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Augusta favorites not named Tiger
Posted: Wednesday March 29, 2000 04:22 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. For sheer drama, I have to admit it's hard to beat the Stadium Course's finishing holes at The Players Championship. On the other hand, I can't help but think it's a major part of what's gone wrong with course design over the last 25 years. The Stadium Course was designed and built for professionals. Too many target-style courses were built the same way. The island-green 17th, copied by so many housing-tract courses, has been a bane. It's an exciting hole, no question, but when a well-struck shot can land on the putting surface and even bounce once or twice and still go in the water, is that a good golf hole? I'd say it's good TV. The 18th is a pucker-up tough finishing hole. Tiger Woods hit an iron off the tee. Is it a great hole? I'll let you decide while I daydream about Pinehurst. This week's letters of intent:
Who, other than Tiger, would be your pick to win the Masters and why? I'm still a Fred Couples fan. Players think they can dominate Augusta National with length but the truth is, it's all about the greens. Anybody who makes all his eight-footers is the real favorite. I wasn't keen about the way Tom Lehman faded down the stretch at The Players Championship, but I think he can win the Masters. Ditto, Davis Love. I picked David Duval to win it before the season started. He almost did in 1998 and has the putting stroke to pull it off. If the greens are as fast and firm as they were last year, supreme short-gamers such as José Maria Olazábal, Mark O'Meara and yes, even Greg Norman, are contenders. If Couples has one more major left in him, the Masters would be it. Does he? Well, if Wisconsin can make the Final Four, anything's possible.
Could Karrie Webb break 90 from the championship tees at any of the four men's majors? What about the TPC at Sawgrass? Oh, ye of little faith. Webb could shoot par or better at any men's tournament anywhere. Yes, she'd probably wear out her fairway woods on the long par-4s but guess what? She's a better fairway wood player than most of the men, who never hit them. I don't think many LPGA players could do better than 75 at the TPC at Sawgrass from the tips under tournament conditions but Webb and Laura Davies are two who have the power and all-around game to do it. I think we'd all like to see a women's major at the TPC at Sawgrass, Pebble Beach, Augusta National, St. Andrews or any classic course the men play regularly. It's too bad the LPGA can't weasel its way onto some better, big-name tracks.
Over the last 25 years, who are the players with the most talent yet fewest victories in majors? Ben Crenshaw and Greg Norman would be at the top of my list. No doubt Norman ranks No. 1 on your list. He was nearly a dominant player who easily could've won 10 majors but walked off with only two. Jerry Pate won only one professional major due to a shoulder injury and I've got to believe the Mouth of the South would've won several more if he'd stayed healthy. Johnny Miller was the best player in the world for a few years yet won only two before total burnout set in. It is remarkable that Tom Weiskopf won only one British Open but he, like Norman, wasn't known as a closer --plus, he was up against a prime-time Jack Nicklaus. Lanny Wadkins scored just one, the PGA Championship -- amazing for a player who could be absolutely phenomenal. Honorable mention: Tom Kite, who got one U.S. Open, plus today's still winless crew: Colin Montgomerie, Duval and Phil Mickelson.
Since Greg Norman didn't get the requisite number of votes to get into the World Golf Hall of Fame, do you think any of his contemporaries have a chance? Norman will definitely get in, probably next year. Kite and Nick Price likely will, too. I think Wadkins should get in. O'Meara and Crenshaw are on the bubble. Couples, Corey Pavin and Payne Stewart probably won't -- they just didn't rack up enough W's. Larry Nelson won three majors, like Payne did, and he's not in and not likely to. Hey, Leo Diegel won 30 times and he's not in. I vote for him every year.
Isn't Tiger Woods fantastic enough without talk about his bogus closer streak? The way I see it, Tiger was tied with Darren Clarke going into the final day of the World Match Play ... and he lost! Streak over! He is not a lock to win every time. Why are they playing up the angle that he can't lose? Because they -- the media -- never let facts mess up a good story. You are absolutely right. Clarke and Hal Sutton both showed that Woods isn't unbeatable but his record as a closer, you have to admit, is phenomenal. His six consecutive victories string was much more bogus. He played once in Europe and didn't win, interrupting the streak. Plus, the year ended, interrupting the streak. (In baseball, streaks do not carry over to another year.) And four of his six wins were in limited field events. It was a fun streak but if he'd made it to 11, I think I might've run short of asterisks.
With all the talk about moving The Players Championship to May, why not move it to October and have it as the real Tour Championship? What a way to end the year on a great course! Would this ever happen? That's a brilliant idea. The season-ending event would not only pack the almost-a-major punch of The Players but a full-field event would have the added drama of players battling to finish in the top 125 and keep their cards. With that big purse, literally anybody could play his way onto the exempt list with a great week. It would leave a gaping hole in the March schedule and it would mean pulling the plug on the snooze-inducing Tour Championship, which the Tour is likely to do right after Monty wins three majors in a row by beating Tiger in playoffs. No chance. Click here to send your golf question to Gary Van Sickle.
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