Golf Storylines in last Decade---Part II

golfsetbase.com / 12-01

 

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5. Annika Sorenstam, Michelle Wie and Suzy Whaley. Only a few years earlier, in 1999, Brandi Chastain, Mia Hamm and the rest of the U.S. women's soccer team provided one of the stories of that decade by winning the World Cup. That propelled women's sports to a level of attention never previously achieved. In 2003, Sorenstam took the proverbial torch and crashed the gender barrier, becoming the first woman to play in a TOUR event in 54 years when she got a sponsor's exemption into the Bank of America Colonial, where she opened with a 1-over 71 while leading the field in fairways hit and ranking in the top 20 in greens in regulation before eventually missing the cut. Later that summer club pro Suzy Whaley took it a step further by qualifying for the Greater Hartford Open by winning the Connecticut Section PGA Championship. By the time a then 14-year-old Michelle Wie was given a sponsor's exemption into the 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii, a woman playing in a TOUR event wasn't exactly news, but that didn't stop her from making headlines, too -- Wie's second-round 68 was the lowest ever score by a woman in a TOUR event. Wie would go on to play in seven more TOUR events, missing the cut or withdrawing in all of them.

 

6. Equipment revolutions. There were four major developments in the equipment world over the last decade -- almost all in a restrictive sense. Two of the larger ones were the advent of the multi-layer golf ball -- spearheaded by Titleist's Pro V1 -- and the steroid-like growth of clubhead size on drivers and the thinness, or moment of inertia, of their faces -- something that would come under serious scrutiny and ultimately be limited by the USGA. The other two involve hybrids and wedges. Long gone are the days of 1- and 2-irons, even for the likes of Tiger Woods. All you have to do is look at the major championship successes of Todd Hamilton and Y.E. Yang, among others, to see why. As for the recent rollback on grooves for wedges, something that will go into effect at the beginning of 2010, we won't really know the impact until next decade.

 

7. Phil Mickelson breaks through for first major victory. You could have barely slid a piece of paper under Phil Mickelson's feet when he jumped in celebration following his 2004 Masters victory. That's neither here nor there, though, for arguably the second-best player of the last decade -- or most entertaining, anyway. Once that first major was out of the way, it didn't take too long for Mickelson to get a second (or third), which came at the 2005 PGA Championship and the 2006 Masters. In all, Mickelson won 24 times between 2000 and 2009. He's proved to be a modern-day Arnold Palmer, adored by the fans, with Tiger Woods playing the role of Jack Nicklaus.

 

8. The creation of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. In the past, golf collided with football and guess who won? That all changed with the announcement of the Playoffs in November 2006. Tiger Woods won the inaugural title a year later with two wins a tie for second in three Playoffs starts. Vijay Singh was next to capture the FedExCup before Woods won again in 2009. Changes were made to the points system each of the first two years, but the system itself was a major step forward in drawing attention to golf after the PGA Championship, something that wasn't always easy in the past.

 

9. Arnie, Jack and Annika say goodbye. Though at different stages of their lives and careers, these three shared one thing in common over the last decade (other than one-name only recognition). They all officially hung up their competitive spikes; Palmer as more of a ceremonial figure and Nicklaus approaching that status with Sorenstam, meanwhile, nearing the downward peak of her career. Palmer and Nicklaus will, of course, be forever linked. Though their careers didn't entirely rival one another's -- at one point, it was more of Arnie passing the torch to Jack -- few will forget their waves to the adoring masses at places like Augusta National and St. Andrews. Though there was no rival to Sorenstam, her accomplishments deserve more than mere mention with 72 LPGA victories -- an amazing 43 of which came in 114 starts between 2001 and 2005 -- that includes 10 major championships.

 

10. Golf in the Olympics. We don't yet know the impact of golf truly going global with the decision to include it in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, but it certainly can't be a bad thing, no matter the format. Exposing the game to golf-starved nations of the world is ultimately only going to make the sport better. And if all goes well, that impact could be exponential.

 

Tiger Woods Made Himself Clear

Golf Storylines in last Decade---Part I

 

 

 

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