Can you believe that the FedEx Cup
Playoffs begin four weeks from Thursday?
You probably can - you understand time at this point in your life - but the
regular season in golf is almost over. Do we have a legitimate Player of the
Year at this point?
No folks, we do not.
We can pare the list down to six, but the bigger story is that none of those
six is named after a cartoon flake pitchman.
Tiger Woods won Player of the Year in a vote of his peers 10 times. Since 1997,
three guys other than Tiger have won this award. In average years, Woods still
brings home the hardware.
Now he's nowhere on the radar. Amazing what one accident that's never been
fully explained can do. Woods hasn't won all year and truthfully, never
threatened the top of the leaderboard. His best finishes are two fourth-place
ties and they were at majors. His top-fives in majors notwithstanding, Woods
doesn't belong in this race.
Of course, he could get into it very quickly.
Woods has the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on tap in a few weeks and he's only
won that seven times. The PGA Championship is the week after and Woods has
enjoyed small doses of success in major championships.
So who does that leave?
Obviously major champions belong in the conversation, but two won't be a part
of ours. Masters winner Phil Mickelson will be.
U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell stated at the British Open that he would join
the PGA Tour for the remainder of 2010. Even if we took into account his PGA
Tour work as a non-member this year, he tied for sixth at the WGC-CA
Championship and didn't finish inside the top 25 in five other starts in the
U.S.
British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen was amazing in his epic win at St.
Andrews, but he's not a member of the PGA Tour, so you could just as easily
vote for Nicklaus, Palmer, Popeye, me or your uncle Hal.
The other choices are two-time winners this year on tour. That group is Ernie
Els, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Justin Rose.
We are going to bounce Furyk and Stricker. Furyk won twice early in the
season, but missed the cut in two majors and his only top 10 since mid-April
was a tie for 10th at the Memorial.
It's a shame Stricker gets bounced from consideration, but he hurt his shoulder
around the Masters and missed almost two months. That kind of time off hurts
your overall score.
Rose is an interesting case. He's probably the hottest player in golf right
now, with two wins since June, but he wasn't qualified for the Masters or U.S.
Open, so I have a hard time giving Player of the 3/4 Year to a guy whose early
season didn't get him into the first two majors.
Els won back-to-back starts at the CA-Championship and Arnold Palmer
Invitational and has a tie for 18th at Augusta. He should've won his third
U.S. Open and he missed the cut at St. Andrews.
The Big Easy has made it look easy at times in 2010. Els has six top 10s on
tour this year, nine top-25s and is the leader on the FedEx Cup points list.
But this vote goes to Mickelson.
Lefty won a major, so that right there gets him an extra nod. Mickelson, like
Els, had a great chance at the U.S. Open, but Pebble Beach swallowed him up on
Sunday.
Mickelson has missed only one cut on tour this year to Els' three, and Els'
have all come in his last five starts. Els' two wins came before the calendar
turned to April, but he does have a strong case.
Just not as strong as Mickelson's.
On top of the Masters win, Mickelson was the runner-up at Quail Hollow, and
top five in both the U.S. Open and Memorial. But when it comes down to it, the
difference is that major title.
Professional golf is defined by major championships, and always has been. A
Masters victory is just as good as two very quality PGA Tour victories. With
records being equal, a major is worth two tour wins and that's why the Player
of the 3/4 Year is Phil Mickelson.
Subject to change in the next four weeks.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
- In case you were wondering, and you probably weren't, the reason for my
column this week is that I'm on vacation next week.
- Cell phones will be allowed at the Wyndham Championship, as long as they are
on silent. This won't go well.
- As I tweeted earlier in the week, Corey Pavin is meeting with Tiger at the
PGA Championship about his interest in the Ryder Cup. My statement if I was
Pavin would be this, "Love to have ya, bro, but if not, oh well." It's proven
the Americans can win without him and if he doesn't want to be here, the
message should be get yourself together and we'll see you in 2012. I've always
believed that it's foolish to think a team would be better without Woods, but
no sense in him coming to Wales without the right attitude.
- Movie moment - Caught a movie called "The Invention of Lying." It's written,
directed by and starring Ricky Gervais, who I would laugh at even if he was
reading my obituary, but this didn't work. It's a new classification of movie
we'll call, "Great concept, flawed execution."
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