TOP TRIUMPHS, LETDOWNS OF '06.

Byline: JILL PAINTER GOLF

The golf season is in the midst of a long winter's nap. What better time to reminisce about the top 10 golf stories that captured our hearts or made us want to hurl our wedges.

1. Tiger's streak.

Tiger Woods was unbelievable in winning five consecutive tournaments this season. His run started with the British Open in Hoylake. He followed with wins at the Buick Open, PGA Championship, Bridgestone Invitational and Deutsche Bank Championship, in which he shot a final-round 63 to beat Vijay Singh. His putting was impeccable during that stretch. But which Tiger is better? The one that won the Tiger Slam in 2000-01 or this year's version? It's an interesting debate at the 19th hole.

2. Michelle Wie's roller-coaster season.

Love her or hate her. Seems there's no in-between with the teenage sensation who has yet to post a victory since she won the Women's Amateur Public Links in 2003. Wie, 16, played extremely well in the LPGA majors, finishing in the top five in three (Kraft Nabisco Championship, LPGA Championship and U.S. Women's Open). She played in eight men's events with little success and was even taken off the course by ambulance at the John Deere Classic due to heat exhaustion.

She made several gaffes regarding rules infractions and fired her caddie and agent. Plenty of drama.

3. Lefty's epic meltdown.

Mickelson won the Masters and was in position to win the U.S. Open but Gambling Phil got the best of him. Who could ever forget Phil Mickelson taking the driver out of his bag with the lead on the 72nd hole and watching it go left in the trees? Instead of pitching out into the fairway, he tried to go for the green, but his ball hit a tree and landed in a greenside bunker. Afterward, Mickelson admitted: ``I'm such an idiot.''

Geoff Ogivly won the U.S. Open and we've barely heard from Mickelson since then.

4. Lorena.

Move over Annika, there's another one-name wonder in town. Lorena Ochoa earned the Rolex Player of the Year award, something Annika Sorenstam had won the five previous years. Ochoa won six tournaments but what's most impressive is her consistently solid golf. She finished in the top 10 in 20 of the 25 tournaments she played. Ochoa and her Mexican-flag waving gallery have made golf fun and entertaining.

5. Hard to say goodbye.

Tiger Woods' father, Earl Woods, died of cancer at age 74 in May.

Woods took a prolonged break from golf to deal with the loss of his father, who shaped his life and career. Woods tried to win the Masters for his father, who was too ill to travel to Augusta, but Mickelson won and paid tribute to Earl in his victory speech. In his first tournament following Earl's death, Woods didn't make the cut at the U.S. Open but went on to play some of the best golf of his career after that.

6. Here we go again.

This year was supposed to be different for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Tom Lehman was a hard-working, easy-to-get-along-with Ryder Cup captain. Tiger played the leader and took the rookies under his wing.

But the Americans were clobbered by the Europeans, 18 1/2-19 1/2, and have lost four of the last five matches. In the end, if you can't beat them, join them. And that's exactly what the Americans did when they partied with the Europeans after the final round.

7. She's back.

Karrie Webb's resurgence on the LPGA Tour made things interesting.

It wasn't that long ago that Sorenstam and Webb were battling week in and week out, but Webb lost some of that edge and didn't win any tournaments in 2005. This year, she won five tournaments -- including one major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She's now won seven career majors and her game seems better than ever.

8. A new cup to hoist.

The tour debuts its new playoff system, the FedEx Cup, next year, but will anyone care? They should. The winner gets a cool $10 million and a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour. The top 30 players advance to a four-tournament playoff, but it's probably not enough to lure Mickelson and Woods into entering all of the late-season tournaments.

Mickelson has a long history of not playing late in the year and it's not likely this will change that. The playoff format is a bit like NASCAR's Nextel Cup and that has been a success.

9. Clarke's courage.

Ireland's Darren Clarke showed tremendous courage and grace as he played on following the passing of his 39-year-old wife, Heather, from breast cancer in August. Clarke, who has two young children, was granted a wild card to the European Ryder Cup team by captain Ian Woosnam about six weeks after her death. He won all three of his matches to give Europe three points in the victory, which the team dedicated to Darren and Heather.

10. Steroids ... in golf?

Golfers wouldn't seem the stereotypical offenders in the war against steroids, but just in case, the PGA wants to find out. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is working on establishing guidelines for a drug-testing policy -- though nothing has been defined or implemented yet -- and Tiger Woods is all for it. The LPGA announced it will have drug testing beginning in 2008.

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Photo:

Tiger Woods tees off in the first round of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. Woods won five consecutive tournaments this season.

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

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