There's a new wrinkle in
the ongoing search for a rival for Tiger Woods.
Actually, a couple of wrinkles.
Hal Sutton turns 42 on
Friday. Some players his age are considering part-time work in the broadcast
booth. Others not much older already are looking ahead to golf's ultimate mulligan,
the Senior PGA Tour.
Not Sutton.
The guy once known as the
next Jack Nicklaus is playing like he's trying to make up for lost time. Not
too long ago he was in the "bleakest, blackest spot you can think of," ashamed
to be seen on the driving range because he had no idea where the next ball was
going.
Just look at him now.
His victory Sunday in the
Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic
was his second this year, third in his last 15 tournaments and fifth dating to
the Texas Open in the fall of 1998. Only two players have won as many PGA Tour
events since then -- Woods (11) and David Duval (5).
Woods and Duval are still
Nos. 1 and 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking, still the two players everyone
would like to see clash on the back nine Sunday of a major championship, or any
tournament that's not a made-for-television sideshow.
Previous challengers to
Woods have included Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, and Sergio Garcia, even though
he hasn't won in America. What they have in common is their youth, not to mention
the fact a so-called rivalry with any of them has never taken root.
Why not Hal?
Who said rivals have to
be in the same age bracket, especially in a game that often treats 20-year-olds
no differently than 40-year-olds?
Sutton saw this coming
when he was asked after winning Greensboro whether he felt as though he was one
of the toughest players in the world to beat.
"Y'all are trying to build
a rivalry here, aren't you?" he asked in his thick Louisiana drawl. "Tiger Woods
is a great player. And he makes his presence felt everywhere he goes. If y'all
think that I deserve to be mentioned in that same paragraph, then I feel good
about where my game is at right now."
It's not simply because
Sutton has won more than anyone (except Woods) in the last year. It's how he's
won, and in one particular case, whom he's beaten.
In four of the five tournaments
he has won since turning 40, Sutton has taken a lead into the back nine on Sunday
and refused to budge.
Justin Leonard found that
out in the Texas Open. Lee Janzen learned it in the Canadian Open. Andrew Magee
knew it before he tried to catch Sutton in Greensboro.
"This isn't his first rodeo,"
Magee said.
Woods was the victim in
The Players Championship, when
Sutton played as though he had something to prove. He led by one stroke going
into the final round and never lost the lead over two days.
What made the victory especially
compelling was that Sutton called out Woods in the days leading up to their final-round
showdown, saying what few of his peers had dared to utter -- that Tiger was human,
that he knew he could beat the No. 1 player in the world.
"Tiger Woods sets the expectations
high, doesn't he?" Sutton said. "If you want to play in the same game with him,
you have to elevate your own thinking."
Sutton has done that in
what has become an incredible renaissance in his career.
He was a lot like Woods
at that age, winning The Players Championship one month before his 25th birthday
and the PGA Championship -- the latter a wire-to-wire victory over Nicklaus --
four months later in 1983. Sutton feels as though he is playing just as well
now, and the results seem to bear that out.
Among active players on
the PGA Tour, only Greg Norman has won more since turning 40 -- six times. Tom
Kite also won six times after his 40th birthday, while Jack Nicklaus won five
times (three were majors), and Arnold Palmer won four.
The record is 17, held
by the ageless Sam Snead.
Sutton is regarded now
as one of the best ball-strikers in golf and certainly the most feared driver.
He missed only one fairway in the final round of The Players Championship, and
only two fairways on Sunday in his victory at Greensboro.
He is fifth on the PGA
Tour this year in driving accuracy and fourth in greens in regulation, third
in total driving (length and accuracy), and second in saving par from off the
green. It all adds up to him being second on the money list behind Woods.
Where will it all lead?
The only thing Sutton's
comeback lacks is a major, although The Players Championship felt like one. Sutton
hadn't made the cut in The Masters since 1985, but he tied for eighth this year.
The U.S. Open at Pebble Beach is his next chance, and Sutton is sure to be considered
one of the favorites.
