British Open Golf 2011: Are Americans Overmatched at Royal St George's?

Six of the last 10 British Open champions have been from American soil. And while that should make us feel a little more comfortable when golfers tee it up at Royal St. George’s tomorrow, it still does not take away from what is staring American golfers in the face—the fact that they have lagged behind the foreigners the past two years in professional golf.

Maybe it was the Tiger effect, when there wasn’t someone to take the reins once the world’s best was injured and dealing with personal issues. Or, maybe it was that our own youngsters were too busy doing other things, like making YouTube videos, while others from across the pond and worldwide worked on their short game and their putting, walking past the Americans to sit atop the world rankings in spot one through four.

But unlike in years past, this gap is large and looms over us like a cloud that will not go away. Our best hope for revitalization comes in the form of two 40-somethings (Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker) and a host of others who look wet behind the ears and not ready to challenge for golf supremacy.

Phil Mickelson acknowledged this week that the best of the best are at the Open Championship and that he and others will have to battle the elements, the pot bunkers and the rough to win. Mickelson was the last American to be linked to a major championship, five championships ago, which seems like a lifetime.

Now, the names of McIlroy, Kaymer, Donald and Westwood are the faces of golf—much different than the names of Woods, Mickelson or Furyk.

"I'm not worried about American golf," Mickelson said in an article in the New York Post. "I'm not worried [that] we don't have good young players coming up to represent America because I think we do.”

If America is ready to retake its place as the best in golf, it will do so with names like Watson, Watney, Kuchar and Stricker. Mickelson will still be in the group (ranked sixth in the world right now), but it will be the younger generation that will have to take the lead.

Kuchar and Watney are currently ranked in the Top 10, but they are so far off the pace. The gap between what the Americans and what the foreigners have accomplished is greater than it looks.

If there is a silver lining, golf is cyclical. While Watson, Nicklaus and Floyd were leading the American charge in the early and mid-80s, golfers like Ballestros, Price, Faldo and Norman were challenging and overtaking them as the best—until the likes of Woods, Mickelson, Duval and Daly came along to retake the lead.  

Now that Tiger Woods is injured and a timetable for his return is unknown, this contingent will dominate—and probably dominate at Royal St. George’s. When American golf corrects itself and the younger golfers (including Ricky Fowler and Hunter Mahan) can consistently win at home and then go abroad and win against their new rivals, only then can we say the tide will turn.

But until then, this is what America is faced with: No one strikes fear in the foreigners and no one can stake a claim as to being a run-away favorite anywhere on a course. This wasn’t the case a few years ago when Woods or Mickelson could take command and hold on to it, or when seeing Woods on a leaders-board on the final day was enough to make golfers curl up in the fetal position and wave a white flag.

Americans need that kind of presence again, but until that happens expect more of the same—and expect a foreign victory this weekend, because the course is designed to suit the game played by those who are not American.