The decade is almost over and Lee Westwood ends it as he began, as European Number One and fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Westwood finishes the year as the highest placed European in the Official World Golf Rankings having won the inaugural Race to Dubai with record earnings of €4,237, 762. He last won the Harry Vardon trophy in 2000, reaching Number Four in the World in the process, and equalled that feat in a momentous 2009 campaign. His superb season, capped by victories in the Portugal Masters and the Dubai World Championship presented by DP: World, was one of the many highlights of an outstanding year.
Five Europeans occupy places in World’s Top Ten at the year end, including Rory McIlroy, who climbed to World Number Nine and the highest position attained by a 20 year old. Paul Casey made the biggest leap of the year among the top ten players, advancing from 41st at the end of 2008 to seventh a year later. Indeed, he was as high as World Number Three after his victory in the BMW PGA Championship in May before injury effectively ruled him out for the second half of the season.
Padraig Harrington and Henrik Stenson also maintained their positions in the World’s Top Ten, in fifth and eighth place respectively.
The final World Ranking of the year reveals 12 European Tour Members in the top 20 and 30 in the top 50, the latest addition to that club being the Challenge Tour Number One, Edoardo Molinari.
The Italian is arguably the success story of 2009 as he has made the biggest move of any player in the World’s top 100, climbing from 653rd to 48th in the past 12 months. He won three times on the Challenge Tour to lead the Rankings with record earnings of €242,980, and then went on to win the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan and a week later was on top of the world, holing the winning putt to secure Italy’s first win in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup alongside his brother, Francesco.
On Sunday, his joint fourth place in the South African Open Championship – his highest finish on The European Tour – carried him into the World’s Top 50, and he and his brother can now look forward to an invitation to the Masters Tournament in April. They will be the first brothers to compete at Augusta National since Joe and Jumbo Ozaki in 2000.
When the Molinari brothers make that historic journey up Magnolia Drive, they will find Angel Cabrera as the defending champion after he became the first Argentine to slip into the famous Green Jacket following his play-off victory over Americans Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry.
An incredible 43 players tasted victory on The 2009 European Tour International Schedule, 15 of them for the first time, and there was further success all round the world. Swede Peter Gustafsson became the first European to win the Tour de las Americas Order of Merit, a feat matched by Anders Hansen in South Africa when he became the first player from the Northern Hemisphere to win the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit since 1972.
Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee lifted an unprecedented third Asian Tour Order of Merit crown to underline his stature as one of Asia’s most accomplished players, and Asia’s most prolific champion, while on the US Champions Tour, Bernhard Langer topped the Money List for a second consecutive season, taking to five the number of Order of Merit titles won around the world by European Tour Members.
A new season is already underway with Pablo Martin and Richie Ramsay, on The European Tour, and Kevin Spurgeon on the Senior Tour, enjoying early Christmas presents and our congratulations to all the winners of 2009, all over the world, and best wishes for 2010.
