Couples To WGHOF Critic: “I can understand Raymond's point.”

Alex Miceli caught up with Fred Couples and asked him about Ray Floyd's criticism of lowered standards for Hall of Fame entry. As you can imagine, Couples took it in stride and also made a case for two-time major winners Andy North and John Daly.

More interesting to me was Nick Faldo validating Floyd's criticism.

“I know you're voted to get in, but you've got to cross the line of two majors, 20 wins and you're 40 years old, so there's a few factual things about it, then you can be considered,” Hall-of-Famer Nick Faldo said in agreeing with Floyd's comments. “In theory if you've done your two majors and 20 wins, you don't need a committee.”

Comments

[ol Harv]

Floyd and Faldo are probably right but like others commented yesterday, the WGHOF is also a museum, and they in fact have added that as part of their headline now. It makes me sound old but the lowering of standards is probably just a part of our society now. For some reason I think about my children and their involvement in sports and how every participant now gets a trophy. Is that really necessary? I don't remember that happening when I was a kid playing Little League baseball or Pop Warner football. If you are good enough to make it to the PGA Tour or the European Tour you are a "great" player, but to be a Hall of Famer you should be really special--not just popular. Can we not omit people from things like Hall of Fames without fear of hurting "someone's" feelings?

[Chuck]

Faldo's point (and it is well-taken) would make the WGHOF like the LPGA HOF criteria, yes?

I am thinking of Meg Mallon, whose resume will ultimately include 2 U.S. Opens and a Solheim Cup Captaincy. And she's not getting in to the LPGA Hall, right?

[KLG]

Everybody does get a trophy these days, but I can't believe this has trickled up the the WGHoF, which is a tourist trap on the other side of St. Johns County, as much as anything. Tourists want to see a bust of Freddie. They have no idea who A.W. Tillinghast and Dick Wilson and Joe Lee are, nor do they care. Anyway, when Ghost, Jr. was playing soccer as an 8-11 year old there was no score book. Most of the parents liked it that way, because "just playing the game" was the important thing. Of course, there is something to this, but I always got dissed when I pointed out that if you do keep score, then playing to win while being a good sport is the objective. Sitting there listening to them, I frequently mentioned that the boys and girls on the field knew the score, but was dismissed. Well, turns out they ALWAYS knew the score, whether it was 3-2 or 16-1. They also, by the age of 10, knew who the best players were and were uniformly OK with that. Parents were another matter, however. Which is why golf was great. No social promotion, after the boys and girls learned to count past 6, that is.

[Ghillie]

Define "They."

[Sun Mountain Man]

KLG-

Amen brother! Very well said.

[digsouth]

KLG, it is the same parents who want no score who are all up in arms about a society who tries to help the needy, and Robin Hood the wealth, so to speak. They want no score in sports, and do not want adulthood to reflect that.

While I am not for ''handouts'', I read the Beatitudes, carry them in my wallet, and I believe that it is not a handout to care for the needy, be it food, shelter, or clothing- for these are the very people the Beatitudes allude to as those who will enter Heaven, and in so rich a land as the USA, to even contemplate not taking care of the needy is a slap in the face of humanity. We spend so much on weapons that are not needed, and children go to bed hungry in YOUR TOWN every night.

Where is common sense? The cost of one missile would pays for thousands of meals. Who lobbies for a hungry 6 year old? These politicians and industrialists are criminals.

The point is, kids NEED to keep score; they ned to feel what it is like to win, and feel the pain of loss. The kinship of being on a team is very powerful, and kids need to participate, win, lose, and have a hot dog after the game and share the good and bad moments.

These feelings last a lifetime.

[ol Harv]

Just got done watching my 7 year old son's basketball playoff game where they had to get to the finals to get a trophy. They won but guess what? The "team Mom" had the trophy shop on standby in case we lost so we could order trophy's for the boys and have them by the team party. Unbelievable but true.

[Stiggy]

The funny thing is that the kids could not care less whether they get a trophy or not.
My son missed the team party last summer, did not get his trophy and has not asked once about it!

[ol Harv]

Stiggy, correct. The snacks after the games are important...not the trophy.

[digsouth]

10-4 on kids/trophy, but if they win- then it could be important later, a reminder of a victory, of friends, of fun days.

[KLG]

Ah, yes. The snacks. My Little League coach was a prominent local attorney. He gave us a 3-inch high "Loving Cup" my last year when we went 21-0 and then beat the All-Star team in an exhibition before the big cookout. Could be because 6 of us were on that all-star team (not the Ghost though; good field, not too much hit at that stage of my career, LOL). But what really impressed us was when Mr. Lissner said after a game, "Why don't we go across the street to Mr. Brantley's (gas station) and get a drink?" It was the late 1960s and we all got an RC...in a 12-oz. bottle, not a Coke in the 10-oz. bottle. Cost him probably $2 total, but it was the absolute coolest thing!

Ghillie: "They" = "the kids"

[DBLHIT55]

Props to Raymond for telling it like it is!

They should split it in two:

One REAL Hall of Fame
and one Famous golfer/celebrity Hall of fame.