DORAL, Fla. — Who’s No. 1? Nobody.
As golf embarks on this week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral’s Blue Monster, we dole out due respect to the wonderfully talented German, Martin Kaymer, who’s been ranked No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings for all of about 15 minutes.
But the reality is there’s no true No. 1 player in golf at the moment.
This is something we should become accustomed to as golf is in the throes of change — settling into a flavor-of-the-month mode, where a different player emerges hot for a while and then quietly fades.
This is the state of the game now, and it’s not likely to change anytime soon.
Gone are the days of Tiger Woods’ dominance, the days of the “Tiger Slam.”
Woods’ record streak of 281 consecutive weeks atop the world rankings (623 weeks in all) came to an end on Halloween of 2010, almost a year after he crashed his SUV into a neighborhood fire hydrant and then watched his personal life implode.
Woods was supplanted by Lee Westwood at that time. Westwood’s hold on the No. 1 ranking was tenuous at best before he was overtaken by Kaymer less than two weeks ago after the Match Play in Arizona.
Woods’ reign trained us to expect there to be a dominant player with “No. 1” attached to his name like a sponsor’s logo embroidered on his bag.
The reality, we’re now coming to understand, is that Woods’ incredible reign was an anomaly — a dominance we’re not likely to see ever again in the sport thanks to the constant influx of depth to the talent pool.
“Maybe 15, 20 years ago there were only 50 or 60 guys who can win a golf tournament,” Kaymer said. “Now everybody who enters a tournament can win. So it can change weekly, the No. 1 in the world.”
Not only will Woods never be as consistently good as he was when he ruled the game at his peak, but the competition has caught up to him. This is not to say in any way that Woods is finished, because I believe he’ll not only win majors again, but that he’ll break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 career majors.
But much the way Mike Tyson’s air of intimidation was never the same (nor was his career) after Buster Douglas beat him down on that infamous night in Tokyo, Woods will never intimidate opposing players the way he once did.
Those days are gone. The curtain has been raised on Oz.
The days that are upon us now are days when Mark Wilson wins one week, Luke Donald wins the next and Rory Sabbatini wins the next.
Woods, who hasn’t won in nearly 16 months (the longest winless drought of his career) and has slipped to No. 5 in the world rankings, will win again. He’ll win majors again. He’s still sorting out his fractured personal life.
“He’s just in a different place; his life’s different right now,” Bubba Watson said of Woods, whom he considers a friend. “When his mind gets back, yeah, he’s going to be better than ever. It could be this week; it could be next week; it could be any time.”
Based on Woods’ history at Doral, it could happen this week. He’s won three times at Doral (2005, 2006, ad 2007). In seven starts on the Blue Monster, he’s never finished out of the top 10.
“It’s about winning golf tournaments, and I haven’t done that,” Woods said yesterday. “There’s no reason for me to be up there at the top [of the rankings]. You have to win golf tournaments, and you have to do it consistently. Lee did it, Martin’s done it, and that’s what it takes.”
