Parity is now par for the course
The first 17 PGA Tour events of the year have produced 14 different winners. It's the kind of parity that would have made late NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle proud. But, as with the balance achieved in pro football, the question sure to arise is this: Does this equalizing of power in professional golf reflect a tipping point in talent or merely an emerging mediocrity? Moreover, why has golf's Big Five gone the way of the dominant franchises in the NFL? And how will the public react to the winner-of-the-week mentality the PGA Tour is developing?
The only players to have won more than once this year are Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Stuart Appleby -- each visiting the winner's circle twice. Woods and Mickelson have clearly emerged as No. 1 and No. 1A in men's golf, breaking away from the five-pack that includes Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els. None of those three has won stateside in 2006, and what we now seem to have is the Big Two followed by the Lonely One and then everyone else. Appleby, in fact, has now done something neither Els nor Mickelson has accomplished in winning at least once in each of the last four years. Singh has four straight years with a victory coming into 2006, Goosen five straight, and Woods has won in each of his 11 seasons as a professional.
For those of you scoring at home, the other PGA Tour winners this year are David Toms, Chad Campbell, J.B. Holmes, Arron Oberholser, Rory Sabbatini, Geoff Ogilvy, Kirk Triplett, Luke Donald, Rod Pampling, Stephen Ames and Aaron Baddeley. Of that group, only Holmes, Oberholser and Baddeley won for the first time -- and, in the case of Oberholser and Baddeley, the question was, what took so long?
Among the broad expanse of winners this year on the PGA Tour, there really are no flukes. Still, does the meal satisfy the appetite of the fan?
There is a chance, although not a likely one, that the 2006 season could produce the most parity on tour since 1991, when no one took home more than two trophies. A record-tying total of eight players tied for most victories that year -- Ian Woosnam, Corey Pavin, Billy Andrade, Tom Purtzer, Mark Brooks, Nick Price, Fred Couples and Andrew Magee -- and of them, only Woosnam won a major championship (The Masters). Eight guys also tied for the most victories in 1983 -- Fuzzy Zoeller, Lanny Wadkins, Calvin Peete, Hal Sutton, Gil Morgan, Mark McCumber, Jim Colbert and Seve Ballesteros -- with Sutton (PGA Championship) and Ballesteros (Masters) winning majors.
The interesting thing about both the '83 and '91 seasons was that they were both preludes to greatness. Curtis Strange emerged as probably the best player in the world from 1985-89, winning two U.S. Opens and 10 other tour events during that span. And both Price and Greg Norman reached No. 1 from 1993-97 before yielding the title pretty much nonstop to Woods. Only in 2004, when Singh won nine times and overtook Woods briefly as No. 1, has anyone seriously challenged Woods for the top spot.
From the current parcel of parity, Appleby could develop as a true world-class player. The Australian turned 35 on May 1 and should have his best years ahead of him. It seems as if a career sidetracked by personal tragedy is now very much back on course. Appleby won his first PGA Tour event in 1997 and added another in 1998 before his wife, Renay, was killed in an accident outside a London train station after the '98 British Open. Stuart won once in 1999, then went three years without a victory.
Now, remarried to Ashley in December 2002, and with a 15-month-old daughter, Ella, and a second baby born shortly after this year's Mercedes, Appleby has notched a PGA Tour victory every year since starting his new life. The ease with which he cruised to a six-stroke victory at the Shell Houston Open spoke volumes about a man who has seemingly emerged from tragedy a stronger person and a better, more confident player. He has a chance, with a handful more tour victories and a major championship or two thrown in, to emerge as one of the best of his generation. The major championships are a glaring hole in his resumé that needs to be addressed. Only at Muirfield in the 2002 British Open, when he lost a four-way playoff to Els, has Appleby made a serious run at a major.
Will the public buy into the Appleby story? Most likely, especially if he emerges as a foil and sometimes rival to Woods and Mickelson in the majors. Will the public buy into the apparent parity on tour? That's likely also going to happen as long as some familiar names are in the hunt with some degree of regularity. The fans love to see Chaminade beat Virginia, but they are not so much interested in seeing Chaminade beat Boise State. The key to selling surprise winners as good entertainment is who they surprise.
And the point to remember here, the reason all this parity is not a bad thing even if it does reflect a degree of mediocrity, is to remember that there remains a scramble to determine who's No. 4. Tiger Woods is, well, Tiger Woods -- the best of his generation and a contender as best ever. Mickelson has gone from "will he ever win a major" to "can he match the Tiger Slam" in a mere 25 months. Vijay is Vijay. And Appleby is, at least for now, the best player not named Woods or Mickelson. It's a product of which even Pete Rozelle would be proud.
Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine.
