Saturday, August 14, 2010

When Is Someone Finally Going to Do This?


Not since Phil Mickelson have we waited for what could happen on Sunday to actually happen in a major championship. Young gun. 72 holes. Champion.

It's been as long a wait as there can be in golf. We've waited and waited and waited, hoping that someone, ANYONE, would come be the next Tiger Woods.

It might finally happen. Cross your damn fingers.

See, our leaderboard has something it hardly ever has at the top: youth. We have two Americans under 30 that are both very, very good players. The type of golfers that could snag multiple major championships before their career ended. Both Nick Watney and Dustin Johnson have shown that being good isn't going to be a year or two experiment. They're going to be stars on the PGA Tour for a very, very long time.

And then you have Rory McIlroy. He's only 21, a mere embryo in a sea of newborns. He might just be the face of golf, post-Tiger. A Northern Irishman with a full head of hair, a personality that makes you want to buy him a club sandwich, and a swing that makes most golfers, even other pros, stop dead in their tracks. He is the type of golfer that will be number one in the world some day. Maybe he will be the first player to end the year leading both the PGA Tour Money List and the Order of Merit, something Sergio Garcia once claimed was a goal of his. He will do all of this is he can win a big event early in his career, avoiding the nasty questions and demons that come with years of expectation resting in your loins. It's happened to a lot of the youngsters that are set to be the NBT (Next Big Thing). Rory needs to eliminate all that sooner than later.

So, a PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, with a leaderboard full of names that should excite even the lowliest of golf fans. No Tiger. No Phil. No Problem. We have some guys that can win this thing in dramatic fashion. It just depends on how they can actually handle the pressure. If you aren't excited about Sunday, I feel bad for you.

Getty Images

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uhmmm, and then there was Martin Kaymer...

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