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The first decade of the 21st century was dominated by Tiger Woods.
He won 56 PGA Tour titles and 12 major championships. He was named the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year eight times. And his sustained brilliance and dominance continued to elevate the sport’s exposure – as well as its purses.
His star power was so lit that people wondered if the sport would survive if he ever went away. Well, Woods didn’t go away despite a public scandal and numerous battles with his back and left knee when the calendar turned to 2010. And joined by a stellar cast of gifted golfers, the game marched on in the next decade.
A new crop of stars, many inspired by Woods, included Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Jason Day, took the stage. Established stars, with Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, helped the game flourish.
Here are the top 10 players of the decade who authored so many flashes of stardom.
DECADE’S BEST: Comeback stories | LPGA players | LPGA moments
10. Phil Mickelson
Lefty began the decade with an emotional victory at the Masters as his wife, Amy, successfully battled cancer. It was his third green jacket. In 2013, he won the British Open for the first time, his fifth major. While the U.S. Open remains elusive, he finished second in 2013 for his record sixth runner-up in the national open. He went nearly five years without a victory but then won the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship in 2018, which he followed with his 44th Tour title the following year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at age 48. He won seven PGA Tour titles and also played in every Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup except one during the decade.
9. Bubba Watson
The big-hitting, creative lefty from tiny Bagdad,
Florida, began the decade with zero wins. He ended the decade with 12 victories, the third-most by a player in the decade. Two of those wins came in the Masters, two others in World Golf Championships. While he wowed galleries everywhere with his pink driver and prodigious firepower, he was one of the best on and around the greens.
8. Justin Rose
After beginning his career by missing the cut in his first 21 tournaments, Rose became a force in this decade. He won 10 PGA Tour titles. He won the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, won the 2018 FedExCup at 38. He draped the gold medal around his neck when golf returned to the Olympics in 2016. He reached No. 1 in the world.
7. Jason Day
Through numerous ailments – especially to his back – Day won 12 times in the decade, including his lone major title at the 2015 PGA Championship. He won the Players, two World Golf Championships and two titles during the FedExCup Playoffs. His run from 2015-16, when he won seven of 17 titles, was one of the best in the decade. He also became No. 1 in the world.
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6. Justin Thomas
After joining the PGA Tour in 2014-15 season, it didn’t take long for Thomas to establish himself as one of the game’s elite. In 2019, he became just the fifth player in the past 60 years to win 11 Tour titles before turning 27. The others? Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. His 2017 was one of the decade’s best years, as he won his maiden major at the PGA Championship, captured five titles in all and won the FedExCup. He also reached No. 1. He heads into the next decade coming off a 2019 in which he won twice, including a tournament in the FedExCup Playoffs.
5. Tiger Woods
The game’s biggest star kept coming back. After a public scandal kicked off his decade, he added three Tour titles to his haul in 2012 and five more in 2013, when he was named the PGA Tour Player of the Year by his peers and became No. 1 again. Then his back went out and Woods wondered if his playing career was over. But four surgeries to his back – the most recent a spinal fusion – gave him back his way of life. Then he overcame an addiction to prescription painkillers. After a five-year winless drought, he won the 2018 Tour Championship. Seven months later, he marked his comeback with a remarkable victory at the Masters, his fifth green jacket, 15th major and first in 11 years. In his last PGA Tour start of the decade, he won the Zozo Championship in Japan for his record-tying 82nd PGA Tour victory.
4. Jordan Spieth
He was in high school when the decade started. He used sponsor’s exemptions to kick off his career and won his first PGA Tour title as a teenager. He won 10 more times in the decade, with his creativity, bulldog attitude and electrifying putters among his numerous weapons. In 2015, he posted the decade’s best year and flirted with the Grand Slam as he won the Masters and U.S. Open, finished in a tie for fourth in the British Open (one stroke out of a playoff) and second in the PGA. He also won the FedExCup and became No. 1. His third major title came at the 2017 British Open. That was his most recent victory, but he’s confident his elite form will return in the coming decade.
3. Brooks Koepka
He began his professional career in the remote areas of the European Tour’s developmental circuit but finally touched down in the U.S. with a victory in the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Then he became a major force, both with his power, demeanor and touch on and around the greens. From 2017-19, he won his four majors and became the first player ever to go back-to-back in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship. In 2019, he won the PGA, finished second in the U.S. Open, tied for second in the Masters and was fourth in the British Open. He will begin the new decade as the top-ranked player in the world and the game’s most feared player in the four major championships.
2. Dustin Johnson
He tied for the most victories in the decade with 18, among them his lone major at the 2016 U.S. Open, six World Golf Championships and four wins in the FedExCup Playoffs. He also had the most top-5s in the decade (58) and most top-10s (88). He won at least one PGA Tour tournament every year. He also finished runner-up in three majors, including twice in 2019 at the Masters and PGA Championship. While his power is matched by few others, he worked hard to become one of the game’s best from 150 yards and in.
1. Rory McIlroy
The boy wonder became the man in golf this decade. He won 18 times on the PGA Tour and added six more titles on the European Tour. He became the heart and soul of the European Ryder Cup team. With his eight-shot romps in the 2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship, he joined Tiger Woods as the only players to win multiple majors by at least eight shots. With his FedExCup titles in 2016 and 2019, he joined Woods as the only two-time winners of the lucrative postseason. McIlroy won four majors, tying Koepka for the most in the decade, and three PGA Tour Player of the Year awards, the most in the decade. In 2019, won four PGA Tour titles, including the Tour Championship and the Players. He won the decade’s last World Golf Championship. He was the best player of the decade.
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