Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 | 9:24 a.m.
Adam Candee covers golf for the Sun. Reach him at (702) 259-4085 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Look at the most recent feature in GolfWorld, along with an obscure news brief, if you need evidence why Ryan Moore did not turn pro this year.
The magazine recently released its "Top 100 Newsmakers" section and Moore, the UNLV senior who rules the amateur golf world, ranked ninth for 2004. That's ahead of 41-year-old Meg Mallon's win at the U.S. Women's Open, Hal Sutton's second-guessing at the Ryder Cup and Todd Hamilton's improbable British Open victory.
Winning the mythical Amateur Slam, and thereby placing your name into a sentence alongside Bobby Jones, has a way of attracting such bright lights. Keeping that spotlight, however, is the trick.
It's been all attention for Moore, who is feted everywhere he goes and reluctantly soaks in all the accolades while still enjoying the college life. Many expected him to turn pro after his junior season that included an NCAA championship -- heck, questions about trying the PGA Tour even surfaced after his sophomore year -- but Moore never wavered in promising to finish his degree at UNLV.
But if you want to know how little the status of Next Big Thing guarantees, take a look at Ricky Barnes.
The brief mentioned is about Barnes, a former collegiate standout and U.S. Amateur champion, being fined for temper tantrums and careless play at the Australian Masters a couple of weeks ago. Barnes won the Amateur in 2002 and finished 21st at the 2003 Masters while attending Arizona.
His Johnny All-America good looks and outstanding game convinced many to anoint him as the Next Big Thing, or as close to a sure success as was coming out of college at the time. Callaway believed the hype and signed Barnes to an endorsement deal right out of school.
Now 23 years old, Barnes is just another name you kind of remember from that one time a while back ... oh yeah, that guy.
Read the next sentence from the Associated Press story about the fine at the Australian Masters to understand why it was really not as hard as some think for Moore to put off the pressures of pro golf for another year:
"Barnes plays frequently on the Australasian tour."
A good rule: no top-flight pro golfer wants to see -- let alone spell -- "Australasian" on his resume. And if a word other than "the" refers to a Masters tournament you are playing, that isn't exactly positive either.
So there are reasons why people like Arnold Palmer advise Moore to drink in college life for all it's worth. Moore deserves every last bit of praise he has received for his outstanding performance in 2004, but there is no going back to the Next Big Thing once you play for paychecks.
He'll probably match the hype, what with his refined game and unflappable demeanor. But there's nothing wrong with being Big Man On Campus a while longer, or with going to class and learning how to spell Australasian, even if you never want to use it.
Step back, Mr. Goosen -- I'm talking about Ernie Els, ranked fifth among GolfWorld's newsmakers.
Els finished no lower than ninth in the majors this year, recording second-place finishes in the Masters (thanks to Phil Mickelson) and in the British Open (thanks to a playoff loss to Hamilton). A three-putt on the 72nd hole kept him out of the playoff at the PGA Championship and a final-round 80 on the launching-pad greens at Shinnecock Hills sunk him at the U.S. Open.
And it's not a Mickelson situation where we're waiting for the guy to finally break through -- Els owns three major titles. He won the European Tour Order of Merit, and finished second on the PGA Tour money list with more than $5.78 million. His scoring average of 68.98 ranked second on the PGA Tour, and Els won three times in the United States in 2004.
There is no evidence that Vijay is slowing down, and Tiger's swing looked healthy at the recent Target World Challenge. And Phil is still just a half-inch of break on the 18th green at Augusta from hearing the next wave of questions about not closing in the majors.
Els, still just 35, came agonizingly close last year. As he enters the stage of a career where guys like Singh made a leap forward, The Big Easy looks poised to become even bigger in 2005.
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