Revamp Hall of Fame Requirements?

I read an article that said David Toms is now eligible for the World Golf Hall of Fame. What? I have no doubt David Toms is a great guy (though a little whiny at times), but is he really Hall of Fame material? According to this, all you need is 10 wins OR 2 major championships, OR 2 Players championship wins, and be at least 40 years old.

In other professional sports, the Hall of Fame really means something (okay, baseball needs fixing if they let Bonds in), and when you think football (American), visions of Walter Payton, Johnny Unitas, Jim Brown, John Elway, Dan Marino, and Roger Staubach come to mind. All of them extremely deserving of their place in history. A world golf hall of fame should have requirements that will ensure golfers of that caliber are enshrined.

When I think of Hall of Fame golfers, I think of Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Trevino, Norman, Hogan, and Snead. If I was making a minimum requirements list, I’d struggle with how many wins (major or otherwise) a player would need. Obviously, winning is what it’s all about, but I think the impact a player had on the game is just as important. Greg Norman is a good example of someone that probably should have won more majors, but for lots of reasons, it just didn’t happen. However, his impact on the game has been enormous. So then this becomes more difficult because it’s subjective and that’s where controversy comes in.

And I’d say a player has to be an inactive player on the PGA Tour (though he could play the Champions Tour). It’s just odd that someone still playing actively can be in the hall of fame. That’s not to say Vijay Singh shouldn’t be in the hall of fame, because he’s more than deserving, but his ceremony should come after he moves on to the Champions Tour.

But back to David Toms (and others like him). Has his play earned him the right to be enshrined next to Nicklaus and Palmer? I hardly think so. For my money, he’d have to win at least two more majors and be a mainstay on the top 5 of the money list for a few years. Again, think of Norman. He won two majors and 20 PGA tournaments in his career. However, he also won 14 times on the European Tour, but more importantly, he spent 331 weeks as the world’s number one golfer.

Toms has 12 wins on the PGA Tour and one major championship. But he’s never lead the money list or been number one on the World Golf Rankings. And what about Lee Janzen? He’s got 8 wins and two major championships. Is he deserving? I just think the requirements need to be revamped before the Hall of Fame becomes too watered-down with journeyman professionals.