Two-man teams: Top 10 fantasy favorites

Exercises don’t always have to be strenuous or deep-thinking. Sometimes they should be fun, especially when you accept the fact that what you might be proposing has no chance of coming true. Like proposing a partnership between a golfer who was born four years after his teammate had died.

We know how players of similar generations might have interacted as partners in team competition; they either did so, or certainly have resumes that can be easily compared.

But what makes you think a guy who performed at his best in those hard-scrabble days during World War II would team nicely with a player who was in his glory 35 or 40 years later? Imagination, my friends, especially when mixed with a healthy respect of a world that surely existed long before you did.

With that, here are 10 golf partnerships that never will be – much to my chagrin. But they tickle my imagination – much to my relief.

With this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans canceled, PGATOUR.COM writers will publish a series of our favorite two-man partnerships in honor of the tournament’s unique team format. Each day, we’ll focus on a specific category. Use the comments section to let us know which two-man teams you’d most enjoy seeing:

Modern teams.Sean Martin picks out his 10 favorite teams from today’s active pros.

Classic teams.Tom Alter picks out his 10 favorite teams from former PGA TOUR and golf greats.

Fantasy teams. Jim McCabe picks out his 10 favorite teams using partners from different generations.

FRIDAY: ShotLink teams. PGA TOUR’s ShotLink crew picks out its 10 best partners utilizing analytics from the ShotLink Era (since 2003).

1. Bobby Jones-Tiger Woods

Genius at the front end of the 20th century, genius at the very back of the century. Sweet symmetry to that, and should folks want to bill them as “The Grand Slammers,” then have at it. What Jones did in 1930 and Tiger did in 2000-01 speak volumes to how they were miles ahead of the competition at their respective time in history.

Oh, the tools used by Jones were made of hickory and called brassies and mashies and niblicks, while Woods has benefited from steel and graphite and titanium, with larger sweet spots and adjustable heads and hybrids and grooves. All of which doesn’t mention that they played golf balls that are similar in the way a WWI bomber plane and an F-16 are the same because they fly.

Ah, but golf at the highest competitive level is a test of nerves, a mental challenge in which you are always playing against a golf course on uneven terrain where fairness is never part of the equation. In every generation, only a handful of players accept and appreciate that.

These two understood it best.

2. Byron Nelson-Tom Watson

A young Watson studied intently in the classroom of Professor Nelson and hung on every word, repeated every move, embraced every morsel of advice. The partnership evolved out of Watson’s failure to finish off the 1974 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, maybe the greatest consolation prize in history.

“I love the way you conduct yourself on the golf course,” Lord Byron told Watson. “If you’d ever like to work on your game with me, feel free to call.”

The call was made, the mentorship began, and the brilliance unfolded – the first of five Open Championships in 1975, two green jackets, an unforgettable U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Oh, and Watson also won four Byron Nelson Golf Classics (now the AT&T Byron Nelson), including three straight from 1978-80.

“Byron was a great friend, a great mentor, and about the finest swinger of the golf club I ever saw,” said Watson. “To be allowed in his company means a lot to me.”

When Watson went to Nelson for guidance, Nelson was in his 60s. In this fantasy world, Watson gets a chance to play with Nelson in his 30s.

3. Peter Thomson-Seve Ballesteros

You could measure them by their combined eight claret jugs, but it would not do justice to what they represent in the wide-lens picture of international golf.

The trail that Thomson blazed in the 1950s was impressive, a young man journeying all the way from Australia to the links of Scotland and England because that is where he believed the world’s greatest challenge rested. In a 12-year span, Thomson won five times, but more importantly, he showed young stars what needed to be accomplished to polish your global star.

Ballesteros arrived years later, but with a passion and charisma that left Thomson in awe. “He was one of the two greatest natural golfers I ever saw,” Thomson once said. “The other was Sam Snead. And I give (Ballesteros) the praise that he was the most gifted young golfer that I’d come across.”

One cannot overstate Ballesteros’ impact on the game of professional golf. His was a magic the game had never seen before and may never witness again. Though he paired most famously with Spaniards, in my mythical exercise he is fitted alongside another marvel on links, a man of uncanny grace.

4. Jack Burke Jr.-Lee Trevino

For this team and this team only, I will offer seats up-close for their practice session. Come watch, listen, learn, marvel, and laugh. Yes, the tickets would come with a hefty cost, but what priceless experience doesn’t?

We are talking the wisest voice in the game. We are talking the most brilliant ball-striker in history. Then consider that each of them cuts to the chase with a straight-forwardness that is part comedy, part head-slap.

“Remember,” Burke might say, “when a primitive hunter threw a spear at his prey, you better believe he followed through and finished with his weight on his left foot. Reverse pivots in the jungle could be fatal. That saber-toothed tiger would eat you.” (Courtesy of a fabulous “My Shot” in Golf Digest, by Guy Yocum.)

After a stripe-show of hard-running draws, Trevino would counter that “putts get really difficult the day they hand out the money,” then look at a flagstick 190 yards away, shift his feet, open his hips, tug at his belt and hit a series of pristine low fades.

We are talking a sage who was mentored by Claude Harmon, played with Ben Hogan, and built a vision alongside Jimmy Demaret. We are talking a guy who left Jack Nicklaus second not once, not twice, not three times, but on four occasions in major championships.

We are talking a pair that could beat five aces.

5. Lloyd Mangrum-Larry Nelson

For those who favor greatness wrapped in unheralded blankets and saturated in character, I give you my favorite team.

To those who foolishly write about “the courage” to go at a flagstick cut just 10 paces over water, introduce yourself to Mangrum. Yeah, he won a U.S. Open and finished top 10 in 10 consecutive Masters, but digest what he did on more demanding stages at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge – two purple hearts, two silver medals, two bronze medals. And this was Gen. Patton’s Army, remember.

To silliness about being afraid of another name on the leaderboard, meet Nelson. Indeed, three major conquests speak to his talent, but consider his conviction to “walking point” as a 20-year-old during the Tet Offensive in 1968. As that as a backdrop, Golf Digest’s Guy Yocum at the 1983 U.S. Open remarked of Nelson’s effort to hold off hard-charging Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson: “He walked through the Viet Cong. He’s going to be afraid of Seve?”

Nelson, who didn’t even play golf till he got out of the Army, won that ’83 U.S. Open at Oakmont, sandwiched it between two PGA Championships, and beat a young Ballesteros four times at the 1979 Ryder Cup. Brilliant stuff, only the proper respect never came. Mangrum and his 36 PGA TOUR wins would understand.

Perfect team, oozing with character.

6. Arnold Palmer-Rory McIlroy

Impossible to quantify this, but it’s my story and I’m sticking to it: No player in history took more pleasure out of a round of golf than Arnold Palmer.

He loved everything about the game – from frolicking times with Bay Hill members to the heat of competition inside the ropes. But what regained supreme with him was letting his passion and joy rub off on us. Yes, he looked us in the eye. Why? Because he wanted to see that we shared his love, and when he realized that we did, it was the dividend to his investment.

Plenty of competitors have walked in Palmer’s footsteps, many have tried to emulate him, some have carried on his spirit beautifully. But the one who mixes in the talent, the style, the swagger, the honesty, the candor, the utter joy for the game is McIlroy.

The magnetism to them walking off that first tee would be off the charts. (And as we saw at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, Rory looks pretty good in cardigan, too.)

7. Craig Wood-Greg Norman

You want teammates who can commiserate with one another? Say hello to the only two players in history who have lost each of the four major championships in a playoff. But this is not intended to be a team draped in black, but one that will be able to show how resiliency is a remarkable trait, even if it is entirely overlooked by those with shallow measurements.

Wood’s playoff losses came against the iron of his era – Denny Shute at the ’33 Open; Paul Runyan at the ’34 PGA; Mr. ‘Shot Heard ‘Round the World,’ Gene Sarazen at the ’35 Masters; Byron Nelson at the ’39 U.S. Open – and for those who stop his saga there, for shame. Despite all the heartache, Wood at 39 picked himself up off the mat and in 1941 won the Masters (Nelson was second, Hogan fourth) and the U.S. Open (Shute was second, Hogan third).

Proof positive that we have a warped sense of perspective: Norman’s larger-than-life persona, his 89 world-wide wins, and his exhilarating wins in two unforgettable Open Championships are all overshadowed by the manner other majors slipped through his grasp. His playoff losses to Fuzzy Zoeller (’84 U.S. Open), Larry Mize (’87 Masters), Mark Calcavecchia (’89 Open), and Paul Azinger (’93 PGA) lend material to the dialogue that his was a career of tough luck and failed opportunities, but Norman was long in talent, longer in character.

8. Sam Snead-Curtis Strange

It has been said by those who grew up in the game and have witnessed the transformation from one generation of golfers to the next to yet another that no one hated to make bogey quite like Curtis Strange.

It might explain why he won back-to-back U.S. Opens and was just two off the 54-hole lead in a bid for a third straight in 1990.

What matched the intensity of Strange’s disdain for bogeys, however, was his passion for no-nonsense, old-school, classic golf -- and Snead epitomized how to swing a golf club with not an ounce of wasted motion.

Slammin’ Sammy would love as a partner Curtis’ allegiance to fairways and greens. Curtis wouldn’t mind at all that 99 percent of the conversation would be handled by Sam, especially with most of that focused on hunting and fishing.

Maybe some of Curtis’ U.S. Open demeanor would rub off on Sam. Certainly, Curtis would benefit from his partner’s impeccable skill set. But in the end, you’d have a team that reeked of fearlessness.

9. Jack Nicklaus-Justin Thomas

Yes, the power that can be unleashed by the 160-pound Thomas is impressive, and we can get to that in a minute. But, first, let’s offer the tee to his partner, the man with a handsome yellow sweater draped around his shoulders. Or it was draped around his shoulders, because now Jack Nicklaus trades the sweater to his caddie, Angelo Argea, in exchange for a small-headed persimmon driver.

Crumpets and tea, with The Open Championship on the line at the Old Course, Nicklaus is going to try and drive the 18th green.

Yes, indeed. Happened 50 years ago. He drove it through the green, actually. Got it up-and-down, made birdie, won that playoff, and at 30 years of age, Nicklaus had his eighth major championship.

In his hands, power was a beautiful thing. But what complemented that strength and made him even more impressive – near unbeatable, almost – was a true understanding of course management and when to reign in the power.

As Thomas nears his 27th birthday, one gets the sense that he’s still learning when to harness and when to unleash, and who better to stand next to than a guy who appreciated that fine line better than anyone.

10. Ben Hogan-Phil Mickelson

To be honest, this would never happen. But it’s my fantasy and in it, The Hawk and Lefty are at the 11th tee at Augusta National. The Hawk is smoking. Phil is pontificating.

“Mr. Hogan, you’re famous for stating ‘If you ever see me on the 11th green in two, you’ll know I missed my second shot.’ Well, I’m not sure I agree, in all due respect.”

Mr. Hogan responds with a stare that could freeze the fires of hell.

“If I may offer my thoughts on this hole,” continues Mickelson. “I like a big, hard, wide buttercut fade. Yeah, brings the trees in play on the right, but I like my chances of carving a 5- or 6-iron off the pine straw, attacking that pin down there. I know, silly. But mentally, I can block out the water left because I know I have my cool, 64-degree flop shot that can save me.”

Lefty smiles, then concludes: “That’s my plan. I like it. Fun.”

Mr. Hogan stares. I always wake up before I see it clearly, but something tells me the cigarette gets stubbed out on one of Lefty’s alligator golf shoes.

Longtime golf writer Jim McCabe is Senior Manager, Communications at the PGA TOUR.