Editor’s Picks: My hardest golfers
By Dan Murphy
Hello fellow golf nerd enthusiast – I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist clicking on my list of the hardest golfers I can think of. As in, the ones you would least like to get into a fight with. We all love a list at the best of times, don’t we? Right now is anything but – so I thought it would be reassuring to fall back on the kind of thing that used to fill our joyously mundane lives: namely arguing the toss over hypothetical sporting comparisons.
As a game for ladies and gentlemen, perish the thought that golf could ever turn violent. But, given due provocation, I don’t think any of us would want to see any of the following coming at us.
Let’s start at No 10 with…
My hardest golfers: No 10 – Corey Pavin
Not all fights are won by the biggest and strongest – sometimes qualities like cunning, tenacity and snarling front can be even more valuable.
Pavin was a simply obnoxious – in the sense of being the very last man on the USA team the Europeans wanted to be up against – Ryder Cup opponent in the 1990s. This was typified by his chip-in at the 18th at Oak Hill to deny Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer a half in the Saturday fourballs in 1995.
He also got a little carried away at Kiawah Island four years earlier, briefly confusing sport with war. But that’s another story.
Curiously, he was understated as Ryder Cup captain at Celtic Manor in 2010.
Dan Murphy
Dan loves links golf, which doesn't mean he is very good at it. He is a four-handicapper at Alwoodley. A qualified journalist and senior editor with 25 years’ experience, he was the long-time editor of NCG. His passion is golf courses and he is the founding editor of NCG Top 100s course rankings. He loves nothing more than discovering and highlighting courses that are worthy of greater recognition.
