Majors are now wide open events
Rich Beem. Ben Curtis. Shaun Micheel. Todd Hamilton. Throw those names out as major championship winners two summers ago and Tiger Woods would have thought you'd been watching too much Golf Channel. Now, though, four of the last eight major championship winners have been won by: a former cell phone salesman (Beem); the 396th best player in the world (Curtis); a career grinder ranked 169th (Micheel); and a journeyman (Hamilton).
The phenomenon we're seeing was brought to the attention of Peter Dawson, secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews last week, by none other than Woods and Ernie Els themselves.
"More players are putting in the work necessary to become good players, but technology has something to do with it and we are seeing players at the top of their profession saying something that needs to be done," Dawson said Monday at Royal Troon. "I don't think that was happening 20 to 30 years ago and you clearly have to pay attention to that."
Dawson points out that the Open has not produced a repeat champion since Greg Norman in 1993. He talks about 100 players at the British Amateur and all of them looking the same. He also says, "don't put this in crisis proportions because over time the best players still come to the fore."
Really, there's nothing new here. Hootie Johnson has been hinting at the adoption of a tournament ball at Augusta. Jack Nicklaus has been lecturing on this subject since the 1987 Ryder Cup. The secretary seemed to be pointing more toward the driver. "Large-headed drivers are easier to hit, the ball goes farther, it spins less, therefore it hooks and slices less," Dawson said. Earlier in the week, Kenny Perry made this very same point when explaining why his high ball now works at the British Open.
"Something needs to be done," Dawson said. "The players at the top are saying that. It will be done in conjunction with the ball and equipment manufacturers. The manufacturers are integral to this. This is not warfare. Everyone must have the interests of the game at heart. We will only have one shot at this."
These quotes are bulletin board material in Carlsbad, Calif., Fairhaven, Mass., and anywhere else they make modern golf equipment. At the end of the day, though, it still comes down to handling pressure. And that's where Woods, Els, Dawson and most everybody miss the point.
Beem held off Tiger at Hazeltine. Curtis made the par-saving putt on the 72nd hole at Royal St. George's. Micheel nearly holed a 7-iron at Oak Hill. Hamilton was sometimes 100 yards back of Els, but won the Claret Jug on course management, short game and heart.
Players who haven't been "there" before are not choking. Hamilton went the last 36, plus four playoff holes, with Els and outplayed him by one shot, 151-150. Dawson noted this, saying, "Todd is a very cool customer who was internally emotional but didn't show it on the outside." As Hamilton pointed out, all those years of traveling the globe taught him how to win. Now he's passing it on.
"I know we had another rookie this year win in the States, Zach Johnson, who killed them on the Nationwide Tour last year and won the tournament in Atlanta," Hamilton said. "So I hope the victories we've had can spur on guys, whether they're rookies on the PGA Tour, guys on the Canadian Tour, guys on the Hooters Tour or the Challenge Tour here in Europe. If they look at us and ask, 'Who's that guy? If he could do it, I should be able to do it, too.' I think that's good for the game of golf."
The first is that Hamilton won the tournament by using his driver sparingly. While he advertises the TaylorMade R7 logo on his hat, he's not screwing around with the moveable weights that have made that club so popular. He used TaylorMade's 540 XD driver with a gameplan created by caddie Ron Levin to treat the bunkers like water hazards; if Hamilton couldn't easily carry the bunkers, he made sure to lay up as much as 30 yards short of the bunkers. He was in only two all week.
"You must remember that Todd has won 13 times, more than some multiple major winners, so he had the stuff that was needed," Norman said Tuesday from his home in Florida. "I agree with what [Dawson] says, it has been taking place for almost two decades. But, like long putters, the mind and the body have the final say."
Also lost in the techno-debate is that without tricking up the golf course, without the need of a syringe, 10 under played off at Troon. There were 15 players under par, but at virtually the same yardage it played in 1962, Troon identified itself as one of the best venues in the Open rotation. "As far as the golf side is concerned, I would give it a 9.99," said Dawson.
I just hope that .01 isn't because Ernie Els wasn't hoisting the Claret Jug. Knowing Dawson as a man who appreciates good golf and a deserving champion, I'm sure it isn't.
Tim Rosaforte is a senior writer for Golf World magazine
