The first half of the 2017-18 PGA Tour season is over (that's crazy, right?), which means it's time to hand out some awards. With most of the big tournaments (three majors, Players and FedEx Cup Playoffs) still to come, these will surely change a lot over the next few months, but through 26 events we've seen some historic events, incredible finishes and a Tiger Woods comeback that I would not have believed even six months ago.
Best golfer -- Justin Thomas: It's probably between Bubba Watson and Thomas, and Thomas has clipped him in pretty much every relevant category (if only slightly). They both have two non-major wins, but Thomas has five top 10s to Watson's four and also has a runner-up at a WGC event. Thomas has also earned nearly $2 million (!) more than anybody else on the PGA Tour this season (including Watson). Encore seasons to all-time years are always tough, but Thomas is making this one look easy.
Best tournament -- The Masters: This feels like cheating because the answer this time of year, halfway through the season, is always the Masters. This year is no different, but to recap: The average world ranking of the final top 10 on the leaderboard on Sunday was in the teens. I still don't believe it was an all-time Masters, but as far as 2018 tournaments go, it stands alone thus far.
Best non-major -- WGC-Mexico Championship: There was a five-week stretch from February to March in which we got some non-major instant classics. Tiger's run at the Valspar Championship, Rory McIlroy burning down the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Thomas' playoff win at the Honda Classic were among them. But for me it's the WGC-Mexico Championship that stands alone. From Thomas' hole-out on the 72nd hole to get into a playoff (more on that in a minute) to Shubhankar Sharma contending on the weekend to Phil Mickelson's first win in five years, that tournament had it all (and has delivered two years in a row now).
Best finish -- Rory McIlroy at Bay Hill: It wasn't like Jordan Spieth's hole out at the Travelers Championship last year in terms of final hole drama, but what McIlroy did at Bay Hill in front of Tiger, Fowler, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and (most notably) Bryson DeChambeau was as jacked up as I've been for an ending all year. He played the last 13 holes in 8 under and shot a 31 on the back nine that culminated in this bender for birdie and a three-stroke win.
Biggest upset -- Ted Potter Jr. over Dustin Johnson: Your weekly reminder that Ted Potter Jr. stared down the No. 1 player on the planet (for the last 63 weeks!) at a course where he's won twice and said, 'yeah, I'm good I'll take down D.J. by three and on to the Masters." Incredible!
Best shot -- Justin Thomas in Mexico: This one is not even close. Thomas holing out on the final hole at the WGC-Mexico Championship is as astounding now as it was then. One of the great shots of the last few years.
The runner up is D.J. nearly acing a 430-yard par 4 in Hawaii. It was a shot Brandel Chamblee said was the best ever hit.
Biggest surprise -- Ian Poulter: Other than the obvious of Woods contending weekly, it's been the resurgence of Poulter. He almost lost his card last year, and now he's a certified lock to be on the European Ryder Cup team following a near-win at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and a victory the week after that at the Houston Open to get into the Masters. There are plenty of good stories -- Mickelson, Sharma, Patton Kizzire, Haotong Li, Ted Potter Jr., Chris Paisley and Augusta National hosting a women's even among them -- but I think the most underrated so far this year (and to me the most confounding) is Poulter. This time last year, the Englishman had notched just one top-10 finish since 2015 in a non-opposite field event, and now he's on the precipice of breaking back into the top 25 in the world and breaking U.S. hearts in Paris once again.
Best moment -- Gary Woodland's win: Woodland winning the Waste Management Phoenix Open and getting emotional while holding his son was pretty awesome. Woodland and his wife lost one of their two twins during pregnancy last year, and Jaxson is the other one. "It's really hard to put in words right now," said Woodland. "Last year we battled through it, couldn't get to the off season quick enough, couldn't start 2018 soon enough. For him to be here, it's obviously a miracle, but I'm just so excited to share this with him and my family and hopefully it's the start of something special."
Biggest theme -- Stars and superstars: McIlroy, Mickelson, Jason Day, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Justin Rose and Patrick Reed have all won golf tournaments this season. I go into tournaments now expecting to see two of the best in the game paired together late on Sunday afternoon, and when anything other than that happens, I'm legitimately surprised. This has been sort of diminished in recent weeks in the post-Masters lull, but the roll we had leading up to Augusta was truly preposterous. Golf may have been like this before, even recently, but this year has been a revelation in terms of how good the upper crust is in this sport, and it has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Bonus -- Grading Tiger Woods: I'm not sure how to properly contextualize what we've seen this year because so many people who watch golf just outright expect Woods to go out and win golf tournaments at a 25 percent clip (which nobody will ever do again, including Tiger). The best way is probably as follows. Woods is currently No. 6 on the PGA Tour in strokes gained (the best tool we have to compare you to the rest of your peers). Mickelson, Thomas, Johnson, Stenson and Alex Noren are ahead of him, and everybody else (Rahm, Fowler, McIlroy and Spieth included) is behind him. We didn't even know if he was going to be able to walk 18 holes six months ago, and now he's been (arguably) a top 10 golfer on the PGA Tour, not based on name but rather on the data we have available. That's astonishing. Grade: A+