| TALES FROM THE BOX
And the Winners
are …
Julian Tutt takes a look back at an enthralling 2013 season and dispenses his “Jules Awards” to the winners – and losers – of the year.
Photo credit: Daniel Wong (Tutt); AFP (Larrazábal)
W
Pablo Larrazábal and his girlfriend Gala Ortin (pictured opposite) pose in front of what is reputed to be Major Championship golf’s deepest bunker, which comes into play on the fourth hole at Royal St George’s Golf Club 40
HK GOLFER・DEC 2013
ith Santa Claus fattening up the reindeer and the E u r o p e a n To u r preparing for its extended winter break, the world and its oyster is announcing its awards for the 2013 season. Never one to avoid jumping on a bandwagon, therefore, here are my prejudiced, personal and totally irrelevant “Jules Awards”, based largely on my own observations. It seems that many international viewers of European Tour golf are irritated by the incessant harping on, throughout the year, about the Ryder Cup, so what better place to start than with my plans for an alternative team selection for the biennial competition. This is done in conjunction with my nominations for “WAG of the Year”. (WAG being an acronym “Wives and Girlfriends”.) The sole criterion for this selection is the beauty of the WAG. On this basis Grégory Bourdy is very high on the list with his stunning companion, Annabelle, who is a devoted and loving course-walker. Fellow Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin also makes the team, although his delightful Fanny is seen less often on the links now that she is a mother of multiple children. Graeme McDowell adds considerably to the golfing prowess of the team, by virtue of his charming new bride Kristin, and of course his fellow countryman Rory McIlroy qualifies as long as he is still dating Caroline Wozniacki. The hot – I am just talking golf here – Henrik Stenson is a must,
with his faithful golf professional wife Emma a scenic addition to any team room. Apparently England’s Lee Slattery leaves most young ladies swooning and his current consort ensures his selection. Spain’s José María Canizares is the son of a Ryder Cup player and in top form recently so he will certainly not let the side down with his beautiful Czech girlfriend Anna Bachanova. I am going to have to bend the usual qualifying criteria for my next two team members as they are not exactly European; in fact they are not European by any stretch of the imagination. I can get away with selecting Argentina’s Estanislao Goya because he is dating a Scot. Carly Booth, a winner on the Ladies European Tour, is gorgeous by any definition, and along with Emma Stenson, will provide a useful team of advisers on the range. My penultimate choice is a couple with English roots, but both are officially South African. Thomas Aiken is short on match play experience, but his charming and voluptuous wife Katie is an excellent sports physiotherapist, thereby ticking another useful box for the team. But there is no doubt that the first name on the team sheet is Spain’s Pablo Larrazábal. His long time girlfriend Gala Ortin is a multilingual journalism graduate from Barcelona, who is chic, elegant, stylish and frankly dropdead gorgeous; a unanimous vote sees her as “WAG of the Year”. No Oscar ceremony would be complete without “Best Comeback Player of the Year”. With just two nominations England’s David Howell is a worthy runner-up after his brilliant HKGOLFER.COM
Dunhill Links triumph, seven harrowing years after his previous win. By the time you read this his wife Emily should have presented him with twins, so the enormous cash prize associated with this award will surely come in useful. There is no question though that the statuette goes to Henrik Stenson, who has also surfed the troughs before returning to dominate world golf in the second half of 2013, achieving a double than has never before been done and will probably never be repeated; winning both the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour and the Tour Championship and Race to Dubai in Europe. Such magnificence may well earn him another award. “Shot of the Year” is always a subjective judgment at the best of times, but I like great shots that have significance. Stephen Gallacher’s holed second shot at the 70th hole in the Dubai Desert Classic effectively clinched victory over Richard Sterne. Brett Rumford’s superb 200yard 5-iron to set up an eagle and settle a three way play-off for the Ballantine’s Championship in Seoul definitely deserves a mention, as does Justin Rose’s 4-iron to the 72nd hole in the US Open, capping a week of sheer brilliance. Henrik Stenson’s fairway wood to the final hole of The Tour Championship in Dubai was the icing on a spectacular cake, but the jury has come down in favour of Phil Mickelson’s extraordinary 3-wood to the par-5 17th on the Sunday of The Open Championship at Muirfield. He’s actually hit all sorts of mesmerizing shots around the green too, but he was the only player amongst the title contenders to find that green (having hit 3-wood off the tee as well!) and it effectively sealed his first Open Championship, and fifth Major. “Unluckiest Shot of the Year” can only go to Tiger Woods for his extraordinary misfortune in hitting the pin on the par-5 15th at Augusta on the Friday of the Masters. It spun back into the water, probably costing him two shots and then of course he was docked another two shots the next day for taking an incorrect drop. Those four shots may well have cost him his fifteenth Major title. While we are on the subject, The Masters Rules Committee earns “Bum Decision of the Year” for the way they handled that incident. Any caddie who has to move to Monaco for tax reasons, and then buys a HK$1.5 million Ferrari, must have done quite a lot right, so the “Caddie of The Year” is Gareth Lord who carries Stenson’s bag. Arguably a deaf and dumb monkey could have done the job just as effectively, but that may be sour grapes on my part. “The Most Tear-Jerking Winner” is a close call between two Australians. Adam Scott became the first Aussie to win the Masters in HKGOLFER.COM
Gala Ortin [Larrazábal’s girlfriend] is a multilingual journalism graduate from Barcelona, who is chic, elegant, stylish and frankly dropdead gorgeous; a unanimous vote sees her as “WAG of the Year”. emotional style, with memories still fresh of his collapse in The Open at Royal Lytham in 2012. But surely Jason Day’s individual (and team) win in the World Cup at Royal Melbourne just days after eight members of his family had been killed by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, must earn him the trophy. Simon Dyson is a popular member of The Tour, but sadly he earns “The Biggest Dope” award for apparently tapping down a spike mark on the line of his putt at the BMW Masters in Shanghai. Whatever it emerges he was doing, it was pretty stupid in full view of the cameras. The “How to Get the Year All Wrong” trophy goes to Rory McIlroy. Enough said! Aussie Andrew Dodt is “The Luckiest Golfer of the Year” for making two holes-in-one in the same round at the Scandinavian Masters; a one in 60 million chance. And so – drum roll please – to the “Golfer of the Year”. Tiger Woods returned to number one in the rankings, and won five big tournaments on the PGA Tour. BUT, there have been a number of incidents in which he’s been involved that have left a sour taste in the mouth. Adam Scott earns a “Best in Class” for his Masters win, ditto Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson for the US Open and The Open respectively. I was tempted to nominate my wife for her extraordinary success in the Bassett Homes Bath and North East Somerset Premier League during our summer holiday in England, but there can only be one winner. Hopefully one day soon Henrik Stenson will win a Major, it is the only thing missing from his CV. He has without question been the best golfer in the world over the past six months, and is a thoroughly good egg to boot. Having once lost millions to the crooked Allen Stanford, there is no need for Santa to divert via the Stenson mansion chimneys this Christmas. HK GOLFER・DEC 2013
41