Practically 25 years have handed since Australia was satisfied its personal Tiger Woods was discovered.
“He has all of it,” Greg Norman mentioned. “You may see it in his eyes.”
These eyes of laser-focus belonged to an 18-year-old from Melbourne’s outer suburbs who – in contrast to Woods – was recent from his 12 months 12 exams and never his newest PGA Tour win.
In late 1999, novice teen Aaron Baddeley put down his pen, picked up his membership, and gained this nation’s most coveted golf title, the Australian Open, by two pictures over Norman.
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Norman was no spent drive both. In the identical yr, Norman shared the lead on the Masters with solely 5 holes to play, finally fading out to lose to Jose Maria Olazabal in his ultimate Augusta torture.
At Royal Sydney in November, Baddeley turned the primary novice to elevate the Stonehaven Cup since 1960, leaving not solely Norman, but additionally six-time main winner Nick Faldo, and then-world No.3 Colin Montgomerie, in his wake.
“Baddeley has the potential to be the Australian model of Tiger Woods,” Ian Baker-Finch mentioned of the prodigy.
One other Australian golf legend, Peter Thomson, added: “I like his swing higher than Tiger Woods”.
Nevertheless it wasn’t simply the big-name Australians who took discover of the groundbreaking victory.
South Africa legend Gary Participant claimed that Baddeley was a “higher participant than Jack Nicklaus on the similar age”.
Baddeley himself wasn’t ducking the lofty reward both when he boldly mentioned: “Tiger is the benchmark … and I wish to turn out to be higher than Tiger”.
This isn’t the start of a tough luck story – though it doesn’t take a giant golf fan to know that Baddeley didn’t fulfil his Tiger-like potential.
Regardless of turning professional the next yr and profitable the Australian Open once more, Baddeley by no means turned a family title in america, whereas his popularity on these shores pale, too.
And but, 1 / 4 of a century later, golf’s forgotten prodigy continues to be there, showcasing a long life on the PGA Tour that Woods can now solely dream of.
On Thursday, Baddeley will tee it up at his seventeenth Gamers Championship, thought-about golf’s fifth main the place $25 million (A$38m) in prize cash is handed out, together with $4.5m (A$6.8m) for the winner.
Will probably be Baddeley’s 509th begin on the PGA Tour, on which he has held a card since 2003, and has featured on in yearly this century.
What might be outlined as true success is subjective.
True, Baddeley has fallen nicely in need of the wild predictions made within the dying days of the twentieth century. However he’s held a PGA Tour card for nicely over twenty years, made the reduce nicely over 50 per cent of the time (59.45 per cent), and amassed $23,622,591 (A$35,767,959) in prize cash alongside the best way.
All this whereas being a faithful father to 6 youngsters, and husband to Richelle, who he married in 2005.
This could qualify as success within the eyes of just about anybody – besides possibly Woods.
Nonetheless, it’s exhausting to not marvel what would possibly’ve been for Baddeley, who was hit exhausting with the truth {of professional} golf years after his 1999 triumph.
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“I didn’t realise how huge a deal it was till it occurred,” Baddeley informed the Golf Journal a couple of years after profitable the Australian Open.
“Trying again, I suppose it was a bit exhausting to deal with within the sense of being 18, simply ending highschool, shifting to America and away from house.
“It wasn’t prefer it was deliberate. I gained the Australian Open and it was proper on me. Despite the fact that that’s the place I wished to be and I wouldn’t change a factor, it was very fast.”
Baddeley’s early success noticed him acquire entry to 9 PGA Tour occasions in 2000 – and he missed the reduce in each one bar the Honda Traditional, the place he completed T57. He performed the identical quantity in 2001 and solely made the reduce another time, whereas it wasn’t till 2003 that he discovered some kind, coming sixth on the Bay Hill Invitational, and fifth on the Texas Open.
However by 2004, whereas already forgotten by the world, Australia was additionally shifting onto larger issues with the realisation of Adam Scott’s giant-killing potential.
Scott, who turned professional in the identical yr as Baddeley, clinched the Gamers Championship on the age of 23 to actually mark himself because the nation’s premiere male expertise.
Scott went on to turn out to be a Masters champion, and world No.1, with 14 PGA Tour wins.
By comparability, Baddeley misplaced a playoff on the Sony Open to Ernie Els the earlier yr, and needed to wait till April 2006 for his first win on the PGA Tour, coming on the Verizon Heritage.
Right this moment, he has solely added three extra victories to that record, and none since 2016, whereas his world rating peaked at 16 in 2008.
Solely as soon as has Baddeley actually contended at a serious – when he held the 54-hole lead on the 2007 US Open over – paradoxically – Woods.
He began his ultimate spherical with a triple bogey and completed a whopping seven pictures behind eventual winner Angel Cabrera.
“One dangerous gap, actually,” Baddeley informed Golfweek years later. “I keep in mind pondering I’m going to win certainly one of these sometime. I didn’t really feel like I needed to play out of my pores and skin to win a serious championship.
“That was my takeaway from the entire thing. It’d sound humorous now being 200-and-something on this planet, however I vividly keep in mind saying that to myself.”
He added: “As an 18-year-old in the event you had informed me I’d be sitting right here now and I’d have solely gained 3 times, I wouldn’t have believed it. Nevertheless it’s the journey that I’m on.”
The historical past makes the Tiger-matching goals of Baddeley in his youth look naive – however he’d be removed from the one individual to put out daring plans with out having the total, grownup image but.
Baddeley mentioned that it quickly turned clear that the burden of expectation from himself was heavy, and performed a job in him failing to actually take the subsequent steps.
“While you watched Tiger, particularly at the moment, he was profitable so simply and constantly, I possibly didn’t perceive simply how tough it was to win, at occasions,” Baddeley informed the Sydney Morning Herald final yr.
“So once you win the Australian Open at 18, you are feeling like it is best to play that good each week.
“Trying again, that received to me a bit bit. As a result of that’s your individual expectations – that’s how good I wish to play on a regular basis. And I anticipated to. Nonetheless do.”
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Now 42, any assault on golf’s world order is desperately unlikely for Baddeley, however a few of the traits that earmarked him as Australia’s inheritor to Norman stay.
Astonishingly, Baddeley’s placing is ranked first out of 186 gamers this season on the PGA Tour. And it’s from no small pattern dimension both with 13 of the Australian’s rounds measured.
His lights-out placing has seen him string collectively a collection of fine outcomes this yr, ending contained in the top-40 4 occasions in six occasions, together with T23 finally week’s Puerto Rico Open.
It follows on from a top-100 end in final yr’s FedEx Cup, which, crucially, earnt him entry into this week’s prestigious Gamers Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
The course’s lightning greens will place a premium on gamers’ talents with the brief stick, which is able to play into Baddeley favour as he seems to be to proceed constructing momentum.
Even so, a win in one of many yr’s largest occasions could be an enormous leap that might shock the golf world.
That hasn’t stopped the Australian of dreaming huge.
“My brief sport, particularly my placing proper now, it’s in a pleasant spot,” he informed Fox Sports activities.
“So I’m fairly excited to get to Sawgrass and have a crack at it, attempt to get one other Aussie win there.”
Baddeley’s greatest end at Sawgrass was his tie for sixth in 2011.
However his possibilities for a giant payday this weekend will not be solely boosted by his scorching placing – which has all the time been sturdy – but additionally by the protracted merger talks between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s Saudi paymasters.
No deal is but to be made by the PGA Tour and PIF, which has been free to siphon off star gamers for LIV Golf.
Whereas such strikes are a blow to the PGA Tour as a complete, the disappearance of gamers like Jon Rahm and 2022 winner Cameron Smith opens the door to rank-and-file gamers, equivalent to Baddeley, to make a splash.
Whereas the sector for this week’s fifth main is under no circumstances weak, it’s definitely weaker than what it was solely two years in the past.
Incomes invitations to the PGA Tour’s huge occasions is barely set to turn out to be more durable because the board seems to be to fulfill the calls for of its largest gamers, whereas there’s nonetheless the potential for a reunification with LIV Golf members, thus increasing the competitors for spots.
For now, nonetheless, the pathway has been partially cleared for Baddeley.
Historical past tells us a deep competition at Sawgrass is fanciful – but additionally, that this sport would possibly owe one thing to the person who merely refuses to go away.