View From Fairway: In-fighting and Squabbles Ruined Golf in 2023

In a New Year special View From The Fairway, Golfshake's Derek Clements reflects on golf in 2023 - the good, the bad, the indifferent and what golf meant for him.

THE year 2023 is one that I will never forget and as we move into a new year, I want to reflect on the past 12 months.

From a personal point of view it was something of a triumph as I was able to return to the fairway after a long injury lay-off. That was a bright spot.

But I truly despair at all the in-fighting within the professional game. Golf is a sport that desperately needs to attract a new audience, both in terms of players and viewers. And, to be frank, when the outside world sees a sport that is tearing itself apart it breaks my heart.

To be honest, I really don’t know where to start, so I am going to kick off by reflecting on the stories that put a smile on my face.

For me, the most encouraging thing was the way that Europeans performed on the world stage.

Before he turned into the latest LIV mercenary, Jon Rahm thrilled us all by looking like winning every time he teed it up. It started with a mesmeric performance at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and reached a sensational conclusion when he won The Masters, seeing off the challenges of Brooks Koepka and the seemingly ageless Phil Mickelson, both of whom ply their trade with LIV.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

Rahm was peerless, overhauling Koepka in the final round and never looking like losing.

Koepka then wrote his own piece of history by becoming the first LIV golfer to win a major. Finally fit again and fully recovered from a crippling knee injury, the American followed his close-run at Augusta by winning the US PGA Championship, claiming his fifth major.

Rory McIlroy came within a blade of grass of winning the US Open. He ended up losing by a stroke to Wyndham Clark, a hugely underrated American golfer who hits the ball a long way and possesses a wonderful short game. It was a defeat that really hurt McIlroy.

For me, The Open Championship of 2023 is what golf is all about. Before any major tees off we all have fun tipping the likely winner. The tournament was back at Royal Liverpool where Rory McIlroy won back in 2014, and most pundits thought that after his near-miss at the US Open this was going to be week when he finally ended his drought.

We all reckoned without Brian Harman, a golfer nobody considered before a ball had been struck. The left-hander was simply sensational. He turned up at Royal Liverpool with a short game to die for, holing just about every putt he looked at.

Outside of the majors, the tournament that will live longest in my mind was the Scottish Open. McIlroy and Robert MacIntyre produced a spectacular finish, with the Scot inspired by the support of the home crowd. He looked to have secured the title, only for McIlroy to produce the sort of grandstand finish of which only he is capable.

There were also a couple of heartwarming comebacks - Ricky Fowler won the Rocket Mortgage but was completely overshadowed at the end of the year by Camillo Villegas, who very nearly won in successive weeks.

Villegas has had to cope with the death of a young daughter, a tragedy that put golf and life in perspective for him and his family. He fell out of love with the game. He fell out of love with life. But, remarkably, he found a way to win again- and there was not a dry eye in the house.

Viktor Hovland won the FedEx Cup after victories at the BMW Championship and Tour Championship and then starred for Europe as they cruised to victory in the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf Club. Hovland finally put to bed any arguments about the quality of his short game. He is, without the slightest shadow of a doubt, a major champion in waiting.

And as if that was not good enough for the future of European golf, there was the emergence of Ludvig Aberg. What a special talent he is. He won the European Masters and was then told that Luke Donald was handing him a Ryder Cup wild-card pick. He was, of course, sensational in Italy.

He then returned to the PGA Tour and won the RSM Classic. Aberg has already risen to 32nd in the world. Unbelievably, he has yet to play in a major. Not since Tiger Woods burst onto the scene in 1996 has a golfer created the sort of stir that Aberg has. We are watching a superstar at the start of what is going to be a stellar career.

For anybody with European blood coursing through their veins the Ryder Cup amounted to three days of sheer unadulterated joy.

Many people had regarded Luke Donald as a quiet, unassuming man but his captaincy was inspired, so much so that his team called for him to do the job again. And they have been granted their wish. He didn’t put a foot wrong from the moment he replaced Henrik Stenson, got his captain’s picks spot on and named the right men as his vice-captains.

Much was said in the build-up about the absence of the likes of Sergio Garcia. McIlroy rightly said that Europe did not miss any of their LIV rebels.

But, and it is a big but…in the immediate aftermath of Rahm announcing that he had accepted a reputed $450m to join LIV, McIlroy announced that a way must be found to include Rahm in the team for the match in 2025.

No, no and no! You simply cannot have two sets of rules, one of which applies for ageing stars who would never have made the team anyway and another for world-class golfers who choose to defect.

McIlroy has had an impossible year off the course. And it is difficult not to feel sorry for him.

Back in June, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced a proposed framework deal between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. McIlroy, who had been a hugely outspoken critic of LIV and a an equally vocal supporter of the PGA Tour said that he felt he had been sold down the river.

And it came as little surprise when he recently quit the Tour’s policy board. He has clearly had enough of the infighting, the back-stabbing and the uncertainty. As have we all.

I have enjoyed much of what has happened on the course. I have hated almost everything that has happened off it.