Murphy’s Law
F
irst off, before we begin, can I get a show of hands from those of you who fully grasp the qualification process for the World Golf Hall of Fame? OK . . . let’s see . . . let me count here . . .
So, it’s official: Zero of you fully grasp the qualification
process for the World Golf Hall of Fame. Don’t feel bad. I don’t get it, either. For example, were you to learn that Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, you would all nod and say “Duh.” But if you were to learn that still-active Freddy Couples,
Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, (and Tiger Woods is not), you might say “Huh?” On the women’s side, if you learned that Babe
Zaharias, Mickey Wright and Nancy Lopez are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, you would all nod and say “Duh.” But if you were to learn that still-active Se Ri Pak and
Karrie Webb are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, you might say “Huh?” This is my first problem with the World Golf Hall of
Fame: active players are eligible. All you have to be is 40 years old, and have at least two majors and 15 or more wins on “approved” tours like the PGA or European Tour. Seems like a low bar to me. I like my bars high. I’m one of those “Hall of Fame
Snobs.” The Baseball Hall of Fame is the best Hall of Fame go-
ing, precisely because it’s so difficult to enter. Legends like Jim Rice and Bert Blyleven had to wait years for their nod, and stars like Will Clark, Dale Murphy and Steve Garvey will never get in. It’s that tough. The Baseball Writers As- sociation of America has made it that way, and the same way tough parenting usually leads to the most well-man- nered kid, is the same way a trip to Cooperstown guarantees you’re going to see legends only inside the building. Now, now. Don’t misconstrue. I’m not saying Els and
Mickelson aren’t legends. They are, and deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Just not now.
72 /
NCGA.ORG / SUMMER 2014
The problem with this 40-and-over thing is that so
Let’s Make a Meaningful World Golf Hall of Fame
many players are thriving into their 40s today, meaning there is still tons of active golf history to be made. Con- versely, career tailspins lay out there, too. You’d hate to take your kid out to Pebble Beach to see Mickelson play, watch him shoot 75-80 and miss the cut by 10 strokes. Then when your kid says, “But, Mom/Dad, I thought you said he was a Hall of Famer?” And then you start saying, “Yeah, well, let me explain . . .” Or go see Ernie Els at a U.S. Open,
and watch him three-jack his way to a pair of 77s, missing the cut by a mile. And then your kid says again, “But, Mom/Dad, I thought you said he was
a Hall of Famer, like you said about Mickelson?” And then you say: “Yeah, see, well, it’s complicated . . .” My first move is simple. Move the minimum age up to
To make a Hall of Fame great, you have to sacrifice a Mark O’Meara along the way.
50—even 55—years old. Let the 40s play out. Let some perspective build. Let the historical ledger gather impor- tant dust, the better to let our memories of the player age like wine. Some cringe when they think of Willie Mays falling down in the outfield in the 1973 World Series. But more remember that when Mays was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979, the talk was of the “Catch” in the 1954 World Series, or his 1965 MVP season with the Giants, or the memory of Mays running the bases. There’s nothing worse
than going to see a still- active Hall of Famer, and watching Karrie Webb
shank one off the first tee. Not saying she would, but, you know, golf is golf. My second move is to increase the number of wins, both
total and majors. Two majors is nice, and so are 15 wins. But that’s a bar cleared both times by Mark O’Meara, and while O’Meara is a great player and a local favorite, the “Prince of Pebble Beach,” he is more like the golf equivalent of Dale Murphy or Will Clark: so good, so well-remembered, but just Hall-shy. To make a Hall of Fame great, you have to sacrifice a
Mark O’Meara along the way. In fairness, the World Golf Hall of Fame must have
known this column was coming, because in March of 2014 they enacted several positive changes. One, they turned it into an every-other-year ceremony, thus increasing the prestige. Two, the World Golf Hall of Fame has limited the number of inductees to two from each field, and five total. Steps in the right direction, yes. But it’s still not restric- tive enough. Don’t forget: tough love is still love.
BRIAN MURPHY hosts the KNBR morning show “Murph and Mac” and was the San Francisco Chronicle’s golf writer from 2001-04.
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