SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — What has been talked about for some time now is official. Golf’s torch has been passed to a new generation.
The proof of that was all over the top — and the bottom — of the leaderboard after the final round of the PGA Championship Sunday. The same was true if one dialed up the latest World Golf Rankings. They are not only topped by a 20-year-old kid from Dallas who may just have to buy a razor in another year or two, but have its first three slots occupied by golfers 27 or younger.
On the PGA leaderboard, nine of the top 12 golfers were under 30, while longtime staples Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Lee Westwood, Steve Stricker, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh were never factors, plus only a Sunday push by Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson got them into the top 25.
This is no longer an occasional thing. Three of the four majors were won by golfers 27 or younger and of the top six Sunday, five were 28 or younger. And that’s without an appearance near the top of the leaderboard last weekend by two of the winningest young guns on tour, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed, who between them have won six times this season.
In addition, with Jason Day’s win at Whistling Straits, five of the last six PGA Champions have been players in their 20s. The streak began at Whistling Straits in 2010, when then-25-year-old Martin Kaymer won in a playoff. Since then, 20-somethings Day, Keegan Bradley (25 in 2011) and Rory McIlroy (23 in 2012, 25 in ’14) have accounted for four more PGA Championships. The lone exception during that six-year run was Jason Dufner (36 in 2013).
“It’s exciting for golf right now,” said 35-year-old Justin Rose, who was the elder statesman atop the leaderboard after finishing fourth behind Day, Jordan Spieth and Branden Grace. “Rory, Jordan obviously have been leading the way. Jason has been knocking on that major’s door for a long time. The golf course really doesn’t respect or recognize past major wins or anything like that.”
No one knows that better than Woods, who missed the cut in a major for the third straight time and for the fourth time in his last five majors despite previously having won 14 of them. The longtime World No. 1 is now so far behind the ascendant Spieth it’s not even worth discussing. While the 22-year-old’s second-place finish at Whistling Straits allowed him to move past 26-year-old McIlroy to become No. 1, the soon-to-be 40 Woods’ ranking fell to 286th.
“I think we all push each other,” said 25-year-old Tony Finau, who finished tied for 10th along with 28-year-old Robert Streb at 11-under 277. “It’s inspiring to see what Jordan has done, for sure. He’s 22 and destroying every tournament he plays in.
“He’s making me feel old a little bit. A lot of them are. Justin Thomas (22), Daniel Berger (22). Those guys are just out of diapers. So to see them doing what they’re doing it’s inspiring. It’s a new era I feel like in golf with a lot of young cats coming up. I’m happy to be one of those guys.”
Among the old guard, Stricker was quick to acknowledge a new order is emerging clearly led by Spieth and McIlroy but overrun with a new generation of stars in Fowler, Reed, England’s Eddie Pepperell, Anirban Lahiri of India, Hideki Matsuyama from Japan, David Lingmerth from Sweden and South Africa’s Grace. Add a few more 20-something Americans including Thomas and 25-year-old Brooks Koepka and a swelling armada of under-30 players are contending nearly every weekend.
“It’s impressive,” the 48-year-old Stricker said. “It really is. You can feel it changing. Tiger, Phil, you know, they’re kind of sliding away it seems like at times. I know they’ve got good golf yet in them, but consistently it’s these young guys that bomb it that are consistently up there.
“So the game is in great hands when you’ve got Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Jason Day, Martin Kaymer, Bubba Watson (hey what about McIlroy), all these young guys that are fearless too, it seems like.
“I played with Tony Finau a couple weeks ago in Canada. Bombs it. Another good player. So there’s a lot of good young players and they’re stepping up to the plate at the big tournaments. That’s cool to see.”
Cool for golf but not necessarily for guys like Woods and Mickelson, who once dominated the sport. While Mickelson remains at least a factor (tied for 18th at the PGA for example), Woods continues to struggle. He’s not won a major in eight years, hasn’t won a tournament in two years and this year missed the cut half the time he played.
As Sunday’s leaderboard proclaimed, the future is now in golf.
“They’re like Arnie and Jack,” Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III said of Woods and Mickelson. “Eventually the guys are going to chase them out of the game, like we did to Arnie and Jack. You get older and you have to move on.
“Talking about Jack and Arnie, you thought, well, when they’re gone, the game is going to go downhill. So you think, when Tiger Woods is gone, the game is going to go downhill. But, now we’ve got Jordan Spieth, we’ve got all kinds of young players that will take their places. Its fun to watch them.”
It’s also something golf fans better get used to because golf’s future is now present and accounted for.