Tiger's Streak*

You laugh but my first set of mismatched hand-me down clubs included several ones with wooden shafts and included a niblick, a mashie niblick and a spoon.

They went perfectly with my plus fours.

 

Didn't we almost have something like this a couple years ago when a hitting streak threatened to go over from the end of one season to another?
I have no opinion here except that there does seem to be an industry based on ginning up Tiger records -- like the Tiger Slam -- when he doesn't quite meet specifications that have been good for everyone else over the past 100 years.

 

Fenian, the Wrath of Hondo will now be visited upon you.

We were winding this baby down.

 

No wrath. Just discussion.
The Tiger Slam wasn't billed as any kind of record -- merely a fact that no one had held the titles of the four current professional majors at the same time. As far as the specifications of what's been good for everyone else the last 100 years, Bobby Jones is credited for a Grand Slam for winning the U.S. and British Opens, and the U.S. and British Amateurs. No one's ever won the four currently accepted as majors in the same year. What's more, no one can cite a specific time when the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA came into such acceptance. There's just a lot of nebulous stuff about how much Jack and Arnie emphasized those tournaments and began planning their entire schedules around them. Somewhere around the early 1960s, those four events began their current status.

There is no central body or organization that has ever declared for four events "the majors." It's been media hype and/or interpretation from the beginning, with Jack, Arnie and Tiger as the catalysts. Old-timers such as Dan Jenkins have written that the professional golfers considered the Western Open a major back in the 1920s and 1930s, before the Masters began in the mid 1930s. American players hardly ever went to the British Open (Hogan played it once) before the 1960s because of the travel. Arnold has been credited for sparking U.S. players' interest in the British when he won two in the early 1960s. The PGA was almost declared dead in the late 1980s and early 1990s after a series of crappy tournaments on crappy courses won by the likes of Jeff Sluman and Wayne Grady.

That's why the PGA Tour could declare tomorrow that it is recognizing five majors, and The Players Championship is one of them, and it certainly wouldn't carry any less weight than how the other four became accepted as such. At least it would be some kind of offical pronouncement or ruling, which the other majors have never had, other than Jack and Arnie and Tiger decreeing it.

My guess is that the USGA, PGA of America, Augusta National and the Royal and Ancient wouldn't care if The Players was considered a major, as long as their event still is.

Case in point about how golf records can be a bit fuzzy: Jack won his 12th major. In the presser after the final round, he was reminded by a reporter that he only had one more to go to tie Bobby Jones' "record." Jack had no idea such a record existed. Moreoever, Jones' record included British Ams and U.S. Ams.

So what's a record, in regard to majors? Jack's won 18 professional majors and two U.S. Ams. Tiger has won 12 professional majors and three U.S. Ams. Does Jack have 20 or 18? Does Tiger have 12 or 15?

 

Great. I just went cross-eyed.

 

Hondo's history lesson makes some excellent points. Let me add a few more.

The U.S. Open was always recognized in this country as THE tournament. It had "major" status from Day One, although nobody recognized it as a "major" in the way we see it today. Along with the U.S. Amateur, it was the most important golf tournament in this country and probably second only to the (British) Open in terms of overall prominence.

The Western Open was considered a major in the early parts of the 20th century, largely because it 1) paid the largest purse for its time, and 2) subsequently attracted the largest field.

Hondo is dead-on with the take on the British Open being an afterthought for Americans prior to the 1960s, largely because of the expense involved in traveling and qualifying, which Americans had to do. So you could head across the Atlantic, fail to qualify, and be out all that money in the process. The best story on this subject was Sam Snead, who went over, qualified, won and said he lost money in the process.

The PGA Tour has been trying to get the Players recognized as a major for years. It's been on the permanent agenda of Camp Ponte Vedra for going on 20 years. You'll notice under the FedEx Cup (and I can't believe I'm bringing this up now) that the Players offers more points than even the WGC events.

Expect this subtle pressure to continue, although I can assure you the golf media (outside of perhaps the Golf Channel) will resist an interloper that's only been around for 25 years to intrude on the perceived "sanctity" of the current four majors.

And on the subject of Dan Jenkins and quantity of majors, he's written over and over about how Ben Hogan should have FIVE U.S. Opens, since he won something called the Hale America National Open Golf Tournament in 1942. With the U.S. Open canceled because of WW II, they had this event in its place.

Jenkins (largely because he's a huge Ben Hogan honk) has strenuously insisted that because of the field, the fact it was organized by the USGA, the PGA of America and the Chicago Golf Club, the fact it was played the same time as the U.S. Open would have and that Hogan won the medal he would have won for the U.S. Open, that it's a legit Open win for Hogan.

FWIW and to answer Hondo's last question, Jenkins and other old-timers maintain that after you win your first or second professional major (can't remember which), you're allowed to count the Amateurs as majors. So Tiger, Jack, Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson, Mark O'Meara et al can count their Amateurs, but the likes of Jeff Quinney, David Gossett, Scott Verplank, Billy Mayfair, Hank Kuehne and Ricky Barnes can't.

Personally, I'm on the fence with the Hogan-Hale argument, although I'm leaning 'no'. The latter is totally arbitrary and makes no sense. Either the Am is a major or it isn't.

Class dismissed.

 

And while we're having a history lesson, the Canadian Open is the second oldest stop on the PGA Tour and the third oldest national championship after the British and U.S. Opens.

The 1955 Canadian Open was Arnold Palmer's first PGA victory (Weston Golf and Country Club).

Tiger Woods bunker shot on the 18th from 204 yards that sealed his Open victory in 2000 is still one of his all time clutch shots.

Unfortunately the Canadian Open has been plagued by really crappy scheduling in the last few years and a lot of pros don't include it in their end of season tour.

 

I can understand the though that The Players might be "an interloper" after only 25 years (actually, 33 years -- three at rotating sites, five at the Sawgrass Country Club and the last 25 at the TPC Sawgrass. But ask youself this: The Masters was 25 years old in 1959. Was it considered a major then?

 

And, it's in Canada.

 

And a typical Hondo response.

Somehow, being a golf journalist is a perfect job for you.

A middle-class white male covering a bunch of mostly reactionary white males playing a sport favoured by rich and smug Republicans who belong to private clubs, protected from everything that might disturb their privileged status.

Because, Lord, if it doesn't happen in the U S of A, it can't possibly be worth covering.

Polish those white shoes and belt Hondo. Golf season is upon you.

 

What's your point?

 

Is it usually this easy to bait JR?