It has been more than a bit wild in the world of professional golf since the calendar flipped to 2024, and that’s remarkable considering the PGA Tour-LIV Golf drama/mergers/holy war that we expected has largely been a dud. But even as the elephant in the room has been uncomfortably quiet, the rest of the landscape has been erupting like 10,000 Pompeis.

Now that the Tour Championship has wrapped and we’re officially into the fall interlude, it’s time to look back and count down the 10 most memorable moments from a singular season:

10. Nick Dunlap is first amateur to win on PGA Tour in 23 years

Remember this? Those were simpler times. Dunlap, an unassuming fellow by all appearances, came out of nowhere to win The American Express. His monetary prize was exactly $0 because Dunlap was an amateur, but the 20-year-old Alabama sophomore etched his name in the history books. Then he went pro, and then he won again at the Barracuda, Stableford-style, and then he made the playoffs and probably would have reached the Tour Championship if they gave him credit for the AmEx. It was a singular achievement, and it took every synapse in my brain to remember that it ever happened.

9. The absolute dumpster fire that was the Phoenix Open

For years, the WM Phoenix Open has marketed itself as the “party time” tour event, and here in 2024, hoo boy, they have lived up to and beyond it. The chaos seems to grow and grow, and got bad enough this year that both Zach Johnson and Billy Horschel felt the need to yell at the fans. Even Jordan Spieth got pissed, and things went so haywire—fans fighting, a dude falling out of the stands—that the tournament had to cut off alcohol sales on Saturday. As Golf Digest’s Joel Beall wrote, it was quite a hangover for a tournament that probably needs to rein itself in. Still, that was some pristine clutch putting from Nick Taylor to win it.

8. Matt Kuchar pulls off solo Monday finish in Wyndham

I’m just going to say it: I kinda understand what Kuchar was thinking … maybe. But even if he deserves a little more credit for the bizarre incident in Greensboro, when he single-handedly forced a Monday finish at the Wyndham Championship despite being out of contention, there was pure comedy to it all. Kuchar was once known as the grinning boy wonder of the tour, but a few different incidents took the shine off his reputation, and at this point Internet Golf People were primed to dunk on him for what looked on the surface like a monumentally selfish act. For better or worse, I bought his rationale, but that did not stop me from laughing like a madman at the wonderful memes.

7. Rory McIlroy goes on a vintage romp in Wells Fargo

In terms of a Sunday performance on the tour itself, non-major category, this to me was the most impressive of the year. The Rory talk coming into the week was about nothing but his impending divorce, but he flipped that completely on its head by crushing 54-hole leader Xander Schauffele and the rest of the field in a performance so dominating that he made a double on the last hole and it didn’t matter at all—he still shot a field-best 65 and won going away.

This was the week before the PGA Championship, and in the moment it seemed like Rory had worked out his demons, and that Schauffele, after this loss and getting chased down by Scottie Scheffler at the Players, was becoming a consummate also-ran with a ton of skill but no finishing power. All of which is hilarious when you consider how the rest of the season went, and proves you can never really know anything about golf.

6. Bryson DeChambeau’s incredible bunker shot to win U.S. Open

Bryson makes a sweet up-and-down from the bunker to win the U.S. Open

Not one, but two memories from this tournament make the list, and the first is more positive—Bryson DeChambeau showing his mettle under the gun by converting a very difficult long up-and-down from the sand on the 18th hole at Pinehurst to win his second major by a shot. Just watch the man:

Easily one of the clutchest (clutchiest?) shots of the year.

5. Johnson Wagner becomes a star by chucking balls at a bank

Most of the discourse around golf on TV involves people complaining about the endless commercials, which is why it’s so surprising that an actual positive story slipped through the cracks this year in the form of Johnson Wagner, who got his big break by chucking balls at a grassy bank at the Players Championship in an attempt to exonerate Rory McIlroy for a drop while maybe accidentally condemning him:

It was goofy, it was fun, it was informative, and that was just the start for Wagner, who went on to have more viral moments, including when he triumphantly re-created Bryson’s bunker shot with the help of the man himself.

4. Scottie wins gold

It’s hard to pick just one Scheffler playing moment from the year … do you go with his one major, at Augusta? His jaw-dropping comeback at the Players? Any of the other four wins? Of those, you’d probably tap the Players, just because he appeared hurt early in the week and still managed to chase everyone down and look invincible.

But the one that tops them all is the Olympic gold. By that point in the season it had been a little bit since his last win, Schauffele had stolen the momentum by winning two majors, and you felt as though Scheffler’s truly epic highlights for the year were behind him. That was only compounded when Jon Rahm took a four-shot lead on the back nine. Then what happened? Scheffler did Scheffler, he chased down Rahm and everyone else in his way, and he re-asserted himself as the game’s best player. Watching him cry during the anthem is still one of the most goosebump-inducing moments of the year.

3. Xander Schauffele conquers Troon

Coming into the Open, the big fear was that Troon as a course would roll over and die in the face of the “modern game,” particularly if the elements didn’t lend a hand. Very quickly, this narrative was put to rest—not only was Troon not defenseless, but it had some real teeth. The back nine especially proved to be a brutal stretch, and after a Saturday full of late carnage, it seemed like the winning formula would simply be to survive.

Schauffele was the only player with a different idea. He attacked the course in a way that felt audacious, thrilling and risky, and came away with a back-nine 31 on Sunday and seized the Open by the handles of the claret jug. That was the moment when you got the sense not only of how good he was, but how great he could be—by winning the PGA Championship and getting the major monkey off his back, he was now free to unleash his best stuff even in the cauldron of a major Sunday, and this was the first time he showed the world the magnitude of his talent.

2. Rory drops a bomb of heartbreak at the U.S. Open

With apologies to Bryson, who was very good in capturing his second U.S. Open, the lingering memory of Pinehurst will always be the unthinkable final three holes of McIlroy, starting with the missed shortie on 16 that’s still hard to fathom.

We’ve spent a decade watching Rory lose in the most agonizing ways possible, but this was, somehow, a new way entirely: He’d convinced us that the old hobgoblins had been slain and got right to the doorstep of victory before kicking it away. The major drought is now a decade long, but somehow the pain has become more acute with time, and the Pinehurst finale is the most staggering chapter yet.

1. Scheffler gets arrested during PGA

Scottie Scheffler walks by fans at Valhalla wearing shirts with his mugshot. Patrick Smith

Obviously, nothing is going to top this. The world’s best player rolled into Valhalla for the first round of his PGA Championship, crossed paths with the wrong cop, and suddenly the image of the year for our unassuming sport was this mugshot. It was a sequence of pure insanity, and days of analysis and re-analysis and counter-analysis followed until charges were dropped on May 29.

The concept of a golfer getting arrested at a tournament is ridiculous on its face, and the fact that it was Scheffler in handcuffs propels the whole deal into the realm of absurdity. (As does the fact he 66 after being bailed out.) We live in very strange times, but it’s still hard to believe this entire thing was real … or that a pair of $80 pants became one of the central characters of the year’s second major.