Golf Hall setup is too easy

For a game that generally demands the highest standards and decorum, requirements for gaining entrance to the World Golf Hall of Fame have always seemed just a little too vague and a little too low to us in the Grill Room.

On Monday night, Lanny Wadkins, Jose Maria Olazabal and Christy O'Connor Sr. were inducted into golf's shrine to itself in St. Augustine, Fla.

These three gents join the likes of Tony Jacklin, Gene Littler and Larry Nelson -- to randomly pick just a few of the head-scratching members for no good reason at all -- as inductees.
It is not like these guys weren't good players. They were very good, in fact, but don't belong anywhere near the likes of Nicklaus, Palmer, Jones and Hogan in anything resembling a nod to greatness.

I guess this doesn't make it unlike so many of the other sports Halls these days. It seems like the NFL, for one, lowers its standards of greatness each year. Baseball has lately been called by some the Hall of Good, so maybe we're being a little hard on golf and the players it considers great. It just seems like more should be expected of the world's greatest game.

Wadkins was like players of more recent vintage, Fred Couples and Davis Love III, who had a ton of game and should have won more, but didn't. Mostly, that's because Wadkins had no back-off button on the golf course. It was said that he never saw a pin he didn't like. His go-for-broke approach no doubt speared him a few of his wins, but most likely cost him many more.

Wadkins managed to win a very respectable 21 tour events, including the 1977 PGA Championship, his one and only major. He also won the venerable U.S. Amateur, and was one of the United State's great Ryder Cup players, racking up an impressive 20-11-3 record in the event.

Wadkins, who will be 60 next month, has been pretty outspoken lately about not being included for induction earlier with contemporaries like Hubert Green and Nelson. In fact, Wadkins has never been shy about saying what's on his mind, which made his wishy-washy approach as the game's lead analyst on CBS all the more baffling.

CBS dumped him in 2007, after five languid years behind the mic. While he remains dumbfounded by this decision, he was clear about what Monday night's honor meant.

"To join this (Hall) and be a part of something with my heroes ... I am honored beyond belief," Wadkins said.

Frankly, I've always had a particularly soft spot for Olazabal (pictured), even if I do question his Hall-of-Fame credentials.

I named a dog after him once back when I was being paid to cover the sport a very long time ago. Yes, I realize that both of those developments are equally pathetic.

Olazabal the golfer, comes from a small fishing village in the north of Spain, has always carried himself like a gentleman and let his clubs do most of his talking in his prime. Olazabal the dog was a royal pain in the ass, who came from hell. (Sorry, I obviously have unresolved issues where this dog is concerned.)

Olazabal the golfer is best known for winning two Masters and partnering with countryman Seve Ballesteros in the Ryder Cup to rain terror on the Americans. The Spaniards were as responsible as any Euro not named Montgomerie for turning around that continent's fortunes in the bi-annual event. Ballesteros and Olazabal amassing a gaudy 11-2-2 record playing together, and
Olazabal sports a solid 18-8-2 overall record in the event.

In my book, Olazabal has been one of the two or three best putters in the game over the past 20 years or so, which mostly explains his stellar record on the slippery greens of Augusta.

Too often his game has gone sideways off the tee, however, or he would have undoubtedly improved on his record of 23 wins on the European Tour and six more on the PGA Tour.

Included in that PGA resume is one of the most impressive ball-striking exhibitions I have ever seen.
Olazabal won the 1990 World Series of Golf at Firestone Country Club by a whopping 12 strokes. The Spaniard, who was a mere 24 at the time, opened with a 61, and then lit the brute of a course up with three consecutive 67s, to finish an unheard of 26-under.
It's ironic that the long-distance runner-up in that event was none other than one Lanny Wadkins.

Admittedly, I know little about O'Connor, 84, beside what I've read. His record says he won 24 times on the European Tour and played in a mess of Ryder Cups. I'm sure the guy was a very good player, which is good enough these days to get a seat next to the game's greats.

A footnote: President Dwight D. Eisenhower was also posthumously admitted to the Hall Monday night. Eisenhower was the most prolific of all our golfing presidents, playing an estimated 800 rounds during his presidency. With apologies to the above three inductees, that is a statistic worth getting excited about!

What does Obama's golf game say?

Of all the witty things that have been said and written about golf over the years, there is one that is true above all:
Golf doesn't build character, it reveals it.

A colleague, but a better golfing partner, sent along this clip yesterday. It has to do with President Obama's fondness for the game, and the fact that in the first nine months of his new job, he has already played as many rounds of golf as the latest President Bush did during his first 34 months in office.

As this significant finding seeps across the Internet, expect it to spark the predictable nonsensical furor that has always been associated with presidents and golf. In this case, how could the man be playing this stupid game when the economy is in the toilet, we are fighting two wars, health care is broken beyond recognition, and to this day, there are STILL starving children in China?!

Frankly, who cares how much golf the guy plays. What we should be concerned about is what kind of player he is, and how he conducts himself on the golf course. This would really allow us to get to know the man behind the podium better.

Consider what we know of past presidents and their golf games...

Let's start with Dwight D. Eisenhower because he was the sitting president when I was born.
See how honest I am? What do you think that says about how I conduct myself on the golf course, eh?
OK, I'll shut up. Moving right along...

Eisenhower was the Babe Ruth of presidential golfers. During his eight years in office, Ike played over 800 rounds of golf. For the math-challenged, that is is over 100 rounds per year! This is a staggering number, no doubt, until you consider that America was just coming off of World War II and the Korean War. Americans needed to inhale some fresh air and take a well-deserved break in the 1950s, and our president helped lead by example on the links.

John F. Kennedy: Kennedy is said to have possessed the most elegant, athletic and graceful swing of all of our presidents. Elegant, athletic and graceful will land you lookers like Jacqueline Onassis -- and any other number of babes, no? He was also said to be a fierce competitor on the links, a trait which might, in part, explain how he became our youngest president elected to office. Er, besides daddy, Joe's, money, that is.

Lyndon B. Johnson: Didn't play much, and when he did, was said to be an awful player. It is not clear whether he sought help for his swing, but we do know he did not seek or accept his party's nomination to run for the presidency in 1968.

Richard M. Nixon: Was not the most athletic guy, and took the game up late in life. He was also not averse to the occasional one or nine mulligans over the course of a round. In a book by Don Van Natta Jr. on this very subject, he writes that Nixon was often caught on tape saying, "Oh, that didn't count," after knocking a tee ball well to the, er, left. His problems with tapes and the left were only beginning...

Gerald Ford: Next to Ike, nobody played the game as much as Ford. Ford is notorious for hitting spectators off the tee in pro-ams, but was actually a very good golfer. He had one of the great quotes on that sore subject: "I would like to deny all allegations by Bob Hope that during my last game of golf, I hit an eagle, a birdie, an elk and a moose."
Ford's honesty and candor made him the perfect guy to follow Nixon, eh?

Jimmy Carter: Did not play the game, so we'll turn this around: What did his presidency say about what kind of golfer he would have been? Well, he most likely would have been too far left off the tee, conceded too many putts to his opponents, and been late for his tee times because he was stuck in line waiting for gas.

Ronald Reagan: Well...Has been labeled a casual golfer, and in the '70s described the game as, 'a sissy, rich man's sport.' Of course, that came from the same guy who rode horses. Reagan's strength was most likely the ability to put bad shots and rounds out of his head. During his 1992 questioning about the Iran-Contra Scandal, he was also asked about the state of his game, to both questions he answered, "I don't remember the details at all."

George H.W. Bush: Played so quickly that he often described his time on the course as 'aerobic golf.' Seldom did one of his rounds last longer than three hours. With a battle ax like Barbara waiting for him at home, is it any wonder his pattern was to get on and off something as quickly as possible? Of course, his presidency was a quick one, too, as he served only four years.

Bill Clinton: Clinton loves the game and played 'a round' whenever he could. Seldom kept an honest scorecard, and was a notorious cheater on the golf course. Said he didn't see length as a prerequisite for a good game. OK, OK, seriously, this is like shooting fish in a barrel. You fill in the rest...

George W. Bush: Like daddy is a very quick player. Is said to be good off the tee but couldn't be bothered with pondering the nuances of the short game. Is not detail-oriented on the course. So he basically shot first and asked questions later.

Which brings us to our current president...

Van Natta Jr. has a piece on Obama's game in the latest issue of Golf Digest. In it he writes that, "Obama approaches the game in the same way that he conducts his politics -- maniacally methodical, aggressively competitive and devoutly risk-averse."

Oh, and he is also the first president to play the game from the left side.
I'm telling you, you can't make this stuff up.