The questions from golf fans across the wide spectrum of the sporting nation are all pretty similar. Whether it’s on talk radio, talking heads television, in magazine and newspaper stories or among the boys at the Triple Bogey Saloon, the queries include, “Do you think Tiger will win again? Can he win five more majors? How soon do you think Phil will complete the career grand slam? Now that Padraig has won again, when will Ernie and Vijay find the winner’s circle?”
The fact of the matter is that time moves on, whether we want it to or not. The 2000 golf season was a pretty special one for Tiger Woods with victories in three majors. It’s hard to recreate greatness when you are on the downside of your career. True, just plain folks with professional careers will tell you that 39 years of age is on the beginning stages of your prime. Yet whether you play a team sport or compete in an individual sport, as Tiger does, it’s terribly difficult to return to the pinnacle of your profession, especially a decade later.
Ten years is an eternity in the world of golf. True, some greats of the game have demonstrated consistent greatness, such as Jack Nicklaus. He was an impact linkster on the world golf stage for a staggering 19 years from his rookie year triumph in the 1962 U.S. Open to his two major victories in the 1980 U.S. Open and PGA Championship. That added up to 17 majors over 19 seasons. It is a rare multiple major winner who has been able to stretch his wins to more than a 10-year period of time.
Sam Snead won seven majors in 10 seasons, World War II making his run last 13 years. Gary Player captured nine majors during the course of 20 seasons, proving fitness is important in golf, too. Every other great of the modern era with five or more majors had less than 10 seasons to start and finish his grand slam career. Tom Watson won eight majors during a nine-year run. Nick Faldo took home three British Opens and three Masters titles between 1987 and 1996. Seve Ballesteros won the Masters in 1979 and got his fifth and final major at the 1988 British Open. Arnold Palmer won seven majors from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters. The King’s reign wasn’t as long as some of the others, but it was a most memorable one. Ben Hogan had a similar run, winning nine majors, the first in 1946 and the final three in 1953.
Yes, 10 years is an eternity. At this time in 2005, Phil Mickelson was the defending Masters champion, having broken through for his first major the previous spring at age 33. He would win the ’05 PGA Championship later that year in August for his second career major triumph. Phil wouldn’t repeat as champion at the Masters. Tiger Woods would wear the green jacket for the fourth and probably final time, beating Chris DiMarco in a playoff. One month later, Tiger would capture the British Open for the second time at St. Andrews. One decade ago, Phil had two majors while Tiger had 10.
The 2005 PGA Tour had its share of old lions hanging on until the start of their senior tour careers. Craig Stadler was still fully exempt as a 51-year-old. Fulton Allem was 48 years old. San Francisco’s Michael Allen was 46 and was hanging onto his exempt status by his nails. He was the 88th-leading money winner based on a runner-up finish at Greensboro and a ninth-place tie at Reno. Tommy Armour III was Allen’s age and was safely on tour because he had won the 2003 Texas Open. It was his second career win, the first one coming 13 years earlier. Mark O’Meara was 48 years old, was no longer exempt because of his two-win major season of 1998, and was getting sponsor invites to play in 15 or so tournaments annually. The gravy days on the senior tour couldn’t come fast enough.
Jimmy Walker was a newcomer to the PGA Tour in 2005. He was the Nationwide Tour’s player of the year, having won in Panama and Louisiana. Other success stories from golf’s minor league winner’s circle, all of them getting their beaks wet in 2005, included Nick Watney, the Nationwide Tour champion who grew up playing Davis Muni; Charley Hoffman, D.A. Points and Kevin Stadler, on tour alongside his father.
On the other end of the spectrum, the 2005 British Open marked the final appearance of 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus as a 65-year-old in a professional golf event. A two-time Open champion at St. Andrews, Nicklaus closed out a Hall of Fame career at the storied links by making a birdie at the 18th hole alongside playing partners Tom Watson and Luke Donald.
Not surprisingly, the top three money winners in 2005 went by the names Tiger, Vijay and Phil with $10 million, $8 million and just lesson $6 million in winnings, respectively. Other longtime familiar names in golf’s top 10 included Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia and Kenny Perry. Chris DiMarco was there too following a trio of great seasons. There wouldn’t be many more.
The PGA Tour was a different place too. There was no Fed Ex Cup playoff series. A good number of the game’s big names closed down shop after the PGA Championship in August. There was no wraparound schedule like there is today and the September and October schedule featured B-level events in places such as western Pennsylvania (The 84 Lumber) and Orlando (The Walt Disney) that no longer exist today. Yet for whatever reason there was a World Golf Championship event that autumn and it was a most memorable one. It was played at San Francisco’s Harding Park and Tiger Woods beat John Daly in a playoff.
I guess that tells you just about everything you need to know about how things can change during the course of 10 years. To think that Tiger Woods and John Daly were fighting it out with $1 million on the line in a WGC event. It’s a new era in the world of professional golf and as we inch closer to the first major championship of 2015 with the playing of the Masters in two weeks at Augusta National, we have to realize that the glory days of Tiger, Phil, Ernie, Padraig and Vijay, the 40-something fivesome with three or more major wins, are over. The Rory McIlroy era is here and he is simply a green jacket away from a fifth major championship as well as a career grand slam at age 25. The time is now for McIlroy as well as Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and the others. And the reality of the situation is that their time will most probably be gone some 10 years from now.
