2009 Major Champions: A Forgotten Bunch?

I’ve got a question for you. How will you remember the 2009 major championships thus far?

Let’s start with the Masters. Will you remember Angel Cabrera winning the tournament with excellent play down the stretch? Or will you remember Kenny Perry‘s downward spiral towards the end of the final round which lost him a shot at his first major?

How about the U.S. Open? Six months from now, will you and your friends be talking about how Lucas Glover outshined the rest and came out of nowhere to win his first career major championship? Or will you be talking about the weather at Bethpage and how Phil Mickelson almost pulled out the victory?

And just yesterday, Stewart Cink defeated Tom Watson in a four-hole playoff at Turnberry to win the 2009 British Open. Are you going to remember Cink’s play throughout the tournament? Or are you going to remember the amazement you had at watching a 59 year-old nearly pull off the upset of the century?

Unfortunately for Cabrera, Glover, and Cink, most of us will always remember the latter in those three situations.

Sure, we’ll still know who won the tournaments. But mainly because we’ll remember who lost the tournaments. Is is fair? Probably not.

But does it have to be fair? Not at all. You think those three guys are worried about fair as they stare at their respective major championship trophy sitting on the mantle at their home? I don’t think so. They played good golf, and were rewarded for their efforts at the end of the day. Regardless of what the other players did or didn’t do to win the tournament.

This is golf. We are always going to have our favorites, and guys we will root for no matter what. But even if the favorites don’t win, we will still appreciate the work put in by the winner. After all, if it were that easy to go out and win a four day tournament, we would all have shots at playing on the tour.

I doubt Cink wanted to win his first major championship by having to deny us one of the greatest stories in golf history. I’m sure he would have rather been the focus at the tournament came to an end. It wasn’t the case, however, but do you think that made him any less happy at being considered a major champion?

We may not remember Cabrera’s fine play at Augusta in five years. We may not remember Glover’s persistence in winning at one of the toughest major courses in years. And we may not remember Cink’s putt on 18 in the final round to at least give him a shot at a playoff.

And who knows. The same situation may take place at the PGA Championship.

But that’s ok. They’re still major champions. And no one can take that away from them.