10 highlights of 2016 you might not remember

Let’s take a look at the smaller things that you mave have forgotten took place this year:

Imposition of the anchor ban

The date of the actual implementation of the ban might have got lost on many of you. The original idea of banning all anchored strokes and not just putting was initially announced in May 2013 but was enforced only on 1^st Jan, 2016. The whole run up to the actual date was quite long and the consensus between the R&A and the USGA made it difficult for common golfers to stay updated.

The rule meant that all golfers who had gotten used to sticking their club against their chest, chin, gut, ear or any other body part had to find another way of putting. Golfers can still use the long putter and brace it along their arms.

You can also try a counterbalanced putter as an alternative as they hold more weight on the grip end of the putter which raises the putter’s balance point.

Ernie’s six-putt nightmare at the Masters

Ernie Els was amongst the headlines at the Masters for making the highest score in tournament history on the par 4 – first hole after six putting from six feet for a 9 (quintuple bogey).

"I couldn't putt with a stick," Els said. "You make some stuff up in your brain, you know, it's difficult. It's something that, what holds you back from doing your normal thing? I don't know what it is. I can go to that putting green now and make 20 straight 3-footers. And then you get on the course, and you feel a little different, and you can't do what you normally do. So it's pretty difficult."

"I couldn't get the putter back," he said. "I was standing there, I've got a 3-footer, I've made thousands of 3-footers, and I just couldn't take it back."

Els missed and then did so again from distances of 3 feet, 10 inches, 11 inches and 2 feet. The last two putts he hit one-handed in disgust.

"And then I just kind of lost count after, I mean, the whole day was a grind," he said. "I tried to fight. I'm hitting the ball half-decent, and I can't make it from 2 feet.

"I don't know how I stayed out there," he said. "But you love the game, and you've got to have respect for the tournament and so forth. But it's unexplainable. It's very tough to tell you what goes through your mind. It's the last thing you want to do is do that on a golf course at this level. So it's very difficult."

Watch it here:

PGA Grand Slam of Golf

It was an annual off-season tournament which was contested between the winners of the year’s four majors. The tournament was first played in 1979 and the last official winner was Martin Kaymer in 2014. It was a two-day, 36 hole-stroke play competition which was organized by the PGA of America and the prize money did not count towards the PGA Tour money list.

The event was officially called off in March 2016 after not being played in 2015.

Sergio Garcia made a comeback to the winners circle

Sergio Garcia won the AT&T Byron Nelson championship and in the process, ended a four-year winless streak on the PGA Tour. He shot a 62 in his first ever round at the tournament as a 19 year old kid and won the event five years later.

Garcia made a par on the first-playoff hole to beat Brooks Koepka and with another win this year at the Byron Nelson championship, he has tied Seve Ballesteros for the maximum wins (nine) on tour by a Spanish-born player.

Greg Norman’s tenure at FOX Sports

Greg Norman was fired as the lead analyst of the FOX Sports Golf team after working only one year. He got replaced by Brad Faxon and Paul Azinger.

“We had, quite honestly, incredible pre-game meetings, post-game meetings, and there was never any indication that I was going to get the boot up my butt," Norman said. "So it came as a total surprise to me. And the reasons for it are just so off base. They called me ‘unpredictable.’ That’s basically the reason why they let me go.”

The Shark was fired in January on the basis of his performance at the US Open at Chambers Bay with some people citing that he only knew about Australian players and not enough abouut US players.

Approval of shorts on the European Tour

In January, the European Tour announced the approval of a dress code change that allows players to wear shots during practice rounds.

Shorts are banned on the PGA Tour, although caddies are allowed to wear the since 1999. That rule change came along when Garland Dempsey, caddie of John Maginnes, suffered a heart attack at the 1999 Wetern Open.

Hopefully, both the tours don’t wait for such incidents to happen to players before they allow them to wear shorts during the tournaments as well and some forward thinking needs to be done on pro golf’s dress code.

Jason Bohn’s comeback

The PGA Tour veteran was back inside the ropes in April at the RBC Heritage, seven weeks after suffering a heart attack post his second round at the Honda Classic. Bohn, 43 made the halfway cut by a stroke and then asked to see a medical staff.

He later added that had he not made the cut, he most likey would have travelled home that night and potentailly, might have died from the attack.

"The only thing I noticed that was kind of unique to me is sometimes we'll hit shots and we'll carry the golf club to the next point before we hand it back to our caddie, and I felt like the club felt a little bit heavier in my left hand, but nothing significant," Bohn said. "... I really just thought I hadn't gotten over the flu or bronchitis."

"(The doctors) told me that I was extremely lucky, that had I gone down on the golf course, like had I passed out, they didn't believe that I had enough time for anyone to get to me and relieve the blockage and I probably wouldn't have made it," Bohn said.

"When the physician was telling me all this, I'm just thinking to myself, at no point did I feel bad enough that I thought I might be able to literally die."

Andrew Landry’s Oakmont Dream

Andrew Landry’s previous best finish was a T-41st in a PGA Tour event prior to the US Open at Oakmont. However, the 28 year old held the lead after the first-round and was a part of the final two-some on Sunday before a closing 76 left him T-15.

He came to Oakmont ranked 641^st in the world but he shot a 66 in the opening round, a feat that all of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead had not been able to match. But the cindrella story had to come to an end after his final round left him nine shots adrift of the eventual winner,, Dustin Johnson.

Seve: The Movie

In April, “Seve: The Movie” had a limited release in the US. It presents wonderfully well the life and times of the Spanish farm boy who was perhaps the most naturally gifted golfer of the 20th century.

The bio-pic mixes dramatic recreations of events in the five-time major champion’s life along with archivial footage. Watch the trailer here:

Vaughn Taylor’s remarkable victory

Ranked 447^th in the world and winless since 2005, Vaughn Taylor rose up to the occasion and against all odds, beat Phil Mickelson by a stroke to win the AT&T National Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

"It's been a long time. I didn't think it was going to happen," Taylor said. "I worked so hard. I kept getting knocked down, knocked down. I'm just at a loss for words."

Taylor hasn’t had a full PGA Tour card for the last three years and made 4 consecutive birdies on the back nine to sign off with a seven under-65 and end up a shot above Phil Mickelson who had a five-footer on the last to enter a playoff.