Hall Of Fame Controversy

On Tuesday, the next class of inductees to the World Golf Hall of Fame were announced with the inclusion of Colin Montgomerie and Ken Schofield. The 2013 class will now include Montgomerie, Schofield, Willie Park Jr., Fred Couples, and Ken Venturi. Schofield was selected through the Lifetime Achievement Category while Montgomerie was elected through the International Ballot with 51 percent of the vote.

This has ignited a firestorm online (does the internet do anything else?). Some say that Montgomerie should not be inducted into the Hall of Fame as he never won a major OR a single PGA Tour event. He played quite a few tournaments in the U.S., came close to winning, but never sealed the deal. This isn’t even taking into account how he has treated officials, fans, or the occasional New York state trooper.

Commenter “DTF” makes this case for Montgomerie, “Monty won 7 straight Order of Merit titles and 8 overall. He won 31 Euro Tour events and another 8-9 international events. He was involved in 9 Ryder Cups including 8 as a player (5 wins) and one Captaincy (winner), and amassed the greatest Ryder Cup record ever (unlikely to ever be surpassed). He also finished runner-up in 6 majors including 4 US Open, 1 PGA, and 1 Open Championship. Additionally, he played on 29 other international professional teams of various sorts! Monty was selected to the Walker Cup team twice. That’s a HOF resume in my book.”

While the European Tour then wasn’t what it is now, should we compare the present game to the past? 8 Order of Merit titles is still more than the average Tour member will achieve.

So, what do you Rockheads think? Does Montgomerie deserve the Hall of Fame induction?