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Early line on century's best
Posted: Wednesday February 02, 2000 01:09 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle will answer your questions every Thursday during the golf season. Click here to send him a question.
We've gone more than a month now without hearing somebody's "Best of ..." list. That last millennium couldn't end fast enough. Still, going cold turkey like that can be traumatic. So let's take the edge off by scanning my early rankings for Player of the Century (The 21st century doesn't formally start until 2001 but only compete geeks care about that technicality -- everyone else has already started counting), based on this year's action: 1. Tom Lehman. Hey, has anybody else already won twice in 2000? He beat last year's top dog, Tiger Woods, in his own event. Both wins came in the Phoenix area, where Lehman lives, so he had the home-cactus advantage. Lehman scored bonus points for shrugging off the Phoenix Open's loud, rowdy and often badly behaved 16th-hole spectators, unlike some other wet-nursed Tour pros. "It's a tradition," Lehman said. "Augusta has the green jacket, we've got the 16th hole." 2. Tiger Woods. He's 1-for-1 in 2000 and the media have already figured out how he's going to break Byron Nelson's streak of 11 in a row at this year's Masters. Sorry, but Tiger's streak isn't five in a row, it's one. No carryovers into a new millennium. (Geeks, do not argue.) 3. Aaron Baddeley. This Australian teenager was so impressive in winning the Australian Open as an amateur that the Masters Tournament gave him an at-large berth. (Tip: Look for him to get bounced by Gonzaga or Middle Tennessee in the Southeast Regional.) Bonus points for headlines coming soon to a dinosaur newspaper near you: Man Behaving Baddeley. Not Half Baddeley. O.K., So He's No Yank Aaron. Bonus tip: Start practicing putting in your bathtub, mate. And make sure it's tilted. 4. Jesper Parnevik. Meet Europe's new best player. But don't worry, Monty, he's giving the European Tour the Heisman this year (sorry, old chap, that means he's stiff-arming -- skipping -- it), so you can still beat up on Seve and Nigel and Percy in all those Volvo Toasted Cheese Portuguese Opens and win your 27th straight Order of Merit title. Lovely. 5. Boonchu Ruangkit. He's from Thailand. His name is cool. That's all. Tip: The correct pronunciation, I believe, is " GIB-by GIL-bert. " Now for this week's list of the best questions. (All right, I lied. These are the questions I felt like answering.)
As long as the World Ranking includes Jumbo Ozaki, it is flawed. He is a senior and he can't make the cut outside Japan. I believe the tours should switch to the new Sagarin rankings. What's your opinion? The current World Ranking is flawed. For instance, how is a player's finish in an event two years earlier a barometer of where he should be ranked now? Using that concept, the Denver Broncos should still be No. 1 in the National Football League. The Sagarin Performance Index is even worse, however. It emphasizes a player's scores too much and winning not enough.That's how Justin Leonard and Davis Love III, neither of whom won in 1999, ranked fourth and sixth, respectively in the initial SPI. Finishing second in a tournament shouldn't be considered a plus if you took a five-shot lead into the final round. The alarms should have gone off for Mr. Sagarin when his system made Marco Dawson No. 22, ahead of Carlos Franco (who won two PGA Tour events), Lehman, Lee Westwood and Stewart Cink. Dawson, who managed just 11 top-10 finishes in 207 PGA Tour events during the '90s, is now god-like because he had 11 top-10s on last year's Nike Tour? Not likely. Further evidence of boneheadedness: Ruangkit, one of the finest players in his neighborhood, was ranked a lowly 606th on the first list. This, sir, is an insult! (Note to Mr. Sagarin: We've already got rankings. They're called victory totals.)
I heard Jesper Parnevik had heart problems. Is this true? Will he play less in the United States than he did last year? Jesper decided to play full-time in the U.S. this year, so you'll see him more than ever. It's true, the fourth-best player of the century skipped the last few tournaments of 1999 because of an irregular heartbeat. Memo to Bill Bradley: As soon as Jesper got some looser-fitting pants, he was fine.
If Casey Martin loses his appeal, will he take it to the next level? And if so, does that mean he will be unable to use a cart while he waits? Look for the losing side to take the historic case all the way to the nation's highest court -- to infinity, Judge Judy and beyond. If a ruling goes against Casey, he'll likely get a court injunction allowing him to continue to ride until either the case is settled or Casey hits the Senior tour, whichever comes first. Probably the Senior tour.
Click here to send your golf question to Gary Van Sickle.
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