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In 1950, Sam Snead won 11 PGA Tour titles and Ben Hogan won one. And the PGA Player of the Year award went to the man with the lone victory.
Snead never forgot it, taking his objection to both his and Hogan’s grave.
Slammin’ Sam was still bothered by it while serving as a pall bearer at Hogan’s funeral in 1997, some 47 years later. During a car ride then, he said to fellow pall bearer Jim Murray, the famous sportswriter, that he was still miffed.
“I won 11 times and Hogan won once and he was Player of the Year,” Snead said, as the late Murray once related to me. “I should’ve won.”
Murray, mindful of his surroundings, shot back, “My God, Sam, let it go. We’re going to put the man in the ground.”
This history lesson is brought up because this year’s PGA Tour Player of the Year award involves an interesting set up circumstances as well.
Then, Hogan won the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion 16 months after a life-threatening car accident. His body battered by multiple fractures and circulation problems, he got down to 95 pounds and doctors said he might never walk again.
So when he returned and miraculously won the Open, one of his eight starts that year, PGA of America brass felt compelled to honor him as POY. Never mind that Snead’s double-digits haul included victories at the Crosby, Los Angeles Open, Western Open and Colonial. That was more than three decades before the PGA switched to a points sytem to determine the winner.
Now, there are three POY awards of note. Double-major winner Padraig Harrington is a virtual lock to win the PGA of America award on points. The two others – as given by the PGA Tour and Golf Writers Association of America – will be determined by a vote that won’t be easy. As golf debates go, this figures to be a good one.
If you subscribe to the PGA’s mindset of 1950, then Woods gets the nod. Beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, he limped and grimaced his way to U.S. Open victory on a broken leg. Before undergoing season-ending knee surgery, he won four of six PGA Tour starts, not to mention the Dubai Desert Classic, and had near misses in the two tournaments (WGC-CA Championship and Masters) he didn’t win.
Harrington, of course, has won the last two majors, the British Open with a wounded wrist and PGA Championship, in Woods’ absence thanks to finishing kicks of back-nine 32s. He has four more top 10s in 10 other Tour starts and no victories in Europe.
Though majors carry extra weight, Woods gets my GWAA vote not only because of his broken-leg mind-blower but because he has three more victories than Harrington. What’s more, Woods’ dramatic victories at Dubai, WGC Match Play, Bay Hill and the Open, not to mention his blowout at the Buick Invitational, were stuff of fairy tales.
However the votes turn out, don’t expect the loser to carry the matter to the funeral parlor.
• Have you noticed Harrington doesn’t blink? When he’s playing or talking, those Irish eyes, whether intense or sparkling, remain wide open and don’t close. I mean, this guy could win a stare-off with Raymond Floyd or Curtis Strange.
Come to think of it, Harrington doesn’t blink on the last nine of major championships these days, either.
• Sergio Garcia said he played well enough to win the PGA Championship. He has a point to a point. He played well enough to win some majors but not this one. He played well enough to win with his pin-seeking shots at 15 and 17, two of the best shots you’ll ever seen down a major stretch, but not with his costly rinse at 16.
Bottom line, he didn’t putt well enough to win down the stretch. Harrington did, throwing the hammer down with almost 50 feet of putts on the last three holes.
Last I checked, most tournaments include putting.
• Things can change over the next couple of weeks, but as of now here is one man’s advice for Ryder Cup captain’s picks, using gut feeling over statistics.
Europeans: Ian Poulter and Paul Casey.
Americans: J.B. Holmes, Sean O’Hair, D.J. Trahan and Bubba Watson.
That means bypassing Steve Stricker, Woody Austin and Rocco Mediate for young live wires. The steady veteran thing, to state the obvious, hasn’t worked lately. And let’s step out of the stroke-play mindset for a moment. This is match play, where long-hitting birdie-makers apply.
Padraig Harrington, for one, says he can’t believe a long hitter such as John Daly has never played the Ryder Cup team. The reason: Intimidation.
At any rate, Nick Faldo’s task of selecting appears easier than Paul Azinger’s.
• Like the notion that Kenny Perry and Holmes should be sent out in the first match in their home state to rile up the crowd. That might get emotions running higher than Kentucky bourbon could.
• If you bleed red, white and blue and desperately want the U.S. to finally win a Ryder Cup, then don’t check the scoreboards at the last two major championships. Seeing all that Euro talent up high might make you vomit red, white, blue and a few other colors.
• Michelle Wie has plummeted to No. 309 in the world of women’s golf. Last time I saw a teenager fall that fast, a boyhood buddy lost his balance in a tree.
• Henrik Stenson has replaced David Duval as golf’s foremost robot. Must be the shades.
Posted: 8/15/2008
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