Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy Could Lead Golf into the Next Golden Age

Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson.

Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen.

Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson.

These are all groupings of the game’s greatest players that spent years (and in some cases even decades) going head-to-head against each other.

However, not since Nicklaus and Watson were battling it out at major championships in the late 70s and early 80s has golf seen a true clashing of titans.

That may have all changed last Sunday, when a mature 22-year-old by the name of Rory McIlroy showed the golf world that he has now learned how to make putts on Sunday afternoon to close out golf tournaments.  

With McIlroy’s ascension to the top of the World Golf Rankings, Tiger Woods seemingly regaining his form and Phil Mickelson hitting the ball as well as he has since the 2010 Masters, we may be entering a five-year stretch that historians will look back on as one of the game’s golden ages.

McIlroy is only 22 years old, and although he now has a major championship and four other official victories on his resume, he has shown a propensity to let big-time tournaments slip away in the past.

However, over the past 12 months, McIlroy seems to have addressed his weekend demons and has become far more comfortable closing out golf tournaments, which is a true sign of a maturing golfer.

If McIlroy continues along the path he’s been traveling, he will have very few (if any) equals among his own age range in the coming years. McIlroy’s real rivals will be men currently 10 and 15 years his senior—guys like Woods, Mickelson and Westwood.

As talented as the likes of Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Nick Watney, Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer and Rickie Fowler are, it doesn’t take an expert golf analyst to realize that McIlroy is simply in another league.

Barring any injuries, a case of the yips or Woods’ son Charlie Axel maturing faster than is humanly possible, McIlroy likely be able to dominate his generation in a manner similar—although probably not quite as extreme—to how Woods dominated his competition for 13 years.

Every golf fan is quick to ask, what would it have been like if Woods faced off against Jack Nicklaus in his prime?

What would it have been like if Nicklaus had faced off against Hogan in his prime?

And what would it have been like if Jones had continued playing into the era of Snead, Nelson and Hogan?

Although Woods and Mickelson are nearing the end of their prime years, we may just get a four-to-five year window where we see the game’s next great player competing against the great players of the previous generation while all are either in or at least near their primes.

What we saw last Sunday afternoon, with Woods posting a final-round 62 and McIlroy holding on for dear life on the back nine to claim the Honda Classic title, is something we could see a lot more of in the coming days, weeks, months and years.

Mickelson and Woods battling it out on Sunday at the Masters a few years ago—well, we could see that again very soon, and add the likes of McIlory and Westwood into the mix as well.

During the late 80s and early 90s, there were a number of very good players on tour, and “parity” was the keyword of the day.  Guys like Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosna, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Greg Norman, etc. were all great players in their own right, but they did not quite fall into that category of true titans of the game.

Woods could certainly be considered a titan of the game, Mickelson is close and McIlory has an excellent chance to one day move into that category as well.  

The 1960 U.S. Open, when Palmer made his miraculous Sunday charge to defeat Hogan and Nicklaus, is considered by many to be one of the greatest major championships ever played in that it was a rare meeting of the game’s past, present and future.

Well, right now we may be see something similar with the likes of McIlory, Woods, Mickelson, Westwood, etc., only this meeting of the game’s past, present and future may last a lot longer than one Sunday afternoon at Cherry Hills.

Maybe—just maybe—we are about to enter the game’s next golden age.  

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