Maginnes: It's not all fresh faces

text size

The focus this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii will be on the flat-bellied, pimple-faced kids with their 120-mph clubhead speed and full heads of hair. Sure, most of them are polite young men who you would love to introduce to your daughter. And they are supremely talented, exciting players who listen to bad music in iPods while they work out and plan world domination.

Jim McGovern hasn't played the Sony Open in Hawaii in 10 years. (Badz/PGA TOUR)

Far more quietly, though, another smaller group of players with laugh lines around their eyes and flecks of gray in what is left of their hair will be making their 2008 debut. For many, it is a long-awaited homecoming. Jim McGovern hasn't played the Sony Open in Hawaii in a decade. Tom Scherrer hasn't played here in six years.

Both of these players enjoyed early successes in their careers. After three wins in 1991 on what is now the Nationwide Tour, Jim seemed poised for success at the next level. His lone win one the PGA TOUR came two seasons later at the Shell Houston Open. But like so many others before or since, Jim was unable to parlay that early victory into long-term success.

Tom falls into that same category, as well. His 2000 victory at the Kemper Open seemed to indicate greater things for the young man out of University of North Carolina. But the next several years would be a struggle.

Unlike Jim, who took advantage of his past champion status and played occasionally on TOUR, Tom concentrated his efforts on rebuilding his game on the Nationwide Tour. He has only played eight tournaments on the PGA TOUR in the last four years. But Tom's first Nationwide Tour victory in nearly 10 years helped the 37-year-old finish 20th on the 2007 money list to earn a return trip to the PGA TOUR.

What they will find on TOUR this time around is a different world than the one that they visited earlier in their careers. In 1995, Jim finished 44th on the money list, earning a little more than $400,000. Billy Mayfair occupied that spot last year and made over $1.8 million.

Put it another way, 18 players in 2007 made more money in a single year than McGovern has made in his entire career. When you consider that the man has one victory and made 187 cuts in his career, the numbers become overwhelming.

Tom Scherrer hasn't played the Sony Open in Hawaii in six years. (Badz/PGA TOUR)

Tom's numbers are only slightly better. He does have a year with more than a $1 million in earnings. But he, too, has yet to cut out a large chunk of the pie that has become the PGA TOUR over the last several years.

For those of us who have known Jim and Tom, it is no great surprise that they are back on TOUR this year, although the odds seem to be stacking against the older guys. It seems like every year there are more kids, with more talent, ready to cut a weak one out of the herd and take his spot on the PGA TOUR.

I have a feeling that it has always been like that. What might Arnie and Ben Hogan have thought the first time they saw Jack Nicklaus? What must Jack have felt the first time he watched Tom Watson? But, the game itself has changed a bit for this next generation. Technology has made the game easier in so many ways. But players like Tom and Jim show us that the game hasn't changed so much that it makes some of the older guys obsolete.

Jim's and Tom's presence back on TOUR proves that desire and perseverance mean just as much today as they ever have. Drivers that laser golf balls into the air traveling 150 mph or more are simply physics.

This week when you tune into the Sony Open in Hawaii and scour the sports section for scores you will see a lot of familiar names. You will also be inundated with fresh young faces eager to make their mark -- and many of them will. But don't forget the veterans who have fought the good fight and kept the dream alive against diminished hope. They just might surprise you. They have learned a thing or two over the years.