So, the mid-way point of the PGA season has passed and there have been six (6) multiple winners on tour this year. The Majors didn't provide us with an "expected" winner, though both Angel Cabrera and Lucas Glover were deserving champions. Phil has won twice, and he had a valiant effort at the U.S. Open, and had he won it, would have most certainly garnered my vote. Tiger, despite missing the first couple of months of the season is in his familiar spot - perched at the top of virtually all meaningful statistics: Victories (3), FedEX Points (1), Scoring Average (1), Money List (1), Top Tens (1).
However, there have been some other bright spots. So, who's your MID YEAR POY???
taking everything into account,it has to be kenny perry. should have won a major too. if he goes onto the champions tour,god help them. I'm always interested when people say " should have won a major." Quite a few names out there than could fit the bill. Monty, Garcia, Perry, Appleby perhaps? Add to the list those who maybe "should " have won more? Duval, Norman, Michelson, Els, Goosen, perhaps? By definition if they " should" have won, it would mean others shouldn't have won a major ( or majors) So who is undeserving of their spot in the sun?
I'm probably as guilty as the next guy in comments like " he deserved to win more ( or one ) majors." Greg Norman springs to my mind. All I'm trying to say is if Perry or Monty or whoever won a handful of majors between them over the last 12 years , it obviously means the other guys who had won would have their numbers cut. So if Perry deserves a major who do we hypothetically take it away from? Mr Woods? I think not
So if Perry deserves a major who do we hypothetically take it away from? Mr Woods? I think notClearly, it would not have been Woods, since he was not the beneficiary of Perry's gift (if that is what's intended by "should have won, but did not").
Without Perry's bogey-bogey finish, Cabrera is not in the playoff, so Cabrera is the hypothetical 'loser' :-)
2006 US Open: Mickelson/Montgomerie/Ogilvy, though perhaps that's not quite so cut-and-dried, since from the tee there was never the certainty that Mickelson makes par to win. If anything, it was Montgomerie who was perched on victory's door with a short iron to the green.
1999, 2004, 2006, 2009 US Opens: Mickelson/(Stewart,Goosen,Ogilvy,Glover). Hard to definitively say that Mickelson 'deserved' any of these, but he did have at least a share of the lead with 3 holes remaining in each, yet didn't even manage so much as a single playoff.
I voted Tiger for mid-way POY. I don't know how you can argue with first place in nearly every category. I also voted for him for POY in 2008, since I thought his half-year accomplishments were better than anyone else's full year. Harrington got it, and I can't say he didn't deserve it with his two majors, but he hardly did anything else the rest of the year (I guess that's a little like saying what else did Pittsburgh do besides winning the Superbowl a few years back when they won as the wild card team!) But this IS a mid-way vote and there's still a lot of golf to be played. Tiger needs to also have a good second half (a major would help!) to win the award.
The trouble with your argument is the game is played over 72 holes. Is it really fair to say " without Perry's bogey bogey" finish." I could retort with , Cabrera went bogey bogey at the 4th and 5th in round four, without that he would have won outright! One could argue that a missed tap in par on the first hole on day one cost a player a major?
Without question, Tiger is not only mid-year POY, but also the prohibitive favorite for the real award come year end. So, I think the real question is who could possibly upstage Tiger's almost certain POY win and what would they have to do to overtake him?
IMO Kenny Perry is clearly in second place right now and should he win a major (British Open or PGA) and perhaps the tour ending championship tourney he just might overtake Tiger for POY assuming he also plays well in the President's Cup matches.
Brian Gay has had two very impressive wins, but not much in between. He needs to win a major and then string together at least 3-4 top 10 finishes in which he at least challenged for the lead during the final rounds. That might give him fair credentials for consideration this year as POY too.
Lucas Glover is about the only other player that I think realistically has a chance at all of overtaking Tiger for POY. Lucas probably needs to challenge for both remaining majors with a finish in the top 5 at both and then win one more tournament somewhere along the way to have the 2009 credentials to overtake Tiger. Not a very likely scenario for our Open champ.
It gets even less likely for Phil. Despite his popularity, his game just doesn't seem to hold up at the most crucial of times. If he wins just one more tournament this year and plays well in the President's Cup, he may garner all of the sentimental favorite votes for POY. That's still probably not enough to overtake Tiger though. I'd say Phil's only chance is to beat Tiger when paired with him in the final Sunday round of the PGA plus, win one other tournament and play well in the President's Cup.
Other than these four players, I don't see anyone else with a chance of overtaking Tiger at this stage. Of course, there's always the miracle chance that someone else might run off 6-7 consecutive wins over the next 3-4 months and emerge as POY. Not!
This was never really intended to be an argument in earnest, more of a what-if, and I would think that in that context it's not unreasonable to only consider the very late stages of a tournament when margins for error are at their thinnest. A bogey (even a triple bogey) on the 2nd hole is certainly not as crushing as it is on the 71st hole, wouldn't you agree? (In other words, let's pretend that you play all 72 holes at one go, and somebody's already posted a score, say -3, and you've just started your long round. You triple your very first hole and are 6 shots back, but you at least have 71 more holes to make it up or better it. Now compare that to being tied after 70, making triple on 71, and the 72nd hole is a par 4 that you cannot possibly reach in 1.)
So, back to Perry at the Masters, he had a 2 stroke lead after 70 holes. Since he was in the final pairing, if nobody in 2nd could come in birdie-birdie (and they did not), then it was his to lose. And he did.
It gets even less likely for Phil. Despite his popularity, his game just doesn't seem to hold up at the most crucial of times. If he wins just one more tournament this year and plays well in the President's Cup, he may garner all of the sentimental favorite votes for POY.I agree with Woods leading the PotY race, but I'm not so sure that Perry is the clear #2. Keep in mind that Mickelson also has a t2 at a major, and has another top5, compared to Perry's t2 and 44. Mickelson also has finished higher than Woods in the majors and WGCs, including one WGC victory. Of course, he also has missed a couple of cuts as well as a handful of mediocre finishes.
As always, it will depend on the majors. Glover is ahead of Cabrera, but neither is getting PotY without at least another win (another major would probably seal it up, though).
Good points about Phil triton. I forgot that Phil actually does have 2 wins on the year as I had overlooked his win at Riviera early in the year. There's no doubt that I see him right now as the guy that folded down the stretch when he had the Open well within his grasp. We've seen that type of fold before out of him and it's just hard for me to see him as POY without something significantly altering that vision. That's just me though and hopefully others see him in a more competitive sense than I do at this point of this year.
everyone knows how good tiger is and he will be the best golfer ever, but i like to look at other things when it comes to picking kenny perry. the reason i picked him is because he has carried his form over from last season into the first half of this one(also in the ryder cup) and he is no spring chicken
