If previous majors haven’t been enough, the recently completed Masters confirms it: Golf is a young man’s game.
Five of the top ten finishers in this year’s Masters are in their 20s. Two, Brooks Koepka and Dylan Fritelli, turned 30 this year.
Second place finisher Sungjae Im was born in 1998…three years after Tiger Woods teed it up at Augusta for the first time.
Tiger is the second greatest Masters champion in the event’s rich history. His five green jackets trail only the six earned by the great Jack Nicklaus. Tiger (15) also trails Jack (18) in total majors won.
The Masters is not a bombers course meant to appeal to the longest of the long hitters on tour. How else do you explain 63-year old Bernhard Langer finishing ahead of beefy Bryson DeChambeau? I think it is reasonable to think Tiger will match Jack’s six green jackets, but he will never reach or exceed Jack’s 18 total majors.
The results of the Masters are a microcosm of the world golf rankings where seven of the top ten players are 20-somethings. The average age of the other three is 34. Ten years Tiger’s junior.
What do each of these players have in common? They all grew up watching Tiger and hoping to emulate his success, and they are collectively accomplishing the goal.
The days of “Tiger or the field” are over. In fact, golf has never been more wide open. But refrain from confusing the difficulty in picking a weekly winner with a lack of star power. Golf is loaded with young, gifted, complete players who all learned from one of the greatest to ever play.
Why will Tiger never catch Jack? Because of the Monster he created.