Winners and Losers on the European Tour in 2016

HENRIK Stenson finishes the European Tour season with the Claret Jug and the Race to Dubai trophy in his cabinet. Without the shadow of a doubt, he is 2016's big winner and player of the year.

And it couldn't have happened to a nicer man. The Swede has been through some extraordinary highs and lows, on and off the golf course, but has spent the past few seasons challenging the very best in the game and he has at last landed his first major and won the Race to Dubai for a second time.

Five years ago, such a transformation could never have been predicted. He had lost his game completely, his world ranking had tumbled and he was in trouble financially after being conned out of a huge amount of money by the fraudster Allen Stanford. He wasn't the only person to be taken in by Stanford, who will spend the rest of his life languishing in a prison cell. His conviction was of little consolation to Stenson or his other victims as all the money he had extracted from them had gone.

Stenson could have spent the rest of his life feeling sorry for himself. Instead, he got his head down and worked on his game as he had never done before, and he soon began to get his rewards. Quite apart from being a formidable golfer, Stenson is one of the most naturally funny men on the European Tour. He has a wicked sense of humour, as witnessed in many of the interviews he gives. 

The Swede is back, and nobody will begrudge him his success.

It is impossible to look back on 2016 without mentioning Danny Willett, who came of age with his astonishing victory at The Masters in April. He was playing for second place until Jordan Spieth arrived at the par-three 12th and put two balls in the water. All of a sudden, the likeable Englishman found himself battling with Lee Westwood for the Green Jacket. Willett finished the round in sensational style and, against all odds, won the tournament, his first major success.

It was a surprise, but it shouldn't have been as Willett has been improving steadily. Winning The Masters is his crowning glory to date, but it is fair to say that the 29-year-old suffered a reaction to his Augusta success and struggled for much of the rest of the year. Stenson pipped him in the Race to Dubai and Willett, who suffers from a chronic back condition, probably played too much golf as he strived to keep Stenson at bay. He will be delighted that the season is now over and that he can go away, have a rest and come back refreshed - he will surely have another big year in 2017.

The season was also one to remember for Alex Noren, another Swede, who won four times and just seemed to get better and better. It is likely that we will see him playing more in the United States and his game is perfectly suited to the PGA Tour. If he can remain fit, his climb up the world rankings will surely only continue.

And the future looks so bright for English golf. Tyrrell Hatton finally won his first professional title, beating a world-class field to claim the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship - it was the climax of a superb run of form, and it continued until the Dubai World Championship, where he went head to head with Matthew Fitzpatrick, who won his third tournament in his second full season at the age of just 22. Fitzpatrick proves that it is possible to win on the best courses without hitting the ball a mile. He has a glorious short game and the best temperament in Europe, and his career is only going one way.

Thomas Pieters, of Belgium, was a revelation at the Ryder Cup, playing brilliantly from start to finish and breaking every record in the book for a rookie. It was just a shame that it was all produced in a losing cause. But Pieters is something special and, unlike Fitzpatrick, he does strike the ball a country mile. He is also a brilliant iron player and a terrific clutch putter.

Chris Wood, another Englishman, won the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, and Andrew Johnston won everybody's hearts with victory at the Spanish Open and a series of other superb performances, including a terrific run at The Open. Beef, as he has become universally known, won his PGA Tour card for the new season, and it will be fascinating to see how he plays in the United States. Andy Sullivan continued to charm golf fans around the world with his laidback manner and ever-ready smile - it is a smile that lights up every tournament in which he competes. But beneath it is a ferocious competitive spirit.

Golf returned to the Olympic Games and, against all the odds, was a huge success, with Justin Rose winning the gold medal, Stenson the silver and Kuchar the bronze. A series of withdrawals by players who cited fears over the zika virus or stated that it simply didn't fit in with their schedules left us all fearing the worst, but the tournament captured the imagination of the locals and the standard of golf was brilliant.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello seemed to be in contention every time he teed the ball up and was another who impressed in the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine. Somehow, he managed to finish the year without a victory, but that is something he will surely rectify before long.

And losers? Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Eddie Pepperell will want to forget 2016 as quickly as possible. Yes, McIlroy won the FedEx Cup playoffs and banked a fortune for doing so, but he spent much of the year battling his putter - when he was good on the greens he was sensational, but when he was bad (and he was very bad), he was just awful. McIlroy did himself no favours by refusing to play in the Olympic Games and withdrawing from the Turkish Airlines Open. He admits that his life is all about winning majors and he never came close in 2016. It will be fascinating to see how 2017 pans out for him.

Tommy Fleetwood has long been touted as the next big thing. Yet another Englishman, his season was something of a disaster, saved only by a series of decent finishes towards the end of the year. There is a feeling among his peers that Fleetwood began to take his talent for granted and the player now seems to have got the message that you get out of it what you put in. He is working his socks off again and will be a contender in 2017.

The man who received the biggest wake-up call of all was Pepperell. He has it all - a proper game, good looks, the lot. So how was it that he came to the Portugal Masters needing to make the cut to keep his card? A disaster at the 18th in his second round, when he hit his drive out of bounds, meant he missed the cut and lost his playing privileges. Nobody was more shocked than Pepperell. This just wasn't in the script. All credit to him then that he dragged himself off to six rounds of final qualifying at Catalunya and won back his card. He has clearly learnt his lesson and it is a fairly safe bet that he will never find himself in this position again. To put things in perspective, Pepperell is as good as Fitzpatrick and Hatton - now he knows that he has to put in the work to compete with them.

All in all then, a fabulous year, with the European Tour providing two of the year's four major winners, the Olympic champion and a host of gifted young players proving that the fututre is bright. Roll on the new season!