A fifth year of maiden Major winners on the cards.

T DOES NOT happen often — only four times since the Masters came along in 1934 to complete golf ’s modern Grand Slam. In 1959, 1969, 2003 and 2011, t he four most important titles in the game were each claimed by a first-time Major champion. And going into this week’s US PGA Championship at Baltusrol, we are three-quarters of the way to a fifth year of maiden winners. Danny Willett (Masters), Dustin Johnson (US Open) and Henrik Stenson (the Open) are all new members of golf ’s most exclusive club.

Why this rare phenomenon should suddenly be a more common occurrence is down to a variety of factors. First, t h e re i s a n e ve r- i n c re a s i n g number of top-class players.

“The fields are deeper so many more guys have legitimate chances to win tournaments,” said four-time Major champion Rory McIlroy.

“That is true in Majors, too. Any number of guys can turn up on a Major championship week and win. Plus, the quality of play is so high. Henrik got to 20-under at the Open this month and Jason [Day] was on the same score when he won [the US PGA] at Whistling Straits last year.”

Modern technology — especially the combination of metal-headed drivers and turbo-charged balls — has, according to McIlroy, allowed almost everyone “to hit it out there as long as they need to.” And, significantly, made it more difficult for even the most talented to separate themselves from the pack.

Perhaps most relevantly, there is no truly dominant player at the tip of the pyramid. There is no Tiger Woods, someone who could be reliedd upon to win at least one of the four Majors every year.

“We are in an era where we don’t have a guy like Tiger was,”,” pointed out Phil Mickelson, whoo has five Major victories to his name.e. “No one is dominant in every area of the game. We do have guys who dominateminate in certain areas. But nothing like Tiger. He won tournaments when he didn’t strike it well because he was such a good chipper and putter. He wonn tourn a ment s whe n h e p u t t e d pp oo oo rr ll yy because he was such a great ball-striker. And when you put everything together you got events like the 2000 US Open, where he won by 15 shots.

“Today, we don’t have a guy like that. We have a bunch of really good players who are all going to have their runs of form. It’s impossible to pull out one over the others. There are four or five guys right now who are playing at a very high level but not significantly better than each other.”

Mickelson is not alone in attributing the long-time dearth of Major winners to the presence of Woods, who won an astonishing 18 Major titles between 1997 and 2008.

“When Tiger was at hi s best , he almost scared away those trying to compete with him,” said Willett.

Then there is the fact that, as in tennis, golf ’s four biggest events are played on what might be termed four distinct surfaces. At the Masters,, the super-pslick Augusta National greens are the keys to scoring well or b a d l y. What might be

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