What does it take to be one of the greatest golfers of all time? How do you separate the great from the good? Which is better – the erratic player with the ability to play unbelievably well, or the solid pro without a fifth gear or the ability to up his game? While results will be the predominant factor in determining who are the greatest golfers ever, it is the intricate parts that go together to create an aura around the player, that elevate them into the ‘greats’ based on flair, ball striking or contribution to the game – those who have brought fans to the sport. It is hard to go along to the practice range and pick out who are the great players based on their ball striking alone, however. Being able to hit the ball well is only part of the equation; being able to compete is even more important. You have to understand the player’s drive, their will and desire. You need to understand what separates the men from the boys and sometimes determine which players have achieved so much with less talent.
I have always believed in my old coach, Bob Torrance’s mantra: ‘A good player can play great when the feeling is upon him but a great player can play good when he wants to.’ As you will read from the selection of the 100 greatest ever golfers, some players are selected based on the fact that they had the ability to play great every so often rather than have it on demand. To get there, the great players have to put in many hours, days, weeks and months on the practice range. Many of them put in a huge amount of work even before they came to the tour, but this is not necessarily the case for all – there are no set rules and there are different ways of becoming a great player. You would be very naive to believe that Tiger’s talents were given to him; he earned every bit of his game on the range and on the golf course and ultimately it had more to do with his drive and his want than any physical gift. Yet someone like Colin Montgomerie practised relatively little but trusted what he had, allowing him to be fresh come Sunday afternoon and go on to win many tournaments.
There is no better feeling than the satisfaction that comes with knowing a job has been well done. Personally, the highs of winning three major championships will stay with me my whole life, but Bob’s quote above has meant that I have spent more time searching for the magical secret which keeps it fun and drives me on. It is all too easy to put other brilliant players on a pedestal – while the likes of Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Tiger were winning majors, it was hard to see myself matching them. However, I know Michael Campbell very well. Having played with him many times, I knew his game and his ability, and after he won the US Open in 2005 it was easier to visualise myself winning a major. The European golfers now winning majors, or who might win majors, have seen me play golf. They have seen me hit good shots and they have seen me hit bad shots. They understand my game, the way I’ve played, how hard I’ve worked. As a result, they are less likely to think they are so far away.
I think there are two main reasons why European golf is strong at the moment. The first is that we had such great role models and grew up watching Seve, Faldo, Langer, Lyle and Woosie, as well as other non-Americans like Greg Norman and Nick Price, dominate the world of golf. As a kid I thought it was normal for the international players to win majors. It may have been the first time for many decades that the best players in the world were not just from America, but as a child I didn’t realise that.
Secondly, on the European Tour there is nowhere to hide. It gives you a lot of opportunities to get into contention – and you only really learn about your game and yourself when a tournament is on the line – but you are also required to perform week-in, week-out. If you are one of the marquee players at a tournament, there is a giant poster of you by the entrance and people are expecting you to deliver. If you don’t perform, everyone – all the sponsors, the press, the people running the tournament – want to know, ‘What went wrong?’ In the States it can be a lot easier – you miss the cut and you are gone, with no one to trouble you.
Trying to come up with the 100 greatest ever golfers is an intriguing exercise. You, like me, may not agree with all the inclusions in the book but it is fun to debate and everyone’s opinion is interesting. The more I started thinking about it, the more I kept changing my mind. I know one player has already caused a lot of debate but I would go along with Rory McIlroy’s inclusion. While we all might agree that he will probably end up among the greats, is he one now? I would say ‘yes’ and for this reason: he may have only won one major (and that might not qualify him) and he’s only won a couple of other tour events (which also might not qualify him), but he’s won a major by eight strokes, and there are only a handful of players who have ever done that. For his sheer brilliance and amazing scoring at Congressional in the 2011 US Open, I would certainly include him.
If nothing else, Rory already makes for a great story and I believe all the fascinating accounts of the great players in this book make for a terrific read. Who is the greatest of them all? Personally I would go for the cliché, Jack Nicklaus. He was a strong golfer and even better mentally. I admire and aspire to the second trait so, for me, it’s Jack – no question.
Padraig Harrington
2011