Golf’s Best ‘Birdie’ and ‘Bogey’ Moments From 2024

Scottie Scheffler of the United States poses with the winner's trophy after the final round of the Hero World Challenge 2024 at Albany Golf Course in Nassau, Bahamas, on Dec. 8, 2024. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Commentary

The start of a new calendar marks a time to remember the people, places, and events that shaped the golf world over the past year. While some were worth celebrating, others were exasperating. The margin between ultimate success and punishing failure was on full display in 2024.

Birdie

The finest 18-hole score was Scottie Scheffler’s final round 62 in the men’s competition at the Summer Olympic Games. The Texan overcame a four-shot deficit for the gold medal. The bogey-free round featured six birdies on the inward half for a 29 total on the side.

The round in Paris solidified his standing as the man firmly entrenched as the sport’s best male player.

Bogey

The biggest individual failure in 2024 came during the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. After enduring a major-less streak of nearly 10 years, Rory McIlroy led the championship by two strokes with just four holes to play. The four-time major winner then proceeded to bogey three of the remaining holes—highlighted by missing crucial short par putts on the 16th and 18th holes.

McIlroy did win the season ending DP World Tour Championship and sixth Race to Dubai title. His overall standing in the game remains on hold with four major titles, and he enters 2025 trying to end a major-less streak stretching back to the 2014 PGA Championship. Matters can quickly change should he win at the Masters in April and become just the sixth golfer to have achieved the career Grand Slam.

Birdie

The most impactful single golf shot took place also at the U.S. Open. Bryson DeChambeau chased down McIlroy and on the 72nd hole of the championship found himself in a fairway bunker after two shots in front of the 18th green at Pinehurst No. 2.

The 50-yard bunker shot was played brilliantly to less than five feet. Bryson sunk the putt and claimed his second major and U.S. Open title. DeChambeau has amazingly changed his persona from being golf’s quirky bad boy to one that rouses galleries.

Bryson DeChambeau of the United States celebrates putting on the 18th green to win during the final round of the 124th U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, N.C., on June 16, 2024. Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Bogey

Nelly Korda got off to the fastest of starts on the LPGA Tour, claiming five consecutive wins, with one being the season’s first major at the Chevron event. Heading into the Women’s U.S. Open, she was the prohibitive favorite. Matters completely derailed when, on just her third of the event, she imploded with a score of 10 on the par-three 12th.

Korda’s year of seven wins was still noteworthy, but her play in the major events has yet to reach an equal measure of consistent success.

Birdie

Xander Schauffele finally removed the tagline of “best golfer never to have a won a major” when capturing the PGA Championship and Open Championship. In winning two in a single season, the 31-year-old became just the 33rd golfer to accomplish the feat and the first to do so by scoring a final round 65 in each.

Prior to 2024, Schauffele had demonstrated the capacity to compete at the highest level by winning the gold medal in the 2020 Olympic Games and recording a total of 11 top 10 finishes. The second-ranked player in the world is now setting sights on more such wins and a clear challenge to Scheffler’s stranglehold at the top of the men’s game.

Bogey

Rose Zhang entered the pro golf scene in 2023 after a stellar amateur career at Stanford. She won in her first LPGA golf tournament, and projections for 2024 pointed to a continued upward skyward trajectory.

Zhang won one event in 2024, but her play in the five major events showed a clear regression. She missed the cut in two, and her best finish was a T29. Now that she’s ranked 13th in the world, her focus in 2025 will be to show that 2024 was simply a postponement of the expected rise many still believe will happen. We shall see.

Rose Zhang of the United States plays her shot from the 17th tee during the final round of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican 2024 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla., on Nov. 17, 2024. Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

Birdie

The next generation of young stars on the world golf stage was led by the stunning successes of Nick Dunlap and Ludvig Aberg.

Dunlap, a former Alabama collegian star, served notice in becoming the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since 1991. The 21-year-old backed up that triumph in winning the Barracuda event later that same year. No player had ever won in a single calendar year on the PGA Tour an event as an amateur and a professional. At the end of 2023, Dunlap’s world ranking was 4,121st. He’s now 32nd and was selected as PGA Tour Rookie of the Year because of those heady accomplishments.

Aberg started 2024 as the 29th best player in the world. He’s now 5th. The 25-year-old was the runner-up at the Masters and was in the storyline at the U.S. Open where he led after 36 holes—ultimately finishing T12. Unfortunately, he also had two missed cuts in the four majors. The year 2024 was a clear step-up for the Swede.

Can both continue their upward climb, and will others of similar age and talent emerge?

Bogey

Tiger Woods remains the central figure in the sport, but his intersection with competitive golf showed no signs of improvement in 2024. The 49-year-old played just five times, making only one cut at the Masters, where he ultimately finished 60th.

A late-year surgery—his sixth on his lower back in the past 10 years—pushed him to the sidelines until he re-emerged to play with son Charlie at the PNC Championship, where the duo finished second. Since winning his 5th green jacket in 2019, Woods has not finished higher than 21st in any Grand Slam event.

The 15-time major winner remains convinced he can still win at the elite level. The continued pattern of futility suggests otherwise. The Champions Tour beckons when Woods turns 50 in late December next year.

Can a Tiger without sharp claws and teeth truly continue to hunt?

Birdie

The ageless wonder of Bernhard Langer continues unabated. The 67-year-old won his 47th Champions Tour event in the final event of the season.

Adding to his record was his 6th triumph in the PNC Championship with son Jason, in a playoff against Woods and his son Charlie.

Langer’s passion to compete successfully amazes all. The two-time winner of the green jacket will be center stage when playing in his final Masters in April at Augusta National.

Bernhard Langer of Germany and his son Jason Langer pose with their trophies on the 18th green after putting in to win in a sudden-death playoff during the second round of the PNC Championship at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 22, 2024. Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Bogey

When ticket prices were announced for the 2025 Ryder Cup matches at Bethpage, the resulting shock waves were earthquake-like in impact. Practice round tickets for Tuesday and Wednesday are $255.27. For the opening ceremonies on Thursday, the price increases to $423.64. And for the actual competition, the price per day is $749.51.

There are a couple of caveats, as the prices also include food and nonalcoholic beverages. For practice days only, kids under the age of 15 gain admission with a ticketed adult—maximum of two per as well.

The PGA of America double-downed on the prices charged, stating that the Ryder Cup is at the same level as other top-tier sporting events such as the World Series or Game 7 of the NBA finals.

Keep in mind, actual competition prices for the last two Ryder Cups—the 2023 event in Rome and 2021 in Wisconsin—were no more than half what is being planned for Bethpage.

Interestingly, the juxtaposition of the event hosted at a state park owned by the taxpayers of New York with such sky-high ticket prices makes for a difficult “Big Apple” to swallow.