Fame, Redefined

As long rumored, the World Golf Hall of Fame has announced revised eligibility criteria.  The headline is that the Hall will now induct new players on a biannual basis instead of annually.  The changes come on the heels of the induction last year of Fred Couples and Colin Montgomerie.  Per this Ron Sirak post, to be elected candidates will need to garner 75% of the votes of a 16-person Selection Committee with the following eligibility requirements:

To be considered in the Competitor category, a male needs 15 wins (up from 10)in

His Montyness

International Federation of PGA Tours events OR two victories in majors or Players Championship.

A woman needs 15 wins on tours that receive Rolex Rankings points OR two victories in the five LPGA majors. The 27-point rule will remain in effect for the LPGA Hall of Fame. It is highly unlikely a woman would earn 27 points and not make the WGHOF. 

Majors or The Players Championship? Well played, Commissioner Ratched, the fifth of four majors gets a place at the table.

Who will be entrusted to handle such a important undertaking?

The Selection Commission for the 2015 class will be chaired by four WGHOF members: Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez. In addition to that four and the three writers, and a representative from the PGA Tour, European Tour, LPGA, Masters, PGA of America, USGA, R&A and, for the 2015 class, the Japan LPGA and Sunshine Tour.

The logic of moving to an every other year process is to ensure a sufficient number of appropriate candidates each cycle, but it's the 75% vote threshold that is likely to accomplish that (Couples and Monty were both elected with slightly more than 50% of a larger electoral pool),

Just for the record, I've never thought there was a shooter on the grassy knoll or that the U.S. or Israel planned 9/11, but my Commissioner Ratched cronyism radar was past the red zone on this. Hmmm...only 5 votes needed to block a nominee, and those 5 votes can readily be found in the Star Wars bar, where the aforementioned Commish, Peter Dawson and Ted Bishop regularly drink. Rex Hoggard is thinking along the same lines:

Hall of Fame chief operating officer Jack Peter called the old way “unwieldy.” Player went a step further, “When you have hundreds of people voting I don’t think you can come to the right conclusion.” 

So, that would mean Cooperstown – the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame which is considered by some the benchmark hall in sports – has it all wrong. For Peter & Co., 300 votes are too much, but somehow baseball’s hall managed to tally 571 ballots last year.

But the real problem is that there's an inevitable trend towards loosened standards, that is mirrored in all sports Halls of Fame. The standards are necessarily vague, but one player is appropriately voted in with marginal credentials because of other attributes or contributions, then those lesser credentials become the standard. Couples and Mrs. Doubtfire attracted the critics because of their paltry total of majors. But Monty's seven consecutive Orders of Merit ain't chopped liver, and combined with his stellar Ryder Cup record (and the fact that while he didn't win one, he made it to two major playoffs) and I think he's got a credible case.

Shackelford has much to say on the subject in a Morning Drive appearance embedded in this post (someday I'll figure out why the embed code doesn't work for me).

In reaction to this news, Jeff Rude proposes a Hall of the Very Good, with the following inaugural induction class:

Women’s pro wing (10): Lorena Ochoa (27 LPGA victories, 2 majors), Laura Davies (20-4),Meg Mallon (18-4), Susie Maxwell Berning (11-4), Jane Blalock (27-0), Sandra Palmer (19-2), Jan Stephenson (16-3), Dottie Pepper (17-2), Beverly Hanson (17-3), Sally Little (15-2).

Amateur wing (6): Harvie Ward, Charlie Coe, Catherine Lacoste, Frank Stranahan, Jay Sigel,Vinny Giles.

Men’s old-timer wing (9): Johnny Farrell (22 PGA Tour victories, 1 major), Willie Macfarlane (21-1), Johnny Revolta and Jim Ferrier (18-1), Macdonald Smith (24-0), Bill Melhorn (20-0), Harold “Jug” McSpaden and Bobby Cruickshank (17-0), E.J. “Dutch” Harrison (18-0).

Modern era men’s wing (26): Davis Love III (20-1), Tony Lema (12-1), Ian Woosnam (29 European and 2 PGA Tour wins, 1 major), Mark O’Meara (16-2), Corey Pavin (15-1), David Graham (8-2), Fuzzy Zoeller (10-2), Tom Weiskopf (16-1), Dave Stockton (10-2), Doug Sanders (20-0), Hal Sutton and Art Wall Jr. (14-1), Mark Calcavecchia, George Archer and Craig Stadler (13-1), Paul Azinger and Bobby Nichols (12-1), Steve Elkington (10-1), Bob Goalby, Dow Finsterwald and Al Geiberger (11-1), Don January and John Mahaffey (10-1), Bruce Crampton (14-0), Jerry Pate (8-1), Tom Lehman (5-1)

Some great old names buried in there, Harvie Ward especially.