No place in golf for 'Secret' Surveys

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

THERE is a disturbing new trend around the PGA Tour - the "secret" survey. So far, the result of two of these so-called surveys have been released, one naming Bubba Watson as the most unpopular player among his peers, the other claiming their fellow players believed Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter were the most overrated players on tour.

The result of the  'unpopularity' survey was released at around the time of The Masters, when Watson was trying to focus on defending his title. It clearly came as a shock to him - although not necessarily to the rest of the us. Watson is a devout Christian and, to be frank, his behaviour sometimes doesn't sit too comfortably with his beliefs.

He has been known to berate his caddy in public in no uncertain terms, and his behaviour when he played in the French Open a couple of years was disgraceful. He attacked the organisers and the fans and made light of some of the world's greatest landmarks, referring to the Arc de Triomphe as "that arch thing", the Louvre as "that art gallery beginning with an L" and the Eiffel Tower as "that tower". It was ill-judged and it was boorish.

But it was no worse than the behaviour of many other golfers who have gone before him. And to be fair to Bubba, he did say that perhaps it was time that he took a good hard look at himself. No matter what any of us may think of him, this is a man who wants to be loved. He is also a man who does an untold amount of good work for charity.

And then there was the slight aimed at Fowler and Poulter. Let's take these in reverse order. Poulter would probably be the first to admit that he was not blessed with a huge amount of natural ability. He turned professional with a five handicap and has risen through the ranks with a mixture of cussed determination and sheer bloody-mindedness. In short, he has over-achieved.

And Fowler? Last year he finished in the top five in all four majors - an incredible achievement by a golfer in his mid-twenties. He recognised that his game wasn't quite where he needed it to be, so he approached Butch Harmon and spent months working on his swing.

Fowler would admit that he should have won more often that he has, but he showed at the Players Championship just what a special talent he is. In the final round he birdied the 13th and 15th, eagled the 16th and birdied the 17th and 18th and forced his way into a playoff. Just for good measure, he birdied the 17th twice more in that playoff - just to remind you, the 17th is the par three that features an island green and is the hole where countless challenges for the Players Championship have come to grief. Fowler played it three times and on each occasion he took dead aim at the pin.

Does that sound to you like the play of an overrated golfer? The point is that Fowler took the criticism between his teeth and spat it back out in some style.

And here's the interesting thing about all of this. No PGA Tour player is prepared to admit that they were even approached about either of these so-called surveys, let along admit to picking out Watson, Fowler or Poulter. It could well be that no such survey ever existed and I have to say that is what my gut instinct tells me.

To the bottom-feeding so-called golf journalists who produce such puerile garbage I have one thing to say: if you watched the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and cared anything at all about golf you would know that the game, and those who play it, are in pretty good shape.