Choi Demonstrates Depth of the Tour

KJ%20Choi.jpg
This is PGA Golf for you. Going into the Memorial, everyone was salivating about the prospects of a Tiger vs. Phil showdown. Then Phil got hurt, and Tiger played like he was hurt. By Friday night everyone was talking about how Adam Scott was finally ready to take that next step, as evidenced by his 62 that day. Then Saturday comes and Scott's Australian countryman Rod Pampling takes the lead and everyone (this blog included) makes a big deal about the rise of the Australians on tour. And then who slips in and wins? KJ Choi, a guy nobody mentioned all week.

KJ Choi is a nice player and it wouldn't surprise me if he won a major in the next few years. Hell, he could the US Open in two weeks at Oakmont. His win and the daily carousel of stories that emerged from the Memorial this week highlights the unprecedented depth of world golf. KJ Choi and about 100 other players not named Tiger or Phil can win any tournament including the major championships.

When you hear guys like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer come right out and say that they faced tougher competition than Tiger currently does, they're main argument is that they competed against each other, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller. The implication being that they had to battle some all-time greats while Tiger's been left to tangle with a bunch of pretenders.

What you don't hear these guys say is that there was a much smaller group of players in their day that was capable of winning major championships. A great example is the 1960's, a decade that was dominated by Nicklaus, Palmer and Player. These three men combined to win an amazing 17 out of the 40 major tournaments played in that decade. Not to take anything away from these golfers, but if they played in an era where the 100th best golfer in the world could occasionally get hot and win the big one there would have been no way that they could have amassed the records they did.

This brings us back, as most things do in golf these days, to Tiger Woods. The fact that Tiger, from 1997 to 2006 won twelve major titles against a deep pool of very good players proves again that he has played the most amazing decade of professional golf we have ever seen. His continued ability to win a high percentage of all events he plays is amazing when you consider that he never enters weak-field events. His record of making cuts also speaks to his unparalleled consistency in a game where consistency is fleeting. And his twelve majors in only ten years might well have been twenty had he been playing in the '60's when there were only a handful of men he would have had to beat at each championship.

( Add your comments )

Recent Entries:
· Kim dominates Wachovia
· Wie trying to qualify for U.S. Open
· Toms comes out firing

[ READER COMMENTS ]

Choi Demonstrates Depth of the Tour

Add your comments...

We kindly ask that you keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Abusive or inappropriate comments or comments that are specifically promotional in nature may be removed.