2019

Pure golfing excellence produced moments of raw emotion in 2019.

From Shane Lowry’s heartwarming victory at The Open to Suzann Pettersen’s Solheim Cup-winning putt, golf was at the heart of sports news for 12 memorable months.

Not for the first time, golf was thrust into the limelight by Tiger Woods, when the three-time Champion Golfer produced an improbable victory at the Masters, with many observers believing it to be the greatest comeback story in sport.

Proud Offaly man Lowry kept the feelgood factor alive when he stormed to glory at a ‘home’ Open at Royal Portrush in July, to the delight of his supporters throughout the island of Ireland.

It was only the second time Royal Portrush had hosted the Championship, the first time being in 1951. So we take a look back at what was happening in the year that Lowry claimed his maiden major title.

Men's major winners:

The Open: Shane Lowry [above]

The Masters: Tiger Woods

US Open: Gary Woodland

PGA Championship: Brooks Koepka

Sporting events:

American Football

New England Patriots defeated LA Rams 13-3 to win the Super Bowl for the sixth time.

Athletics

Kenyan long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge [above] broke the two-hour marathon mark by 20 seconds.

Basketball

Kawhi Leonard wrote himself into NBA folklore with his incredible last-gasp, four-bounce match winner which catapulted Toronto Raptors past the 76ers in the NBA play-offs.

Cricket

England won the Cricket World Cup, beating New Zealand in the final.

Football

USA won the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League while Manchester City claimed a historic English domestic treble. Celtic became the champions of Scotland for the 50th time.

Rugby Union

South Africa won the Rugby World Cup, which was hosted in Japan for the first time.

World events:

3 January: Chang'e-4 became the first spacecraft to land on the South Pole-Aitken Basin; otherwise known as the ‘far side of the moon’.

4 January: A photo of an egg quickly became the most-liked post on Instagram. 

12 April: A fire at the 850-year-old Notre-Dame Cathedral shocked the world, destroying a spire and most of the roof.

19 May: The final series of Game of Thrones aired in the US, just three days after the final episode of The Big Bang Theory.

30 April: Emperor Akihito stepped down after a 30-year reign, becoming the first Japanese monarch to abdicate in 200 years.

25 July: Boris Johnson succeeded Theresa May as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

18 October: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch performed the first all-woman spacewalk.

November: Apple TV+ (1 November) and Disney+ (12 November) were launched within days of each other.

9 November: Sesame Street celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Deaths of notable golf figures:

Nick DePaul [above right, with Seve Ballesteros)

Famously on the bag for Seve Ballesteros’ Open victory at St Andrews in 1984, Nick DePaul also helped Seve to Masters glory a year earlier.

Gene Littler

‘Gene the Machine’ won 29 times on the PGA TOUR, including at the US Open in 1961.

Marilynn Smith

One of the 13 founders of the LPGA – and 21-time winner on the circuit – Marilynn Smith was the first female to commentate on men’s golf.