This Ain't Your Dad's Country Club No More

Yesterday Jason Sobel, ESPN Golf columnist and blogger, offered this article about the PGA Tour's lack of rivalry and gives these reasons as to why:

"Chalk this up to three reasons: Deeper fields, in which seemingly every player has a chance to contend on any given week; very few match play tournaments on the annual schedule, relegating the number of head-to-head instances; and gentlemanly players, many of whom would rather call a penalty against themselves than cause a mini-firestorm by pointing out the faux pas of a playing partner."

For the most part I would agree, especially as it concerns the deeper fields. As a club pro I annually help setup, officiate and score a Club Championship. If you've ever belonged to a Country Club or worked for one you know that year in and year out there is a favorite to win both the men's and ladie's championships and one, maybe two, threats to the throne. This is regardless of stroke or match play as the format. The PGA Tour used to be this way. There was plenty of talent, but two or three guys that were head and shoulders above the rest when it counted. The great triumvirates of Nicklaus, Palmer, Player or Nicklaus, Watson, Trevino are gone. With the strengthening of junior instructional programs and opportunities to compete at younger ages the amount of world class talent has increased and turned triumvirates into thirty-somethings. It's like taking an entire professional sports league and trying to justify all the teams as equal rivals.
It doesn't bother me in the least that the most entertaining major championship of my lifetime was the 2000 PGA. It makes no difference to me that it was Bob May that pushed Tiger to a playoff that year. The reason being that both players made shot after shot, birdie after birdie and scripted a major championship Sunday for the ages. It's the quality of the golf that makes the difference, not who's name is attached to it. That this year's PGA was so disappointing is not because Y.E. Yang eventually out-dueled Tiger, it's that they never really dueled. Tiger played such lackluster golf on Sunday that Yang couldn't help but win. They didn't push each other to greatness. The point is that the elite are in greater abundance and as such may only get a chance or two at a major in a career, and maybe never a chance to square off with Tiger, where the real rivalry claims can be made.
That the cup runneth over with talent is not a problem for professional golf, at least it shouldn't be. If anything it's a testament to just how good the game really is these days.