Today, the Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards were given out and frankly, there weren’t any surprises. Five-time tour champion in 2013, Tiger Woods, came away with his 11th P.O.Y. award. Tiger won the Arnold Palmer money title, The Vardon Trophy, for the lowest adjusted scoring average and the five titles was the most by any player on tour. He did not win a major but no one who won a major won more than 3 titles (Phil Mickelson) so the Tiger dominance of this award continues. The Jack Nicklaus award for the Player of the Year goes to the great Tiger Woods.
The rookie of the year award went to Jordan Spieth who started the year with no status at all and finished the year with a victory and a President’s Cup team member, which, of course, will be contested next week. Spieth became the youngest man to win a title in over 82 years—at age 19 just before turning 20. There were other rookies of distinction, Russell Henley, Derek Ernst, and David Lingmerth of note but what Spieth did was nothing short of breathtaking. He went from 810th in the world in January to now 21st in the world golf rankings. This is a meteoric rise of epic proportions and I for one can’t wait to see him perform next week in the President’s Cup.
He was a man of the people, a commoner, a young man 20 years old in fact with a 10 year old caddy. It was not improbable, it was impossible, but it happened. The story is so compelling that it was front page news, not just sports page news the next day. It got Americans of all economic backgrounds to take up golf.
Ouimet lived across the street from The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. He was not allowed to play the course – he was a caddy. He qualified for the event and then needed a caddy. Francis asked a friend to caddy, but he opted out at the last moment and the friend’s 10 year old brother volunteered to caddy. The rest is magical history.
Eddie Lowery was the 10 year old, Francis Ouimet was the 20 year old and together they defeated the two most prominent golfers in the world in an 18 hole playoff. Ouimet defeated Legendary Englishman Harry Vardon who today still holds the record for winning the most British Opens at 6 and had won the 1900 U. S. Open. Ouimet also conquered Vardon’s fellow countryman, Ted Ray, who also was a British Open champion and would go on to win the U.S. Open in 1920. Ouimet beat Vardon by 5 and Ray by 6 strokes in the playoff.
This event, in golf history, remains to this day by most golf historians as the single most important for the proliferation of the game inAmerica. Golf went from an elitist sport to one open to everyone virtually overnight. Francis Ouimet and Eddie Lowery connected to golf history forever remembered today and as long as golf is played in America.
Annika Sorenstam—The Swedish superstar is our number one female golfer of all-time. She came to the U.S. to play college golf at the University of Arizona and it was quite clear as to her immense talent. She won the NCAA Championship as a freshman a feat never accomplished before or since.
Annika turned professional after two years at Arizona and promptly went out and won the 1995 U.S. Open as her first tour win. She amassed 72 LPGA tour wins including 10 majors. She is the first woman to surpass 20 million in prize money and has been voted LPGA player of the year a record 8 times.. Sorenstam is also the only woman ever to break 60—firing a 59 in the 2001 Standard Register Ping event in Phoenix; forevermore she is called “Ms.59”.
In 2003 she accepted an invitation to play in the Bank of America Colonial Invitational in Ft. Worth,Texas. She missed the cut but was heralded for her efforts to play against the men in a PGA Tour event. She retired from competition in 2008 to start a family and direct her efforts into her golf academy, golf course design, to assorted business interests and many charitable causes. Annika Sorenstam is our number 1 female golfer of all-time.
Bob’s top 10 female golfers of all time continues with numbers 4, 3, and 2.
4. Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias—We will get to the Babe’s golf exploits in a moment, but to discuss this amazing lady without first mentioning her world-class athletic background would be a great injustice. This Texan is considered by most experts to be the single greatest female athlete of all time—she won 2 golds and one silver in the 1932 L.A. Olympic Games. The gold medals came in the 80 meter hurdles and the javelin throw the silver was in the high jump.This showed her amazing athletic versatility.
Then came her AAU basketball career, her outstanding abilities in bowling, roller skating, softball, baseball, diving, pocket billiards and for extra measure she was renown for her sewing—making all of her own golf outfits.
When Babe was introduced to golf it was like a walk in the park for her—a natural. She was a founder of the modern ladies golf tour and proceeded to dominate on the links—winning 41 events including all of the majors of the time-10 in total. She won all of the majors in the same year, 1950. She was voted a record 6 times women athlete of the year by the Associated Press. Her career came to a tragic end when cancer struck Babe in the middle 1950’s and she passed away at the age of 45 in 1956. She was an athlete we simply have not seen before or since the great Babe Didrikson Zaharias comes in 4th.
3. Patty Berg—This Minnesota native was a natural golfer from the age of 13. She attended the University of Minnesota following a runner-up finish in the 1935 U.S. Amateur at the age of 17. It was a natural progression for patty to turn professional right after college. She was one of the first women teaching pros having conducted over 16,000 clinics promoting the game she loved to an estimated ½ million golfers. Patty was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1951.
Her golf exploits went into overdrive with the formation of the LPGA Tour that she founded with fellow pros Babe Zaharias and Louise Suggs. Berg went on to win 60 tournaments including 15 majors—a record number of majors that still stands today as the most ever won by a woman. Patty Berg comes in as a solid # 3 on my list.
2. Mickey Wright. This San Diego product had a relatively short professional career starting out at the age of 19, and ending some 15 years later due to foot problems, but those 15 years were so dynamic she vaults into second place.
Mickey won a staggering 82 events including 13 majors during that short span including 4 consecutive years winning at least 10 titles in each year. Along with Kathy Whitworth, they combined to win almost ½ of the events contested during the decade of the 1960’s. The true testimony of her greatness came from none other than the legendary Ben Hogan who said of Wright’s swing that it was simply the greatest swing he had ever seen man or woman! She was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1964. Mickey Wright #2.
“Bob’s top 10 women golfers of all time” list continues with three more amazing LPGA golfers.
7. Betsy Rawls—One of the true pioneers of the LPGA Tour, joining the fledgling group in 1951, it became apparent that this young South Carolinian could more than hold her own against the stiffest competition. Rawls won a total of 55 tour titles, including 8 majors. Her victories spanned 22 years from 1951 through 1972 inclusive—a remarkable achievement of longevity. The Hall of Fame arrived for Betsy in 1960. Today, at the age of 85, she is still seen at golf events throughout America—a treasure of ladies golf – the great Betsy Rawls comes in at #7.
6. Louise Suggs—Another true LPGA Pioneer—one of the three original founders of the ladies tour Louise Suggs smashed the competition—by winning 61 titles and 11 major championships in her illustrious career. As she approaches her 90th birthday, like Betsy Rawls, Louise tries to attend important golf events whenever possible. Her marks in the golf world were dramatically written on the course, but the fact that she, Patty Berg and Babe Zaharias founded the Tour as we know it today will be her lasting legacy to the game—World Golf Hall of Famer Louise Suggs is our 6th all time greatest female golfer of all time.
5. Kathy Whitworth comes in 5th and for good reason. The Native of Monahans, Texas was a teenage superstar and it has never ended—she would be higher on our list but Kathy was onl y(we say only tongue in cheek) able to win 6 majors but her total tournaments won on the tour is more than any man or woman ever—88! She started winning on tour in 1962 and didn’t stop until 1985. She won at least one tournament every year from ’62 through ’78 an amazing 17 consecutive years. Kathy was perhaps best acknowledged as a player who could win on any type of course anywhere a true winner—still the all-time tournament winner man or woman—the great Kathy Whitworth #5.
The top ten men golfers of all time was difficult, I think picking the top ten women golfers of all time is even tougher. There are simply so many great women golfers who have achieved so much that separation between them is a task. In evaluating the greatest women golfers of all time, I have sort of divided the outcome into 4 distinct timeframes:
l. The “old timers”—or in better jargon the original women who started the ladies tour.
2. The next group of players who intersected the first group but also transcended into the more modern players.
3. The intermediate group incorporating the transcending group and
4. The modern players.
It just happened that all 4 groups are represented in my top ten women golfers of all time and here they are:
10. Juli Inkster—Juli is the winner of 31 LPGA events, including 7 major titles encompassing the Grand Slam. She was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000 and her incredible career is still ongoing past her 50th birthday. She won 3 consecutive women’s amateur titles and has been the most prolific winner on the American side in Solheim Cup history—a remarkable career still going strong— Juli Inkster#10.
9. Nancy Lopez—Nancy burst – and I do mean burst – on the LPGA Tour in 1978, winning a record 9 titles in her rookie campaign, including five tournaments in a row at one point in that season and the prestigious LPGA Championship—one of her three major wins. Lopez’s dominance of the tour continued for a decade and a half in tournaments won and player of the year honors galore.
Although she failed to win the U.S. Open—4 second place finishes still embellish her resume. Hall of Fame election was an automatic in 1987. Nancy is considered by many to be the Arnold Palmer of ladies golf as she loved the galleries and they in turn adored her right back, fan favorite—Nancy Lopez #9.
8. Karrie Webb—One of two non-Americans to crack my top ten is the amazing Karrie Webb from the land down under, Australia. Karrie knew at an early age that she must venture to America to pursue her golfing exploits to their fullest, and she has not disappointed anyone. She has won 39 LPGA events including all of the majors (7 total). Webb became at the time in 2000 the youngest person ever elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame—no doubt the greatest Aussie woman ever to touch a golf club—Karrie Webb #8 all time.
Did you see this coming? Come on, no one could have fully predicted this. Jordan Spieth is the youngest PGA Tour winner since Ralph Guldahl won on tour in 1931. He turns 20 in less than 2 weeks and becomes only the 4th ever teenager to win a PGA Tour event.
Spieth, the Dallas, Texas, native playing on a temporary PGA Tour card, outlasted 9 time PGA Tour winner, 2007 Masters Champion 37-year-old Zach Johnson and 34-year-old Canadian David Hearn to win on the fifth playoff hole at TPC Deer Run in Silvis, Illinois,—thus earning fully exempt status on the Tour for the next two years and a quick trip across the sea to this week’s Open Championship. Spieth admitted in an interview following his victory that he actually had no long sleeve shirts for the trip as Scotland. This time of the year can be cold—I guess he can find the local pro shop for sturdy clothing to accommodate.
What a journey for this young man—we remember him playing as a 16-year-old in the HP Byron Nelson Classic 3 years ago and bolting after the Saturday round to attend his high school prom. Could he be the next coming of Tiger? That’s what my wife asked me, and I said probably not, that’s just too much to expect of anyone, but I can hardly wait to see what is next on his agenda. I do not expect miracles this week but with Oak Hill (site of this year’s PGA) on the horizon, and a potential slot on the President’s Cup squad, who knows.
No question the talent is there, putting it all together is always another factor that completes the golfer—he joins a group of first time winners on tour that makes a golf enthusiast salivate with expectation as the deep player pool on the PGA Tour just got deeper!
