COMMUNITY

Welcome back. We've been discussing this under the topic: Golf Channel - Ultimate Match Play

All valid questions...the seeding was terrible. I point to Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen as getting hung out to dry over the seeding.

A couple of thoughts:
- You make an excellent point about players left off the list. My guess would be that they picked the who they thought would represent the top 16 players post-1900. By doing so you would eliminate Old Tom Morris and his pre-1900 buddies. That being said Old Tom Morris wasn't even the best golfer in his family. That honor should be awarded to his son Young Tom Morris who could be argued is the greatest golfer of all-time. He won 4 British Opens in a row before dying at the age of 24. He also set just about every record in golf, some of which have yet to be broken and his margin of victory record was intact until Tiger beat it...that record was established in 1870!!!

- My final thought. Anytime you leave a vote to the public you will miss the truth. Every year someone does a poll of the Greatest Presidents of all-time and what you find are names like Lincoln, Washington, Kennedy right next to Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama. Why? Because most Americans don't know the names of our Presidents or their achievements. The same is true and perhaps even more so in golf...I have pretty good odds that in their poll Hagen is knocked out first round, and Walter Hagen should win this hands down. Nobody played match play better than Hagen...nobody.

Maybe in round 2 there will be an upset. Get your votes in.

I mainly tossed out the name of Old Tom Morris in jest, just because it's an absurd (IMO) idea to start with, but not Runyan. Little Poison should have more respect (again, IMO) for what he accomplished, capitalizing on his strong short game the way he did.

It's all relative, I guess. Thanks for the comments, gentlemen.

SL

I get that you were saying it in jest, but it brings up some valid points. I would argue that the skill of the ol' hickory players exceeded the skill of the modern day player. In other words I think Harry Vardon could easily adjust and dominate the modern game but would have my doubts that Nicklaus and Tiger could make the transition back in time.

Have you ever watched Bobby Jones' videos on the Golf Channel. What people don't realize is that those shots were unedited. Watch Jones hit his 4 iron from about 190 yards out and watch as each ball seemingly stops within 10 feet of the flag (thats with hickory shafted clubs). We discount the past because we didn't have the chance to see them, but I would argue that a champion is a champion and its more about heart than equipment. Jones from 1923-1930 won 14 majors. Hagen from 1914-1929 won 16 majors (counting the Western Open instead of the Masters). Both players had a winning percentage close to 40% in majors which far exceeds Nicklaus and Woods even in their prime when they were winning a major 25% of the time.

That's not even mentioning Harry Vardon who won 6 Opens and 1 US Open in an era before both the Masters and PGA Championship. Vardon played in 2 US Opens in his prime and won one and went to a play-off and lost to a nobody the second time (Francis Ouimet in 1913). These guys could play other worldly golf.

The Greatest Game Ever Played is one of my favorite movies. David versus Goliath in a golf setting.