Go, Rory!

 Go, Rory! Add your picture to this frame:

 

 

The Career Grand Slam awaits.  Best of luck this week.

 

© 2012-25 R.E. Kelly

AMDG

 

DJ Now Stands Tall in the Record Books

Now that the pine needles have settled in Augusta, let’s view Dustin Johnson and his record-breaking Masters victory in historical context:

1. DJ is now tied with Gary Player for 26^th on the all-time list for most PGA Tour wins with 24. (But let’s get one thing straight; the Black Knight is arguably one of the top 5 golf professionals of all time, with nine majors victories on the regular tour and a matching nine majors on the PGA Tour Champions (seniors) circuit. Only the incomparable Bernhard Langer has more Champions Tour majors.  Player also logged 160 tournament wins during his career in the USA and internationally. Incredible.  So no parallels between DJ and Player should properly be drawn at this juncture of DJ’s career other than this happenstance of total PGA victories.)

2.  DJ now joins an exclusive group:  every golfer with at least 24 PGA Tour victories, save Macdonald Smith, who retired in 1936,  is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

3. Every golfer with at least 2 majors victories is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Now, in examining the qualifications for election, being a member of the WGHOF may not be the distinction one would otherwise think.  In fact, after the criticism it received after the election of Colin Montgomerie in the class of 2013 to the Hall, despite the fact he had never won a major championship or a stroke play tournament in the U.S., the WGHOF suspended its election process in 2014 and revamped its selection criteria. Prior to that process, the criteria for regular PGA tour golfers was basically at least 10 PGA Tour wins, two majors or two Players Championship titles. As a result, good but certainly not great golfers such as Lanny Wadkins (21 tour wins, 1 major), Tom Kite (19 tour wins, 1 major),  Larry Nelson (10 tour wins but 3 majors), Hubie Green (19 tour wins, 2 majors), Curtis Strange ((17 tour wins, 2 majors), and Fred Couples (15 tour wins, 1 majors) were elected to the Hall prior to 2014.

4. In the last 22 majors in which he has played, starting with the 2015 Masters, DJ has won twice, finished 2^nd (alone or tied) 4 times, and finished in the top 10 thirteen times.  To put that in perspective, Rory McIlroy was 12 top-ten finishes in majors during that time, Brooks Koepka has 11, Jordan Spieth 9, and no one else is close.

5. DJ is now 36 years young.  How many majors victories are in his future?  Well, Jack Nicklaus won 4 majors after turning 36, including his last and perhaps most memorable one at the Masters in 1986, at the ripe old age of 46.  Gary Player won 4 of his 9 majors after turning 36 years of age. Phil Mickelson won 2 of his 5 majors after turning 39.  Conversely, Tom Watson won all 8 of his majors before turning 36.

So, it would appear that history is not much of a guide here, except to indicate that it might be difficult to expect even someone as supremely talented as Johnson to win more than 3 or 4 more majors in the coming years. Only time will tell.  In the meantime, the 2021 Masters is only five months away, so it won’t be long before we see DJ defend his well-deserved 2020 title, and hopefully before crowds of roaring patrons and blooming azaleas in Augusta.

AMDG

© R. E. Kelly 2012 -2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I'm 64...

Sam Snead at 67 years old.

Tom Watson at 65 years old.

Jack Nicklaus at 64 years old.   

Three of golf’s five or six greatest ever, including the GOAT.  Pretty select company.

Now, add Fred Funk to that dazzling list.  At age 64.

That’s right.  Fred Funk finished 36 holes at -1 under par in the Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course yesterday, making the cut by a comfortable margin.  He did so while playing with his son Taylor, who nearly mugged his father with joy when Fred chipped in for birdie on the final hole yesterday.

 See it here here

Son Taylor failed to make the cut on the windswept Port Royal course, but I don’t think he minded one little bit.

Makes one think of the Beatles, a Lennon-McCartney masterpiece, from way back when:

When I get older, losing my game, Many years from now

Will you still me watching me make the cut

Then watch me down a bottle of wine

If I'd been short of the cut by three
Would you lock the door
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

AMDG

© R. E. Kelly 2012 -2020

Watson Says Goodbye, and Golf Shrugs

The golf world tilted slightly off its axis three  weekends ago but the golfing world hardly seemed to notice, perhaps even yawned. Tom Watson, one of the four greatest living golfers, announced he would no longer play in the U.S. Senior Open or the Senior British Open.  This closes the page on one of the most illustrious careers in golf history. Watson won eight of golf’s majors, five  British Opens, two Masters and one U.S. Open.  He also won the Senior British Open three times.

Claret Jug Winner Five Times!

It can be argued that the 69-year old Watson is the greatest links golfer of all time. His five British Open titles is the most in the modern era of the game. His Duel In The Sun with Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry in 1977 remains one of the great head to head duels in the history of the sport. The GOAT and the greatest links player went toe to toe, driver to driver, putter to putter for  two glorious rounds, with Watson finishing on top by a nose (to mix metaphors). And as I have written before, if Watson had had a nine iron instead of an eight iron on the 72nd hole in the 2009 Open at Turnberry he might have completed the greatest victory in golf history or at least since Francis Ouimet beat Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in  the 1913 U.S. Open. 

As I have also written before, we do not honor our sports heroes appropriately when they retire, sadly, waiting for them to pass away before the real tributes begin. My master plan is still intact see here. Some wise entrepreneur will bring Watson and Nicholas together to celebrate the Duel in The Sun and raise millions for charity in the bargain. In the meantime, Cheers, Tom. Well Done.  Your game will be sorely missed

Copyright R.E. Kelly 2012-2019

AMDG