We are exactly 12 events into the PGA Tour season, meaning that the world”s top professional golfers are just about one-third of the way through the calendar. It also means that we”re just a few weeks removed from the first major championship of the year, namely the Masters. Yes, the 2010 PGA Tour season is moving along.
The start of this year reminds me of the way it was some 20 years ago. The top players of that time weren”t full-time members of the PGA Tour. Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle, all winners of major championships, were full-fledged members of the European PGA Tour. On top of that, the world”s No. 1 player, Australian Greg Norman, was a PGA Tour member with globetrotting tendencies.
Nonetheless, someone had to win. The season-long money-winning list included Wayne Levi, Jodie Mudd, Mark Calcavecchia, Tim Simpson, Gil Morgan and Billy Mayfair among the top 10. All of the aforementioned were American golfers with Calcavecchia being the only one with a major title to his credit, the 1989 British Open.
The first third of 2010 is a lot like 1990 all over again. There have been no multiple winners thus far this year. Of the 11 various winners of 2010, only Ernie Els, the champion of last weekend”s World Golf Championship event at Doral, and Geoff Ogilvy, the winner of the season-opening SBS Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, have major wins on their golfing resume. Interestingly enough, Els is from South Africa and Ogilvy is from Australia.
Those joining Els and Ogilvy in the winner”s circle this year include some name players such as Los Angeles Open champ Steve Stricker and colorful Englishman Ian Poulter, who won the WGC Match Play. Stricker and Poulter are well known for their success in team competitions. Camilo Vilegas of Argentina, the winner at the Honda, is well worth paying good money to watch play golf. Yet on the other side of the spectrum, I bet most of you couldn”t pick out Ben Crane, the San Diego champion, out of a lineup alongside Puerto Rican champ Derek Lamely, Mayakoba winner Cameron Beckman, and Dustin Johnson, the winner at Pebble Beach.
Oh, and I guess I forgot to mention Ryan Palmer who won in Hawaii, and Bill Haas, the Bob Hope winner who is still better known as the son of Jay Haas and the nephew of Masters champ Bob Goalby. I reiterate, the start of 2010 sure seems a lot like the dawning of the 1990s.
Golf has always has a bigger fan base during eras when there were rivalries among the game”s top echelon. It probably started with the Great Triumvirate of Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor at the start of the 20th century. From there it flowed into the Roaring ”20s and the threesome of Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and amateur great Bobby Jones. The decade before and immediately following World War II featured Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson. The golden age of the 1960s and 1970s included Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, with some mighty strong support from Lee Trevino and Tom Watson.
Sure, every now and then you”d have a major champion such as Jack Fleck or Charles Coody or Gay Brewer, but they usually had to beat one of the game”s big guns to attain their moment of grand slam glory. Nonetheless, the game always seems to gather interest among the masses when it has a Palmer and a Nicklaus atop the leaderboard.
Tom Watson won his eighth and final major at the 1983 British Open. From that moment until Tiger Woods” romp at the 1997 Masters, the PGA Tour was just like the National Football League. There was a lot of parity. Faldo amassed six majors, just as many as Lee Trevino, and Ballesteros totaled five majors. A whole lot of golfers who one could assume would collect a handful of majors were limited to just one, including Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Paul Azinger, Craig Stadler and Steve Elkington. Of course, this was also the era when Greg Norman threw away majors by the handful. In the end, Norman won two majors, just as man as Andy North.
Golf has had a different model since Tiger Woods” 1997 Masters triumph. Woods wouldn”t have a foil like the way Hogan had Snead. He would be the top banana, challenging Nicklaus” record of 18 major wins with 14 titles of his own. Sure, there was Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh and Ernie Els, but in all reality, Tiger was the headliner. No one had his number the way Watson had Nicklaus” at Turnberry in 1977 and at Pebble Beach in 1982. It was all very one-sided, and when Tiger did lose, it was to journeymen such as Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.
Woods” return to the PGA Tour at next month”s Masters following a five-month hiatus is a bit of an eye opener. It seems like an awful difficult setting to start a new campaign. I think I”d rather have some confidence after making a couple clutch downhill 5-foot putts at Bay Hill than take a chance of getting my beak wet on the treacherous greens at Augusta National.
On the plus side, Woods will return to the most tightly organized tournament with the most well-behaved crowds in professional golf. There won”t be reporters from TMZ or the National Enquirer in the pressroom. Fans will be immediately removed from the premises should they cross over the line into the realm of decorum, never to get back their cherished patron”s badge.
Tiger Woods is preparing to return to the PGA Tour by entering the Masters in early April. He will be seeking his fifth green jacket and his 15th major title as well as trying to get back his competitive juices. Tiger Woods wants to be back on the PGA Tour, doing what he does best. His fellow pros need him to want to be back. After all, for the past 12 weeks, the PGA Tour just hasn”t been a very interesting place.
