Winners

1) Tiger Woods's right leg
But for an heroic performance by this leg, not to mention some remarkable fortitude by the man to whom it belongs, the world No 1 would not have won the 2008 US Open. Woods's left leg was in a mess before the start of the event. He had a double stress fracture of his left tibia and the femur, tibia and fibula bones were rubbing against one another. How on earth could Woods have won his 14th major championship if his right leg had not stood up manfully to the extra load imposed upon it? The leg's performance reminds me of the old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch. "I've got nothing against your right leg," Cook said to Moore. "Trouble is, neither have you."

2) Padraig Harrington
It was remarkable how much more confident the Irishman became after winning the 2007 Open at Carnoustie, then after defending it at Royal Birkdale in July and then after winning the US PGA Championship in August. Harrington talks convolutedly and likes to find excuses to take his mind off the job in hand. Winning a new contract with Wilson worth £6.1m over three years won't have done him any harm either.

3) David Fay
The bow-tied, jazz-loving executive director of the United States Golf Association. Large and small organisations and hundreds of rich businessmen, many of whom who played golf, rushed to give Bernard Madoff money to invest in his Ponzi scheme in the US. Madoff is said to have cheated investors out of £35 billion. Asked if the USGA had placed any money with Madoff, Fay replied with huge feeling and no doubt enormous relief: "thankfully not".

4) Rory McIlroy
From Northern Ireland, McIlroy became the first teenager to be ranked among the world top 50. His first 15 months as a pro included three top-ten finishes in four of his last five events. What was impressive about McIlroy, 19, was that knowing he needed to do well in the South African Open in December in order to get into the world top 50 and thus assure himself of a place in the Masters in 2009, he finished joint-third and climbed to 39th in the rankings as a result. The boy done good.

5) Oliver Wilson
You can't help liking Wilson with his slow, shy smile and self-deprecating manner and as a result you wish him well. Like McIlroy, Wilson has won the right to compete in next year's Masters, by finishing 40th in the world rankings. So he will be earning the applause of patrons at Augusta National next April instead of listening to them from his dormitory window as he did as a student at nearby Augusta State university.

6) Robert Karlsson
Winner of the Vardon Trophy for the leading player on the European Tour's Order of Merit. Karlsson, 39, is one of the tallest men on the European tour, one of the quietest and one of the most senior, having first played on it in 1988. Underestimate the silent Swede at your peril. Still waters run deep, remember.

7) George O'Grady
Once the Race to Dubai and the Dubai World Championship had been announced late in 2007, O'Grady's stock soared as the significance of the £14m ($20m) purse for the events spread around the world. The longer the economic crisis went on in 2008, the more O'Grady looked prescient and clever for going into partnership with an organisation in a part of the world that was less badly hit by the recession than many others and that had enough money to give the European Tour a £28m ($40m) present when the Race to Dubai and the Dubai World Championship were announced.

8) Paul Azinger
The feisty Azinger comprehensively out-thought and outmanoeuvred Nick Faldo in the Ryder Cup. He divided his 12-man team into three four-man units, with each led and overseen by one of his three vice-captains - Ray Floyd, Olin Brown and Dave Stockton. This freed Azinger up to concentrate on other matters. In case he forgot anything, and to make sure he went about it the right way, he had his life coach sitting in the buggy alongside him for most of the match. "Paul has a great EQ - explanation quotient," Ron Braund, the life coach, said. "He believes that the "I win, you lose" approach is no good. Paul is an 'I win, you win' man."

9) Anthony Kim
The American who was born in Los Angeles of Korean parents is going to be a star of the future. At 23 he became the first American under 25 to win two events in one year since Tiger Woods. Though his swing is technically sound, his mental strength might be his strongest weapon. A statistical note: Kim, 23, and Woods, 33, share the same ten-year age gap that has marked out rivalries in golf in the US. Nicklaus and Palmer are ten years apart and so are Nicklaus and Tom Watson.

10) Ji-Yai Shin
Koreans already dominate the LPGA tour in the US and Ji-Yai looks as though she could challenge Lorena Ochoa for the title of the game's supreme player now that Annika Sorenstam has retired - at least we think she has. The Koreans are not just coming but are here. We had better get used to it.

Losers