Season Review - Iain Carter - BBC Corespondent writes exclusively for Vision4Sport Events

Eddie Pepperell provided a perfect bookend to the British golf season - a promising young Englishman landing a much coveted title with his wire to wire win at the British Masters.

It did not matter that the event finished in cold, dank, drizzly conditions.  This is golf, this is Britain and this is autumn - what else do you expect?

Pepperell is a likable 27 year old from Oxford who is enjoying the fruits of his labours after suffered on the other side of the game.  In 2016 he lost his Tour card but he has battled back and that win at Walton Heath, the second of his career, was a typical triumph of tenacity.

And it felt appropriate that a home player drew down the curtain on the professional golfing year in these parts.  For many reasons 2018 will be remembered with great fondness and not just for that resounding Ryder Cup win at the start of this month.

This was a year in which Justin Rose went tot he top of the golfing world through relentless consistency.  The Englishman also banked the $10 million FedEx Cup spoils amid the rejoicing that accompanied Tiger Woods’ comeback win at the Tour Championship.

Bournemouth’s Georgia Hall won the Women’s British Open in sensational style at Royal Lytham and St Annes and established herself in the world’s top ten.

Tommy Fleetwood, meanwhile, showed us that he is a world class talent who is on the verge of major success.  His brilliant final round 63 at Shinnecock Hills left him only one stroke shy of Brooks Koepka who magnificently defended his US Open crown.

Koepka went on to hold off a charging Woods at the PGA Championship and that was enough to easily wrap up the US player of the year title.

But it was the completion of Woods’ story of recovery and redemption that was the core thread of this golfing season.  Few of us thought he could again hit such heights in the wake of four back surgeries.

The 42 year old is some athlete and his powers of greatness have not deserted him.  Returning to such a level of competitiveness, culminating in that win at East Lake, sits alongside anything this fourteen times major champion has ever accomplished.

And the fans have loved it.  Television figures went through the roof in the States as did the number of hits for the live text coverage on the BBC Sport website whenever he was in contention.

There were plenty of instances too, including The Players Championship in May and at the Open where he was ultimately overtaken by the relentless consistency of the brilliant Francesco Molinari.

The catalyst for the Italian was his victory at Wentworth in the BMW PGA Championship.  He romped to a first PGA Tour title soon afterwards before that sensational win at Carnoustie in July.

With Fleetwood he teamed up in the dream Molliwood partnership and it propelled him to winning all five points in the Ryder Cup triumph - a record for a European player.

Talk to Molinari and you will find that it has all still to fully sink in, but he insists the team triumph is the stand out achievement.  This tells us so much about the spirit of the European line up skippered by Thomas Bjorn at Le Golf National.

For me, commentating there for BBC 5Live, this was the abiding memory.  I will never forget the thunderclaps, the extraordinary atmosphere on that stadium course and the sheer joy of the occasion.

Being part of the winning team will have been some consolation for Rory McIlroy for whom this has been a disappointing nearly year.  

It was summed up by what happened at the Masters where he was well placed to pounce teeing off in the final pairing with Patrick Reed.  McIlroy wilted while Reed powered to his first major win.

For Rory the wait continues to complete the career grand slam and Augusta next April cannot come around soon enough.

Mind you, the same can be said for all of us, especially as we prepare to set back our clocks for the onset of winter.

The prospect of Augusta in April, where Woods will be among the favourites once again, is the thing that will help us most as we seek to cope with the long nights and short days ahead. 

And that’s especially the case for young Pepperell.  His British Masters win means he will have the year end top fifty ranking that guarantees an invitation to the year’s first men’s major.  It will be his debut appearance on the beautifully manicured Augusta layout.

I bet he can’t wait - and neither can we.