With the British Open fast approaching, I can’t help but think about some of the major suprises in recent years. The thoughts aren’t all positive, that’s for sure. The last two British Open champions, Ben Curtis and Todd Hamilton, have done nothing worth noting since their triumphs across the pond. Add 2002 and 2003 PGA Champions Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel to that list as well. These four golfers have gone downhill in a hurry since their major championship victories, and I really don’t think that is very good for the PGA Tour to be honest.
I know that suprise winners in major championships is just a part of golf’s great history, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I definitely find myself pulling for the top golfers in the world when the majors roll around. I don’t enjoy seeing no-name golfers win the biggest tournaments in golf, and I believe a lot of people share this veiwpoint as well. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching Jason Gore put himself in contention a few weeks ago at the U.S. Open. That was a great story, and I wish he would have held it together on the final day. But I never wanted him to win it.
In fact, I never wanted Michael Campbell to win either. In my perfect world, Retief Goosen would have walked away from Pinehurst as a three-time U.S. Open champion. I have nothing against Michael Campbell, however, as he definitely deserved everything that came his way. He has had some success worldwide, and he was ranked in the top 80 prior to the U.S. Open. Campbell wasn’t near the longshot winner as Ben Curtis or Shaun Micheel, but it remains to be seen if he can win anything else in the near future. The same can be said for Todd Hamilton as well. Hamilton hasn’t done anything since winning the Open Championship last year, but at least he had prior success in Asia.
I don’t like to see bad things happen to these one-hit wonders either. I would love to see each of these golfers do great things once again and prove they belong with the elite on the PGA Tour. But prior to the Western Open this past week, the world rankings of Beem, Curtis, and Micheel were astonishing to me. Micheel was ranked 152nd, Curtis 212th, and Beem 248th. I never looked at that until this past week, and that blew my mind. I know they have all combined for only a few top tens in the past couple seasons, but that is absurd. I never thought they could fall down the world rankings list that quickly.
When Retief Goosen won the U.S. Open in 2001, I figured he might just be another one-hit wonder. But he quickly proved that theory wrong by winning numerous times over the next few years. The same goes for David Toms. He was considered a longshot to win the PGA Championship in 2001, where he outdueled the very popular Phil Mickelson. These two have proved themselves, however, unlike the others I have listed to this point.
The fact is, I wasn’t pulling for any of these guys to win their respective majors. When Rich Beem won the PGA Championship in 2002, I was hoping for Tiger to win. When Micheel won the PGA Championship in 2003, I really wanted Chad Campbell to win instead. Campbell was also considered a longshot, but he has definitely proved himself over the past couple years as well. Campbell has won the Bay Hill Invitational and the Tour Championship since finishing as the runner-up to Micheel. I was hoping for Vijay, Tiger, or DL3 to get the victory at the Open Championship in 2003. Instead, Ben Curtis shocked everyone by walking out with the Claret Jug. And lastly, I definitely wasn’t pulling for Todd Hamilton last year at the Open Championship. I would much rather have seen Ernie Els or Phil Mickelson walk away the winner that week.
I look at the world rankings and see so many great golfers that have yet to win a major. I look at golfers like Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Chris DiMarco, Padraig Harrington, and Darren Clarke. These guys are all proven winners on the PGA Tour or European Tour, but they have taken the backseat to guys like Micheel and Curtis when it comes to career major championship victories. That fact just don’t sit well with me. I know Micheel, Curtis, Beem, and Hamilton all worked very hard to get to where they are, and they should still be congratulated for their great major championship victories. I don’t want to take away from the great weeks they had en route to their great wins. But to see them do nothing with their respective careers since then is just disheartening to me as a golf fan.
I know that the top golfers win the majority of the major championships, and I also know there will always be the one-hit wonders. This is just part of golf’s history, and it will continue to be that way. But it would be much better for the game of golf if players like Garcia and Scott won some of these tournaments. It would even be better if Tiger, Phil, Ernie, and Vijay won some of these tournaments instead of finishing in the top two or three. The “Big Four” or “Big Five” would be that much better and comparable if this were the case. I would rather have our major champions be guys that are going to contend each and every week on the PGA Tour or European Tour.
Final Thoughts
I’m not trying to pick on golfers like Ben Curtis or Shaun Micheel in this article. These two are just the two most recent major championship winners to do nothing since their respective triumphs. I know Ben Curtis finished third at the Western Open this past weekend, and Shaun Micheel finished in a tie for seventh as well. But let’s face the facts, the finish was Ben Curtis’ first top-50 in 2005 and only his second top-ten since winning the British Open in 2003. As for Micheel, the finish was his first top-ten finish since The Players Championship in 2004. The same goes for Rich Beem as well. He has only had three top ten finishes on the PGA Tour since his major championship victory in 2002 and has missed his last eight cuts. So it’s not looking good for him either.
I honestly hope all of these golfers get their games back together and prove they are not one-hit wonders. And I’m sure they will still make a decent living playing golf. It just gets under my skin that they have won such prestigious golf tournaments and nothing else since. I really think it’s bad for the PGA Tour in the end. It definitely doesn’t help the ratings any. I think it’s safe to say any golf fan would rather see the top golfers battling it out for major championships instead of no-names moving their way up leaderboards on the weekend. I don’t think it takes any prestige away from the four majors, but it certainly doesn’t increase the prestige when a one-hit wonder walks away the winner.
I know when the British Open rolls around next week, I’ll be pulling for a golfer in the top 20 or 30 to leave St. Andrews holding the Claret Jug. There are a lot of fans who love to cheer on the underdog, but I am just not one of them (unless they played at Oklahoma State). I definitely don’t want to see another golfer come from nowhere to win the British Open, only to move backwards for the rest of his career as a professional.
I expect to see a lot of different opinions on this, and that is just fine with me. I love diversity, and that’s what Thrash Talk is all about. I hope I spiced things up a bit with this article. And I challenge everyone to tell me what they think of this issue. It may not be a big deal to anyone else, but I’m sure it is. Am I unfair to call these golfers out like this? Am I right on the money? Let me know by either commenting below or discussing it in our forum. Thanks for reading Thrash Talk this week, and start getting prepared for British Open week!
Photo Credit: © AP.
2 thoughts on “One-Hit Blunders”