Young brigade prove their mettle
The changing of the guard is well and truly done – and Thomas’ PGA Championship victory saw to that.
JUSTIN Thomas’ US PGA Championship victory this week underscored the coming of age of the young blood at the very top of the game of golf.
For some time now, there’s been this talk of the young brigade taking over from the old guard. Much of that was spawned by Tiger Woods’ fall from grace and the steep and rapid climb to the top of a handful of 20-somethings led in the main by Jordan Spieth, a former world number one and now ranked third.
To put things in perspective, the American won the British Open just four days before his 24th birthday. And to ram the point home, that was his third Major championship title – an achievement the sport’s more illustrious names didn’t quite get close to matching.
Spieth has been the main drawcard ever since he captured the 2015 Masters at the fabled Augusta National Golf Club.
And even the lead-up to that seismic victory as a 22-year-old was noteworthy. Spieth tied for second place the year before. And then barely a month after his first Major breakthrough he won the US Open.
Such was the young man’s form and game at the time that he finished tied for fourth at the British Open a month or so later and then was runner-up at the season-ending PGA Championship.
Even then, he wasn’t quite done. At the Masters last year he finished second, and only because of that worrisome wobble on the back nine on Sunday – and he actually led before the stumble.
It seems now, with near certainty, that whether or not Spieth enters a Major with good form he is somehow spoken of as being one of those with a decent chance of winning it.
Thomas’ victory on Sunday has merely added another chapter to galvanize the transfer of supremacy to the younger generation.
The 24-year-old, who will return to Kuala Lumpur in October to defend the US PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic that he won the past two years, was for a while now considered to be a special talent. It left many in the game to suggest that it was a case of when, rather than if, he will win a Major championship title.
And as if to reinforce that call, Thomas’ victory at Quail Hollow Resort in Charlotte, North Carolina, was his fifth PGA Tour title. It was also his fourth this season and set him up rather nicely for a crack at the Player of the Year award. Similarly, he climbed from 14th to sixth in the world rankings.
For Japan’s 25-year-old Hideki Matsuyama, it means waiting another season to have a go at becoming his country’s first Major champion.
The world No.2 has come close. He’s had three top-five finishes in the last five Majors and was inside the top-12 in each of those.
That aside, he’s still having a brilliant year, by his high standards. He leads the FedExCup standings with more than US$8mil in seasonal earnings, including from three victories on the PGA Tour. Two of those wins were massive ones – the World Golf Championship HSBC Champions Tournament and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational a fortnight ago.
Rickie Fowler, 10th in the rankings and considered by many as the most popular American out there, is another of the 20-somethings who is enjoying a good ride on Tour.
He’s had two top-5s in the Majors this season – at the US Open and last weekend. But he did feature in the top-five of all four in 2014, when many a pundit said that was his best year to secure a breakthrough win in the events that really count.
Still, at 29, Fowler has some time on his side.
Garcia’s triumph at the Masters in April made him the oldest winner this year. All the same, the 37-year-old’s victory was a deserved one even if it was a long time coming.