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SLAM! Sports Century in Review INTERACTIVE CONTESTS ALSO ON SLAM!  |
VARDON TO WOODS, GOLF CENTURY ENDS WAY IT BEGAN The mashie, spoon and niblick are no longer around, taken over by specialty clubs made of space-age material. After the gutta percha came the rubber-core ball, and now there are more than 5,000 brands and types and markings that the U.S. Golf Association approves every year. A scoop of sand has been replaced by the wooden tee. Links golf has given way to island greens. Caddies have yielded to carts. Ties and tweed coats are out. Anything with a logo is in. But the game of golf, no matter where it is played or how high the stakes, has always been more about the gunslinger than the ammunition he carries. In that respect, the 1900s ends the way it began. The best player in the world won yet another major championship and embarked on a quest to conquer the world, equipped with the goods to revolutionize the game. In 1899, that man was Harry Vardon. He was the longest hitter of his era, thanks to a more open stance and overlapping his hands on the club, which gave birth to the "Vardon Grip." He left England for America in 1900 and helped popularize the game during his 20,000-mile exhibition tour. No telling how many players Vardon brought to golf, but suffice it to say the stock exchange closed the day he came to New York City. In 1999, that man is Tiger Woods. He leaves the 20th century as the dominant figure in golf, having won the final major championship of the 1900s, with presumably many more to come. And his historic victory in the 1997 Masters -- the first man of color to win the green jacket, by a record 12 strokes with a record score of 18-under 270 -- broadened golf's appeal. Even in the latter half of this year, Woods' accomplishments touched so many generations of the 20th century. -- At 23, Woods has already won 21 times as a professional, the fastest start since Horton Smith won 15 times at the same age in 1931. -- His four consecutive PGA Tour victories is the longest streak since Ben Hogan in 1953. -- His eight tour victories were the most since Johnny Miller in 1974. -- He became the youngest player to win two majors since Seve Ballesteros in 1980. From Vardon to Woods, golf has come full circle as it approaches the 21st century. "Both were gutsy golfers. Their mind was the strongest part of their game," said Alistair Johnston, a golf historian and head of worldwide operations for IMG. "Both felt they had some responsibility, from a pecuniary standpoint, to go overseas. Harry Vardon coming to America is equivalent to Tiger going to places like Thailand and broadening the game." Walter Hagen broadened golf in his own way. He brought style and was eager to fill the role as golf's first superstar. "The Haig is here. Who's going to finish second?" he used to announce upon marching to the first tee. He became the first American to the win the British Open, in 1922, and he won the PGA Championship a record four years in a row -- 22 consecutive matches against the best players in the world. Hagen finished his career with 11 majors, second only to Jack Nicklaus. Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur ever, brought civility to the game and also its most revered goal -- the Grand Slam. A practicing lawyer with degrees from Georgia Tech and Harvard, Jones is said to have never played more than 80 rounds a year. Still, he won 13 national championships between 1923 and 1930, saving the final year for the greatest accomplishment of the century. Jones won the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open, British Amateur and British Open in 1930. "The impregnable quadrilateral," The New York Sun christened it, a title that soon gave way to the Grand Slam. Gene Sarazen gave golf the sand wedge and put the Masters on the map with a 4-wood shot that he holed from 235 yards in 1935 for a double eagle, the rarest shot in golf. It took place at what was then called the "Augusta National Invitational Tournament." Sarazen, who died May 13 at age 97, was the first to win all four majors. Sarazen was just a boy in 1913 when 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of all sports. Playing at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., a course right next to his home and where he had caddied, Ouimet beat Vardon and fellow Brit Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open. The most significant year of the 20th century, however, might have been 1912, the birth of an American Triumvirate -- Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead, who combined to win 21 major championships and their own piece of fame. Snead won a record 81 times on the PGA Tour. Nelson won 11 consecutive tournaments in 1945 and 18 times for the year, records that stand as perhaps the most untouchable in any sport. Hogan's endless pursuit of perfection coupled with an indomitable spirit to overcome made him one of the most mystical figures in golf. Despite a car accident that nearly killed him in 1949, Hogan returned to win six of the next nine majors he played, and in 10 of the next 15 he was first or second. His greatest year was 1953, when he won the only three majors he played. Hogan was a combined 25-under in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open and won each by at least four strokes. Arnold Palmer stirred the imagination with his charismatic charges that captivated the country and ushered golf into the era of television. With a hitch of the pants and a ferocious swing, Palmer brought new energy to the game and became one of the most influential figures of the century. "I think that golf or anything in life needs an injection to spur it on," Palmer said. "What I did was notable because television was coming on pretty strong." The shot and the round that defined Palmer was the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. Trailing Mike Souchak by seven strokes with 18 holes to play, Palmer drove the first green, birdied the first four holes and shot a 65 to beat Nicklaus and Hogan. That was one of the few majors that Nicklaus let get away. Perhaps the greatest golfer of the 20th century, Nicklaus set the standard by which every other player will be measured in a career that already has spanned four decades and may not be through quite yet. "He plays a game with which I am not familiar," said Jones, a statement that set Nicklaus apart from everyone else. From the 1962 U.S. Open to the 1986 Masters, Nicklaus won 18 professional majors -- all of them at least three times. No one has been so dominant before or after Nicklaus. Tom Watson had his moments, beating Nicklaus head-to-head for two of his eight majors. Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo rejuvenated European golf, one with his dashing style, the other with Hogan-like precision. But as golf turns toward the 21st century, Nicklaus' career is how everyone will be judged. "He judges everything against Jack Nicklaus," said Butch Harmon, Woods' swing coach the past seven years. "That's his barometer." Woods used to keep a record of Nicklaus' accomplishments on his bedroom wall as a kid, a checklist for the young prodigy to meet his goal of being the best player ever. He carries that dream into 2000 and beyond. 
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