Reflections On Events Off The Course in 2024
By: Derek Clements | Mon 30 Dec 2024
Weekly View From The Fairway
YOU don’t need me to tell you about the 12 months that Scottie Scheffler has enjoyed on the course. He has been peerless, reminiscent of Tiger Woods in his prime.
But off the course it has been a slightly different matter for the world number one.
He was due to be playing in the Tournament of Champions but was forced to withdraw after suffering a hand injury. He is also going to have to sit out the Sony Open.
It has emerged that Scheffler had a mishap with a glass on Christmas Day and had to undergo surgery.
His manager, Blake Smith, said: “On Christmas Day while preparing dinner, Scottie sustained a puncture wound to the palm of his right hand from a broken glass. Small glass fragments remained in the palm, which required surgery. He has been told that he should be back to 100% in three to four weeks. His next scheduled event is the American Express.”
And, of course, there was his brush with the law at the US PGA. Scheffler was arrested on his way to the second round of the season’s second major.
His crime? He drove past a policeman to escape a traffic jam at the entrance to Valhalla. The officer alleged assault and Scheffler was taken to jail in handcuffs. The world number one warmed up in a cell, was released on bail and shrugged it all off by going out and shooting a 66. Unsurprisingly, all charges were later dropped. You really couldn't make it up.
It was an eventful year off the course. There were plenty of highs. But there were also some gut-wrenchingly sad events.
Grayson Murray won the Sony Open in January. It was his first success in seven years. It appeared to be a redemption story.
Murray, aged just 30, had battled with mental health, alcohol and drug abuse, took time away from the game and somehow found his way back into the winners’ circle. But four months later he was dead. Unable to cope with the demons in his head any longer, Murray took his own life. It is a tragedy that nobody was able to help him.
We also lost Peter Oosterhuis, one of golf’s true gentlemen and a genuinely good guy.
I watched him play several times in his prime. His short game was to die for. A giant of a man, he had a wonderful temperament and always had time for the fans.
When his playing days came to end he found a second career as a golf commentator and analyst but was forced to retire when he was struck down by Alzheimer’s. And he finally lost his battle in 2024, aged 75.
We also said farewell to Brian Huggett, Mark Carnevale, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Susie Maxwell Berning and Jim Farmer.
And there were all sorts of changes within the sport’s corridors of power. With golf still waiting for some kind of peace deal to be worked out between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf, Guy Kinnings was handed the tricky job of succeeding Keith Pelley as DP World Tour chief executive. Mark Darbon replaced Martin Slumbers at the R&A, the PGA of America has a new head honcho in Derek Sprague, and Mollie Marcoux Samaan quit her host as head of the LPGA. Oh, and Greg Norman is being replaced as LIV Golf’s figurehead.
Incredibly, Jay Monahan is still holding on by a thread at the PGA Tour. And fear not for Donald Trump has promised us all that when he officially takes residence in the White House again in January he will be turning his attention to sorting out professional golf’s woes. Oh dear!
My favourite story of 2024 involved Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre. Having struggled to come to terms with life on the PGA Tour early in the year, he gave his caddie the week off at the Canadian Open and flew his father over to carry the bag. And lo and behold, he only went and won the tournament. He then announced that he was withdrawing from the following week’s tournament because he wanted to go home to Oban and have the mother of all celebrations. And he duly did.
There were many who were critical of his decision (your correspondent included), but MacIntyre knew what he was doing. A couple of weeks later he was walking up the 18th fairway to the cheers of an adoring gallery as he won the Scottish Open - a tournament he came agonisingly close to winning in 2023, only to be denied by some magic from Rory McIlroy. He was not to be denied this time though. MacIntyre had the season of his life and is now firmly established in the top 20 in the world rankings, his place in the majors and PGA Tour signature events secure. Party on!
Money continued to dominate the headlines, with players received obscene amounts of prize money - and American Ryder Cup players each being given a $200,000 stipend for the privilege of representing their country.
There is more to our sport than what happens out on the course. In many ways it is what happens off it that defines the game. In many ways, 2024 was a vintage year. In many others it was a case of more of the same old story. Please, let’s get the politics sorted out in 2025.
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