Two No. 1-ranked golfers from different eras have been in the news of late. Tiger Woods, the world”s top player for most of the 21st Century, underwent knee surgery just a few days after winning his 14th major, the 108th annual United States Open at Torrey Pines. As fans of the game are now well aware, Woods rushed his recovery from knee surgery in April and not only defied his doctors” orders by playing in and winning the National Open, but he did it with a multiple stress fracture and a torn ACL.
This past weekend, Australian Greg Norman, the world”s top golfer during a 10-year stretch from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s married former tennis great Chris Evert in the Bahamas. Norman, who competes irregularly on the PGA Champions Tour, is an enormously successful businessman who has made his fortune in the golf equipment industry as well as with his very popular line of clothing wear. Based on all the tabloid and paparazzi action that occurred last weekend at the big wedding, Norman still garners headlines even though he hasn”t been a factor on the links for more than a decade.
As a result of his most recent surgery, Woods will be inactive on the world golf scene for the next nine to 12 months and it”s also quite possible that his physical limitations may prevent him from ever returning to his top spot in the game. From this point on, the PGA Tour may very well remind fans of what professional golf was like when Greg Norman was atop the world rankings. It will return to a time when mediocrity ruled the game.
Moreso than any other professional sport, golf has had its greatest eras and greatest amount of public interest when the star system reigned supreme. The post-World War I triumvirate of Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones ruled the game during its formative stages in America. As their abilities were starting to fade during the start of the Depression, a new trio of gifted performers dominated the links for the next 20 years, namely Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan.
By the time Nelson, Snead and Hogan were starting to wear down, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus started to light up scoreboards as well as the television screens that were now a big part of American households. There was a 10-year age difference between Palmer-Player and the younger Nicklaus, and as the King and Black Knight started to fade away, Nicklaus suddenly had new rivals in the form of Lee Trevino and Tom Watson.
From Nicklaus, who recorded 18 professional majors, to Trevino, who captured Grand Slam titles six times, all of the aforementioned greats fit somewhere in between in the accounting of major championship victories. Then Watson started to age and his putter became balky, and the age of mediocrity began.
Because of his aggressive style of play coupled with his dashing good looks, Greg Norman was the poster boy during this easily forgettable era of championship golf. From 1984 through 1996, he was the acknowledged favorite every time the best golfers on the planet teed it up. Yet his overall career has very little in common with the greats of the game who came before him as well as with Tiger Woods who came after Norman.
In 1986, Norman led all four major championships after three rounds. He won the British Open at Turnberry that summer, but found colorful ways to lose the other three titles. While his style, power and appeal were quite reminiscent of Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman lacked the luck and the good fortune, and perhaps the overall game, that were so much a part of Palmer”s golfing heroics. In fact, Norman just might have been the most tragic figure in the 100-year history of professional golf. Put that together with questionable course management skills and a solid stubborn streak and you end up with golfer exhibiting a thought process that is inferior to the one displayed nowadays by Phil Mickelson.
Without a doubt, Norman was snake bit while atop golf”s center stage, but he was also his own worst enemy. Bob Tway was fortunate to hole out his final shot on the final hole from the sand to win the 1986 PGA. Larry Mize was uncannily lucky to make a 70-foot chip shot during sudden death one year later to beat Norman out of a Masters” green jacket. You can”t play defense in golf and there”s not much you can do when world-class golfers exhibit world-class skills.
Nonetheless, Greg Norman lost tournaments in ways that not even Phil Mickelson could imagine. He bailed out on his final iron shot to lose the 1986 Masters to Nicklaus. He over-aggressively drove his tee shot into a pot bunker to hand the 1988 British Open crown to journeyman Mark Calcavecchia. He power-lipped one putt after another to give the PGA Championship to Paul Azinger in 1993. In two dramatic showdowns with Nick Faldo, he was outscored by eight or more strokes as Faldo took home the 1990 British Open at St. Andrews and the 1996 Masters.
Although he spent close to nine years atop the world rankings, Greg Norman had only the 1986 and 1993 British Opens on his golfing resume. During that same time, Andy North, Sandy Lyle, John Daly and Curtis Strange won just as many major titles. Nick Price won three majors between 1992 and 1994. Spending the majority of their time competing on the European Tour, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo won five and six Grand Slam titles, respectively. Greg Norman was the anti-Tiger of that era. He seldom came through in the clutch at the big tourneys, he hardly ever sealed the deal. There was even one year, 1990 to be exact, when Wayne Levi was the PGA Tour”s Player of the Year.
For the remainder of this year, and quite possibly longer, Tiger Woods will not be performing on golf”s center stage. Sure, this will be a golden opportunity for Adam Scott or Sergio Garcia or Justin Rose to capture an ever-elusive major championship title. Good for them. Nonetheless, I have this funny feeling that some of the top-10 ranked golfers in the world rankings will find a way to falter at golf”s biggest events, leaving the door open for journeymen and one-hit wonders.
It will be just like it was during the reign of Greg Norman. It will be just like it was during the age of mediocrity.
