One Record That Will Never Fall

In the coming years we will more than likely see the rewriting of just about every golfing record there is.

Tiger Woods is on pace to completely shatter Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 career major wins.  Woods is also on pace to break Sam Snead’s record of 82 career wins.

Two decades ago, most would have thought each of these records to be utterly unattainable, yet we are likely to see them both fall in the coming years.  

Physical Fitness along with the continuous improvements to equipment have extended the prime of a players’ career by at least five years, thus presenting an additional five years to chase down the record books.  

As we watch in amazement as records previously thought to be far beyond anyone’s reach begin to fall, there is one record that will remain safe for a very long time.

That record is Byron Nelson’s 11 consecutive PGA Tour wins. 

Not taking anything away from the fact that Byron Nelson was one of the greatest players to ever pick up a golf club while epitomizing absolutely everything it means to be a true gentleman, there are three main reasons why we are very unlikely to see Nelson’s record fall anytime soon. 

First, Nelson’s incredible streak took place in 1945, a year when many of the top players on tour, including Ben Hogan for at least part of the streak, were still deployed to World War II. 

Nelson, like many others during this tumultuous time in our nation’s history, enlisted in the army.  However, Nelson was prohibited from military service during World War II due to a blood disorder that caused his blood to clot four times slower than normal.

The second reason why Nelson’s 11 consecutive wins is not likely to be matched in this day and age, is due to the unprecedented expansion of the game across much of the world.

In 1945, golf was not nearly as popular as it is today.  Golf had not really taken off in most of Europe (aside from the United Kingdom), Australia, Asia or South America.

Due to golf’s recent expansion which has spread like wildfire to nearly every corner of the world, the total number of people playing the game has increased tenfold

This massive increase in the number of people playing the game has resulted in a much larger pool of players competing just to make it onto the PGA Tour, which has in turn resulted in an increased level of parity, the likes of which have never before been seen on the PGA Tour.

In 1945, there were only a handful of players who had the ability to win a professional event each week.

In 2008, there are literally 150+ players who have a legitimate chance of winning each and every week if they are able to get hot.

This substantial increase in the level of competition and parity currently seen on the PGA Tour makes it far more difficult to string together 11 straight victories in this day and age.

Tiger Woods has come the closest in modern times when he flirted with this record between 2006 and 2007 with seven consecutive PGA Tour victories, still a far cry from Nelson’s 11.   

Finally, Nelson did not have to deal with the intense media scrutiny that would completely envelop any player who even came close to 11 consecutive wins.

Earlier this year Tiger Woods’ winning streak reached five straight events between 2007 and 2008. 

Woods was not even half way to Nelson’s 11 consecutive wins and the media attention as to whether or not Woods could reach 11 consecutive wins was already beginning to mount.

Just imagine if Woods had actually gotten close to 11?

Byron Nelson played during a very different time in the game’s history. 

In Nelson’s day, most so-called gentleman of the game remained amateurs as they would have been making far more money as doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, etc. than they would have made as a professional golfer.

After several years on the professional tour, which was a lot more grueling back then without the presence of luxury gulf streak jets to take players from tournament to tournament, Nelson decided that he wanted to leave this tough life as a professional golfer in exchange the quite life on a sprawling Texas ranch.

Back in1945 there were no million dollar endorsement deals or $10 million dollar purses.  Nelson was playing simply to earn enough money so that he and his wife could purchase their dream ranch in the Texas countryside.

Perhaps the motivation Nelson had to earn enough money to leave the grueling life of a professional golfer in exchange for a quite, simpler life as a rancher outweighs any motivation modern day professionals have for winning.