A season of bloopers . . .snoozers . . .falling stars . . .and rising ones

DUSTIN JOHNSON will never again walk into a sand area without a second thought.

In the US PGA at Whistling Straits, DJ was handed a two-stroke penalty (right) which left him a shot adrift of a play-off after grounding his club in a bunker on the 18th hole of his final round. “I just thought it was a piece of dirt that the crowd had trampled down, I never thought it was in a sand trap. It never once crossed my mind,” said Johnson, totally unaware that a supplementary rule of play posted in the lockerroom had informed players that “all areas of the course that were designed and built as sand bunkers will be played as bunkers (hazards), whether or not they have been raked.”

JIM FURYKwasn't allowed to play in the Barclays Championship, the first event in the US Tour's FedEx Cup series, after he missed his tee time in the tournament's pro-am. Furyk had diligently set the alarm in his mobile phone before heading to bed, but the phone's battery ran out during the night and he overslept. Furyk, however, had the last laugh on the silly ruling – he won the Tour Championship and, as a result, the FedEx Cup title to claim the biggest pay-day in golf's history: €8.17million.

ONE TO WATCH

Jack Hume became only the second player to win all four provincial boys’ Under-18 open championships. The 16-year-old Rathsallagh golfer followed in the footsteps of Raymond Burns by winning the Leinster title at South County, the Ulster championship at Armagh, the Connacht championship at Athlone and completed a clean sweep when capturing the Munster championship at Muskerry.

SERGIO GARCIA

Garcia was a visible, jack-in-the-box presence at Celtic Manor as one of Colin Montgomerie’s vice-captains but the one-time great prospect of European golf suffered a year mainly to forget on the playing front.

The Spaniard started the season ranked 12th in the official world rankings but has slipped to a current position of 66th and hasn’t played competitively since the US PGA at Whistling Straits in August.

ALEXIS THOMPSON

Thompson, at 15, was the youngest member of the United States team which defeated Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup in Massachusetts in June – and immediately turned professional.

The girl known as “Lexi” didn’t take long to make an impact on the pro scene, finishing runner-up to Jiyai Shin in the Evian Masters. Thompson was looking to become the youngest player to win an LPGA event.

RYO ISHIKAWA

While the mystique of the sub-60 round on the US Tour was shattered, although remaining an elusive quest on the European Tour, nobody in world golf went as low as Ryo Ishikawa who shot a 12-under-par 58 to win the Crowns tournament in Japan in May.

It constituted the lowest round ever on any major golf tour for the then 18-year-old (he turned 19 in September), who is known as the “Bashful Prince”.