No Tiger, But Field For Perth Is Still A Classic
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 20, 2002
IF MONEY is the measure, then the Australian tour's biggest event starts next week at Lake Karrinyup in Perth. The Johnnie Walker Asian Classic has wandered through Asia for more than a decade and evolved into a tri-sanctioned event with a field shared by tour players from Europe, Australia and Asia.
It has always been an extraordinary extravaganza with a huge budget, and Tiger Woods had to play some of his best golf to beat Geoff Ogilvy last year in Bangkok.
The main man isn't back to defend his title, which suggests he is happy to defend overseas wins if they fit into his schedule and/or someone pays.
The tournament has never been short of money when it comes to paying stars, so the assumption must be the date change from late November somehow didn't suit Woods. Which is a pity because I watched him play a lot in the wind and the rain at Paraparaumu last week and there is a magic in him that only Seve Ballesteros at his best could match.
Instead there will be the two South Africans, Ernie Els and US Open champion Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, the wonderful young Spaniard who manages to regrip the club 20 times before getting it back, the ageing Scot Colin Montgomerie and the great English player Nick Faldo, who seemingly struggles these days because his precise game has been run over by those 20 years younger and who hit it 30 metres further.
As an aside, perhaps the most startling and horrifying statistic concerning equipment and its influence is that Dan Pohl - who could really smash it - led the long-driving statistic in America in 1980 with an average drive of 250 metres. Lee Porter averaged that last year and was 146th and 55-year-old Jay Sigel drove it that far on the senior tour and found there were 26 over-50s who hit it further.
Also interesting is the fact that Tiger's five under par last week in New Zealand will probably be his highest score of the year on what will easily be the shortest course - 5941 metres- he will play all year.
Els has played here often, and always well, but Goosen has not been here much, probably because it took him a lot longer than Ernie to figure it all out and consequently no one offered him any inducement to come.
He turned up in Europe in 1992 with a big game, terrific swing and probably the quietest demeanour of any non-American pro in history and the one constant question everybody asked was ``How come he isn't doing what Ernie is?"
Ernie was always a brilliant player and one to whom the game always came easily and Goosen looked exactly the same except he played only really well and didn't win much.
Last year, when he won the US Open and led the money list in Europe, he proved you can't be that talented and strong and not finally stumble across something significant.
Garcia is clearly the most successful of the young generation of players and after his rules debacle at the Lakes and a missed cut at Huntingdale he went to America, won twice and then won the big $1million exhibition in South Africa at the end of the year. Already this year he has won the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii and, Woods aside, he is the hottest player in the game today.
If the Goosen question revolved around why he didn't win more given his technique and talent, the Garcia question is how he wins so much with an idiosyncratic flailing swing that has been questioned by so many.
The answer has to be something to do with youth, fearlessness, talent and a wonderful short game that is the equal of the two Spanish masters Ballesteros and Jose-Maria Olazabal.
© 2002 The Sunday Age
