Normally, therefore, one is inclined to ignore the early stirrings of the West Coast Swing, the East Coast Swing, the drive-and-wedge Grapefruit circuit, and wait for The Masters, when the real show begins and even our winter beats a retreat. But this year, after barely a month of the US Tour’s endless, purse-jingling schedule, we have to take notice that a season of rare vintage and quality is upon us.
The top four players in the world, Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson, in order of precedence, are all in superb form, clearly ready for a battle for supremacy that could take the game to new heights. Furthermore, a significant contingent of Europeans has joined the Americans’ party, determined not to be outscored.
Historically, it is unusual, but always welcome, for a pre-eminent group, rather than an individual, to dominate the Tour. Around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the famed triumvirate of Harry Vardon, J H Taylor and James Braid passed around The Open championship Claret Jug as if at a private dinner. In the 1920s Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones stood apart. Twenty years later, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson could hardly be separated as the best of all; and after a further 20 years, the Big Three slugged it out: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. In 1962 they shared the four majors. Palmer won The Masters and The Open; Nicklaus took the US Open; Player the US PGA championship.
It happens, then, about once a generation, and here we are: Singh, who won nine tournaments last year to become No 1, has already won this term, in Hawaii. Woods has also won and can reclaim the No 1 spot if he triumphs in the Nissan Open in California today. Els is winding up slowly, as usual, but has two top-five finishes out of three PGA Tour starts. And most impressively, Mickelson has won two consecutive tournaments, equalled one course record with a 60, broken another with a 62 and has already banked more than $2m in prize-money. Mickelson’s transformation from mercurial underachiever to champion has been meteoric. In 2003 he endured his worst season, with a best finish of third. In 2004 he won his first Major, The Masters, and finished second in the US Open, third in The Open and tied sixth in the US PGA. His only significant failure was in the Ryder Cup, shortly after changing his brand of clubs.
When Mickelson was asked this month whether he was playing as well or better than at any other time in his career, his answer was immediate and emphatic: “Yes.”
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That affirmation was made soon after he had won the FBR Open at Scottsdale, Arizona. Nine years earlier, Mickelson had won the same event and earned $234,000. This time the winner’s cheque was $936,000. The difference is due to Woods. “Every time I see Tiger, I thank him, because it started in 1996 when he turned pro,” Mickelson said. “We have increased interest in television and in corporate America because golf is reaching outside the golf world. Because of him, things have really taken off.”
Woods did not merely change the professional game financially. He revolutionised its possibilities. For a period of two years at the turn of the century, during which he won five out of six consecutive major championships, he realised and sustained a type of game and a level of scoring that had hardly been imagined, let alone executed.
The effect on the rest, including Singh, Els and Mickelson, was stultifying. They were lost in wonder and intimidated. Curiously, one of the chief victims of Woods’s overwhelming superiority was Woods himself. As a champion, he lacked a worthy challenger, somebody who might push him higher, high enough to be the best ever.
But like almost every other golfer — the most obvious exception being Nicklaus — Woods then suffered a prolonged slump in form. He has not won a major since the US Open in 2002, and last year he managed only one top-10 finish in the majors, tying for ninth place at The Open.
Again, the effect has been paradoxical. While Woods struggled and decided to remodel his swing, his opponents have prospered. Singh, Els and Mickelson have found their best and touched the level that Woods established in winning eight majors. Now, with three worthy adversaries to tackle, Woods can be the beneficiary. For what makes the coming season so enticing is the prospect that Woods will not just find his form again but be driven to exceed it, fulfilling his mission to surpass Nicklaus ’s record of 18 majors, as well as his status as the greatest the world has seen. Woods will further benefit from the venues this year. Augusta National, where his errant driving is mostly forgiven, will always suit him. He can handle Pinehurst No 2, the US Open course this year, for he tied for third there in the same event in 1999, behind Payne Stewart and Mickelson. The Open is at St Andrews, where Woods won in 2000 by eight strokes.
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The European challenge, in the majors and on the US Tour, may be a side dish to the main course provided by Woods and his immediate challengers, especially in a year with no Ryder Cup competition, but it promises to be of more consequence than for many years.
Some of the best young British players have joined more established European golfers on the world’s premier tour. Brian Davis, who led the Nissan Open after the first round, epitomises a new approach. After a heartening year on and off the course (his wife gave birth to a son) Davis sacrificed his winter holidays to submit himself to the terrors of the PGA Tour qualifying school. He won the event to secure his card for the year. Greg Owen and Phillip Price followed suit. Owen has already made his mark with third place at Pebble Beach. For that he earned $360,400, more than his winnings from 15 tournaments on the European Tour last year.
Those three qualifiers have been joined by members of the European Ryder Cup team, who have all been given honorary exemptions by the PGA. Luke Donald, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey can be expected to make the quickest impact, and of those, Donald is probably the one most likely to win a major.
Donald has excelled during his short time as a professional. He won a tournament in his first year on the PGA Tour and won twice in Europe last year. After four years at Northwestern University he is used to the fast and firm conditions that prevail in America. Two facts here are relevant and connected: no European has won a major since Paul Lawrie in 1999; and three of the four majors each year are played in the United States.
The conclusion must be that the best schooling for the winning of majors is the US Tour. Four of Europe’s proven stars, Darren Clarke, Sergio Garcia, Bernhard Langer and Jose Maria Olazabal, have also decided to focus their seasons on America. The fields for most of the significant events will, therefore, contain a dozen or more Europeans.
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European victories in US Tour events are therefore more than likely, but what about the majors? Unfortunately, if it is true that Woods is getting back to his scintillating best and that Singh, Els and Mickelson are capable now of pushing if not matching him, precious few opportunities will be available.