BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Nominees for BBC SPOTY have been revealed, Darren Clarke, Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy have all been nominated:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/sports_personality/15920702.stm

That's pretty impressive for the sport of golf, though I suppose it means that the 'golf vote', which is relatively low anyway, will likely be split three ways, so I can't see any of them winning it, which is a shame. I reckon it'll go to Cavendish, or maybe Farah.

My vote will go to Luke Donald.

Doon the Water wrote:My vote will go to Luke Donald.

As will mine Doon.

Sadly I doubt Luuuuke will win though, people will have seen far more coverage in the newspapers around the records broken by Rory enroute to his win or DC's coverage based on his past troubles and huge blowout after winning any sympathse with those two based on that. When real golf fans and followers will see what Luke is doing as far more monumental and better over the course of the season

It says a lot for UK golf that there are 3 nominations but to be honest I can't see any non golf sports fan voting for a golfer and even if they did, those that did would be split 3 ways. Of the golfers... big D is the personality who achieved the "biggie" after a lifetime of trying, Luke is the role model approaching the top of his powers and Rory is the glimpse of what the future of golf may be. Take your pick.

Of the non golfing ones..great year for Farrah but to me the winner will be Cavendish, I know professional cycling has its detractors and it hasn't had its problems to seek in recent years but Cavendish's achievements this year have been immense.

Since when did this vote become someone to pick from a pre-prepared shortlist

Luke Donald has had the better year overall but I think Darren Clark and Rory McIlroy will get more votes for their major win.

Clark came second a few years back so McIlroy may lead the way.

I agree with the above comments though that with three golfers the 'golf vote' could be split meaning someone else wins.

The voting has been a 'preprepared shortlist' for a few years now. I think they have done it this was to stop online campaigns for certain people. Particularly footballers. Just look at the other year when Ryan Giggs was wrongly selection (should have been a lifetime achievement winner) and won because of the huge Man United vote.

I thought it was always from a shortlist chosen by "experts". Id vote for Farah personally.......not that I'll vote......great story, good guy and an amazing achievement. Agree re Cavendish, great year as well.
Golf wise Id go Donald but the public wont, I think DC has a chance as the whole of Ireland will vote for him and probably for Rory as well.
But ultimately....who really cares.

I really dont understand why clarke is on the list.

McLaren wrote:I really dont understand why clarke is on the list.

Really in that case why is McIlroy............. Both won majors and at least Clarke had another win on his CV this year on top of the Open..

I would have thought one of the cricketers was as likely to win it as anyone. Felt England were unlucky not to win the team one last year tbh.

You could count the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish cricket vote on one hand with some fingers missing..It just isn't a UK wide sport. Worldwide, outside the old empire countries it's about as popular as baseball outside the US.

I've got a spare tin of Dulux in the cupboard, I'd rather slosh it over a wall and watch it dry than be arsed watching cricket...sorry, just my personal opinion.

JAS, plenty of cricket support in Wales, particularly further south, Neath, Swansea etc. A bit less in Scotland (though by no means none) and even the odd bit in NI if you look for it. The cricketers have as good a chance as anyone.... who in any part of the UK follows road cycling, or even long-distance running?

Posting here as it seems to be the place to talk about this so far, though no more than a casual golf fan myself (will watch the majors, and bits of other tournies sometimes). Great to see the three golfers on the list, and they certainly deserve it for the year they've had. Of the three my pick would be McIlroy, but like I said that's mainly because i only really follow majors, and Rory's win was the most impressive (though Clarke's win was a great story).

Of the overall list, I really would hope that Cav gets it, his achievements this year have been extraordinary, both in the Tour de France and of course the World Champs. Glad to see plenty of people are backing him on here too.

While the cricket team's achivements were brilliant, cricket is a team game, and I don't believe either Strauss or Cook did enough to warrant the award individually. I would however back them for the team award (and indeed there seems to me to be little competition to them getting it).

Lets be honest Ned...ALL other sports are dwarfed by football. In Wales in cricket support would be completely dwarfed by rugby support. If people only voted for people within their own chosen favourite sport then it would be a footballer every year. I'm a golfer but that doesn't mean I'd confine myself to only recognising greatness (and personality) within golf. I can recognise achievement beyond my own personal favourite sport.

As an aside I think the Beeb are a bit mischievous in the whole "sports personality" thing. I mean..Is it about "Personality" or is it about achievement...or some kind of balance between the 2. If it is, what is the criteria? Also on what basis is the shortlist created? Also how Beeb centric is it? what I mean by that is...do contenders have to be in sports that the Beeb can still afford to cover. I understand what you're saying about cycling, not sure of the participant numbers but the Beeb give it zilch coverage therefore Cavendish is going to struggle for the recognition.

I think the "Personality" bit initially came from the desire to not say "Sportsmen" so it's really just a way of saying Person, so for me it's all about achievement. I really hope you're wrong about Cavendish struggling for lack of recognition JAS, but I fear you may be right...

Cavendish for me, some of the most exhilarating sports moments of the year.

Absolutely agree about Cavendish, i mean Gmac winning the U.S. Open last year...a 40 year gap since Jacklin, huge achievement, recognition? uh uh!!
Murray, if he were to win a slam...a 70 odd year gap since Perry, would he actually get the recognition...probably not (weird but true). Cavendish winning the green jersey in the Tour de France?? Christ apart from Robert Millar winning the King of the Mountains jersey in the 80's the last Brit that seriously contended for any of the 3 big jerseys in the tour died trying on the slopes of Mont Ventoux (Tom Simpson). Take away the Olympics, the World Cup and the Ryder Cup, the next biggest event on the sporting planet is probably the Tour de France, I'd hazard a guess that it is actually THE biggest annual event in the worldwide sporting calendar. Just because the Beeb dont cover it doesn't mean it's participants achievements dont matter. Correct me if I'm wrong but Cavendish is the first EVER British winner of the Green jersey (most consistent daily finisher). Adding the world championship later in the year was just the icing on the cake. It really shouldnt be a contest and we shouldnt be allowed to vote incase we get it wrong!!

The winner will have to come from an event that the BBC covers. That kinda reduces the field somewhat. I think Darren Clarke will have the best shout for a golfer as the BBC covered the Open Championship.

Probably Cavendish should win. Anything where you stop for cucumber sandwiches or where you walk to hit a ball doesnt fit my description of a proper sport.

One point re Cav, it's effectively a team sport and he was in a team built purely around him to enable him to win a particular category of the Tour.
Be interesting to see how he goes with Wiggins in the team next year and more than one thing to aim for.
Still great but to say he has achieved more than Farah is a bit bizarre. Farah was magnificent all year beating everyone and capped it with a great comeback in a global event, even though a silver in his first race was more than any Brit had done in a distance event at the Worlds.
Gold and silver in 2 endurance events in the same week, events that always have quality athletes, pretty special really.
I wouldn't be disappointed if Cav won it but to say he is the only option is just plain wrong.

Diggers, the ghastly Liz mccolgan had previously won gold in the 10,000 metres at the worlds, so Farah's feat isn't unprecedented for a brit.
Whoever wins will be a combination of achievement and popularity, although given the ridiculous winners of the last few, Giggs and the horsey royal you never know. The one who actually deserves it doesn't always get it.

Cricket is more or a sport than sitting on a bicycle will ever be. It actually requires skill and talent, you know, as opposed to pure fitness.

Cycling has the ability to bore even the most ardent of sports fans, purely because they turn pedals and not much else.

McLaren wrote:I really dont understand why clarke is on the list.

I can understand your point, but what a week to have - winning The Open, lifetime dream, near end of career etc. Darren also has a personality which many past winners did not have.

I recall there were two golfers last year and the vote got split. No chance of any of the golfers winning.

Out of the three Rory would get my vote. The way he conducted himself after the Masters and then coming back and winning the next Major by a huge margin was simply amazing and said a lot about him as a sportsman and a lot about his personality.

Why has this been made global, can't we have it back as a golf board thread?

super_realist wrote:Diggers, the ghastly Liz mccolgan had previously won gold in the 10,000 metres at the worlds, so Farah's feat isn't unprecedented for a brit.
Whoever wins will be a combination of achievement and popularity, although given the ridiculous winners of the last few, Giggs and the horsey royal you never know. The one who actually deserves it doesn't always get it.

Meant Brit male Super, but yes McColgan did win and that was fantastic at the time. Though she is clearly a bit odd.
It's actually though meant to be an achievement of ability and achievement , the clue is in the title. As it goes I think Farah and Cav both have bags of personality though in very different ways.

Strange but true fact.
There are more cricket pitches in Scotland than golf courses.

SR
Did you see McCoglin coming out of court recently!!
For viewers in England..........She was found not guilty of assaulting her husband and turned up at court wearing an outfit showing most of her top lady bits. It was not a pretty sight.

I did indeed doon, she is a ghastly sight.
For the englanders, in golfing parlance she is the Scottish equivalent of a sally gunnel, only much much more ugly.
I heard of someone who pronounced a 'liz mccolgan' during a round only for his partner to take great offence as it turns out it was his sister in law

Also Gunnel though not attractive is a very nice person. And won an Olympic title.

Isn't this based on personality, as in not who you think achieved the most this year, who is the best personality up there. Let's face it they're all about as boring as each other. Especially Rory, that guy could bore me to tears.

Sports personality is a good opportunity for some cross section debate, I guess that's why it was moved across.

We all have our opinions on various sports, so don't quite see what the right honorable Davie means when saying that it has started some sort of war. If you think that boxers are braindead knuckle dragging neanderthals then that is fine by me...we are all entitled to our individual thoughts, and it's just that mine are that golf isn't really a sport in the true sense of the word, but still takes an immense amount of skill and talent.

If someone creates a golf thread shouldnt you ask them first if they want it to be a global thread ? Maybe you have but somehow I doubt it.

That wasn't the point Fury, the point was that it was started as a thread about Golfers nominated for SPOTY, yet the mods moved it to become global for no particular reason. Why not just start up a separate "Global" one?
It had a context which was supposed to be for the golf board, so why move it?
Use your heads for once please.

You could arguably still discuss those golfers inside that global, though, and maybe even discuss their merits with other sport fans. It isn't that much of an ask, is it?

Seems quite insular to be totally against any involvement from other sections.

Guys and gals - can we all please stop arguing?

This is a great topic for debate and has many cross sport debates that could be generated.

The thread had already gone into discussing other sports (Mark Cavendish comments by Diggers) etc so I dont see the big problem.

Can we please just remain civil and not be so insular in our sections. Its a great topic of debate.

Adam D wrote:Guys and gals - can we all please stop arguing?

This is a great topic for debate and has many cross sport debates that could be generated.

The thread had already gone into discussing other sports (Mark Cavendish comments by Diggers) etc so I dont see the big problem.

Can we please just remain civil and not be so insular in our sections. Its a great topic of debate.

Why make it global though, it started in golf, so keep it in golf.

And it seems very rude to move a thread from a particular forum without asking just because you decide you want to.

Fists of Fury wrote:don't quite see what the right honorable Davie means when saying that it has started some sort of war.

Seems someone else agreed with me as your cross-section wummery was deleted.

Golf isn't some kind of rogue section, closed off from the rest of the board, you know. The making of this thread global has added to it, and gives you an opportunity to discuss the golfers with members that frequent the golf board less than yourself, whilst also giving you an opportunity to comment on any other candidates.

God knows why we would want to create debate on a forum.

Well done on the 3 golfers getting nominations. Only one I can see winning SPOTY is Clarke - Donald may have had the far better year overall, but mostly in the US and outisde the Majors, while RMs success in the US Open was impressive (especially after his Masters collapse) but didn't have the coverage to stay in the memory of the more casual fans.

Clarke has it all as a SPOTY winner - a great performance, the back story of triumph over persoan tragedy and that he comes acorss as a really good bloke.

Of the cricketers, Cook was the far better performer, but that was mostlly 9 months ago, so iagain the timing issue is against him)

Farah and Greene might split the athletics vote, although I'd expect Mo to do better because he had the more convincing season.

Cavendish - Tour green jersey and world road race champion. Could have a good shout, and the GB cycling team for the Worlds should be given team of the year because they did a great job of getting Cav to the point where he could win (the worlds are a curious event in their use of national teams rather than the trade teams from the rest of the season).

Andy Murray - Had another year same as the last 3 or 4. Very good and consistent player but still struggling to finally claim that first slam title. One of the UKs few world class sportsmen in a major international sport, so understandably nominated.

Amir Khan - I don't follow boxing enough to know how busy he's been this year, which is always an issue for boxers being nominated as SPOTY. One or two successful title fights per year doesn't really stick in the memory.

Mike Tindall

Fists of Fury wrote:Golf isn't some kind of rogue section, closed off from the rest of the board, you know. The making of this thread global has added to it, and gives you an opportunity to discuss the golfers with members that frequent the golf board less than yourself, whilst also giving you an opportunity to comment on any other candidates.

God knows why we would want to create debate on a forum.

Christ, you just don't get it. You just need to look at some of the replies to see that it was a mistake to make it global.
If someone wants to talk about a sporting award from a golfing perspective why should that mean that it's open to everyone.

What about the fact that all the nominees are men?

Just goes to prove that women's "sport" is very much second rate, and when it comes to the crunch, they just don't cut the mustard.

Funny you should say that Hersh - I was going to suggest Sam Warburton

Khan has looked good when fighting, but will have had 2 fights I believe...not enough to win it, particularly given that he makes many a faux pas in the media and via Twitter!

Alastair Cook - was a while ago now as you rightly say, dummy half, and whilst his success was incredible it may count against him. Definitely in with a shout, though, and he is a very likeable chap.

Union Cane wrote:What about the fact that all the nominees are men?

Just goes to prove that women's "sport" is very much second rate, and when it comes to the crunch, they just don't cut the mustard.

Yani Tseng would be a great choice for the overseas award

Union Cane
I thought that, and then I thought about which women should be there and could not think of any.

Davie wrote:Funny you should say that Hersh - I was going to suggest Sam Warburton

Don't laugh I expect Wales to get team of the year, for their successful world cup, errr wait a min!

I saw a Welsh rugby t-shirt in a Cardiff supermarket the other day it said something like 'Wales 2011 glory team' I didn't know that 4th place in both the 6 nations and world cup was regarded a success?

Just to let everyone know I've ungloballed this (yes I know ungloballed isn't a word but I couldn't think of a better alternative) so it reverts back to the golf section.
What I'm going to do is create a new version and I'd like to invite someone with knowledge on the nominees to put forward a brief write up on that person's achievements over the past 12 months before I then turn it into a global poll.
If you'd be interested in writing up a paragraph or two about one of the nominations then please PM me.

No secret why golfers have a reputation as stuffy old elitist cranks then

Firstly, this works well as a global topic and hopefully a good way to attract more people to the golf board. We dont want to become stale and grumpy, sadly diggers and S_R have reached this stage.

Union,

Should a mod really be making sweeping sexist comments?


As to women nominees did Catriona Matthew get a nomination in 2009 for winning the open, after all that is all Clarke has done?

The issue with clarke is that he is not one of the top performers in his sport and fluked a good week at the right time. People like McIlory and Donald have been at the top all year and even the likes of Rose and Laird have had a better year than Clarke. When you are at best the 10th or so best performing athlete in your sport from the UK how can you be on the list?


I would say the top performing UK sportsperson this year has been Jenson Button who has outperformed both his car and Lewis Hamilton, two very difficult feats. His win in Canada was the equivalent to someone overhauling a 5 shot lead on the final day of a major without the field coming back to you. Despite Vettel having a far superior car Button almost won more points in the second half of the season than him.

There is no doubt it is the best season Button has had in terms of performance and he has been nominated before. I know little of cycling but if Cavendish can get on the list for great rides without the big title then button should be on it for his immense drives this year.

Mac, Scott, far from being stuffy, Diggers, Davie and I were mearly doing what the Mods failed to do, i.e keep the post on topic.

The OP had created the post in the context of Golfers nominated for SPOTY, there was in this case no need at all to make it global.

Mac, I know you are an F1 fan, but it's very myopic to say Button has been the best in terms of performance. He's still won bugger all.

Best performance I saw was Andy Murray's anhilation of Andy Roddick at Queens, but I don't think he even deserves a nomination this year, despite being up there with Cavendish as Britains top sportsmen. So I can't really see how Button can be given credit for a race and coming second in the drivers championship (in a non sport like F1 )