Reflections on international golf

By The Albatross

As the year closes on the playing calendar for international golf, there are lessons learnt that are crucial to the development of golf on the local scene but before we delve into that, let’s look at what the year brought to the game of golf.

In a very unusual turn of events both the world number one golfer and the second ranked are Europeans and not Americans.

The world number one golfer is Englishman Luke Donald who has now held that position for 32 consecutive weeks surpassing the run of 26 consecutive weeks of Vijay Singh when he briefly dethroned Tiger Woods between September 2004 and March 2005. The operative word here is ‘consecutive’.

The second ranked golfer in the world is another Englishman, Lee Westwood, who is followed in third position by the young rising star in the shape of Northern Irishman, Rory McIlroy.

The fourth position is held by a German, Martin Kaymer. Of these four only McIlroy has not tasted the top ranking over the last eighteen months but if he continues in the form he closed the year in, it is only a matter of time, and the form that Tiger Woods brings back into the game, before he climbs to the top.

There are no Americans in the top five positions in the world rankings and there are only three of them in the top ten. This contrasts sharply with the pre-hydrant Tiger Woods era when most of the top ten positions were held by Americans.

This is a significant development as it is also a reflection of a truly changed scenario.

Most of the rising stars in golf are from Europe and Asia.

Why are they not from Africa? And more specifically, why are some of them not from Kenya? We have simply not invested enough in golf.

In sharp contrast to the rest of the continent, South Africa has made huge investments in the cultivation of golf talent and has slowly started reaping fruits from their enviable investment running over the last two decades. And this is not investment by the public sector; rather, it is all from the private sector; led by Ernie Els.

The final listing of the rankings, in the year, is very important to the Touring Golf Professionals. A ranking outside the top 50 means there is no certainty that the golfer will be eligible for invitation to the first major of the New Year, The Masters, which will be played April 6-8 in 2012. And as winning a major, or as many of them as is possible, is the dream every golfer on Tour, not making it to the invitation list is a major setback.

The Masters, played at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, is the first of the four majors that is played in April followed by the US Open in June, The British Open in July or August and PGA Championship in September.

The Masters has the smallest field out of the four majors with the organizers normally gunning for about 90 players, adjusted only by the number of past champions who may want to participate. Past Masters Champions are eligible to play in The Masters for life; while all others are subject to qualification first, and then to a specific invitation. The organisers retain that invitation trump card to retain control of the exclusivity of The Masters.

Tiger Woods has dominated international golf for so long now that it is almost impossible to write a story of substance on golf, at the very top, without the story turning into a treatise on Tiger Woods. And that is not necessarily a bad thing in itself. It is recognition of the facts as they have been.

Ever since the events of that Thanksgiving day in November 2009 and the one car accident involving a hydrant, when his world was turned inside out by issues other than golfing matters, Tiger Woods virtually went out of golf, so to speak.

His swing changed under Sean Foley after he fired his previous swing coach Hank Haney, coupled with recurring bodily pain from past injuries and operations, coupled with the effects of his long and rigorous training regime; all combined to ensure his minimal participation in golfing events.

Once or twice he tried some comebacks which quickly misfired and drove him out of circulation in the competitive scene.

Thus the longest reigning number one golfer: one, who held that ranking in the world for a total of 623 weeks, was sidelined for over two years.

The only other professional golfer to come anywhere close to this staggering number of weeks at the top is Greg Norman whose reign at the top was a total 331 weeks. After Tiger Woods, Greg Norman is the second player to have held the number ranking for the highest number of consecutive weeks.

Norman held the ranking for 96 consecutive weeks between 1995 and 2004. That was, of course, before Tiger Woods turned professional in August 1996.

It is worth noting that no other golfer has been at the top of the rankings for a period of 100 weeks: except Woods and Norman.

In its 24-year history, only 15 golfers have held the top ranking. The shortest reign was one week by Tom Lehman and the longest reign from the African continent was by Nick Price of Zimbabwe which lasted 44 weeks.

Africa has also been represented at the pinnacle by Ernie Els of South Africa who held the position for nine weeks.

He is currently ranked 56 and has to work hard to get an invitation to The Masters in 2012. One way he could achieve that is ensuring he is ranked 50 or lower in the week preceding The Masters.

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