Time To Raise the Golf Hall Of Fame Age?

Looks like the time has come to re-ask a question that’s been circulating for a few years now.  The question is:  Is it time to change the minimum age for a golfer to be eligible for the Golf Hall of Fame?  I am having trouble thinking of another sport in which a person can enter the prestigious Hall of Fame and then the very next week, go out and continue to play extremely well on the tour or in their sport.  What happened to players retiring, being retired for awhile and THEN entering the Hall of Fame?

Why So Young?  Why So Rushed?

All of this was once again stirred up as news that both Lanny Wadkins and Jose Maria Olazabal have been selected for entry into the World Golf Hall of Fame.  Why did this stir it up?  Simple, really.  While it’s great that Wadkins is in, who at 59 is most likely done playing, for good, but in the case of Olazabal, is only 43 and still has a whole heck of a lot of golf left to play.  As the article just  mentioned:

“…the World Golf HOF should follow the lead of other sports and wait for a point in their careers where they are no longer competitive on the world’s most elite tours. Complicating the issue is the fact that 40 is the new 30 in golf — and older guys can still beat up on the young whippersnappers every so often…In his first start after turning 50, Tom Lehman was the 54-hole leader at last month’s Transitions Championship before finishing T-8. A few weeks later, Fred Couples, 49, owned the same distinction at the Shell Houston Open, eventually taking a share of third place. And no one is a greater example than Kenny Perry, who has won four titles since his 47th birthday and nearly became the oldest major champion in history at the Masters recently.”

Make The Change…50 or 55

What’s even worse, in 2005 when Vijay Singh was inducted, he’d just come off a run of winning 13 PGA Tour Victories.  He then delayed his induction, yes delayed it, to go play more golf.  The question is, why the rush, and when are they going to change how early people are being inducted.  ESPN suggests, and we agree, upping the age to at least 50, and even better 55, up from the current 40.  40 isn’t old anymore, and golfers at 40 are playing some of their best golf ever.  Come on Hall of Fame, get with it.