THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- A staged event with only TV ratings
riding on the outcome. A fabricated rivalry between two players who
had been paired only once before. A shameless amount of money for a
short day of work.
What would Harry Vardon have said about the silly showdown
between Tiger Woods and David Duval?
Probably something like, "What took so long?"
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Duval, right, concedes the putt and match to Woods on the 17th hole of their 18-hole match. |
After all, Monday night's exhibition at Sherwood Country Club
came exactly 100 years after Vardon beat Willie Park Jr. in a
72-hole challenge match played over two courses with a whopping 100
British pounds at stake per side.
The match caused quite a stir, particularly since Vardon had won
the British Open in 1898 by one stroke over Park, himself a
two-time Open champion. More than 10,000 spectators watched the
first 36 holes at North Berwick, where Vardon finished 2-up. He
wound up winning 11 and 10.
And that wasn't the only exhibition, although none of them had a
slick title like "Showdown at Sherwood."
In 1922, the year Gene Sarazen won the U.S. Open and the PGA
Championship and Walter Hagen won the British Open, they played a
72-hole match with $3,000 on the line.
Fifteen years later, a donor offered 500 pounds,
winner-take-all, to see Open champion Henry Cotton play PGA
champion Denny Shute. Cotton won the 72-hole match 6 and 5,
although the sponsor wound up giving Shute 100 pounds for the
effort.
"Back then, you got to play in a lot more events when you won a
major," said Alistair Johnston, the executive vice president for
IMG and somewhat of a golf historian. "Old Tom Morris could put an
ad in the paper that said, 'I'll play Willie Park for 500 pounds.
"Players wanted to win majors to get into exhibitions."
That's not the case any longer. The majors are hallowed ground,
the true measure of greatness, the breeding grounds of a rivalry.
Woods vs. Duval was none of the above, nor was it meant to be.
Take their showdown for what it was -- an exhibition between two
players (IMG clients) who happened to be Nos. 1 and 2 in the world
ranking (an IMG creation).
Was it real? Be serious.
Was it a rivalry?
"No, not yet," Woods said.
Was it a good show? The 7.4 overnight rating for ABC Sports
seemed to indicate as much, even if the shotmaking was mediocre.
The morning after the du Maurier Classic outside Calgary, one
LPGA Tour player referred to the exhibition with a litany of
adjectives - ridiculous, stupid, meaningless. She also said she
would be watching.
"I can't wait to see it," she said.
Does it have the potential to ruin golf? No more than any other
unofficial event.
"My desire is that this brings more people to the game," Duval
said. "When Tiger turned pro in '96, golf became cool -- not a
dorky game. This really is pretty cool."
It was not meant to be anything else. Woods felt no pressure to
live up to his No. 1 ranking. Duval knew he couldn't get it back by
winning the match.
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When Tiger turned pro in '96, golf became cool -- not a dorky game. ” |
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David Duval
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"Once you get over the feeling that 'This is stupid, this is
bad for golf,' now you've got to ask yourself ... why?" Johnston
said. "Nobody can say this is bad for golf. Did it keep people
from watching the Hartford Open? Is it going to keep people from
watching the Buick Classic? If anything, maybe it kept people off
the golf course for three hours."
Whether such matches -- with such money on the table - will
become a regular occurrence is yet to be seen. Would IMG still be
interested in staging the event if two of its clients were not the
top two players in the world?
One thing is clear -- Woods will have to be a part of any match
for ratings to make it worth the while. When he won the Memorial
the first weekend in June, CBS Sports had a 4.8 rating, the highest
for the Memorial since records were first kept 10 years ago.
"If anyone can lead us to the People magazine audience, it's
Tiger," Johnston said. "And David Duval has the most credentials
this year to challenge him. We look forward to them being part of
the future of golf. You're talk about two guys on the upward
edge."
While Jack Nicklaus would be the first to agree -- at least this
year - he has long held that a rivalry will not develop until Woods
and Duval start winning a lion's share of the majors.
Until that happens, this wasn't such a bad way to spend a Monday
night.
