World Golf Hall Of Fame Up For Sweeping Review

I was listening in on Tim Finchem's press conference and was shocked when he didn't resist suggestions from questioners suggesting various elements of the World Golf Hall of Fame may be in need of review (age limit, international ballot, timing).

In fact, Finchem suggested that pretty much everything is under review.

(I'm saddened by the possibility that the Players Championship Monday ceremony may not be continuing, but the pathetic lack of turnout by current PGA Tour players and male Hall members suggests the effort, though well-intentioned, has not worked. And let's face it, their presence adds immensely to the cache of the Hall and would make it the celebration of the sport that the WGHOF should be.)

Garry Smits files an excellent summation of all the potential changes revealed in the Finchem press conference, including the potential demise of the dreaded International ballot.

Finchem said the idea of having two voting ballots, one for PGA Tour players and one for international players, might be out-dated.

“At the top of the competitive chart ... the vast majority of those players are now members of the PGA Tour,” he said. “That wasn’t the case 18 or 20 years ago when we had players coming up. Colin Montgomerie was a good example. He played an entire career and did not play much here [in the U.S.]. That really doesn’t happen much anymore. So it does raise a question about the ballot structure.”

The other bone of contention this year is that Couples and Montgomerie received 51 percent of the vote on their respective ballots, the lowest on either in the history of the current format of selecting players to the Hall of Fame. They fell under the loophole that if no one gets 65 percent of the vote, the player leading the ballot gets into the Hall of Fame as long as he gets 50 or more percent.”

Finchem said that almost everything about the Hall of Fame, its selection process and induction ceremony was on the table for change.

“We’re going to look at everything and have more to say about it probably later this year,” he said.