Nick Price, Ambassador of Golf

CHAMPIONS TOUR PLAYER NICK PRICE has been named the 2011 Ambassador of Golf by Northern Ohio Golf Charities. Ambassador of Golf is an annual award given to a person who epitomizes the ideals of the game and demonstrates concerns for others on and off the golf course. Still very much an active player, Price was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2003 and is someone who has been described as the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet.

“Nick has been a world-class player for more than four decades and has truly been an international ambassador for the game of golf,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. “With 29 international victories in addition to his 18 wins on the PGA Tour, Nick has helped to grow the game and give back to those less fortunate since turning professional in 1977.”

Price said he was extremely honored to be the recipient of the award. “It has been a privilege for me to have played golf professionally throughout the world and I hope that I not only inspired young golfers along the way, but also set an example for them to follow as did those before me.”

Price will be honored in a ceremony at Firestone Country Club on August 3 during the Bridgestone Invitational.

Three of Nick’s career victories were majors: two PGA Championships and a British Open. He won two of them back to back when he took both the British Open and PGA Championship in 1994. As noted here yesterday, he was ranked No. 1 in the world for nearly a year.

The wins have slowed down, but Price continues to display the long game that helped make him the game’s best player in the early 1990s. He has won four times since joining the Champions Tour, including this year’s Toshiba Classic.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Keith Allison, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Doug ‘About Time’ Ford Enters World Golf Hall of Fame

DOUG FORD, 88, FINALLY HAS a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame. And not a moment too soon. When told last year by PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem he was one of six 2011 inductees, Ford replied, “About time.”

I wholeheartedly agree.

Monday night was the big night. Friend and 1968 Masters champion Bob Goalby presented Ford during the induction ceremony at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida. Also enshrined were Ernie Els, Jock Hutchison, Jumbo Ozaki, the late CBS-TV pioneer Frank Chirkinian and former President George H.W. Bush.

Ford had been on the ballot before—and passed over. He expressed doubt about ever getting in and wondered why his record didn’t sway voters.

“I’ll put my record up against just about anyone’s in the Hall,” Ford told GolfChannel.com’s Randall Mell after being turned away in 2009. “I think I have a hell of a record. I don’t know what they’re looking for. I don’t know what the knock on me is, but I’m just not that enthused about it anymore. If they don’t appreciate what I’ve done, I can’t do anything about it.”

Let’s look at Ford’s record. Nineteen PGA Tour wins. Two majors: the 1957 Masters, beating Sam Snead by three shots, and the 1955 PGA Championship, beating Cary Middlecoff in the final (when the PGA was a match-play event). Also four Ryder Cup teams.

Awfully good, isn’t it?

Ford played in the era of Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Cary Middlecoff, Arnold Palmer, Julius Boros, Tommy Bolt, Gene Littler and others. All winners and tough competitors. It was back in the day when you sometimes needed to win or finish high just to make enough money to get to the next event, as Bolt told me before he died.

There were already several players in the Hall who were elected with fewer wins or majors (or both) than Ford: Tom Kite (18 wins, one major), Tommy Bolt (15 wins, one major), Bob Charles (18 wins, one major), Gene Littler (29 wins, one major) and Chi Chi Rodriguez (eight wins, no majors).

“It’s a travesty Doug’s not in,” Goalby said in recent years. “Evidently, he alienated some people.”

Probably so. Ford was known for his feisty personality. It’s part of what made him a great player. But now ruffled feathers don’t matter. The feisty Ford is in, a deserving and long overdue selection.

−The Armchair Golfer