Youngsters grab reins to new era: Better training, Tiger clear path for impressive next generation

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:00:20 +0000

By Marla Ridenour, the Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Aug. 01–NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA. — His temples are graying, along with a few chest hairs peeking out from a sky blue shirt.

Two decades ago he was considered a young gun, joining David Duval as one of the PGA Tour’s up-and-comers who seemed destined for greatness, or at the very least dominance.

now he’s 45 years old, jokingly counting the years until he’ll be a young gun on the Champions Tour.

But three-time winner Scott McCarron is sure of one thing. Today’s 20-somethings would leave him and perhaps his once-promising peers in the dust.

“These kids are miles ahead of where I was,” McCarron said last month at the AT&T National. “I look at kids who are playing in high school now, they’re so much better than I was in high school or college, it’s not even close.”

this week’s $8.5 million Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club illustrates that point. as of today, the elite field includes 28 players in their 20s. Among the 23 first-time qualifiers for the World Golf Championships event are 14 players younger than 30.

Three of them — bill Haas, Jason Day and British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen — are part of the tour’s 2010 youth movement that has resulted in 11 players in their 20s winning 12 events, including rookies Rory McIlroy (Quail Hollow Championship) and Derek Lamely (Puerto Rico Open). last year, just seven players in their 20s won tournaments and none were rookies.

Since 1960, the tour record for most tournaments won in a single season by players in their 20s is 24 in 1979, by 16 different players.

In the no-cut competition for a $1.53 million first prize, the 28 will attempt to join Tiger Woods and Geoff Ogilvy as the only players in their 20s to win a World Golf Championships event. Ogilvy was 28 when he captured the 2006 Accenture Match Play Championship; Woods was 23 when he claimed his first of seven Bridgestone Invitationals in 1999.

Old-timers might suggest this is nothing new. Jack Nicklaus was 22 when he first triumphed at the 1962 U.S. Open. Gary Player was 23 when he took the 1958 Kentucky Derby Open. Arnold Palmer captured the 1955 Canadian Open during his rookie year at age 25. Tom Watson broke through at the Western Open at 25. Jose Maria Olazabal was 24 when he shot a course-record 61 at the 1990 NEC World Series of Golf at Firestone and won by 12 shots.

although 20-something winners are not unheard of on the PGA Tour, it’s the frequency that’s astounding.

it would be easy to point to the Tiger Woods Effect, assuming the youngsters who grew up watching the world’s No. 1 player are starting to make their presence felt. But the second-youngest in this year’s Bridgestone field, 21-year-old Rickie Fowler, says those players are still a few years away. (The youngest is 18-year-old Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa.)

“I watched Tiger and Phil (Mickelson) and guys like that growing up, but I was playing golf before they were Tiger and Phil,” said Fowler, an Oklahoma State product who has won more than $2 million in his rookie season. “A lot of us coming out right now are just before them. Within the next five or 10 years, that’s when there are going to be a lot of kids who have been influenced by Tiger.”

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem isn’t so quick to dismiss the Woods effect on the current young class.

“It’s been 14 years since Tiger Woods stormed on the scene,” Finchem said at the AT&T. “I noticed in the couple years after an upsurge in the interest among kids, but also an upsurge in the interest of parents. In terms of, ‘OK, I have an athletic kid,’ and rather than pushing that kid in baseball, football and basketball, a higher percentage were focused on golf.”

Finchem said the increased purses on the PGA Tour, also a byproduct of Woods’ success, have convinced parents that golf is a worthy investment, even though it “requires more of a commitment from the family” than other sports.

Finchem cited the story of his neighbor’s son, whose doctor father hired a swing coach and a trainer for him and was sending him to Orlando for monthly sessions with a sports psychologist by the time he was 12. Finchem said the boy has played reasonably well in college, but doesn’t believe he’ll make it on the PGA Tour.

Even if the Woods’ generation has yet to arrive, the infusion of youngsters is bringing flair and swagger to the tour, and not just with their colorful attire and less-than-traditional headgear.

there was no question among competitors at the AT&T National that with better instruction at a younger age and better equipment to enhance their talents, the 20-somethings have raised the bar. That bar is boosted by the number who receive sponsors exemptions or invitations into tour events as amateurs.

Ricky Barnes, still winless but an earner of $1.75 million this year, was 22 when he played in the 2003 Masters Tournament as an amateur and outscored playing partner Woods in the first round.

When it was suggested that seemed like yesterday, Barnes replied, “Yeah, six [years],” missing by one.

“So many guys qualify for tournaments as amateurs, get exemptions as amateurs, they’re a lot more prepared when they do come out here in their 20s,” said Barnes, runner-up in the 2009 U.S. Open. “The guys who get the experience, it does definitely help.”

Fowler made five tour starts as an amateur and said that experience was invaluable when he turned pro in 2009. he tied for seventh in his first event, the Justin Timberlake Shriners Open, and tied for second his next time out at the Frys.com Open. His confidence boosted by those efforts, Fowler has five top-10 finishes in 2010.

“You definitely have to give a lot of credit to the spots I got as an amateur playing some tour events,” Fowler said. “I played in a couple Nationwide events, a couple tour events, two U.S. Opens.”

Day, 22, who won this year’s Byron Nelson Championship, said he was playing in amateur tournaments against 20- to 30-year-olds when he was 15. he also attended a golf academy in his native Australia, where he borrowed a book on Woods from his roommate and found inspiration.

“Me turning professional young was a good idea,” Day said. “A lot of guys kinda wait, but I think getting out here and playing against guys you’re going to play against in the future gives you a lot of experience.”

Australia’s Stuart Appleby, who will fail to qualify for Firestone for the first time since 1996 unless he wins the Greenbrier Classic today, believes the game is getting younger.

“When I was on tour 15 years ago, there was a handful of good players in their 20s, considered the young guns,” said Appleby, 39. “Now I think that young guns category has dropped down to the early 20s. Instead of hitting your form in your mid-30s, I think you can hit some form in your late-20s now.

“They’re getting coaching, more information is getting around the world and easier to get hold of at a young age, they’re looking after themselves better than the golfers did 25 years ago.”

Countryman Robert Allenby, 39, didn’t seem threatened by the invasion of the 20-somethings, suggesting they were winning lesser events not populated by the world’s top 50.

Allenby apparently was unswayed by McIlroy’s final-round 62 at Quail Hollow, which made him the youngest PGA Tour winner since Woods in 1996. With Phil Mickelson and Angel Cabrera chasing, McIlroy played the last five holes 5 under par in what was considered the virtuoso performance of the tour year.

“Nothing against the way they’ve been playing. . . . They’re not winning the bigger tournaments, they’re winning the lesser tournaments where the competitive advantage is not as high,” said Allenby, ranked 14th in the world. “Good luck to them, and that’s pretty much it.”

Allenby might have been insulting tournament officials at Quail Hollow, the Byron Nelson, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (won by Dustin Johnson), the Phoenix Open (Hunter Mahan) Shell Houston Open (Anthony Kim) and at the Memorial and AT&T National (both won by Justin Rose).

But as they go low and win big in greater numbers at seemingly younger ages, there is one area where they might be lacking. At least if the reaction of then-27-year-old Haas at PGA West in January is any indication.

After tapping in his putt, the son of Jay Haas and great nephew of Bob Goalby said: “What do I do? I’ve never won before.”

“All of a sudden, I’m like, ‘Where am I supposed to go? do I sign my card or who do I talk to?’ ” Haas said a few days later. “Even though I knew I had two putts to win, even when I tapped it in, I’m still like, ‘What else can happen wrong here? Can I make another bogey after this 18th hole?’

“It was a different feeling than I’ve ever had, for sure.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com.

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Consistent Golf Swing » Youngsters grab reins to new era: Better training, Tiger clear path for impressive next generation

Youngsters grab reins to new era: Better training, Tiger clear path for impressive next generation