GOLF IS A sport traditionally played in respectful silence. Recently, however, the game's proud etiquette has been disturbed by a mildly irritating whining sound emanating from a land 3,000 miles west of Caledonia. No, it wasn't mosquitoes or even lawn mowers; it was the sound of once-spoiled Americans moaning and groaning about their perceived lack of representation in the two World Golf Championships played in the last three weeks.
Last month only 17 Americans made the 64-strong field for the Accenture Match Play Championship and this past week no fewer than 52 of
the 80 starters in the CA Championship at Doral hailed from outside the United States.
Changed days indeed for
the most powerful golfing nation on the planet. Actually, "pay-back time" may be a more accurate description of this still fairly new phenomenon. Not so long ago, before the advent of world rankings and WGCs, America ruled the professional game with a self-interested and insular attitude that served only to distort the history of the sport at the very highest level.
Despite those nasty rumours you may have heard about statistics, the numbers don't lie. Until quite recently, even the very best European players were all but completely excluded from three of the four major championships, those – surprise, surprise – played across the pond.
As late as 1980, when Seve Ballesteros went to Augusta National as Open champion and won the first of his two Masters titles, the dashing Spaniard was one of only four Europeans invited to take part – and one of them was an amateur. That same year not one golfer from the old world played four rounds in either the US Open at Baltusrol or the USPGA at Oak Hill. This wasn't because the cream of Europe's golfers played badly; it was just that the vast majority of them didn't play at all.
Things got better, of course. Over the next two decades or so, the likes of Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Jose Maria Olazabal would all win major championships in the United States. At last given the chance to compete against their American counterparts, Europe's best made the most of their opportunities.
But only the very best. Where America's "pretty goods" were allowed annual entry into at least three of the game's four most important championships, the same was far from true for their counterparts in Europe. Take the quartet of Sam Torrance, Ken Brown, Howard Clark and Mark James, by any measure players who would have, had they been born American, routinely teed up in the Masters, US Open and US PGA.
They did not, of course. And again, the numbers are startling and disgraceful. Between them, Torrance, Brown, James and Clark amassed 26 Ryder Cup appearances, yet they could manage only six more starts in the three US majors. More to the point, at a time when the likes of Jeff Sluman, Bob Tway and Larry Mize – to name but three – popped up to win Grand Slam titles, clearly superior foreign talents were struggling to gain even occasional entry to those same events.
For the record, Clark played in four majors in America; James made it into nine; Brown into six and Torrance competed in 13. Outrageous. Had their passports said "USA" rather than "UK" on the front, maybe two of them would today be major champions.
"If we'd had the opportunity at least one of us would have won a major," agrees Clark. "I had the game for it, one that would have been even better had I been able to play in them more regularly. But our lack of exposure gave us very little chance."
Torrance is another who looks back with regret more than bitterness.
"We were one notch down from the guys who were winning majors and we basically didn't get to play," he shrugs. "Looking back, it is extraordinary really.
"It isn't just that we didn't get to play in the States, the pressure on us in the Open every year was that much more because it was our only chance to even play in a major. That's not an excuse; none of us were good enough to win it. But it would have been easier to cope with the pressure had we had more major experience.
"I don't feel unlucky though. That's just the way it was. It's much fairer now. Everyone of whatever nationality basically has an equal opportunity to qualify through the world rankings."
Brown too is remarkably philosophical, despite the fact that he never played in a US Open and only once, courtesy of his victory in the 1987 Southern Open, made it to the Masters.
"In our time, America was America and Europe was Europe and never the twain shall meet if it could be at all avoided," he points out. "It's very different now, of course. There are any number of ways to get in these days; in our day it was almost impossible.
"Some of the guys who won majors in the 1980s weren't better players than us; they simply had more opportunities. It's a numbers game. We got one chance a year and the Americans got four. If we had been competing on a level playing field the list of major champions from that period would look a bit different.
"Even into the mid-80s there were only about half a dozen Europeans in the Masters field. It's a breathtaking statistic and, it must be said, a sad statistic. For America, it was definitely a case of 'let's keep it all for us'."
Happily, the world of golf has moved on from such unenlightened times. Today, the likes of Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter take for granted their entry into major championships. And the only people unhappy about such a situation seem to be the whining Americans. Not that the wee souls are due any sympathy. They had things their own way for more than long enough.
The full article contains 1007 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
