The hot topic around Atlanta Athletic Club ? alright, the third or fourth hottest topic ? leading up to the PGA Championship has been parity.
It?s here in golf, and while it does wonders for the NFL, it seems to be a double-edged sword for the game. The sporting public loves to follow a winner, not winners, but the majors have offered a roadside diner-sized menu of champions of late. The majors have produced a dozen different champions since Padraig Harrington?s 2008 PGA Championship win at Oakland Hills and there seems little indication that a 13th won?t be crowned come Sunday.
Like German food? We got Martin Kaymer. The stout beer lovers have the law firm of McDowell, McIlroy and Clarke. Enjoy the Southern charm of Lucas ?Grizzly Adams? Glover. Y.E. Yang can probably lift a car he?s so strong.
All types have been winning majors. Young and old. Foreign and domestic ? though mostly foreign, like our car market. A lot of Yugos and few Cadillacs.
Golf looks at itself with obvious blinders, but the favorites for this year?s final major have been rung through a minor inquisition about what all of this parity means for the game and its future. Perhaps not unexpectedly, the reaction has been a positive one ? especially for the Different Dozen.
Rory McIlroy sees the drop off of Tiger Woods as clearing the stage for some other guys to win.
?If [Tiger] does get back to that, get back to the way he played, it gives us less of a chance to win. So sort of a double-edged sword,? he said.
But the Ulsterman says the sport is still looking for a namesake for a new epoch, saying, ?I don?t think it?s quite a new era yet until other guys start to win majors regularly like [Tiger] did.?
Well, that guy is likely to not be an American given that six different foreign-born players have won their first major as the latter half of this unique run for the sport. That?s likely disconcerting for flag-waving American fans, but Kaymer, the defending PGA champion, sees golf as a world without borders.
?I wouldn?t even categorize Americans and international players. I would just say, there are a lot of young players coming through now,? he said, surprised that the oldster Darren Clarke pulled out a major at age 42, breaking a streak of 20-something major winners.
World No. 2 Lee Westwood doesn?t have a major, but may well be the closest thing to a faux-dominator as there is in the sport. Westwood is practically a lock to be a contender at a major, which is more than most can say these days. His view is that no player seems to be taking control over the direction of the sport so, until that happens, the world should suck it up and deal with it.
?I think depending who you are and what your idea is, some people are not going to like it when there?s not somebody that?s dominant and they are not going to like it when it?s unpredictable,? he said. ?So it?s something you can?t control, so what you get is what you get.?
Westwood would gladly take the mantle of being the world?s clear No. 1.?But according to the spreadsheet running the Official World Golf Ranking, the best player right now is Luke Donald. As a friend pointed out to me, Donald is the first player to reach 10 or more average points in the world rankings since Woods in 2010. Phil Mickelson was the last non-Woods to do so in 2008. So, if there?s an expert on domination, it has to be the machine from Northwestern.
?I?m not sure which is better,? Donald said Tuesday.
Well, that?s indecisive.
?I?d probably sway with one person dominating. I think it brings a little bit more focus to the sport,? he added.
Then do it already! Who?s with me? Not Bubba Watson. He likes that practically any player can win any given week.
?With [Tiger being out, it just showed how good some of those players really are. We had the commercial out where ?these guys are good,? and the last guy in the field has a chance to win like the first guy in the field, and I think that?s the thing that?s showing right now,? he said.
So at least the PGA Tour can?t be sued for false advertising, but perhaps the tour is more marketable when they can shout like Ron Burgundy from the mountaintop, ?Hey, everybody! Come see how good I look!?
Maybe that guy is Adam Scott. He?s in his golfing prime now in his 30s, seems to have figured out how to putt with a broomstick, and he dated Ana Ivanovic for a while there, right? That guy is a marketer?s dream. Problem is that when he assessed the state of the game, he didn?t even mention himself in the mix.
?Luke Donald?s played amazing, Lee Westwood is playing amazing, and now we have Tiger healthy again, so this is going to be interesting for everyone to watch, because we are all so interested in what he does and how he plays,? he said.
Come to think of it, pretty much every player mentioned Tiger in their response ? either speaking of an era gone by or one they secretly and perhaps masochistically want to return. That doesn?t seem in the cards now, so maybe one of the other guys in the room might care to step up to the plate and put on the boss pants.
If they?re going to do it this week, though, they may want to consider a light color because it?s pretty darn hot.
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