New World Order: No trouble compiling an all-San Diego top 10
For those who stand with their noses pressed against the glass most of the time, the greater context of sports can be rather startling.
Case in point: The airport in San Diego offers some jarring perspective for millions of visitors annually, courtesy of a series of glass-encased, poster-sized photos of the town's sports luminaries over the years.
A couple of years ago, I was so enthralled by the number of prominent golfers from the town who had posters placed along the concourse -- San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States with 1.3 million people -- that I ambled right past my departure gate.
In fact, it's no departure to assert that, as the PGA Tour rolls this week into town for the Farmers Insurance Open at venerable Torrey Pines, nobody does it better. Laid back, sun-splashed and forever temperate, San Diego has been an incubator for the best array of talent in the country, if not the world, over the modern era.
Sure, Fort Worth produced native sons Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Jackie Burke, but the firepower generated by America's Finest City, as some have dubbed it, is so deep, former major-championship winners can't even crack the list of the town's top-five players.
We're stripping it down for you, sort of like those nudists do it on Black's Beach, located just below the Torrey Pines cliffs, and doling out the bare truth. Phil Mickelson is poised to become the fifth San Diegan in the World Golf Hall of Fame this spring.
Forget the May Gray and June Gloom, those foggy months along the Pacific shoreline that often bath the city in a haze. This is about sunshine and clarity, and after eyeballing the names on this list, it's impossible to argue that the busy border town has routinely issued residents a passport to greatness.
Seven players on this list won at least one major championship, and another lost in a playoff. If there's another town that can boast this much success, serve it up, people.
1. Mickey Wright
Born: San Diego
Date of birth: Feb. 14, 1935
Hogan and Nelson knew a little something about the game, of course, so when they both make the same claim about Wright, it ought to have some serious timbre and tone. The two icons agreed that Wright had the best swing in the history of the game, femme or otherwise, and for 14 years, she destroyed her LPGA competition like no player before or since. Wright won 82 times and then abruptly quit at age 34, tired of the pressure to perform and carry the tour on her shoulders. From 1962-64, she won 10, 13 and 11 tournaments, with the middle number still standing as the record for most victories in a single season. She won 13 majors, including four U.S. Open titles, and claimed each of the Grand Slam women's events at the time at least twice. She learned the game starting at age 11 at La Jolla Country Club. No knock on Annika Sorenstam and her era, but Mary "Mickey" Wright remains in the minds of many the greatest player in the history of the women's game.
2. Billy Casper
Born: San Diego
Date of birth: June 24, 1931
Has any player of his ilk ever gotten shorter shrift by virtue of the era in which he played? Casper was overshadowed by the so-called Big Three in his prime years, yet finished his career with a staggering 51 victories in the 20-year span that started in 1956, and incredibly, he won at least one tournament for 16 consecutive seasons in that stretch. He won three majors, and while playing against some of the game's truest giants, claimed the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average five times. Only two members of the World Golf Hall of Fame can make the latter claim. He is without question the most underrated player in history, mostly because of his compatriots. From 1964-70, Casper won 27 PGA Tour events, six more than Arnold Palmer and Gary Player combined, and two more than Jack Nicklaus. Casper learned the game as a caddie at San Diego Country Club and became one of the game's scariest putters. Fellow Californian and competitor Johnny Miller once said, "Billy has the greatest pair of hands God ever gave a human being.”
3. Phil Mickelson
Born: San Diego
Date of birth: June 16, 1970
He might be more readily linked to his town than any other player on the PGA Tour. Still a resident of the suburbs, Mickelson left for Arizona for a few years but eventually headed back to his familiar haunts, and occasionally he shows up at Torrey Pines to play a round among the civilians. Mickelson's pedigree is well-known these days, and his 39 PGA Tour victories have made him one of the most beloved players in the game, which he learned on his dad's backyard practice area. Lefty isn't the only golfer to sprout from the family's San Diego roots: Mickelson's brother is the golf coach at Arizona State and his sister is a teacher and former Golf Channel analyst.
4. Gene Littler
Born: San Diego
Date of birth: July 21, 1930
Like with Wright, the swing was his thing. Littler, another player who toiled under the radar in the same era with Nicklaus, Player and Palmer, was a favorite of the game's aficionados because of the silky pass he made at the ball, which often was singled out as the template for success by teachers and analysts. He made his first splash in winning the U.S. Amateur title and didn't let up for, oh, a quarter-century. Long before winning at an advanced age became prevalent in the professional game (think: Vijay Singh, Kenny Perry), Littler was doing it. Littler won three tournaments in 1975 at age 45 and two years later won again at 47. In all, he won 29 times, though with a club in hand, he was a true ageless artiste.
5. Paul Runyan
Born: Hot Springs, Ark.
Date of birth: July 12, 1908
The lone non-native on the list, Runyan requires something of an asterisk, but he lived in the city for so long, and became so identifiable with the area golf scene as one of the game's top instructors, he was inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions. Good enough for us. He won two PGA Championships and was the predecessor to guys like Corey Pavin -- an undersized guy who made due with moxie, savvy and other-worldy short-game skills. Nicknamed "Little Poison," Runyan was a waifish 5-feet-7 and 125 pounds, yet he won 29 times on tour between 1930-41, and had nine victories in 1933. In 1934 he topped the tour in earnings with, get this, $6,767. Runyan encamped in La Jolla, site of this week's Torrey Pines event, and carved out a sizeable reputation as a swing guru in his later years, and along the way, he even taught Littler. He died in 2002.
6. Craig Stadler
Born: San Diego
Date of birth: June 2, 1953
The former Ryder Cupper and Masters champion and La Jolla High School graduate won the 1973 U.S. Amateur and has a steady, popular tenure on the PGA Tour, where he won 13 times and earned one of the great nicknames of his era, the Walrus. In fact, Stadler deserved to make the list if, for no other reason, he and his son both have logged multiple years on the tour. Kevin's nickname is "Smallrus." Impressively, Craig won PGA Tour events separated by a span of 23 years
7. Scott Simpson
Born: San Diego
Date of birth: Sept. 17, 1955
Best known for his win at the 1987 U.S. Open, which earned him a Ryder Cup berth, Simpson was a solid performer over the years, though not necessarily a top dog. He won seven times on the PGA Tour, won two NCAA titles and, like Stadler, had a long professional arc that included PGA Tour wins separated by 18 seasons. Played at San Diego's Madison High.
8. Phil Rodgers
Born: San Diego
Date of birth: April 3, 1938
Like No. 5 Paul Runyan, Rodgers was an impactful guy on both the course and the practice range. Rodgers won five times on the PGA Tour and claimed an NCAA title as a star at Houston. He is perhaps most remembered as a player because of a playoff loss at the 1963 British Open and a tough defeat at the 1962 U.S. Open, where he led on the back nine but bogeyed three of his last six holes to miss a playoff with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. As a teacher, he was credited with helping Niclkaus shake off the cobwebs in 1980, when he came back from his worst year to win two more major championships at age 40. Rodgers was one of the first, and finest, short-game gurus and helped Nicklaus with his wedge game in particular.
9. Charley Hoffman
Born: San Diego
Date of birth: Dec. 27, 1976
Nobody, at least from a visual sense, more embodies the common San Diego stereotype than does Hoffman, with his shaggy surfer hair and flat-billed golf cap. Hoffman hasn't won a ton on the PGA Tour, with a pair of victories, but has kept his card for six consecutive seasons since moving up from the Nationwide in 2006. Hoffman helped lead UNLV to the NCAA title in 1998, and his teammates during his college tenure included Adam Scott, Chad Campbell, Chris Riley and Bill Lunde, all future winners on the PGA Tour. Interestingly, Lunde and Riley also are San Diego natives.
10. Pat Perez
Born: Phoenix
Date of birth: March 1, 1976
Outside of Mickelson, Perez is perhaps the player most identified with San Diego on this list. His father, Tony, used to be the first tee starter announcer at Torrey Pines during the annual tour event, and little brother Mike was a top area player who logged a season on the Nationwide Tour, as well as the Golf Channel's Big Break. Perez is best known for his unbridled, unfiltered opinions, which have endeared him to the scribes, though it hasn't always been the best thing for his golf game. Perez, who was medalist at 2001 Qualifying School, deserved to make the list not so much by virtue of his one PGA Tour win, but because in an era of unsurpassed depth, he has kept his card for 11 straight seasons since. In 2009, he went 20 under over his first 36 holes at the Bob Hope Classic, a record relative to par. Perez used to pick up range balls at Torrey Pines as a 13-year-old kid and attended Torrey Pines High. That's as homeboy as it gets.
