The World Golf Foundation Board of Directors have lost their minds. They announced on Tuesday that it was lowering the age for eligibility to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame to 45. Just four years ago, it raised the age from 40 to 50, a move that was universally praised.
The Hall said the age was lowered this time to make “an effort to ensure the game’s greats from around the world are actively recognized and celebrated.”
This changed happened for one individual and one individual only: Tiger Woods, who just so happens to turn 45 in December.
The World Golf Hall of Fame hasn’t announced the site for the 2021 induction ceremony yet, but you heard it here first that it will be held in San Diego near Torrey Pines Golf Club, during U.S. Open week there. It would be a fitting spot, where Woods has won the Farmers Insurance Open seven times as well as the 2008 U.S. Open, and not far from the city where he grew up and learned the game. The most recent ceremony was held in 2019 on the Monday of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. If not during the U.S. Open, how cool would it be to induct Woods during the British Open at St. Andrews, where the 2015 induction was held?
But really, could the Hall be any more transparent with this announcement?
Greg McLaughlin, the CEO of the World Golf Foundation, which oversees the World Golf Hall of Fame, previously was the CEO of the Tiger Woods Foundation for 14 years. It’s obvious he’s received confirmation from Woods that he’s ready to begin working on his acceptance speech. Otherwise, this change would have never been made.
This is what the Hall’s release should have said: we’ve come to our senses and unanimously agreed that Tiger is already a Hall of Famer. Join us for a big party on June 14, 2021 at his Induction.
If ever there were a slam-dunk Hofer it is Tiger. Rumors have been floating around that the Hall was anxious to induct Tiger, who otherwise wouldn’t be eligible until 2027, and so I recently asked Hall of Fame ambassador Gary Player, whose infomercial PSA is back for yet another year in PGA Tour telecasts, if he supported Woods’ being admitted prior to turning 50.
“Absolutely,” Player said. “For what he has done for the game I would make him eligible immediately. As soon as they can. Sometimes rules are made to be broken. Sometimes rules aren’t common sense.”
Woods has rewritten enough of golf’s record book that it is utter stupidity to wait six more years to start calling Tiger a Hall of Famer. One of the best lines of the 2019 Induction Ceremony belonged to inductee Dennis Walters, who said, “Can you believe I’m in the Hall of Fame before Tiger Woods?” Somehow Woods received the Presidential Medal of Freedom before his induction.
But the age eligibility didn’t need to be revised yet again; it only needed to be stated that Tiger is the exception to the rule.
Now, it’s time for Tiger to begin drafting his acceptance speech.
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