1990s Golf Stars

In the spirit of our “decade stars” series for our pro wrestling and stock car racing games, we present a new series of “decade stars” for HISTORY MAKER GOLF Championship Golf Game. Many gamers enjoy sharpening the focus of their tabletop projects to year-specific season replays. But it’s problematic to find consensus and interest in any one specific season. Creating “every” season just isn’t an option for us, unfortunately. However, we feel the “decade stars” format is a great middle ground. This set has been created in such a way so as to approximate a typical year in the decade with a realistic, logical mix of golfing contemporaries.

We commissioned golf historian and PLAAY gamer Dave Gray to do the research and ratings architecture for these golfing decade sets. Dave offers these thoughts on the pro golfing scene of the 1990s...

“The 1990s would see the continuation of the competitive balance that prevailed in the latter part of the 1980s. In terms of PGA Tour wins and major victories the most successful golfer of the 1990s was Nick Price. Price would win thirteen times on the PGA tour in addition to three major victories. He also had a handful of victories on the European tour. Price also won the Vardon Trophy, given to the player with the lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour, twice.

“His closest competition for the decade with Nick Faldo. Faldo had four major victories and six PGA Tour wins. Faldo played won more on the European tour demonstrating the game’s increased international scope. Faldo would go on to become a respected golf commentator.

“The distribution of wins in major tournaments showed the lack of dominant players. Nineteen major winners won only one major in the 1990s. This included golfers like Paul Lawrie, Wayne Grady, Steve Jones, Ian Baker-Finch and Mark Brooks. Seven more major winners won two majors in the 1990s. Only at the end of the decade was there evidence that a dominant player might emerge.

“Paul Lawrie’s only major win came in the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie and it came under remarkable circumstances. Jean van de Velde was a relatively unknown French golfer who amazingly was thriving under Carnoustie’s challenging conditions. He held a three stroke lead going in to the final hole. He suffered a triple bogey on the final hole which included bouncing a ball off the grandstand and plunking one into the burn in front of the green. He then faced a three way playoff with Lawrie and Justin Leonard in which Lawrie prevailed.

“While no golfer achieved dominance there were a number of relatively successful players like Greg Norman, Mark O’Meara, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Bernhard Langer, Ernie Els, and Ian Woosnam. This mix of American and international players was also reflected in the Ryder Cup which saw three American and two European wins in the 1990s.

“There were rumbles of greatness heard at the end of the 1990s. Tiger Woods would have two major wins in the 1990s and by 1999 had seven other tour wins. He would explode in 2000 with three major wins but that is the next decade’s story…”

The ‘90s Stars set includes 90 golf pros who were regulars on the tour during the ‘90s. You can use the standard Tournament Mode procedure to run a full “season” representative of the decade..

To help accent the decade-specific feel of this set, we’ve included a golf course with historical 1990s significance. Chinook Haven Golf Club is based on the Sahalee Golf Club, Sammamish, WA.

In the Chinookan language, Sahalee means “high heavenly ground.” It’s an apt name, as towering fir and spruce trees seem to dwarf the golfers below. Difficult to play through yet calming to the soul to play on, Sahalee offers a unique and rare golfing experience, a combination of both tranquility and adrenaline.

The course opened in 1969 and features three sets of nine holes. The South and North courses are combined for pro events, the East course is played by club members. Over the past fifty-plus years, Sahalee has consistently made the list of best courses in America.

In terms of the 1990s, the course is best known as the site of the 1998 PGA Championship, where Vijay Singh won the first of his three major titles. It is, to date, the only major ever played there. It may be that the golfers were intimidated (or, perhaps, put off?) by the setting. Justin Leonard said, “Everybody heard there were a lot of trees. I don’t think anybody imagined THIS many.” Colin Montgomerie echoed Leonard’s comment, suggesting that the trees got in the way too often. Davis Love III called it a test of golf never before seen.