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Match play is lots of fun and games
Posted: Thursday February 24, 2000 10:33 AM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle will answer your questions every Thursday during the golf season. Click here to send him a question. CARLSBAD, Calif. -- The best thing about match play is that every round is Sunday. It's the most exciting format to watch because players shoot for the pins, try to make birdies and know there's no tomorrow. Though as the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship proved last year and is proving again this week, the best way to crown a champion isn't necessarily by having him beat only one opponent each day. But match play is a great way to see how PGA Tour players handle pressure, something they don't get to do except when they're in contention -- which is almost every week in Tiger Woods' case and once in a while for everybody else. The Match Play Championship is a great place to see not only who's playing well but who's tough and who isn't. It may be the best golf event to watch this side of the Ryder Cup and the Masters. Let the gagging continue. Mail call ...
Of the six tournaments Tiger won during The Streak, three were limited-field events. With fewer than one-half the entrants of normal events, Tiger's chances of winning were greatly enhanced. What are your thoughts? You're right. The Streak was remarkable but bogus on three counts. The World Series and the Tour Championship are glorified outings but still, Woods won and they were both on great golf courses (Firestone South and Champions Club). In baseball, streaks don't carry over from one season to the next; they shouldn't in golf, either. Besides, Tiger played in Thailand in November and didn't win; Michael Campbell won. The Streak ended there, not at Torrey Pines. Somebody alert the media.
I like Tiger, but who's most likely to thwart his quest for the majors, like Lee Trevino did to Jack Nicklaus? Tiger's biggest rival will be somebody we haven't heard of yet, somebody who's probably about 13 years old right now. A stud comes along about every 10 years or so, just as Nicklaus was 10 years younger than Palmer and Watson was 10 years younger than Nicklaus. In six or eight years, the Tour will be flooded with kids bashing it 300 yards and Woods' edge will be slightly diminished. Of current players, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia are the obvious picks, but it seems like Woods already has Ernie's number. Sergio, if he improves as rapidly as Tiger did at his age, could possibly fill the role.
You mentioned that Sam Snead has 81 PGA victories and that the PGA pared down his win total. How many did he really have, and why did they cut the number? If he won so many tournaments, why don't the announcers talk more about him like they do the other greats? There was no officially organized PGA Tour in the '30s and '40s; it was more like organized barnstorming. Snead is believed to have won 135 events, although he claims it's more than 160. The tour had credited him with 84 wins until it did a revisionist Tour history in 1989 and downsized his total to 81. Announcers don't talk about him for the same reason baseball announcers don't keep bringing up Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx: They never saw him play in his prime and don't know firsthand just how good he really was.
What has happened to Nick Faldo? Has his game really gotten that bad? He was the best in the '90s. Also, how about Annika Sorenstam? Where has she been? Yes, Faldo's game really is that bad. He's not in Ian Baker-Finch territory yet, but his game has slipped, fueled by nasty putting. He five-jacked for a 9 on one hole at Riviera Country Club during the recent Nissan Open. He's been on a downward slide that coincided with problems in his life -- the breakup of his marriage, an affair and subsequent breakup with a college student, and the departure of his caddie of 10 years, Fanny Sunesson. As for Sorenstam, as players are getting more athletic and hitting it longer on the LPGA Tour -- a trend I expect to accelerate -- Sorenstam is in the same position Faldo was on the men's tour. She's a technician faced with competing with better athletes who consistently outdrive her. It will be much more difficult, if not impossible, for her to regain the dominance she once enjoyed.
Click here to send your golf question to Gary Van Sickle.
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