The Kids Are Alright: Rory McIlroy and Ryo Ishikawa Make History

Sunday began with 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa shooting a 58 at the Crowns Tournament (the lowest score ever recorded on any professional golf tour) to win his 7th career Japanese Tour title, continued with 27-year-old Alvaro Quiros winning the Spanish Open in a sudden death playoff and concluded with 20-year-old Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy running away with day’s main event at Quail Hollow Golf Club.

“There's wins and then there's whatever this is,” was how CBS Analyst David Feherty described the way in which McIlory closed out the Quail Hollow Championship.

The “whatever this is” Feherty was referring to was the streak of six consecutive threes McIlroy carded to close out the tournament to become the youngest player to win a PGA Tour event since a wiry young fella from Southern California by the name of Tiger won the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational.

As Feherty so eloquently stated, this was no ordinary PGA Tour victory.

Not only did McIlroy finish off his round with six consecutive threes, he shattered the course record by two strokes and broke away from a pack that included four major champions...all on Sunday afternoon at a golf course that tour pros spent the entire week comparing to a major championship venue.

It looked like a major, felt like a major, contained a field like a major…heck, if the label were different, Johnny Miller’s sole claim to fame (his 63 in the final round of the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont) would have become just a footnote in history.  

You know that a player has just done something truly amazing when the likes of Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Bubba Watson, Lee Westwood and several national scribes all watched McIlroy walk into the scorer’s tent with their mouths hung open as if they had just seen the ghost of Bobby Jones blister Quail Hollow.

“I was four, five, six holes into the round thinking that 68 was kind of the number, that 11 was the number I needed to try to get,” Phil Mickelson said after his round.  “I've got to congratulate Rory on a tremendous round. He played some incredible golf. 30 on the back nine the way this course is is just fabulous.”

“Shooting 62 out there, my goodness, I hope they don't try to take the golf course and make it any harder because they don't need to do that,” Billy Mayfair said of McIlory’s round.

So far this season we’ve seen 28-year-old Camilo Villegas win his third PGA Tour event in three years.

We’ve seen 24-year-old Anthony Kim also win his third PGA Tour event in three years and then mount a Palmer-esque Sunday afternoon charge at Augusta the very next week.

We’ve seen 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa card a 58 in the final round of the Crowns Tournament in Asia.

And finally, we’ve seen 20-year-old Rory McIlroy completely demolish a golf course in a way that was reminiscent of Tiger Woods’ 1997 assault on Augusta National.

One day players such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els, etc. will walk away from game of golf, and for the first time in a very long time we can rest easy in knowing that the game will be left in very capable hands.

For more PGA Tour news, insight and analysis, check out the Tour Report's Monday Backspin Blog .