The American Way, HUH?
If Washington Times sports columnist Dan Daly was just trying to attract attention, it worked. He got mine. In his June 19 column Daly said “I’m beginning to wonder if the U.S. Open is un-American.” He went on to bemoan the whole USGA approach. He said that “…alas,…the Open has mutated into, a four-day Carnival of Caution that too often brings out the worst –and the wuss – in golfers.” And on and on. One can’t help but wonder if Daly has ever played golf. If Daly is a golfer he knows that it is what the Scots always intended it to be a game played mostly between the ears as Bobby Jones described it many years ago.
As Justice Scalia once said about Administrative Law, golf is not for sissies. I doubt that anyone would ever call Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer or Lee Trevino or any of the greats’ sissies. Sure, Arnold Palmer’s publisher titled one of his books Go for Broke but that was to sell books. In the book Arnie made it clear that there is a difference between being bold and playing recklessly, and that he knew the difference.
Several years ago as Phil Mickelson was about to lose another U.S. Open by a stroke or two Johnny Miller said, “Maybe some day Phil will learn the value of a par.” We will probably never know whether Johnny’s advice had any affect on Phil but we do know that Phil started to play a little smarter and Phil now has won three Majors. Unfortunately in the 2006 U.S. Open (and in several tournaments leading up to it) the old Phil returned. If you watched Phil’s swing with the driver on the tee at Winged Foot you would have thought you were watching a Daly swing (John, not Dan). It is a testimony to Phil’s other golfing skills that he was still in contention on the 72nd hole. Most tour players who had missed as many fairways as Phil did would not have made the cut.
As is true with most things that are fun to do or to watch Golf requires both skill and intelligence. Texas Hold’em is currently the rage and as is true of most forms of Poker it is easy to conclude that winning is mostly luck but as anyone who has ever played much poker knows, over the long run mental skill is really what separates the winners from the losers. If this were not true the casinos could start running poker tournaments where the players played Showdown all night. You know, that’s the game where everyone antes up and is dealt a hand which each person turns up in turn. There is no further betting, no raising, no decisions to make. The best hand takes the pot. Ante up again and deal. That’s gambling, not poker, and I doubt that anyone would find it interesting (or smart) to play for hours let alone to watch.
Mr. Daly said that “America isn’t about breaking even, about level par. …If America was about breaking even, the French franc would still be legal tender in New Orleans.” I guess Daly (Dan not John) doesn’t recall that the greatest mental breakdown in Golf history was Jean Van de Velde’s triple bogey 7 at the final hole in the 1999 British Open. The Frenchman’s play that day has been called many things but never the American Way.