Is golf better with true parity than with several superstars?
The 2017 U.S. Open was golf’s first major championship in 23 years without Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Tiger, at 41 trying to come back from various physical and emotional setbacks, has not been competitive for a few years now. He is stuck on 14 majors since winning the 2008 U.S. Open. Mickelson turned 47 over the weekend and still lacks a U.S. Open to achieve the so-called career slam.
Those are story lines we’ve come to care about. A former Florida State golfer named Brooks Koepka became the seventh straight first-time winner in major championships, following Sergio Garcia, Jimmy Walker, Henrik Stenson, Dustin Johnson, Danny Willett and Jason Day – the most first-timers in a row since there were nine starting with the 2010 U.S. Open. So is golf more exciting this way?
For a sport that has been in crisis mode for years everywhere beneath the PGA tour, this is probably not the best thing. Woods’ emergence as a super star sent golf skyrocketing in popularity and continued the craze to build more courses and golf communities across the country. Now, there are too many places to play and not enough golfers, because over the last 10 years golf has become too hard, too expensive and too time-consuming for beginners.
Will a new champion in every major tournament do anything to change that? Probably not. It was fun to see Sergio Garcia finally win a major at the Masters. Sergio was a sentimental favorite for his failure to do so. His break-through was great one-time theater. Now, it seems, only the golf fiends still watch every tournament on weekends and keep the cable box tuned to the Golf Channel.
Koepka finished 16 under par to set a record for low score against par at the U.S. Open. He is a nice-looking young man who hits the ball a mile. On Saturday, someone wearing pink pants named Justin Thomas matched one of the most famous scores in golf history, the 63 shot by now commentator Johnny Miller at Oakmont. Will Thomas and Erin Hills be remembered in such a way 45 years from now? I doubt it.
Tiger and Phil created the monster of more kids playing. And now there are so many great young players that the names all blend together. For fanatics, it may be exhilarating. For the rest of us, it has turned professional golf into 50 shades of gray.
(Photo: AP)
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