There have been plenty of occasions where the golf world gasped in 2024 and, with the season drawing to a close, we thought it would be right to see which moment caused the biggest shock.
Tiger Woods ended his 27-year relationship with Nike back in January, with Sun Day Red revealed one month later
The golf world has been a rollercoaster over the past few years and, in the last 12 months, it's been no different, with shock retirements, surprising returns and moments we all thought would never happen.
Below, we have whittled down the nominees, with the Golf Monthly team listing their most shocking moment of 2024!
Shock of the Year Nominees
- Rory McIlroy missed putts at 70th and 72nd holes of US Open
- Lexi Thompson retirement announcement
- Tiger Woods leaves Nike
- Anthony Kim returns to competitive golf
- Keegan Bradley announced as US Ryder Cup Captain
- Nick Dunlap wins American Express to become first amateur winner on PGA Tour since 1991
- International team whitewashing the US Team 5-0 at the Presidents Cup after being whitewashed 24 hours earlier
The biggest shock for me, in 2024, came in the form of Keegan Bradley being announced as the US Ryder Cup Captain for Bethpage Black next year. Put simply, I don't think anyone saw this coming.
After their defeat in Rome, you can kind of see why Bradley has been picked as Captain, with the PGA of America looking for something different. However, the American sits inside the world's top 30 and claimed victory at the BMW Championship in August, so only time will tell if this move backfires or not.
Shock was just one of the emotions I felt when McIlroy let that US Open slip through his hands, so I'd dread to think how the man himself dealt with that moment or those that followed - if indeed he has been able to compartmentalize and move on from it at all.
Recent success would show he probably has, but the moment itself was - relatively speaking - pretty harrowing and no one could have blamed him for fading over the remainder of the season. Thankfully, McIlroy is made of stern stuff and he bounced back to land a sixth Race To Dubai crown.
We had some shocking moments this year for sure, with Lexi Thompson’s retirement coming completely out of the blue as well as Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup captaincy announcement.
Tiger Woods leaving Nike was heavily rumored so perhaps less shocking, while Anthony Kim’s return was another that had been widely reported, too.
For out-and-out shocks, it has to be Rory McIlroy’s missed putt on the 16th at Pinehurst No.2. Nobody saw it coming and it completely flipped the narrative of the entire event. This was a generational great finally ending his Major drought and returning to the summit of the game - until that little three-footer slid by.
Bryson DeChambeau took advantage of it in such an impressive way to truly become a superstar. It’s a putt that shaped the rest of Rory McIlroy’s 2024 and it could well go on to shape his entire career. For shock factor, nothing comes close to what happened on that 16th green.
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