As golf grows, expect a new wave of extreme talents

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There is an art to golf. That component takes the science of the game and combines it with unique and quite extraordinary mental challenges.

Swimmer Michael Phelps and sprinter Usain Bolt left the Beijing Olympics as super athletes and cover boys. Their achievements in China were nothing short of amazing. The common thread, though, throughout Phelps' eight record-shattering gold-medal performances and Bolt's mind-bending times resulting in three golds is that those feats have most frequently been described as freakish.

With golf destined to be included someday -- no doubt sooner rather than later -- in the Summer Games, now is a good time to broach the subject of how "freakish" would translate into in golf.

"It's fascinating to think about," said Adam Schriber, swing instructor to rising star Anthony Kim who has enjoyed a great deal of success over two decades working with aspiring young golfers.

Phelps's physical gifts help make him the perfect swimmer. He has the torso of a man -- 6-foot-8 -- but legs -- the power base -- of a much shorter man. He has hands the size of serving platters, feet like oars and the arm-span of a 747 aircraft. Bolt, at 6-foot-5, has a long, lean body, not the powerful physique of what had been the prototype for a sprinter until the Jamaican came along.

Lee Woodruff is general manager and director of golf at TPC Michigan. An accomplished player, he has watched the game evolve.

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In a few years, golfers with the physical gifts of Tiger Woods will be more common, says swing coach Adam Schriber.

"I don't want to use the term freakish but finding that golfer means finding someone with the best mind, the best short game, the best long game -- someone who can wrap all those things together," Woodruff said.

What if all those things were wrapped up in a physical package resembling Phelps or Bolt and weighing, let's say, 220 pounds? What if a golfer had physical qualities never before seen in golf? What if somebody came along who was 6-foot-7 and built like a power forward but had the swing of a champion?

Schriber's ace student, Kim, is wonderfully gifted and at 23 already has won twice this year on the PGA TOUR and is a serious challenger in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. But he's only 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds. What if Kim was six inches taller and 50 pounds heavier?

"Very interesting questions," said Dr. Michael Lardon, a sports psychiatrist and author who has dedicated his career to helping athletes understand and achieve peak performance.

Lardon works with members of the PGA TOUR on the mental side of the game. Lardon's lab partner in college was speed skating icon Eric Heiden, who won five gold medals at the Lake Placid Winter Games in 1980.

"Eric had 32-inch thighs," Lardon said. "We were in a restaurant once in San Francisco and he couldn't put his legs under the table. He used to be called a freak of nature. It's a concept I'm familiar with."

Schriber, Woodruff and Lardon agree that a physically-superior specimen would hit the ball miles, like the contestants in long drive contests who routinely challenge the 380-yard line and beyond. They are powerfully built and big, with tremendous arcs to the swing and with incredible speed through the ball to achieve awe-inspiring shots.

The elusive elements are the intangibles -- the mind, discipline and the ability to play the game properly.

"I don't know if we'll get any closer than Tiger," Schriber said. "Golf requires such a blend. If it was just about hitting long drives or ballstriking was an individual Olympic competition that would be different. But golf is about the art of playing, imagination, short game and all the other stuff.

"Tiger is bionic. He's not 6-7, but every other attribute is there and he thinks like a robot. He's unbeatable upstairs. When he finished second at Augusta this year, he was hitting it so bad and he almost won. Pure willpower."

Lardon adds an interesting spin to Schriber's comments.

"Tiger Woods is 6-7 in his mind," Lardon said. "He approaches the game in a different way. What he did at the U.S. Open in San Diego was freakish."

Schriber recently did a clinic for young golfers in Chicago. He was stunned to hear that when a local high school held tryouts for the football team, it didn't get enough kids to field a squad.

"When they had tryouts for the golf team, 300 kids came out," Schriber said. "In my day, when they announced the names of the golf team, we hid. We didn't want anybody to know we were golfers. It's so much cooler to play golf today and so many more are playing."

Those numbers -- 300 kids going out for the golf team -- are exactly why someday more young golfers with extraordinary components are likely to come along and no doubt at least a few will be so gifted physically and mentally that they'll become golf's version of Phelps and Bolt.

SWING THOUGHTS

• He has a 4-1 career record at the Ryder Cup, with singles victories over Padraig Harrington (4-and-3) and Lee Westwood (2-and-1). He was unbeaten in two matches in Ireland in 2006 when given a chance to play. At last year's Presidents Cup, he was 4-0 with another singles victory over Rory Sabbatini.

That's why Scott Verplank should be one of Captain Paul Azinger's picks for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. All Verplank does is battle and win. His successes have been overshadowed by America's futility in the Ryder Cup but they shouldn't be lost.

• Victory or defeat at Valhalla won't be determined by the fate of the wild-card choices or the bottom half of the lineup, though. Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink and Kenny Perry must play like veteran leaders and win some key matches.

• My four wild card picks: Verplank, J.B. Holmes, Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson. Verplank makes it on his record and toughness, Holmes for his course knowledge and length, and Stricker and Johnson for their putting skills.

New PGATOUR.com correspondent Vartan Kupelian spent 37 years as a columnist and sports writer with The Detroit News, the last 15 as golf writer. The views of this columnist do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.