PGA Championship : There’s More Talk About Parity Than Course

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Golf’s 1987 major championship season soon comes to an end amidst the sand and water of the PGA National complex and if the year’s current trend holds true the winner will probably be Mark McCumber -- or someone like him.

If it isn’t McCumber, chances are it will be Tom Kite or Payne Stewart or Curtis Strange or Andy Bean or Gary Koch or Jay Haas.

All of them have been around for a number of years, building the kinds of careers that are the envy of many. But none has won a major championship.

That, however, did not stand in the way of Larry Mize, Scott Simpson or Nick Faldo, who have added to the most unique stretch in the history of the game by winning their first major titles this year in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open respectively.

The 69th championship of the Professional Golfers’ Association begins Aug. 6 over the 7,002-yard, par-72 PGA National Championship course -- one of four layouts that make up one of the many Florida golfing hubs. Bob Tway will defend the title he won at the Inverness Club last August by sinking a bunker shot at the 72nd hole.

The summer’s other two major tournaments were played on courses without a water hazard, but water will come into play on all but two holes at the PGA National. And where there isn’t water, there is usually sand to be found in more than 100 bunkers. The greens are small and the weather could be oppressive.

But rather than the course and the conditions, the pre-tournament discussion will likely feature the trend that has established itself over the last four years along the major championship trail.

During that span there have been varying types of major championship winners. There have been the veteran stars who were thought to be past the point of capturing a major title -- Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd, Lee Trevino and Hubert Green.

There have been emerging players like Hal Sutton, Bernhard Langer and Tway. And there have been the sentimental favorites like Ben Crenshaw and the most recent addition to the major championship victory list -- Nick Faldo.

Through it all, however, there has developed an unprecedented statistic.

The last 18 major championships, dating back to the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in suburban Pittsburgh, have been won by 18 different players. That beats the longest previous such streak by four tournaments.

In addition, the last five major events have been won by players who had never won a major before. Since the U.S. Open was created in 1895, there has been only one previous stretch of new major champions to match the current one.

That was established in the late 1950s when Dow Finsterwald (PGA), Art Wall (Masters), Billy Casper (U.S. Open), Gary Player (British Open) and Bob Rosberg (PGA) won consecutive major events. Those were the first major crowns for all of those players, just as they have been for the last five winners -- Greg Norman (British Open), Tway (PGA), Mize (Masters), Simpson (U.S. Open) and Faldo (British Open).

“It’s just that there are so many good players now that any number of them are capable of winning a major championship,” said Crenshaw, who has led or shared the lead during the last day of all three majors this year. “These days a player seems to get hot for a little while and then falls back.

“It is going to take an incredible player to stay on top for any length of time anymore.”

At this time a year ago, it appeared there were two such “incredible” players available. Tway and Norman were fighting it out for player of the year honors and at the PGA they dueled each other for the tournament crown. They combined for more than $2 million in worldwide earnings in 1986.

Amazingly, neither has won a tournament this year.

Instead, new names have surfaced. Paul Azinger, little known a year ago, has won three tournaments in 1987 and almost captured the British Open. Mize and Simpson have risen toward the top of the money list, Mark Calcavecchia has played well throughout the year and David Frost has quietly had an excellent season.

And as a symbol of the year, Robert Wrenn came from nowhere at the Buick Open and almost set an all-time PGA tour scoring record.

“Players aren’t intimidated anymore,” said Stewart, who has played as well as anyone in the world the last two years and yet has only one victory to show for it. “There is parity in equipment and parity in the sport.”