Whose career crash has been the most disappointing?

[Golferpaul]

Speith, Day, Fowler, and Thomas are suffering from a prolonged decline—JT, not as much as the others.  

 

Which one are you the most disappointed with?

 

Spieth:  Was #1 in the world in 2015, then fell to #92 in 2021.  He has since recovered to #25 today.

 

Day:  He was #1 in 2015, then fell to #175 in 2022. He is now #20.

 

Fowler:  He was #4 in 2015 then fell to #185 in 2022.  He is now #43.

 

Thomas: He was #1 in 2018 then fell to #29 earlier this year.  He is now #23

 

I'm most disappointed in Spieth since his pinnacle in 2015 (one of the best seasons in the history of golf) was much higher than the others.

[stinger_gc]

Jason Day is still playing some solid golf. As you pointed out he’s a top 20 player in the world and could still win a major IMO if everything goes right. I don’t think Spieth is healthy right now.

[mat562]

I'll see your suggestions and raise you Sandy Lyle and David Duval.

 

 

 

Edited June 7 by mat562

[Archimedes65]

I think it’s hard to call someone ranked in the top 25 as ‘crashed and burned’.

 

 

[ALIF]

The first three on that list have an excuse, it’s called children. JT has no excuse for sucking.

[iBanesto]

[bcjim]

Voted YSJ but,  the real answer is TW by far. 

[fowlerscousin]

Spieth is disappointing because the only thing he has fallen off with is the driver, he has picked up distance, but I don't think he anticipated he would need to pick up more than a few yards. Fowler is a guy who was ruined by butch harmon. Fowler was a guy who could play bomb and gouge, but the changes harmon had him doing don't hold up.

[Rob G 89]

This might be the way golf is now your prime is 20s then downhill in 30s

[LukeDonaldsTiger]

Spieth (not Speith goshdarnit!) is so infuriating and so fun to watch at the same time.
This guy needs a muzzle to stop talking to the golf course, and two beers before the round to calm his nerves. Or a kick in the balls and a pep talk, I don’t know. 

What a talent he is, but man o man is he caught up in his own head. 

[philly2kuk]

1 hour ago, fowlerscousin said:

Spieth is disappointing because the only thing he has fallen off with is the driver, he has picked up distance, but I don't think he anticipated he would need to pick up more than a few yards. Fowler is a guy who was ruined by butch harmon. Fowler was a guy who could play bomb and gouge, but the changes harmon had him doing don't hold up.

Didn’t he win last year after going back to butch? Wasn’t part of his collapse because he left butch? I’m not the biggest fowler follower so could be wrong.

[cdnglf]

Martin Kaymer

[fowlerscousin]

1 hour ago, philly2kuk said:

Didn’t he win last year after going back to butch? Wasn’t part of his collapse because he left butch? I’m not the biggest fowler follower so could be wrong.

2014-2019 was his years with butch. He went back to butch in 2022, and he left butch in 2019 because butch "retired".

[BIG STU]

13 hours ago, mat562 said:

I'll see your suggestions and raise you Sandy Lyle and David Duval.

 

 

 

Duval has seen to have a resurgence the last 2 weeks or so on the Champion's Tour

[BIG STU]

3 hours ago, bcjim said:

Voted YSJ but,  the real answer is TW by far. 

Was never a rabid Tiger fan but do not have anything against him either. IMHO with his battered body plus age he is doing good to be doing what he is doing now. Others with his money and accomplishments would have long given up but he keeps plugging along when his body lets him. I can somewhat relate as in the mind is able but the body will not cooperate.

[Valtiel]

5 hours ago, fowlerscousin said:

Fowler is a guy who was ruined by butch harmon. 

 

2 hours ago, fowlerscousin said:

2014-2019 was his years with butch. He went back to butch in 2022, and he left butch in 2019 because butch "retired".

.....What? His world ranking directly correlates to the best years literally *always* being with Butch involved to such an extent that i'm pretty sure you just meant to type "Tillery" here instead. 

Late 2014 saw Rickie's climb into the top 15 OWGR for the first time in his career, and he literally stayed there *the entire time* he was with Butch until the end of 2019, as you noted, where he immediately began a linear descent that bottomed out at 171st in 2022, at which time his return to Butch *immediately* reversed that decent and kicked of an equally linear but steeper *ascent* back into the top 25 culminating in his first win in 4 years. 

And...
 

Quote

Fowler was a guy who could play bomb and gouge

He's never averaged higher than around 117mph clubhead speed, and tends to sit around 115 career wise with his fastest years also directly correlating to his time with Butch. He's never had the blueprint of a bomb and gouge player because he's never been fast enough nor has he ever had particularly strong stats in any of the "gouge" categories like Approach 50-75y, Scrambling >30y, and general rough proximity. So again I ask...

Edited June 8 by Valtiel

[dashanks]

3/4 for Spieth so far and I tend to agree.  Seemed like his potential was unlimited after 2015.  It's like a breaker tripped in his brain.  Appears to be a full-fledged head case at this point.  Misses way too many critical short putts.  That has to do a job on your overall confidence at that level.

[NailedIt]

I don't remember if it was the '16 or '17 Masters collapse, but ever since then Jordan hasn't been the same. He used to play with such and fire and hunger out here. Now he just seems like a guy at a normal job who can't wait until his shift is over. 

 

I actually voted Fowler. He seemed like he was on his way to winning a major, playing great golf. We all remember his gritty Players win. Then came marriage and child and well, you all know the rest of the story.....

[Sp4zRX]

Fowler. 
 

The other three all have had careers that I kind of expected. Might win a major or two and will probably be a name you see on some leaderboards but never a dominant factor long term. Rickie I thought would take multiple majors and would be in contention in many events for a long time. I wasn’t expecting a Tiger type dominance but maybe more like a Phil Mickelson. 

[bscinstnct]

16 hours ago, mat562 said:

I'll see your suggestions and raise you Sandy Lyle and David Duval.

 

 

 

 

Yes, and equally as interesting to me are players who seemed poised and right on the edge of that next level and then fell off the map

 

Camilo and Sean Ohair come to mind. 
 

Geoff Ogilvy got his major when Phil collapsed but I thought he’d ramp more. Wow, I see he still playing, thought he retired, looks like he’s been in a few pga tour events recently and I never knew!

[SlowMo2k4]

The biggest career collapse I’ve ever seen is David Duval.  At one point he overtook Tiger woods at #1 in the world in the middle of tigers prime.  Then, he faded quickly into oblivion 

[fowlerscousin]

3 hours ago, Valtiel said:

 

.....What? His world ranking directly correlates to the best years literally *always* being with Butch involved to such an extent that i'm pretty sure you just meant to type "Tillery" here instead. 

Late 2014 saw Rickie's climb into the top 15 OWGR for the first time in his career, and he literally stayed there *the entire time* he was with Butch until the end of 2019, as you noted, where he immediately began a linear descent that bottomed out at 171st in 2022.

I think fowler had the potential to be a top 5 player, and sustain that for awhile.  Maybe not butch's teachings, but fowlers work ethic.

[Valtiel]

7 minutes ago, fowlerscousin said:

I think fowler had the potential to be a top 5 player, and sustain that for awhile.  Maybe not butch's teachings, but fowlers work ethic.

He did, under Butch during that period you mentioned. Fowler's work ethic by all accounts *was* the problem, if you read between the lines in interviews it sounds like Butch sits on him and makes him work, which has turned him into a better golf each time. 

[Golferpaul]

17 hours ago, Archimedes65 said:

I think it’s hard to call someone ranked in the top 25 as ‘crashed and burned’.

 

 

You must be responding to a different thread.  I didn't say crash or burn.  I said "decline". 

Edited June 8 by Golferpaul

[Golferpaul]

18 hours ago, mat562 said:

I'll see your suggestions and raise you Sandy Lyle and David Duval.

 

 

 

Yes, but neither had the pinnacle that Spieth had.

[Golferpaul]

8 hours ago, LukeDonaldsTiger said:

Spieth (not Speith goshdarnit!) is so infuriating and so fun to watch at the same time.
This guy needs a muzzle to stop talking to the golf course, and two beers before the round to calm his nerves. Or a kick in the balls and a pep talk, I don’t know. 

What a talent he is, but man o man is he caught up in his own head. 

I enjoy his chatter.  But I'm concerned about his drive and will to win.  Is he coasting?

[mosesgolf]

When YJS was on top of the world his putting imo was the biggest factor.   He was making so many putts from everywhere especially long putts.  Make 1 less putt per round and one becomes rather mid pack. Plus he is not 100% this year. 

[mat562]

2 hours ago, bscinstnct said:

Camilo and Sean Ohair come to mind.

 O'Hair was a real mystery.

 

One minute he was playing practice rounds with Woods, flushing it while flashing a colgate smile and perfect hair and looking for all the world like he was a dead cert to be the next big thing, and then he was gone.  It was 15 years ago now - I had to look it up - but it was a real drop-off in form for whatever reason.

 

There are lots of players with great potential who faded away, we all know that, but O'Hair was definitely a man you'd have put money on having a few banner years and a handful of big wins before his heyday was over. Okay, not the sort of fall that Lyle and Duval suffered, where they went from being arguably the best player in the world at one point to a couple of years later being someone who couldn't hit a barn wall if they were standing inside it, but a mystery nonetheless.

[Shilgy]

DJ

 

And it started before LIV.  He has more missed cuts than top 10’s in majors in the last 3 1/2 years and in none of the top 10’s was he ever in contention.

 

Monumental drop off.

[bscinstnct]

17 minutes ago, mat562 said:

 O'Hair was a real mystery.

 

One minute he was playing practice rounds with Woods, flushing it while flashing a colgate smile and perfect hair and looking for all the world like he was a dead cert to be the next big thing, and then he was gone.  It was 15 years ago now - I had to look it up - but it was a real drop-off in form for whatever reason.

 

There are lots of players with great potential who faded away, we all know that, but O'Hair was definitely a man you'd have put money on having a few banner years and a handful of big wins before his heyday was over. Okay, not the sort of fall that Lyle and Duval suffered, where they went from being arguably the best player in the world at one point to a couple of years later being someone who couldn't hit a barn wall if they were standing inside it, but a mystery nonetheless.

 

Camilo was right there too!

 

He got down into the top 10, even Johnny was gushing about how controlled his swing looked 

 

He really pushed fitness to the next level, I remember he got heavily into cycling and I was like, dude, you have a day job.

 

Won this event in 2010, guys game looked fantastic 

 

 

 

is it me or his golf just so much better to watch back during that time? 

Edited June 8 by bscinstnct