Ford bypassed again by HOF

By RANDALL MELL
Senior Writer, GolfChannel.com

Doug Ford wasn’t a great driver of the ball, but he was one of the straightest shooters who ever played the PGA Tour.
 
In other words, he didn’t mince words.
 
It’s what people grew to love and loathe about the best (eligible) player who isn’t in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
 
At 86, Ford watched yet another Hall of Fame announcement pass Thursday without his election. He doesn’t understand why, and he took dead aim explaining how he feels as if he’s being excluded.
 
“I’ll put my record up against just about anyone’s in the hall,” Ford said in a telephone interview from his home in Gulf Stream, Fla. “I think I have a hell of a record. I don’t know what they’re looking for. I don’t know what the knock on me is, but I’m just not that enthused about it anymore. If they don’t appreciate what I’ve done, I can’t do anything about it.”
 
Lanny Wadkins was the only World Golf Hall of Fame inductee announced Thursday, but Ford gained some momentum toward eventual induction.
 
Wadkins was named by 61 percent of the voters. That Ford is the best (eligible) player not in the Hall of Fame is evident in the fact that he finished second in this year’s voting. He was named on 46 percent of the ballots with Mark O’Meara next on 31 percent. Last year, Ford was named on just 35 percent.
 
Still, Ford wonders if he’ll die before he gets in.
 
“If they ever select me, I might not accept, because of the way they’ve handled this,” Ford said. “My two boys think I should, but I don’t know. If I do (get selected), we’ll see.”
 
That feisty, combative nature is integral to what made Ford one of the best players of the ‘50s, an era that included Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Julius Boros, Cary Middlecoff and Arnold Palmer. That nature also might be what cost Ford a quick induction.
 
With two major championships among his 19 PGA Tour victories, Ford was inducted into the PGA Hall of Fame in 1975. He was selected by a vote of his peers. When the PGA Hall of Fame merged with the World Golf Hall of Fame in the ‘80s, only the PGA inductees with dual member standing were brought into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Ford wasn’t one of them.
 
Bob Goalby, the 1968 Masters’ winner and a good friend to Ford, thinks Ford’s combative nature might have hurt him after the halls were merged. Ford was a member of a number of PGA Tour player committees and was forever waging battles with the Tour.
 
“The way I look at it, I’m already a Hall of Famer,” Ford said. “The players voted you into the PGA Hall of Fame. They knew your record and what golf was all about. I don’t even know who votes today.”
 
There are two ways Ford could be voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, through a vote by the World Golf Hall of Fame’s PGA Tour Voting Body or through the Veteran’s Category.
 
The PGA Tour Voting Body is made up of more than 200 journalists, historians and golf dignitaries. Election requires being named on 65 percent of the returned ballots, or in the event nobody garners that many votes, to be the leading vote getter while appearing on at least 50 percent of the ballots.
 
To make it through the Veteran’s Category, Ford would have to be selected by members of the World Golf Foundation Board of Directors’ Selection Committee, a body made up of representatives of seven major golf organizations (Augusta National, European Tour, LPGA, PGA Tour, PGA, the R&A and the USGA).
 
“It’s always been a mystery to us why dad’s not in the Hall of Fame,” said Doug Ford Jr., a golf teacher at Deer Creek Country Club in Deerfield Beach, Fla. “Dad’s credited with 19 PGA Tour victories, two majors and being on four Ryder Cup teams. That should speak for itself. When you look at players who have gone in recently, their record is not as good as dad’s, some aren’t event close. I’m not saying those players shouldn’t be in, just that dad’s very deserving."
 
Tom Kite was elected despite fewer majors (1) and fewer PGA Tour victories (18) than Ford. So was Tommy Bolt (1 major, 15 PGA Tour titles). Bob Charles and Gene Littler made the Hall of Fame with just a single major and Chi Chi Rodriguez without a major.
 
Goalby said Ford’s battles with the tour couldn’t have helped his cause.
 
“It’s a travesty Doug’s not in,” Goalby said. “Evidently, he alienated some people. Doug grew up in New York. He never gave anybody any quarter. He had to be the first on the bus, the first to get off, the first to pick up his check. It’s the way he grew up in New York, but he was respected by his peers. He was always fighting the tour for the underdog. I think his being outspoken hurt him.”
 
Goalby said the fact that Ford played long past his prime, especially while posting high scores at the Masters, may have hurt his chances of election in later years.
 
“People who didn’t know how great he was saw him play after his game slipped,” Goalby said.
 
In his prime, Ford won with grit and guts and a fabulous short game. He won the 1955 PGA Championship, beating Middlecoff in the match play final, and the ’57 Masters, coming from behind in the final round to beat Snead.
 
“It’s a disgrace Doug isn’t in the Hall of Fame,” said Al Besselink, a seven-time PGA Tour winner from Ford’s era. “Doug was very stubborn, very honest, and he was never going to kiss anyone’s butt to get in the Hall of Fame, but I thought he was a wonderful guy who was unbelievable under pressure. He was a magician around the greens. He could get up and down from a ball washer.”
 
Besselink and Goalby hope Ford’s skill will be remembered one year soon in the Hall of Fame.