Game's increasing global reach leading to more parity on TOUR
By Craig Dolch, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
The NFL isn't the only professional league with a corner on the "Any Given Sunday" line.
The PGA TOUR is coming off a 2010 parity-filled season that would have made former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle proud.
Trying to pick a winner of a PGA TOUR event is almost as difficult as winning one. I should know -- I was correct once all last year with my pre-tournament selections (Dustin Johnson winning at Pebble Beach).
But so it went last year in golf when the most predictable thing that happened was Phil Mickelson winning the Masters for the third time. The rest of the majors, meantime, were won by three talented but unheralded non-Americans (Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Martin Kaymer) and the FedExCup was captured by three-time winner Jim Furyk.
Furyk, in fact, was the only player to win three TOUR events last year, helping him earn Player of the Year honors for the first time at 40. Had he not been victorious in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, there would have been seven players tied for the most wins with two -- Furyk, Ernie Els, Johnson, Steve Stricker, Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan and Bill Haas.
You have to go back a generation, to 1991, to find the last time that happened on the PGA TOUR, when eight players won twice for the most wins: Ian Woosnam, Corey Pavin, Billy Andrade, Tom Purtzer, Mark Brooks, Nick Price, Fred Couples and Andrew Magee.
As it is, Furyk's three victories was the least by a player to lead the PGA TOUR since 1995 when Greg Norman and -- you won't get this one -- Lee Janzen each won thrice.
Get used to this.
Parity has come to the PGA TOUR and, like a slicing drive into the water, it's not going to disappear quickly.
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Part of the reason, obviously, is Tiger Woods' struggles. From 1999 to 2009, he led the TOUR in wins every year but once, when Vijay Singh won nine times in 2004. In those other nine years, Woods averaged 6.33 titles a year, never winning less than four times.
With Woods going winless last year for the first time since he turned professional in 1996, that opened the door for lots of other players to break through. And with Woods in the midst of his third major swing change, as well as adjusting to his new personal life, it may take a while before he becomes a dominant force again.
But the PGA TOUR's parity is not just tied into Woods' situation. In the last decade, we have seen the golf world become smaller because almost all of the globe's top players are spending most of their time on U.S. soil; it was inevitable more of the best players were going to win less titles.
It's entirely possible we may be entering a stretch from 1981 to 1994, when no player on the PGA TOUR won more than four times in a season. And this was a group that included 28 different players, so a lot of guys took their turns at the top.
It's just as plausible that the first player to win three times this year may join Woods, Singh and Furyk as FedExCup champs, especially if one of those wins comes during the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
Just getting a tee time on the PGA TOUR isn't easy these days. Hall of Famer Nick Price and 13-time TOUR winner Mark Calcavecchia are taking their one-time exemptions for being in the top 25 on the career money list, so they will get some playing opportunities beyond the Champions Tour. It says plenty that Will MacKenzie, who has won twice since late 2006, will get only about a dozen starts out of the "past champions" category after he failed to finish in the top 150 last year.
The FedExCup has achieved its purpose of getting the best players to compete against each other more often, especially later in the year, when there is strong TV ratings competition from the NFL and college football.
Unless Woods resurrects his game, don't be surprised at all if the FedExCup -- as was the case last year -- isn't decided until the final hole. Parity has come to the PGA TOUR and it figures to be around for quite a while.
Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.
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