Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Golf is one of the few sports that doesn't require its inductees to be retired.
By DOUG FERGUSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Nick Faldo was 40 when he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, two years removed from winning his third green jacket at Augusta National. It was a humbling experience, even for Faldo, to be included among the greatest in golf.
"Now that I'm in the Hall of Fame, I need to play like it," he said that afternoon in May 1998.
It was too late for that.
Faldo never won again. He never seriously contended in another major.
And that's OK.
Most athletes in a Hall of Fame are not even supposed to play again. Baseball, for example, requires its players to be retired for five years before they get put on the ballot. And that's why Monday night's induction ceremony at the World Golf Village again raised the question that has proven difficult to answer.
When is right time?
When is the right time to honor someone's career in a timeless sport such as golf?
This year's class ranged from Karrie Webb, whose first professional victory was the Women's British Open in 1995, to Willie Park Sr., who won the first British Open in 1860.
For those who believe athletes should be retired, if not in the gloaming of their careers, it must have been odd to see Webb, at age 30, becoming the youngest golfer inducted since the shrine moved to St. Augustine in 1998.
Then again, maybe the shock value had worn off from when Annika Sorenstam was inducted two years ago at age 33.
And just wait -- barring a career-ending injury, Se Ri Pak will be 30 when she is eligible for induction in 2007.
Has the credentials.
She made it through LPGA qualifying school on her first try, despite playing with a broken bone in her wrist.
As a rookie, she won four times and became the first woman to earn more than $1 million in one season. Webb won the career Grand Slam quicker than anyone, male or female, capturing all four majors in a span of seven starts.
It's her birth certificate that makes the World Golf Hall of Fame unlike any other.
Webb felt a little out of place at a dinner Sunday night in a room full of Hall of Famers, such as Carol Mann and Tony Jacklin and Joanne Carner.
"I was just like, 'What am I doing here?' " she said.
"I still don't really feel like I should be among these great players. I think that will always take a long time to sink in for me."
But don't mistake that for an apology.
And don't get the idea Webb would have rather waited until she was at least 40, the age minimum for the PGA Tour ballot.
Nor should she have waited.
Get in when they earn it
There is no proper time to induct golfers into the Hall of Fame, so why not put them in when they've earned it? The Hall of Fame should be about performance, not age, and that's one area in which the LPGA Tour does it right.
For the LPGA Tour, it's all about winning.
Players now must earn 27 points -- one for each victory and major award, two for a major.
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