get the competition. 2009 being a Walker Cup year, Golfweek has established a Walker Cup Watch list with 10 picks and 5 alternates. What makes this year’s selection interesting is that the son of a Golf/SI writer (Gary Van Sickle) named Mike Van Sickle is in the running. Mike V.S. was the greatest golfer ever produced by Marquette U. and has put himself into position to 1) Win the Porter Cup and 2) Make the cut at last week’s Nationwide event. He was a first team all-american and scholar all-american, played in two PGA Tour events this month, and played on the Palmer Cup team.
Guess where he rates on Golfweek’s list? Try #16. Really, Golfweek? A little petty, don’t you think? Look at some of the fellows you placed ahead of MVS and ask yourselves, are we being honest.
#1…Nathan Smith and Mike McCoy, both mid-ams. Sorry, but no mid-am, unless he is US Am champion, plays for my Walker Cup team. They don’t have what it takes coming down the stretch.
#2…Peter Uihlein…He’s a decent player out of Oklahoma State, but is he Walker Cup material? Has he won All-America honors, college events, major amateur tournaments? Nope.
#3…Anybody else who hasn’t choked at one point or another. Bud Cauley? Gagged the Porter Cup away, as did Van Sickle. Rickie Fowler? Made bogey on 18 at Ohio State to give up lead, then lost playoff for Nationwide event last week. The list goes on.
It seems that the staff at Golfweek wants to vilify Van Sickle for putting himself in position to win events, then for losing them. Perhaps they are forgetting that each match at the Walker Cup is only one round at most. No three-day cumulative competition here.
I’d love to read a rebuttal to this post from the team at Golf Week. Justify keeping Mike Van Sickle off the Walker Cup team, for my sake. This reeks of professional jealousy, but you put yourself in the spotlight, GW. Now get yourself out of it with rationale.
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Comment feed for this post
The Accidental Golfer:
Brandon Tucker:
Mark Nessmith:
Jason Scott Deegan:
Ron, you obviously know good golf(after all, you coach young girls)so I am hopeful that you actually understand what these young men have gone through to get where they are. They have scrificed doing what normal teenagers do just to become better at their sport. Your words do little to build self esteem in them and just because you may be bitter over your golf career, or lack of it, you needn't tear them down to point out flaws in the ranking system and with certain protocols associated with it. I only wish you could re-write this article without making it seem that the young men involved are somehow tainted.
Think baout it.
Sometimes you get what you wish for -- in this case, a rebuttal from the team at Golfweek. You called where we placed Mike Van Sickle in our Walker Cup Watch List a "pathetic attempt ... to get the competition" and said it "reeks of professional jealousy." My reaction: Laughable, really. I'm willing to bet Golfweek has written more about the rise of Mike Van Sickle at Marquette than any other publication; in fact, we hold him in such high regard that earlier this year we devoted several pages of instruction showing Mike and his instructor and exhibiting what he works on with his game. We have not done that with too many amateurs. The three of us who cover the PGA Tour on a regular basis -- Jeff Rude, Jim McCabe and I -- are all longtime friends with Mike's dad, Gary, going back to his days with Golf World. Personally, I've played golf with Mike and was thoroughly impressed, not only by his length and overall game but with the fact he's a great kid, too. At Golfweek, we wish him nothing but the best. Bottom line: Anyone with a computer can offer opinion and write blogs, but it's far better to write them from a foundation of being informed. Ron, please do your homework a little better next time.
Respectfully, and feeling not so petty in Orlando,
Jeff Babineau, Editor
Golfweek