As the decade winds down, we have time to reminisce over some of the best storylines in golf — most notably being the comebacks.
Whether we’re talking about the resurgence of Tiger Woods the most recent comeback of Brendon Todd winning back-to-back PGA Tour events after seriously considering retirement, we rank them all.
With not much time to catch our breath, Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio takes a look back at the top 10 comeback stories in golf over the last decade.
10. Todd’s pizza plans on hold
Brendon Todd won the 2014 HP Byron Nelson Classic and then got the full-blown driver yips. From 2016-18, he missed 37 of 41 cuts and contemplated quitting the game and buying a pizza franchise. Then, after starting the 2019-20 season with four missed cuts, he won the Bermuda Championship and Mayakoba Golf Classic in back-to-back starts.
9. Love’s a PGA Tour winner at 51
World Golf Hall of Fame member and 1997 PGA champion Davis Love III headed into the 2015 Wyndham Championship having not won since November 2008. In dealing with several injuries – he had fusion neck surgery in 2013 and foot surgery in early 2005 – Love, who spent 450 weeks in the top 10 in the world rankings, had fallen to 525th. But at 51, Love shot a final-round 64 to win Wyndham by one.
8. Stenson’s major win after losing millions
Henrik Stenson reached No. 8 in the World in 2009, a year in which he won the Players Championship. Then Stenson lost millions after investing with Allen Stanford of Stanford Financial in what turned out to be a $7 billion Ponzi scheme and led to Stanford’s conviction in 2012 and a sentence of more than 100 years. Stenson fell to 230th in the world before winning the SA Open in 2012. He won three times in 2013, including the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup. He became world No. 2 in 2014. In 2016, he won his lone major at the British Open.
7. Park goes for gold
Plagued by back and left thumb injuries in 2016, South Korea’s Inbee Park, who completed the career Grand Slam the year prior, went to Rio for the Summer Olympics having missed the cut or withdrawn in her last four events, including two majors. With an entire nation on her shoulders – she was even criticized by some for taking up a spot in the Olympics – Park won the gold medal with a final-round 66 to finish at 16 under and five shots clear of silver medalist and then world No. 1 Lydia Ko and six clear of bronze medalist Shanshan Feng.
6. Korda’s dramatic win
In December 2017, Jessica Korda had surgery to fix chronic, painful headaches, a procedure that required her jaw and nose to be broken and more than 25 screws inserted to reset bones. In her first start of the 2018 season at the Honda LPGA Thailand, she was still eating out of a straw and didn’t recognize herself in the mirror. She also won that week, firing rounds of 66-62-68-67 to set the tournament record at 25 under to win by four shots.
5. Pettersen’s storybook ending
Give birth, play three times in 18 months, win the Solheim Cup. That’s what Suzann Pettersen, a two-time major champion and 15-time winner on the LPGA Tour, did. She gave birth to son, Hunter, Aug. 9, 2018, and didn’t play again for a year. After three starts – two missed cuts and a tie for 59th – she went 2-1-0 in the 2019 Solheim Cup, capping her week with a Cup-winning birdie putt from 7 feet on the final hole on the final day of the final match on the course. And then Pettersen promptly retired.
4. Compton shines at U.S. Open
In 1992, Erik Compton had a heart transplant after being diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle becomes inflamed and is unable to pump as it should. He took up golf as part of his rehabilitation and became good enough to turn professional in 2001. But he had another heart transplant in 2008. Slowly and steadily he returned to the game and won the 2011 Mexico Open on the Nationwide Tour. In 2014, he tied for second in the U.S. Open.
3. Holmes battles back
In 2011, J.B. Holmes had a quarter-dollar-sized piece of his skull removed during brain surgery to relieve pressure caused by a structural defect called Chiari malformation. He returned to the course in 2012 and went on to win the 2014 Wells Fargo Championship, 2015 Shell Houston Open, 2019 Genesis Open and played for the victorious U.S. team in the 2016 Ryder Cup.
2. Sauers triumphs at U.S. Senior Open
Gene Sauers, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, was diagnosed late the previous decade with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a rare, serious skin disorder that was burning him from the inside. Given a 25 percent chance of survival, Sauers had multiple skin graphs and eventually recovered. He went on to finish runner-up six times on the PGA Tour Champions this decade before winning 2016 U.S. Senior Open.
1. Tiger’s rise from the ashes
Tiger Woods rose from the abyss multiple times throughout the decade, most notably from scandal at the beginning of 2010 and again following four back surgeries from 2014-17, the last one a spinal fusion. The decade broke with Woods’ life in turmoil after a Thanksgiving car crash that destroyed a fire hydrant and led to revelations of serial infidelity. The public shame ultimately ended his marriage, cost him millions in endorsements and shattered his then impeccable image.
Woods didn’t regain his footing on the golf course until winning the 2011 Chevron World Challenge. He won three times in 2012 and regained his No. 1 ranking in the world during a five-win season in 2013. His back betrayed him the following year and the spinal fusion procedure was a last gasp effort to get healthy enough to return to the game. After not winning for four years, he captured the 2018 Tour Championship. In 2019, after not winning a major championship since 2008, he lit up the golf world with his fifth victory in the Masters and 15th major title. In his last official PGA Tour event of the decade, he won the Zozo Championship, his record-tying 82nd Tour title.
