That "next guy" to challenge Tiger and the other all-time greats is coming

[geesecougar2]

If this is going to happen, they need to change the conditions of the game to either 1.) better reward a well rounded elite skill set, or 2.) more heavily reward fewer skills in the set.

Basically that means they either have to 1.) roll back the equipment and rebalance the course setups, or 2.) trick out courses to 8,500 yards with island greens everywhere.

[dalehead]

I’ve said it before. The next great player is currently 12 years old and Chinese. Maybe Korean.

[BMC]

It should have been Rory. Not hungry enough now.

[Chopper1986]

it's funny when threads like this come up and you think back of the previous 10-15 years of "next big things" that have come and gone. So many good golfers who people and the media had set as the usurper of the crown. I would say Rory and Speith were probably the closest we had but both have fizzled out now, Speith more than Rory for sure. Back when Tiger was at his best you knew he would be challenging majors, now it is a crap shoot for who will win

[Lark]

Rory is great but he never had Tiger's all-around game.

[Frankensteins Monster]

The longevity of dominance will never happen again, period. We will get spurts of outright greatness, see Spieth when he had the third greatest year in majors history. Rory will be as close as we'll get for a long time and that's not even close. It's incredible to think, but the level of dominance Tiger had is understated and under appreciated by everyone. It was insane.

[sonnygolf]

When I see someone win :

3 jnr US Amateur titles

3 US Amateur titles

Then I will take notice.

[tiderider]

yeah, he was never the 'next' one ...

[tiderider]

was going to post this ... 6 straight usga titles, beginning at about age 15 ... also won the 9-10 age group as an 8 yo at the Jr World Golf 'ship ...

 

there is no one out there right now that is even close to that ...

 

 

[Spongerob]

Who is Xavier? Cannot for the life of me think of a pro, world class or otherwise, with that name. He may be burning for a major but you have to be good enough to play in one first.

[Nard_S]

I'm sorry, (typo) meant Xander Schauffele.

[bscinstnct]

 

Could be. If you look at TW and Jack, they were real loners. They had single minded focus and no time to fraternize, all business.

 

Trevino on Jack,

 

“But Jack wasn't much of a talker on the golf course, and off the course Jack made just cursory small talk to most players. He called everybody "pro." It would be, "How you doing, pro?" "Family good?" "That's great, have a nice round today." The kind of stuff that doesn't give you much insight into what he's really about

 

You look at the elite young players now, they hang with their golf bros, make big money, can’t blame them for not having that kind of drive.

 

 

[Darth Putter]

 

A modern day winner of 3 straight US Juniors is going to follow the route of Justin Rose/ Akshay Bhatia and turn pro. Or maybe play one year of college like Jordan Spieth. To duplicate Tiger's feat, someone's going have to win a couple of those Juniors and Amateurs in the same year.

[cdnglf]

Agreed. The US Am and US College are the wrong places to look for generational phenoms.

Think Rory vs Ryan Moore.

[ChrisL521]

Jack is correct because the players of today lack the drive to be the best. Tiger is the exception.

[BNGL]

Maybe there is a next generational type talent out there, hopefully he is too. I am always amused though to hear announcers rant and rave about younger players, especially when they compare them to Tiger. (Tiger, to me, is the best player in the history of the game. Nicklaus is the greatest champion, Tigers the best player). It’s just an enormous burden to put on a young player, that we should just enjoy watching develop before anointing them the next one, remember the cover of Gary Nicklaus? Gary is a great player but I could name 50 guys I’d rather partner than Gary Nicklaus in his prime.

Of today’s current crop of players, Rory and DJ to me are head shoulders above the rest. I’ve always believed Rory’s best is better than anyone else’s. Obviously I’m a Rory fan, Know him a little bit through his dad and I remember that are pretty impressive. DJ has that stretch there where he looked unbeatable and I’m not sure what is up with his putting I’ve detailed my thoughts on it before seeing him out and about with quite a few putters.

i can make the numbers say whatever but I found an article detailing Rorys first 175 PGA Tour events. He won 18 better than 10 percent (including 4 majors) 50 percent of those events were top 10s over 60 percent are top 25, for the record tiger won 23 percent of his first 175. Phil and Jordan Spieth were each around 6 percent. Rory won his 18th tour event before age 30 something only Woods, Nicklaus, and Watson have been able to accomplish. He’s also been inside the top 15 in OWGR since 2009 lowest being 13 after a missed cut at the Valspar but he won the next start at the API.

Rory is often lumped into the category with Rickie, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm etc. Rory is head and shoulders above those three and he’s the best player I have ever played with. It’s very rare for a player to beat you off the greens, what I mean is guys like Henrik and Westwood can win with average putting weeks, because their ballstriking is so good. Rory can win with driving (obviously a little hyperbolic but you get the point) which is half of the ball striking stat, he can just get on a run and drive it so far and so straight it’s such a huge advantage.

[ChrisL52188]

Lee Trevino is spot on. There is no next guy. The guys today make too much money and live a great life for them to truly put the work into it and be the next Jack or Tiger.

[Ashley Schaeffer]

This is great (and first-hand) insight. I respect it, and I thank you for sharing it.

[Hawkeye77]

That burden of comparison seemed to haunt Tom Weiskopf back in the day. Crenshaw in particular and Wadkins were the next "it" at various points in time. Just focusing on Americans and tired of talking about Greg Norman (even though he isn't tired of me talking about him), Watson broke out of that eventually and was clearly a singular talent.

Surprise (!), Jack, to me, is still the best player and champion in the history of the game (and I don't argue much with anyone who supports Tiger, they were different players). Jack was head and shoulders the best of his era, Tiger the same.

I agree, I think Rory is on a level above Rickie, Spieth, JT, Rahmbo. I am still mystified at Dustin Johnson's status in some eyes, and again don't argue it, but he's been sitting around in a "what has he done lately" mode for some time. I remember watching and following Rory at the 2009 PGA as a young, pudgy seemingly carefree kid who could have won it. He is a special talent - I am looking forward to what I think is Chapter 2 of his career.

Strictly my opinion, and I know Rickie's putting in particular is held in high regard, but the one area of the game that sets Jack and Tiger apart from all of those "could be the next greatest" is consistent and clutch putting and that seems to dog these all younger guys at times in ways it didn't get in the way of Nicklaus and Tiger winning. I don't want to call them careless putts, but certainly a lot of WTF's from inside 6-8 feet and especially closer. It's like they putt the lights out on Saturday (or Friday or Thursday, or even a couple of days in a row) and when it's time to close on Sunday they are shaking their heads. They win, but not like they should be winning if they are "it".

 

[BNGL]

I think what’s held in high regard about Rickie is his technique not his overall ability because you gotta admit he has sexy putting stroke. I mean ooofff it is a good looking stroke and one to emulate, but he doesn’t have it. He’s played the club I worked at a few times, terrific player, great young man and ambassador of the game, kids love him, he’s very marketable, and a good player nothing more than that. I have been off of Rickie stock since he played with Tiger at the Memorial a few years ago. He just doesn’t have it, in my opinion. When the lights are on chips are down, Rickie won’t be there and that is totally fine he’s going to have a lucrative nice career.

As far as DJ goes he had that stretch from what 2015 to 2017-18ish? Where he won the US Open, won all the WGC Events, won the Hyundai or whatever it is now. What he did leading up to that was dial in his wedge play, for you young kids reading with gorgeous swings and high carry and ball speed numbers but can’t wedge for $hit take note here. He went to work and analyzed his stats, he realized he was longer than almost everyone and fairly straight too (credit to him and “Butch” but really Claude, Claude does the work Butch gets the credit) for going to a fade. So long and straight not making birdies, why? Oh because my wedges aren’t great, ok I’m gunna become the best wedge player on tour since I have so many. He nearly accomplished that if I remember stats correctly. So he was the longest player and one of the better wedgers on tour. If he’d have stopped there he’d be winning darn near every week, but he looked again at his numbers and said, “well I’m the longest and I can wedge it, why ain’t I making birdies? Ah I must be a bad putter!” And he started fiddling around with his stroke and different putters now I think he’s lost that freedom in trying to be technically perfect (make no mistake he’s still a fabulous putter but not relative to other tour players). Hitting far like he does fairly controlled he’ll always be in it.

As far as Rorys next chapter it could go one of two ways he keeps doing what he’s doing playing well to great winning fairly regularly contending in majors, or he could flat out dominate as he enters his prime golfing years (he’s only 31 I think). Rory knows he’s better than most everyone, and he is, but he’s just gotta focus on golf to do that and I’m not sure he can or is capable of being that singularly minded because talking with him about life and his relationships getting married he values that stuff greatly and as much as he admires Tiger the player, he puts Tiger the father on a much higher pedestal than the golfer (ironic I know with all that’s gone on but he is a terrific father by all accounts, I heard that from neighbors of his that would hang out and staff at Tigers bar that worked his kids Bday parties at his property on Jupiter Island, there’s a Mickey Ds right off of Bridge Road in Hobe Sound where hell stop with his kids to get a happy meal, not that that makes you a great dad but).

[Lark]

I don’t get all the writing off of Rickie. He is only 31 too, and was pretty clutch when he won the Players. He could very well be hitting his prime and may snag a couple majors the next few years.

[bscinstnct]

 

I like Rickie but he has 5 pga tour wins in 10 years on tour. Webb is 34 with 5 wins and a major for context.

 

He needs to really go for it now but don’t know if he wants to. Guy has tons of cash, smoke show wife, and is just one of those chill people everybody likes.

 

I would like to see him get a major. Could open the door for another.

[anythingfinite]

There are only 2 currently in the game that could do it, and both have inverse issues.

Rory has the talent and not the hunger to be a killer.

Brooks has the instinct but not the talent.

Both will be the most prolific of this era of "kids" but they won't sniff TW.

[Shilgy]

It’s like being in a time machine. They said the same in the early 90’s before Tiger came along. Too much talent out there, too much money to be had and so on.

There will be another. Be patient.

[gripANDrip1983]

Justin Thomas is still fairly young.. he’s definitely not Tiger Woods at his age, but who on earth is. I think he has the best shot at being the next true great.

[BNGL]

That’s a terrific comp right there...they both even have Players Championships to boot.

[elwhippy]

I was talking to a couple of my learned golfing friends. Their answers were along the lines of...…..winning a single major doesn't make you a superstar....DJ. Andy North has two US Opens.... Players are deemed stars despite relatively low win rates. Fowler is one of the game's top earners despite winning relatively few events. He is not a great player despite commentators drooling. I think we need to see another Hogan, Faldo or similar. Hard as nails mentally, not interested in the public persona as much and the ability to grind it out. Tiger was around at the time of the biggest technical advances yet won with a trad lofted set of blades. Young players tell me they can't hit a blade despite a plus handicap....yeah right. Until then Jack and Tiger can rest easy.

[Lark]

Why do you think Rory has more talent than Brooks? And neither are anywhere close to Tiger in his prime.

[Lark]

DJ has 20 Tour wins. That is Hall of Fame level.

[BNGL]

while I do agree it’s easier to be a atar today, DJ to Andy North isn’t a good comparison...at all. Yes Andy has three wins, two of them majors. But DJ has 20 titles 1 Major, multiple WGC titles, and won every year on tour for his first 12 years(?) something only Woods and Nicklaus were able to do? (I don’t have the facts in front of me but I know Tiger and Jack were in that list for a while). He also ascended to number one in the world for north of a year, 63 weeks if I remember correctly.

the funny part Tiger is that he won in spite of his most technologically advanced club his driver. He’s never been a great driver, he’ll tell you that. Tiger is a throwback because of how he learned to play, he even plays a ball that spins a lot relative to other guys.