America at Large: The ballot for the Golf Writers Association of America's (GWAA) annual awards arrived in the post Tuesday morning, producing at least 24 hours' worth of soul-searching on the part of this elector, writes George Kimball.
You'd have to say that Tiger Woods is anything but a lock to extend his Player of the Year run to a fifth straight, and three of the four winners of 2003's Major Championships aren't even on the ballot!
In several categories the vote will be decidedly perfunctory: Tom Watson and Annika Sorenstam are such obvious choices as Senior and Female Players of the Year that it's a wonder they're even bothering with a vote, and the Ben Hogan Award (for "an individual who has continued to be active in golf despite physical handicap of serious illness") could have been created with Bruce Edwards in mind.
Edwards, Watson's longtime caddie, courageously continued to work this year despite having been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and will win hands down.
Woods, who began the year still recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, didn't win a Major for the first time since 1996, and in only one of this year's - the British Open Championship at Sandwich - was he even in contention.
Tiger's Sunday magic was rarely in evidence (his final-round scores in the four Majors were 75-72-71-73), and while he did win five events (including two WGC titles) and $6,673,413 on the US PGA Tour despite a limited schedule, it was an inconsistent and altogether disappointing year when one considers the lofty standards Eldrick has set for himself.
Having said that, Woods will garner strong support among some segments of the electorate, many of whom apparently consider Tiger's presence at the annual GWAA awards dinner in Augusta a feather in the organisation's cap.
Woods, who has won in five of the past six years, generally shows up to accept his trophy on the eve of the Masters, but only after establishing strict ground rules by which his meal is the first served and his award the first presented; he and his posse are usually out the back door before anyone else has finished their shrimp.
For much of the year Canadian left-hander Mike Weir was considered the frontrunner to end Woods's dominance. The lone Major winner to make the final ballot, Weir had two other victories to go with his Masters title, and top-10 finishes in the US Open (tied for third) and PGA (tied for seventh). But he finished the year fifth on the money list and his campaign may well have run out of steam.
There will be strong sentiment for making Vijay Singh the man to unseat Woods, but in a game whose very foundation involves integrity and honesty, we have a problem with voting for the Cheatin' Fijian. Some will maintain that since 18 years have elapsed since Singh was booted off the Asian Tour for altering his scorecard to make a cut, he should now be given a pass.
True, the Player of the Year isn't supposed to be a lifetime achievement award, but honouring Singh because he didn't cheat this year would be like making the Arthur Andersen firm Accountants of the Year because there were no Enron scandals in 2003.
Besides, as the esteemed football coach Bill Parcells is fond of noting, big-time players come up big in big-time games, and Singh squandered chances to win both the US and British Opens. (At Olympia Fields he tied the tournament record with a 63 on Friday, only to shoot 78 on Sunday when all the chips were on the table.)
Singh might have won the money title, but his PGA-leading $7,573,907 came at least in part by virtue of his having played 11 more events than did Woods.
Davis Love has won more money than all but one golfer who has ever played the game, and it is his misfortune that his career happened to coincide with that of the man who has won more.
Love was third on this year's money list with $6,081,896, but he missed the cut in the British Open and at the PGA and is probably on the ballot only because there was room for five names.
Which brings us to the fifth.
Were only his achievements on US soil considered, Ernie Els probably wouldn't be a factor. Although he began the year winning nearly $2 million by January 19th, and set a record by going 31-under-par at the Mercedes Championship, Els ended the year having won a modest $3,371,237 on the US tour, good for ninth place on the money list.
There are those who would argue that since the award is bestowed by an American-based organisation only American achievements should count, but a quick review of history would seem to argue otherwise.
Would Nick Faldo have been Player of the Year in 1990 had he not won the British Open at St Andrews, or Greg Norman in 1986 without his win at Turnberry? And remember, back then the British Open did not count as a US Tour event.
From a global standpoint, Els was the world's most consistent golfer this year. He finished first in the European Order of Merit, won seven titles on four continents, and if you combine the $3,645,000 or so he made in Europe with what he won in America, he earned almost $7 million in 2003 - more than Woods, and nearly as much as Singh.
The Big Easy returned consistent finishes in the Majors, finishing among the top six in three of them, and was 18th in the other - the British Open, in which he happened to be the defending champion.
He won't be a popular choice, and he probably won't win, but in these matters one is supposed to vote with one's conscience, which is why Els gets mine.
