Vijay & Hall of Fame

Who'd vote for Vijay to be inducted in the Golf Hall of Fame in 2005? I rekon he's a dead certainty.

This years list includes: Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Larry Nelson, MONTY , Curtis Strange ... Sandy Lyle, Woosie,

Have a look at the list for yourself: http://www.wgv.com/hof/2005_ballots_released.html

I hope Monty gets a passing vote. He's done enough, even though he's not won a major yet. Curtis Strange was the first golfer to make $1-million in a year, one of only 2 players who win back-to-back US Opens ... another guy who should get it.

Not too sure of the others though ... I don't think they've done enough.

__________________
Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

Good to see big Lyle getting a nomination. Whatever Faldo did Sandy did it first without all the moaning and with a lot more style. If only he had been gifted with the desire as well as the ability......

I think the best story I ever heard about Lyle was one that Monty told someone once. About 10 maybe 15 years ago, the European tour was still in the process of trying to build the Volvo Masters into their flagship event and had trotted out the first half dozen winners of the fledgling tourney to a special kind of press conference thing. Luckily for the tour the list was a bit of a who's who at the time

Seve
Faldo
Woosie
Olazabal
Monty
Ronan Rafferty (remember him?)
Langer
Sandy

Monty was sitting next to Seve and asked him a question: If the players sitting there all went out and played as well as they possibly could, who would win?

Seve apparently though for a few moments before answering:

Sandy.......by five....

Now as we all no Seve is not known for his modesty about his game so that is a strong endorsment of one of the most astoundingly talented golfers these islands has ever produced.

I remember another story about Sandy that I heard once (I stress these may not be 100% factual but I beleive them).

At the US Open (I think it was the second one that Janzen won 98 I think) there was a par five near the end of the round that the media had been saying was 'unreachable' in two, no doubt as a spur to Tiger and John Daly to have a lash and further their own hype (which always sells papers). So, final practice day big John has a lash with the driver and then a swipe with a wood and ends up in the front greenside bunker. A few hours later Tiger does pretty much the same except he ends up in the front greenside rough. So the US press are whooping it up saying just what gods of the modern game these guys are for how far they hit the ball. What NO-ONE mentioned was that earlier in the morning big Sandy had knocked it THROUGH the green in two with....wait for it. A driver and a 1-IRON!!!!!

Come on big man, show willing for the seniors tour and stir some of this long time fans memories......you're still the best I have ever seen......

D.

I'n not sure how you couldn't vote Vijay in when his day comes. Just for the fact that he knocked Tiger off the podium should be reason enough. Add in a few career majors, 9 tour victories in one year and I think you have a sure thing....

That's what the Presidents Cup is for.

Of course not in Europe - you're not involved!

Vijay should be in the hall of fame. Good on you Vijay for making No1.

Personally, I dont think any golfer should make the hall of fame whilst they are still active on the tour. There should be an age limit of 60. Either that or I can see Tiger getting his before he's 40 and thats just stupid.....

Can anyone tell me what Tome Kite did that was worthy of entry??? Or Ben Crenshaw??? I dont recall either of them doing anything great for the game at all. Three majors between them, big deal, thats the same as Lyle and Woosnam.

I had a look and heres the criteria

At least 40 years old
Member 10 years
<LI>10 TOUR wins, or 2 wins among Masters, U.S. Open,
British Open, PGA Championship, and THE PLAYERS Championship Champions Tour member five years
20 wins between TOUR, Champions Tour, or
5 wins among above listed, plus U.S. Senior Open, JELD-WEN Tradition, PGA Seniors' Championship, FORD SENIOR PLAYERS Championship
Require votes on 65 percent of ballots returned
Ok thats the criteria for PGA Tour players (ie Americans) as far as I can tell that covers pretty much all the bases to induct anyone they like who gets the votes.


Now for rest of the world:

• Requires votes on 65 percent of ballots returned
• At least 40 years old
• Male not fully qualified for PGA TOUR ballot
• Female not eligible through LPGA Hall of Fame
• Minimum 50 points from WGHOF schedule: 6 pts. - Major victories (men / women) 4 pts. - PLAYERS Championship / other U.S. LPGA win, Women's British Open 3 pts. - PGA TOUR, PGA European Tour win 2 pts. - Japanese, South African, Australasian, Champions Tour win / Women's Japanese, European win 1 pts. - Other National Championship win; Ryder Cup, President's Cup / Solheim Cup participation

Now to me, thats a heck of a lot more stringent. They have basically loaded PGA Tour wins almost two times better than a European Tour Win and an American winning a Major gets 25 points and a European gets 6!!!!!

So its basically the PGA Tour Hall of fame with a few guys the Americans know off the TV.

It suddenly all became clear to me when I noticed it was $15 dollars to get into the place.

Can anyone see a justification for not having Peter Allis in the Hall? The voice of golf around the world for 20 years and a fine player to boot who won a lot of tournaments and held Arnold Palmer to a draw twice at the Ryder Cup when Palmer was close to the height of his powers.

Its all a sham, more commercially driven nonsense from the PGA Tour. I for one am quite glad I will never be near the place to be tempted to part with the cash to go and see something that golf fans should be able to see for free.

D.

That means any European making the hall of fame really deserves it.

A Hall of Fame should be for absolute legends, you know like the GREATS of an era. It now seems that to get into the Hall of Fame is either you have to an American who some point in time won a few tournaments and/or a major and get old.

I'm very disappointed at the Hall of Fame. I went some years ago when it just opened and the only guys in there were real legends, like Jack, Arnold, Sam Snead, Gary Player, Seve ... the greats, you know it brought tears to my eyes.

Now when I see that Tom Kite, Larry Nelson etc. etc. it seems like the HOF seem they HAVE to add people every year and they're reaching the very bottom of the list. "The legends are all on, we've got some of the greats, now who else can we add?" seems to be their thinking.

Why not JM Olazabal then? 2 Majors, world top 10ner for many years, Ryder Cup star, comeback from career-ending injuries ... victories on PGA and Euro tour ... he is M-I-L-E-S better than someone like Lanny Wadkins or Larry Nelson.

No way should a guy like Tom Kite or Ben Crenshaw be included. They're not LEGENDS ... which is what I think the HOF should be about. Legends.

__________________
Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

I do agree with what you are saying. If someone has really made a difference to the sport, Like tiger who has set the new standard, and has made the rest of the field play overtime to catch him.

I think I know who's who in Golf from the mid 80's onwards when I started watching the game. When you look at the list and have to think either "who's that?" or "what did they do?" then there's no way on earth they should be included in a Hall of Fame because they're just not famous enough!

I can see how in a sport like baseball or american football, with anywhere between 20 and 50 players per team and 25+ teams in the league, you would start inducting a ton of guys into the HOF - outstanding players at their positions, or guys who absolutely carried teams.

But I've gotta go with the rest of the boards here and say that the golf HOF should actually be very, very small.

And explain to me why the HOF is in the USA? The HOF should be in the birth place of golf.

I think the answer to that is simple. Money. Us Americans dump a lot of money into the sport of golf both to televise it as well as to sponsor it. Europe or Scotland more specificly I believe, might be the birth place of golf, but to the a lot of the world the U.S. is the home of golf, just for the fact of the PGA Tour being an American event so to speak. Is it right or fair, no. But, that is the way it is, or at least thats my two cents.

Travis

I'm not so sure about that. Let's use another sport for example - hockey. The NHL consists of 30 teams, only 6 of them are in Canada, the other 24 are in the USA. The USA also has the bigger TV contracts and are even the owners of some of the teams that are in Canada. Yet, the birthplace of hockey is in Canada and that is where the hockey HOF resides.

I'm not sure on this, but is it a 'first come, first serve' basis on who get's the HOFs? Could it be that an American said, "Hey, there's no HOF for golf, I think I'll start the first." Or is there some sort of rules set out for this? Can there be more than one HOF?

__________________
Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall