If Rory McIlroy hadn't won a Major, who would be the 2012 worldwide Player of the Year?  Probably still Rory (with his four PGA Tour wins) but on the periphery of the discussion might be 24-year-old South African Branden Grace, the only man two log five major tour triumphs in 2012.  Grace gained that status with his victory at this week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where a stunning opening round 60 at Kingsbarns kicked off what would become a wire-to-wire two-shot triumph over another young up-and-comer, Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen.  So as yet another top-shelf young South African prospect, how competitive might Grace currently be in America?  He's logged six official PGA Tour starts thus far in 2012 (including the final three Majors), making five cuts but recorded only a single top-25, a tie for 25th at Memorial.  Nothing too electric just yet, then, but given that his run of form has extended over an entire calendar year, Grace would appear to bear watching as he inevitably makes more American starts in 2013................Also notable this past weekend was the victory of Yuta Ikeda at the Japan Tour's Canon Open for Ikeda, now 26, looked poised to challenge Ryo Ishikawa as the Land of the Rising Sun's top young prospect when he won four J Tour events in both 2009 and 2010.  A one-win 2011 set him back somewhat (he ended the year ranked 75th in the world after residing among the top 50 in two previous years) and 2012 had thus far seen plenty of solid golf but lots of Sunday frustration; indeed, Ikeda had logged eight J Tour top 10s (as well as a first-round 62 at  September's Asia Pacific Panasonic Open) and managed the comparatively odd feat of finishing second in three straight events, the Fujisankei Classic, the Toshin tournament and the ANA Open.  So perhaps the Canon victory will get him jumpstarted once again...

PGA Tour - Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals Open  -  Ryan Moore  (260)
European Tour - Alfred Dunhill Links Championship  -  Branden Grace  (266)
Japan Tour - Canon Open  -  Yuta Ikeda  (271)
Asian Tour - C.J. Invitational  -  K.J. Choi  (269)
LatinoAmerica - Brazil Open  -  Clodomiro Carranza  (269)
LET - French Open  -  Stacey Keating  (266)
Champions Tour - SAS Championship  -  Bernhard Langer  (203)
Web.com Tour - Neediest Kids Championship  -  David Lingmerth  (272)
E Challenge Tour - Allianz Open de Lyon  -  Chris Doak  (271)

It may be mop-up time here in the U.S. but there are still some moments of greater golfing interest around the world, including this week's Dunhill Links Championship, an 11-year-old event contested at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and, most notably, St Andrews.  And while first-day fireworks seldom prove central to the plot come Sunday, we cannot let pass Branden Grace's remarkable opening-round 60, which was recorded Thursday morning at Kingsbarns.  The 24-year-old Grace has enjoyed a breakout season worldwide, winning back-to-back E Tour-co-sanctioned events in his native South Africa in January, adding the Volvo China Open in April and, most recently, claiming the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final on the Sunshine circuit last week.  Apparently the long trip from South Africa did him no harm, for after "quietly" negotiating Kingsbarns' back nine in 31 (led by an eagle at the par-5 16th), he proceeded to birdie seven of nine holes on the front, coming home in a stunning 29.  Indeed, an eagle at the 558-yard 9th would have made him the first man ever to break 60 on the E Tour - but a closing birdie instead left him as the 14th to shoot 60.

Beyond the obvious, what's so impressive about this feat?  That while numerous players went low at St Andrews (include 22-year-old Frenchman Victor Debuisson, who flirted with a 59 of his own before "fading" to a 62), Grace managed to beat the field by a stunning five shots at Kingsbarns - and how often do we see that?  

For the record, only three players among Thursday's top 57 played at Carnoustie, so the true measure of play won't be apparent until the three-day rotation has come full circle on Saturday night.  But given the margin by which he lapped his fellow Kingsbarns competitors, Grace's round represents an impressive achievement in any light.

Had he done it on the Old Course, it would have been worldwide news.

Buried behind Sunday's thrilling Ryder Cup finale was the last 2012 event of the LPGA's developmental Symetra Tour (formerly the Futures circuit for once-a-year visitors), with the tour's top 10 money winners gaining LPGA Tour status for the 2013 season.  And for the first time this year, all 10 will actually get regular starts on the LPGA circuit, for in the past, numbers one through five received Category 9 priority status (good enough to get into most any full-size field) while the lower five were relegated to Category 17 - a far more daunting scheduling proposition.  Indeed, of the four players falling into this category a year ago (the fifth, Tiffany Joh, also finished among the LPGA's top 80 earners and thus enjoyed Category 1 status), Valentine Derrey made three 2012 LPGA starts, Hanna Kang seven, Jennifer Gleason seven and Tze-Chi Lin only four.  Such inequity, however, will now be a thing of the past.

This year's first five are headed by former AJGA Player of the Year Esther Cho, an LPGA veteran who made only six Symetra starts this year but won two of them, claiming titles in Sarasota, FL and Nueva Vallarta, Mexico.  Second place was claimed by 27-year-old Colombian Paola Moreno, a former All-American at USC who made 10 LPGA starts in 2011, finishing 136th in earnings.  In third place was 20-year-old Dayton, OH native Victoria Elizabeth, a Symetra regular (including a 2012 win in Syracuse) since joining the tour in 2010.  Fourth was Thailand's Thidapa Suwannapura, a 20-year-old ex-Asian junior and amateur star with a 2012 Symetra victory in Vidalia, GA, while fifth place fell to Daniela Iacobelli, the 2007 NCAA Division 2 champion at Florida Institute of Technology and a winner of the season-ending Daytona Beach Invitational. 

The remaining five (in order of finish) are comprised of Mi Hyang Lee of Korea, American Jennifer Gleason (again), Australia's Julia Boland, American Nicole Smith and Canadian Sara-Maude Juneau.

It may no longer be the genteel sporting competition that its founder envisioned  but endless kudos to a European Ryder Cup team which, on foreign ground, scored the greatest comeback in the event’s history on Sunday – though in point of fact, the phrase “foreign ground” also doesn’t carry the weight it once did.  We note this because while American players general make only scattered, pre-compensated visits to the European Tour, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell. Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood – a majority of the European side – were PGA Tour members this year, meaning they’ve each played at least 15 events stateside.  Of the non-Tour members, Peter Hanson has made 11 U.S. starts, Mssrs. Colsaerts, Kaymer and Molinari eight each, and Paul Lawrie a more modest six.  So while the cooking may not truly be of  the “home” variety to Europe's best, they were certainly well-accustomed to it.
 
Playing from particular strength in this regard was England’s Luke Donald, a part-time Chicago resident and graduate of nearby  Northwestern University.  Toss in the fact that Donald tied for 3rd (after leading through 54 holes) at the 2006 PGA Championship at Medinah and it's no surprise that Captain Jose Maria Olazabal put him out first in Sunday Singles.  Predictably, the former World Number One responded strongly, dominating Bubba Watson far more than the final 2 & 1 margin suggested and setting the tone for Europe’s remarkable day-long comeback.
 
Similarly impressive was another former World Number One, Martin Kaymer, whom Olazabal plugged into the penultimate singles spot despite Kaymer plummeting from 4th to 32nd worldwide since March.  Olazabal was cautious enough to play Kaymer only once prior to Sunday (a Friday Four ball loss with Justin Rose) but with the weight of the Continent squarely on his shoulders, Kaymer calmly holed the seven-foot clinching putt at a moment when a miss looked likely to seal a U.S. victory.  Somewhere in Boca Raton, his countryman Bernhard Langer was surely both envious and proud.
 
Few were the Euros who didn’t play a major role on Sunday but additional applause must go to Sergio Garcia (who won the 17th and 18th to steal match #8 from Jim Furyk), both Ian Poulter (4-0-0 for the week) and current World Number One Rory McIlroy (for respectively dispatching Webb Simpson and America’s hottest player, Keegan Bradley, to build Europe’s early momentum), Justin Rose (whose electric birdies at 17 and 18 left Phil Mickelson stunned) and, rather under the radar, Paul Lawrie, whose 5 & 3 route of Brandt Snedeker give Europe a critical fifth early point when four seemed about as much as Olazabal might have hoped for.

For an American side that looked so formidable through Saturday night, there were only a few shining lights in the end.  Dustin Johnson rather quietly amassed a 3-0-0 record (including an important Singles triumph over Nicolas Colsaerts) and received able backing from Keegan Bradley, Phil Mickelson, Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson, all of whom finished 3-1-0 for the week.  In Bradley and Mickelson's cases, their losses unfortunately came in the crucial early hours on Sunday, but neither can be held too much to blame; Bradley lost 2 & 1 to Rory McIlroy (the world's top player being 5-under-par through 17 holes) while Mickelson seemed well on his way to a key victory before Rose's heroics so memorably carried the day.  Dufner and Zach Johnson fared better on Sunday, Johnson winning three early holes en route to dispatching Graeme McDowell 2 & 1 while Dufner - placed by Davis Love III in the likely-to-be-prominent 9th spot - eagled both outgoing par 5s to build a 4 up lead on Peter Hanson, eventually cruising home to a 2 up triumph.  It is perhaps worth noting right here that with two 2012 victories, eight top-10s in 22 starts and this statement performance on the most pressure-packed of stages, Dufner's status as a top-shelf PGA Tour star must now be above question.

Memorable U.S. low points?  Jim Furyk finishing bogey-bogey to lose on Sunday (a sadly fitting cap to his star-crossed 2012 season), Snedeker's apparent (and understandable) flatness after banking $11.4 million FedEx Cup dollars last week, Stricker's 0-for-4 week and Webb Simpson embarrassingly qualifying himself to re-write Bernard Darwin's classic essay, The Woes of Socketing.

And then there was Tiger Woods who, after acknowledging beforehand that he has not won enough career Ryder Cup points for someone of his redoubtable skills, proceeded to lose three Foursome/Four Ball matches, was benched (for the first time in his career) for the fourth and ultimately failed to record a victory for the entire week.  Indeed, Sunday seemed an apt metaphor for most of Woods' 2012 campaign, for he lingered prominently around the edges, enjoyed a few moments when his presence seemed central to the plot - but then, in the end, missed a three-foot putt at the last that turned a 14-14 tie (and Europe simply retaining the Cup) into an outright European victory.  Woods' three 2012 PGA Tour wins can hardly be ignored and his ball-striking took a quantum leap forward in the process, but despite Captain Love placing him in the 12th spot, it was difficult not to sense that Woods is no longer the backbone of the American squad.  Indeed, questions with both the putter and the ability to strike effectively in the clutch are as evident as ever - and it will certainly be interesting going forward to see what, if anything, Sean Foley can do about that.

The Ryder Cup

Winner: Europe   14.5 – 13.5
Site: Medinah CC (No.3 Course)  -  Medinah, IL
 
                        STORY         RESULT         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Japan Tour:  Coca-Cola Tokai Classic

Winner: Hyun-woo Ryu   71-73-67-71   282  (beat S. Katayama in a playoff)
Site: Miyoshi CC (West Course)  -  Aichi, Japan
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
 
Elsewhere…
Asia - Mercuries Taiwan Masters - Chi-huang Tsai  284  (Story)
Sunshine - Vodacom Origins - Final - Branden Grace  209  (Story)
JLPGA – Japan Women's Open - Shanshan Feng  288  (Story)
Symetra - Daytona Beach Invitational - Daniela Iacabelli  205  (Story)
Web.com – Chiquita Classic – Russell Henley  266  (Story)
Euro Challenge - Challenge de Catalunya - Brooks Koepka  200  (Story)

The Ryder Cup

Site: Medinah CC (No.3 Course)  -  Medinah, IL
Yards: 7,658     Par: 72
Defending: Europe  (14½ - 13½)
 
                               WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Japan Tour:  Coca Cola Tokai Classic

Site: Miyoshi CC (West Course)  -  Aichi, Japan
Yards: 7,310     Par: 72
Defending: Sang-moon Bae  281   (beat T. Takayama by 1)
World Top 20: None.   
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Elsewhere…
Asia - Mercuries Taiwan Masters - Taipei
Sunshine - Vodacom Origins - Final - Fancourt, South Africa
JLPGA – Japan Women's Open - Yokohama, Japan
Symetra - Daytona Beach Invitational - Daytona Beach, FL
Web.com – Chiquita Classic - Weddington, NC
Euro Challenge - Challenge de Catalunya - Tarragona, Spain

PGA Tour:  The Tour Championship

Winner: Brandt Snedeker   68-70-64-68   270  (beat J. Rose by 3)
Site: East Lake GC  -  Atlanta, GA
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Japan & Asian Tours:  Asia Pacific Panasonic Open

Winner: Masanori Kobayashi   74-64-67-62   267  (beat K. Oda by 1)
Site: Higashi Hirono GC  -  Hyogo, Japan
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Navistar LPGA Classic

Winner: Stacy Lewis   66-70-65-69   270  (beat L. Thompson by 2)
Site: RTJ Golf Trail (Senator Course)  -  Prattville, AL
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Elsewhere…
LET - Tenerife Open de Espana – Stacey Keating  279  (Story)
JLPGA – Dunlop Open - Rikako Marita  202
Symetra - Vidalia Championship – Thidapa Suwannapura  209  (Story)
Web.com – WNB Golf Classic – Luke Guthrie  271  (Story)
Euro Challenge - Open Toulouse Metropole – Julien Brun  271  (Story)
Euro Seniors - French Riviera Masters – David J. Russell  208  (Story)

PGA Tour:  Tour Championship

Site: East Lake GC  -  Atlanta, GA
Yards: 7,154     Par: 70
Defending: Bill Haas 272  (beat H. Mahan in a playoff)
World Top 20: All who survived the BMW Championship.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Japan & Asian Tours:  Asia Pacific Panasonic Open

Site: Higashi Hirono GC  -  Hyogo, Japan
Yards: 7,157    Par: 72
Defending: Tetsuji Hiratsuka 276  (beat S.K. Ho & D.H. Kim by 3)
World Top 20: None.   
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Navistar LPGA Classic

Site: RTJ Golf Trail (Senator Course)  -  Prattville, AL
Yards: 6,460     Par: 72
Defending: Lexi Thompson 271  (beat T. Joh by 5)
World Top 20: Yani Tseng (1), Stacy Lewis (2), Suzann Pettersen (6), Amy Yang (7), So Yeon Ryu (13), Brittany Lincicome (16), Azahara Munoz (17), Angela Stanford (18) & Sun Young Yoo (19).
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Elsewhere…
LET - Tenerife Open de Espana - Tenerife, Spain
JLPGA – Dunlop Open - Miyagi, Japan
Symetra - Vidalia Chamoionship - Vidalia, GA
Web.com – WNB Golf Classic - Midland, TX
Euro Challenge - Open Toulouse Metropole - Seilh, France
Euro Seniors - French Riviera Masters - Provence, France

European PGA Tour:  BMW Italian Open

Winner: Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano   68-65-67-64   264  (beat G. Mulroy by 2)
Site: Royal Park I Roveri  -  Turin, Italy
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Japan Tour:  ANA Open

Winner: Hiroyuki Fujita   71-68-65-68   272  (beat 4 players by 1)
Site: Sapporo GC  -  Sapporo, Japan
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Ricoh Women's British Open

Winner: Jiyai Shin   71-64-71-73   279  (beat I. Park by 9)
Site: Royal Liverpool GC  -  Wirral, England
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Elsewhere…
Asia – Yeangder Tournament Players Championship - Gaganjeet Bhullar  204  (Story)
Champions – Pacific Links Championship – Willie Wood  202  (Story)
LET – See LPGA Above
JLPGA – Munsingwear Tokai Classic – Natsu Nagai  205
Symetra – Symetra Classic – Mi Hyang Lee  208  (Story)
Web.com – Albertson’s Boise Open – Luke Guthrie  262  (Story)
Euro Challenge – Kazakhstan Open – Scott Henry  269  (Story)