The Players, Across the Generations

Maybe it's all that footage of past champions at The Players that gets us thinking this way: golf across generational lines, albeit just the last few generations, since The Players dates from 1974.

Watching Jack, Lee & Lanny in the 1970s; Kite, Couples & Love in the 1980s on through the '90s; Tiger, Phil & Sergio since the mid '90s. It's a most entertaining championship on a singular golf course -- although the early years were contested at a number of other venues before Pete Dye completed the TPC at Sawgrass.

Styled to a Tee always makes note of how the sportswear has changed -- tighter in the '70s, loser in the '80s and getting tighter again, especially on Phil, Sergio and Camilo -- but there's something else we're wondering about as we take particular note of the generation of American golfers now in their 20's. This comes to mind after watching Sean O'Hair, 26, notch his third victory with a win last week at Quail Hollow.

The other American golfers in their 20's with two PGA Tour victories apiece are the 29-year-olds, Charles Howell III and DJ Trahan; 28-year-old Nick Watney; J.B. Holmes, 27; Dustin Johnson, 25; and Anthony Kim, 23. It's a small group and I'm almost sure I've forgotten someone. And we wonder what will become of this group, or the other onetime winners in their 20's: Hunter Mahan, 26; Lucas Glover and Johnson Wagner, both 29, among them.

To get a better feel for the future, we looked into the past. History would indicate that at least two or three of these guys will break from their peers and put together the kind of career that has distinguished the best players from generations before. Or maybe that doesn't have to happen. Maybe, in the wake of Tiger's resounding superiority, there will be a change in the generations-old paradigm of a handful of guys totaling double-digit PGA Tour victories and one, two or three majors. Instead we'll have player parity, with re-established but far lower expectations for individuals other than Tiger?

For a minute, let's look at the dominant players in the generation that came of age just ahead of Tiger. Led by Phil (age 38, 36 victories); Vijay (age 46, 34 victories); Ernie (age 39, 16 PGA Tour victories but many more international wins); and Davis Love III (age 45, 20 victories) -- all have double-digit PGA Tour victory totals and at least one major. There's another group, slightly less fearsome, including Jim Furyk (age 38, 12 victories) and Justin Leonard (age 36, 12 victories), who can count double-digit wins and a single major.

Before them, there was the American generation of Payne Stewart, Couples, Mark O'Meara, Paul Azinger and Mark Calcavecchia, those players who've joined the Champions Tour in the last two years or will in the next three. All five have double-digit wins. Stewart won three majors, O'Meara two, and the other three have one each. Kenny Perry, by virtue of age (48), would seem to belong to this group. By virtue of his competitiveness, he seems to have a foot in this generation and the one slightly younger. What he doesn't have is a major title.

So, with those types of trends in mind, who's your pick for the breakout foursome in the generation just after Tiger, the players ages 20 and over? Or the breakout individual? If you want to jump a generation and prophesy that the next breakout star will be from among the teens: Rory McIlroy, Danny Lee, et al., would that make the 20-somethings Golf's Lost Generation?

Or, in the re-established world where Tiger is so dominant and PGA Tour fields are increasingly peppered with international players, will Sergio, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Camilo Villegas simply claim the PGA Tour wins that might otherwise have been claimed by American golfers? 

There is a final possibility and it goes something like this. If you examine the generation of players before Stewart-Couples-O'Meara: the generation that included Watkins, Floyd, Crenshaw and Irwin, the latter group distinguished itself by reaching in the neighborhood of 20 wins. Stewart's peers did so by approaching or just exceeding the 15-win mark. It may be that Tiger, Phil and Vijay have collectively amassed such an enormous total that players in their 20's and early 30's may be considered Hall of Fame material with between eight and 12 victories. -- Robert Lohrer

Comments

[Tom Quinn]

McIlroy will roar in his 20's and 30's ... not as loudly as that of Tiger or the Golden Bear ... not as much raw talent ... but it'll still be a jungle out there. I better stop now before I jump the Shark.

[Auke Hempenius]

Dear Robert,

There will be no break-out player, let alone a foursome. Rory McIlroy is very gifted and will become a factor. Tiger will have his best years past 35.....when he tones down his driver EVERYBODY will be left in a very thick dust, where only Phil may get the occasional chance to peak through!

[patricia]

That's an interesting generational overview and it demonstrates as clearly as anything the changing nature of professional golf.

[The Khaki Crusader]

Really some great points...The depth of the PGA Tour fields are just staggering week to week. Being a young American golfer in this current landscape (Highly skilled Euros and super humans like Tiger and Phil around) has got to be frustrating, but let's face it, lucrative. I mean Hunter Mahan, with his one Tour win, is still probably raking in 3-4 million a year. Whenever I see Hunter on the course, he's usually smiling. No tears from me.