the TGL and LIV Golf to the Ryder Cup and the PGA Tour’s framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund, here are the Golfweek staff’s favorite off-course viral moments of the year.
