Broke100Once

Even being an obscure major winner has its historical perks. For instance, if Y.E. Yang had surprisingly won the FedEx Cup in 2009, he'd be kind of an "oh yeah, remember him?" footnote. Whereas he'll always be brought up every August as an "anything can happen" underdog example, especially at future Hazeltine PGA Championships.

Big-picture, I'll bet Europe wishes it hadn't made a fuss since otherwise they likely would've won the Cup. This shot controversy pissed off Team USA and seemingly inspired them to victory.

Tiger's rise came in my mid-teens, so I was a little too young to remember the "post-Jack, pre-Tiger" golf era all that well. My question for some of you older posts is this --- was there as much obsession with up-and-coming great players being hailed as "the next Jack" or "next Arnie" and there is today with story after story hoping/describing Rory, Spieth, Day or even Fowler as "the next Tiger"? I realize it may be different now since there's the internet and so much more chatter out there, but back in the day, were golf pundits a little more circumspect before hailing a guy as the next GOAT just for winning one major, or one big event? It seems like the golf media is beyond desperate for a next Tiger in the sense of a singular, clear-cut world #1 that dominates the sport as Woods did. In my opinion, isn't it better to have three or four huge guys (Rory, Spieth, Day, maybe Fowler if he nabs a major) to spread the wealth and attention a little bit, rather than pin all the focus on one guy? From what I know of old-time golf media, there was certainly "next Nicklaus" buzz given to Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Lanny Wadkins, etc. but at least those guys actually had multiple spectacular seasons or victories under their belts before the hype train really took off.

Assuming Day wins this week, his resume for 2015 will be.... * BMW Championship * Barclays * PGA Championship * Canadian Open * Farmers Torrey Pines Spieth's 2015 resume... * Masters * US Open * Valspar Championship * John Deere Classic So they've each won two "normal" Tour events, so those cancel out. One of Spieth's majors is canceled out by Day's PGA. So if you're willing to vote Day as POTY over Spieth, you're saying that winning two playoff events more impressive than winning a major? No way would I agree with that. Every single player on Tour would happily trade two playoff wins for a major title. And this isn't even factoring the two players' years beyond just wins. Spieth has obviously had the better overall year in the majors, and in fact one of the very best major results seasons of all time. Unless Zach Johnson had also won the PGA, Spieth's had POTY wrapped up for a long time now.

Most weeks, to be honest, my favourites heavily shift. I'm not a big Jim Furyk fan, but I was rooting for him at the Heritage because it had been so long since his last win and because he'd had so many close calls. If he gets close in another major, I'll likely be pulling for him even if I might prefer his competition in a vacuum. At the 2012 US Open, for instance, I was hoping for Furyk over Simpson or Thompson (both kinda nobodies) and even one of my favourites in McDowell since Furyk "needed it more" and had a smaller window for future major chances than Graeme did or does. Likewise, I'm not a big Sergio fan, but he gets close again in a major, I'll be rooting for the poor guy to win just to get out of his misery.

I've had some friends volunteer at the Canadian Open for several years whenever it's at Glen Abbey, so I've heard a few 'behind-the-scenes' stories. Nothing salacious or anything --- my friends haven't encountered any real jerk behaviour, just the majority of players are business-like and focused on their golf. That said, Jimmy Walker and Jason Day are reportedly both very nice guys who went out of their way to be kind to any volunteer they encountered. With this in mind, I was pleased to see them both win so many tournaments; karma pays off! Three current favourites... * Jason Day. The Canadian Open stories clinched it, he's great in my books. * Justin Rose. Nice guy, great player! * Miguel Angel Jimenez. Duh. Three all-time favourites.... * Mike Weir. How can any Canadian golf fan not have Mike up there? The 2003 Masters may have been the single most exciting final round I've ever watched. * Ernie Els. A class act all the way. * Greg Norman. All that success yet still in many ways an underdog favourite. If only he'd won a couple more majors! Three current least-favourites... * Bubba Watson. Seems like a jerk. * Patrick Reed. Forget top five, Reed made my top three! Or bottom three? * Stewart Cink. The all-time party pooper of a major championship win. Three all-time least favourites... * Tom Watson. It may seem odd to put Watson here when I bashed Cink win earlier, but even I was pulling for Watson to win that Open, it would've been an incredible story. Watson the person, however, just seems like a humourless old scold. No surprise he crashed out as the Ryder Cup captain. * Nick Faldo. The king of the #humblebrag. Faldo tries to be self-deprecating in such a phony way that it just makes him seem more arrogant. The sooner CBS gets this guy out of the announce booth the better. * Hal Sutton. Gives off a real jerk vibe. Had gotten married and divorced again since I started writing this post.

Jason Day: The Dayman song from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia"

Spieth and Day got the major monkeys off their backs this year, who is now tops on the BPWAM list? I stuck to the under-40s since otherwise we'd get into an argument about whether guys like Lee Westwood, M.A. Jimenez, Steve Stricker, etc. should really technically still be the 'best' given their career resumes, even if their windows for winning majors has arguably already closed.

The Presidents Cup isn't treated with a quarter of the hype and importance that's placed on the Ryder Cup....and ironically, the US team is all the better for it. The Prez is the 'friendly exhibition' that the Ryder Cup used to be before it was overrun by overzealous patriotism. This is why I've always felt that Couples should be a Ryder Cup captain. The U.S. needs someone who will take a step back and have everyone chill out, maybe that would help the team from being so tight come the actual matches.

For the 2030 season, something special should be done to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bobby Jones' Grand Slam season. In my opinion, the perfect tribute would be to hold the US Open at Merion and the US Amateur at Interlachen --- Jones won his majors at these courses in 1930, except reversed (as in, he won the Open at Interlachen and the Amateur at Merion). We've seen that Merion can still handle a modern US Open whereas I'm not sure Interlachen is up to the task, though an Amateur should be no problem. I guess my question is, since the USGA apparently lost money on the 2013 Open at Merion, do you think they'll go back anytime soon, or was 2013 just a one-time-only nod to history?