World Golf HOF Induction Highlights
by Ryan Ballengee on Nov 3, 2009 11:06 AM EST
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PrintBy all accounts, the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony last evening was one of the best to date, if not the best. Rich Lerner emceed the night and was given high marks for the job that he did.
Gary Van Sickle at SI gave a great bullet point account of the highlights in written form. ASAP Sports has the full transcript of the evening.
PGATour.com has some video highlights of the night, too. My favorite was the induction of Jose Maria Olazabal. A pretty quiet man got really emotional about what this meant for him and the people that helped him get there. His speech is a perfect example of how powerful the World Golf Hall of Fame can be.
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That Greg Norman got the highest percentage of votes ever for WGHOF says a lot about the Hall.
Given Norman’s propensity to gag away majors (and other tourneys too) I wonder how many majors one Edlrick “Tiger” Woods would have had if he had played in Norman’s era. I suspect the number would be about 23-25 already at 33.
Anyhow, while I always enjoy the WGHOF, I think they need to have a far more stringent admission process lest they be seen as the Hall of Very Good down the road.
I tend to agree, but golf is in a really weird position having some five hundred years of history before opening the hall of fame.
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by Ryan Ballengee on Nov 3, 2009 11:29 AM EST up reply actions
Maybe I missed her bronze plaque, but I didn’t see Mary Turner (Mary Queen of Scots) there. In fact, I always come away thinking that the WGHOF gives short shrift to the ancient game and even the game in the early 20th century. While they have an extensive collection and display of Bobby Jones, you actually have to look for Walter Hagen’s stuff, and his locker room display is very thin indeed. Perhaps the HOF couldn’t get a lot of The Hage’s memoribilia, but honestly, with all due respect to Tom Kite, Walter Hagen’s effect on golf is probably about 100 times what Kite did, though you will not really come away with that impression after spending an afternoon down there.
by Charles Boyer on Nov 3, 2009 11:44 AM EST up reply actions
How about that – we found a job for Van Sickle – stenographer ! :-D
Greg Norman lost a few majors – and he had a few stolen by miraculous shots – but he was also ranked #1 in the world for more consecutive weeks than anybody before Tiger. It’s not like he was just hacking it around out there.
OMP – I’m missing your point on putting Tiger back into Norman’s era. Just because Norman didn’t win a boatload of majors, you think Tiger would have 10-15 more than he has now ? Ridiculous.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Greg Norman also only won two majors.
That ties him with Alex Smith and puts him at one less than James Anderson and Bob Ferguson.
He has 20 PGA Tour wins. Not 60, not even 40. 20.
So what if he was ranked #1 for as long as he was. That means he had less competition than other players in other eras. I seriously doubt that had Norman been around in the 60’s he sniffs #1. For that matter this decade. Or the 50’s. Or the 40’s. Or the 20’s or 30’s. There were too many far more legit great players in that era and the only reason Greg Norman stands tall is that he had very little consistent competition in his time in the #1 slot.
by Charles Boyer on Nov 3, 2009 12:53 PM EST up reply actions
Norman is an underachiever and a choke artist, but a no-brainer inductee based on the fact that he was the best player in the world for a very long period of time. His global appeal is also undeniable. Much like the HoF for other sports, the percentage of votes you receive has as much to do with the class around you as your performance in your era.
Lanny Wadkins is another perfect example of why the Golf HoF is the “Hall of Very Good” as has been discussed a million times on these boards.
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