The 19^th Hole

February 19, 2006

Does Anyone Care?

By picking up the W at the ACE Group Classic on Sunday, Loren Roberts has won the first three events of the Champions Tour season.  Odds are that this is a news flash to you.  It is the quietest great story in sports right now.  The problem is that it is even quiet news among golfing fans.  I am really curious, though, why this is not a big deal in the sports world.

When Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in a game against the Raptors, SportsCenter spent a good week laughing at whole teams that failed to score 81 points in a given night.  The media salivated when Danica Patrick held the lead in the Indy 500 for a couple of laps – and hardly anyone in the US cares about Indy Car racing.  And the east coast biased media played up the Johnny Damon signing for a couple of weeks.

Save for Kobe’s individual achievement, these events are not particularly more amazing than what Roberts has accomplished to start the season.  (And even Kobe’s performance was a desperate response to the fact that his team was losing to the Raptors.)

But I can easily concede that most average sports fans don’t care about golf and the Champions Tour, much less know that the Tour exists.  What bothers me is that Roberts’ achievements are seemingly getting very little play in the golf world. 

Hell, his win at the ACE Group Classic was buried under the story of Rory Sabbatini’s win at the Nissan Open.  It was a mere bullet point during a weekly golf news summary during the ABC Sports telecast of the PGA Tour this week.  With all due props to Sabbatini’s great start and the history of Riviera, what Roberts is doing is much more important than that kind of attention.

Sure, the competition on the Champions Tour is not at the same caliber of the PGA Tour.  Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, and Loren Roberts of 2006 do not conjure up the images that Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, and Phil Mickelson of 2006 do.  Still, having what it takes to win a golf tournament is quite a story regardless of age.  Loren Roberts deserves credit for his hot start, especially considering that he has pulled out all of the stops to earn his winning streak.

Let’s face it – if someone on the PGA Tour had peeled off dramatic wins in the first three Tour events of the year, there would be no other story in the game.  The number of Tour players historically that have three of more wins is small enough.  The number of players that have three wins in a season is much smaller than that.  And the number of players that have reeled off three in a row is incredibly small.  Even smaller still is the number of players who have racked up three wins to start the season.  Yet there is not a whole lot of love going around for Loren Roberts.

What Roberts is doing could be just the thing that helps draw attention to the Champions Tour.  Hale Irwin’s decade of dominance could not do it.  The presence of Tom Watson and other legends does not seem to be working.  Perhaps, just maybe, if Roberts could have a 10 win season this year then people would start paying more attention to the Champions Tour.  And if that would not do it, then there really may be no hope for the Champ Tour to get any sense of identity.

I guess the point is that Loren Roberts should be getting more attention for what he has been able to accomplish to start the season.  It is obviously a rare feat and deserves some congratulations and focus.  After all, something like this may not happen again for a long time.

Ryan Ballengee is host of The 19^th Hole Golf Show, found at The Golf Newsnet.com.  You can also get The 19^th Hole on the go through podcasting by clicking here Feedburner.com - The 19th Hole Golf Show.  Contact Ryan via e-mail at the19thholeshow@hotmail.com.

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