The parochialism that is hurting America

ANTON HAIG followed in the footsteps of the likes of Michael Campbell, Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Tiger Woods and Ian Woosnam when he won the recent Johnnie Walker Classic at Blue Canyon in Thailand.

It might not be long before this precocious South African is challenging Woods and the rest of the world's best on an even more lofty stage.

Twenty-year-old Haig is already one of the game's biggest hitters and winning a European Tour title at his 19th attempt gave a graphic illustration of why Els, Goosen and others have been saying for some time
that the 6' 4" South African has all the attributes to go right to the top of the game.

Haig (pictured right) was hugely impressive while snatching victory from Richard Sterne and Oliver Wilson in Thailand and in the process he perpetuated a trend which has been apparent for quite some time.

During much of the second half of the 20th Century it would be fair to say that most of the emerging golfing talent hailed from the United States of America.

The likes of Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam did break the mould for a while during the 1970s and 80s but until the last couple of years only intermittent victories by the likes of Els, Goosen, Nick Price, Vijay Singh and one or two others have interrupted America's dominant position in the game.

Tiger Woods remains the undisputed world No. 1 but what has changed is that nowadays most of his main rivals come from the likes of Australia, England, South Africa, Spain and Sweden rather than his home country.

It is a trend that is illustrated graphically by the changing composition of the Official World Rankings and was also readily apparent at the recent WGC-Accenture Matchplay, where a mere 23 Americans made it into the distinguished 64-man field.

In numerical terms the upper echelons of the world rankings used to be dominated by Americans but that is no longer the case.

A month ago the top 20 on that list comprised just 14 non-Americans.

The age profile of the six Americans who did make it made even more grim reading for Uncle Sam because it included just one aged 30 or under (Charles Howell III) compared to six international golfers from that age group (Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Luke Donald, Trevor Immelman, Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey).

It could also be added that three other international players aged 30 or under made it into that week's top 50 (Aaron Baddeley, Justin Rose and Carl Pettersson) but no other Americans of that age group did so.
Possibly their most talented younger player Lucas Glover (28) did come close but he slipped out, only a few places ahead of South Africa's Charl Schwartzel who is another young international player who is currently making a meteoric rise up the list.

The changing composition of the rankings suggests that America's leading young tour golfers are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with their international contemporaries.

This was also highlighted at a fascinating World Matchplay in Arizona, where Henrik Stenson of Sweden defeated Geoff Ogilvy of Australia in the final and where South Africa's Trevor Immelman won the third place play-off against Chad Campbell ­ the only American to make it into the last eight.

The Americans are still winning more than their fair share of Majors (28 out of the last 40) but even that statistic is misleading because Woods happens to have amassed 12 of those victories.

Phil Mickelson also has three but it is not immediately apparent who will be the next champion to emerge from a population of 300 million people (compared to about 135 million in Australia, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom combined).

American golf is clearly in a bit of a rut and I tend to blame the reticence of their top players to travel for that malaise.

The likes of Els, Goosen, Singh, Garcia, Donald, Casey and Scott all play golf in differing conditions in Europe, Asia and Australasia.

But that is not the case for young Americans like JJ Henry, JB Holmes, Ryan Moore, Sean O'Hair and Charley Hoffman who can win literally millions of dollars on manicured home courses without ever having to reach for their passports.

It is no coincidence that America's No. 1 golfer is also that country's most travelled golfer but that seems still not to have sunk home in a country where xenophobia is rife and where even prominent media figures like NBC's Jimmy Roberts seem incapable of understanding that there is more to golf than what happens within the boundaries of 50 US states.

Roberts has proved himself to be excessively nationalistic on numerous occasions but he managed to excel even himself at the start of his post-round interview with the victorious Stenson at the end of the WGC-Accenture Match Play event.

"Well, Henrik, this will certainly get you known in America," he began, illustrating not just monumental arrogance, but also the dangerously blinkered attitude that is endangering America's traditional pre-eminent position in the game.