Martin Vousden. Gloves off for the New Year

Thought for the Day
A day without sunshine is like night

Oh dear, how sad, never mind
Looking back over 2010 and seeing the problems afflicting golf and golfers in the USA, it’s tempting to feel sorry for them but this is a temptation I will resist, in the same way I will resist expressing any sympathy for Australia’s cricketers – and for the same reasons.

And be under no illusion, golf in America, if not in crisis, is certainly heading that way. Its two biggest stars and crowd pleasers on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are, for very different reasons, way off their games; too many of its Tour events are being won by golfers from this side of the pond; the Fed Ex Playoffs remain an incomprehensible shambles, they don’t have the Ryder Cup, they no longer have the coveted world number one slot and in fact only four of the world’s top-10 (and 17 of the world’s top-50) are from the land of the stars and stripes. And if all that were not enough, in the last decade there have been only two seasons in which American players did not win at least two majors but those seasons have come in the last three years (in 2008 the roll-call of winners was Trevor Immelman, Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington twice, while in the year just gone it was Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Martin Kaymer).

o

So while I hope to resist the temptation to gloat, I will not be sending any Get Well Soon cards, and this is for three reasons. First, like the Australians at cricket, Americans are good winners but poor losers. Because they have dominated the world arena of golf for so long they have come to accept being the best as the natural order of things and they’re really not too good at witnessing or acknowledging the changing of the guard.

Second, their insularity and protectionism leads to a blinkered view in which they continue to believe, and suggest, that they’re better than the rest and this leads, for example, to them giving the Rookie of the Year award to Rickie Fowler, when Rory McIlroy clearly had a better and more successful season, no matter which criteria you choose (world ranking, top-10s, victories or Ryder Cup points). This isolationism is also evidenced by the fact that the World Golf Championships – which you will recall were designed to be international events, taking the best players to all corners of the globe, have been hijacked by the PGA Tour so that all of them are now played in America. Well, okay, the WGC-HSBC Championship in November takes place in Shanghai but the PGA Tour considers this to be of so little relevance that it doesn’t even mention the tournament in its listings. And of course, without the WGC events the only time American golfers – with one or two notable exceptions – travel outside their own borders is for the Open Championship. Global ambassadors for their sport they are not.

Third are the fans. I am not trying to suggest that all golf watchers on this side of the Atlantic are well-mannered, sophisticated aficionados who politely applaud the quality of the shot, irrespective of who played it, and quietly murmur ‘Jolly good show’. But they do often look good in comparison to some of the hootin’ and hollerin’, boorish, loud and raucous displays we see at some events in the States – remember Colin Montgomerie’s father having to leave the course in disgust because of the appalling abuse his son was getting during the infamous Ryder Cup at Brookline? And of course, there was the completely ludicrous over-reaction when Paul Casey said that when the Ryder Cup comes around he properly hates Americans. I knew exactly what he meant because I feel the same, and if every American team member doesn’t share similar emotions about their European counterparts for the duration of the competition – but only for that period – there’s something wrong. But the young Englishman almost had to leave the country in which he chooses to live because of the level of vilification he received.

The distaff side
But even all of this is relatively minor when compared with the LPGA Tour because it also has a crisis, and it’s one that no-one is prepared to discuss. Simply, the women’s game in America and globally is being dominated by players of Asian origin, and no-one dare talk about it for fear of being labelled racist. It doesn’t help that the two golfers of recent years who have stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries – Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa – have chosen to walk away but what has happened subsequently has made their loss be felt even more keenly. In 2010, out of 26 LPGA tournaments, 18 were won by Asian golfers and only three Americans lifted a trophy – Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr (twice).
In the Rolex world rankings, seven of the top-10 players are of Asian origin, while only two (Cristie Kerr in 2nd and Michelle Wie in 10th) are from the USA. Some years ago Jan Stephenson, an Australian who used to play on the LPGA Tour, was almost forced into hiding, being accused of racism and everything else short of homicide when she said that the proliferation of Korean golfers was killing the Tour. What she meant was that everyone likes to root for golfers from their own country – and that’s not racist it’s human nature. We would feel the same if European Tour events were all being won by Chinese, Japanese, German or Italian golfers. If we were concerned about them winning simply because they were of a different nationality, that would be racist, but to be concerned about the dearth of home grown talent to challenge their hegemony, is not. Yet because of political sensitivity no-one in America dare raise their head above the parapet to even open a discussion on the subject, and when that happens, you have a problem.

So as we embark on a new golfing year, spare a thought for golf in America – but don’t shed too many tears.

Quote of the week
“They say golf is like life, but don’t believe them. Golf is more complicated than that.”
Gardner Dickinson