Charl Schwartzel and 10 Young Golfers Who Will Challenge Tiger Woods' Dominance
Tiger Woods' front nine Sunday at Augusta made people think he would win the Masters. While his disappointing back nine took him out of contention, he showed that his game is close to being back.
As it stands right now, Woods is four major titles short of tying Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 career majors. While four majors is not easy, Woods has twice won four majors over two full years (2000-2001 and 2005-2006).
But Woods finding his form is not the only roadblock to surpassing Nicklaus' mark. One other question exists: what will the other golfers do?
Specifically, what will the golfers who were not around during Woods' dominant years do? These are golfers who don't have the memories of Woods dominating them.
Charl Schwartzel
1 of 11
Age: 26
Professional wins: 8
Major victories: 1 (2011 Masters)
With his Masters win fresh in our minds, Schwartzel gives us a pretty good place to start.
Even with golf fans, he was far from a household name before the 2011 Masters. Actually, he was far from a household name before the 16th hole on Sunday. But his win was no fluke.
He had won one European Tour event in 2011, and with the exception of 2009, Schwartzel has won at least one European Tour tournament every season since 2007.
His major history is limited, as the 2011 Masters was only the 16th major he had ever entered. Prior to his victory, his best major finish was a tie for 14th at the 2010 British Open.
While that may not sound too impressive, 2010 gave him his best finish in every one of the four majors. He was one of 11 golfers to make the cut in every one of 2010's majors.
He also started the 2011 major season in a pretty good way.
Dustin Johnson
2 of 11
Age: 26
Professional wins: 4
Major victories: 0
Other than Schwartzel, he is the only player on the list to have made the cut in every major in 2010.
Johnson was a popular pick to win the Masters. He didn't live up to those expectations, shooting a 74 in the opening round. He shot a 68 in the second round, which allowed him to make the cut. Unfortunately, he came back with weekend rounds of 73 and 74 to finish tied for 38th.
His T38 matched his performance at the 2010 Masters. Other than the Masters, 2010 was a good major season for Johnson, as he finished in the top 15 at the other three majors.
Two of Johnson's career wins came at a major venue (Pebble Beach). He was also in the final pairing in both the US Open and PGA Championship in 2010.
It's not at all uncommon for young golfers to struggle when trying to finish a major, especially when they haven't won one.
Johnson has the talent to win majors. When he does win his first, it would not be at all surprising to see him win a few others in the subsequent years.
Martin Kaymer
3 of 11
Age: 26
Professional wins: 9
Major victories: 1
While he has never even made a cut at the Masters, he does have the kind of game that plays well at Augusta.
Other than his struggles at the Masters, his recent major career has been quite stellar. He finished T8 at the US Open in 2010, T7 at the British Open and won the PGA Championship.
His game is a model of consistency. Don't believe me? Check out the world golf rankings and look at the name on the top of the list. Not only is he the top golfer, he is younger than anyone else in the top eight.
His win at the 2010 PGA Championship was likely the first of many. Kaymer is consistently at the top of leaderboards. His game also sets up well to win on different kinds of courses.
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Rory McIlroy
4 of 11
Age: 21
Professional wins: 2
Major victories: 0
Watching McIlroy play the final round of the Masters was tough. The period of time between his tee shots on holes 10 and 13 was nothing short of painful.
His reaction when he hit his drive on 13 into the water was heartbreaking. If he didn't know before then that he had shot his way out of contention, he certainly did after that tee shot.
But McIlroy has the most complete game of all of the players listed. He has finished in the top 10 in each of the four majors, with the exception of the Masters.
His post-round interviews told me he can bounce back from what happened.
His greatest problem in majors has been his inability to put four good rounds together. That will come.
McIlroy will turn 25 less than a month after the 2014 Masters. Provided he stays healthy, he should have at least two major victories to his name by then.
Rickie Fowler
5 of 11
Age: 22
Professional wins: 0
Major victories: 0
At this point, Fowler is more known for his outfits and haircut than his game.
His best career finish in a major was a T14 at the 2010 British Open, so it's not as though we have seen a lot of close calls.
Fortunately, he doesn't have a lot of baggage at majors. He has only played in five, and 2011 was the first time he ever played in the Masters.
We have seen close calls in non-majors. In 2010, Fowler had seven top-10 finishes on tour. Three of those were in the top three.
Through only eight starts in 2011, Fowler has two top-10 finishes. At a young age, he has been in contention enough to indicate that he will win on tour soon. Once he does that, a win in a major is likely not far behind.
Also, anyone who saw his singles match in the 2010 Ryder Cup knows that Fowler can play under pressure.
Ryo Ishikawa
6 of 11
Age: 19
Professional wins: 10
Major victories: 0
Ishikawa will be sentimental favorite for the rest of 2011 and quite possibly beyond. Pledging all of his 2011 earnings to the earthquake relief effort in Japan is a classy move for a guy who was obviously affected by the disaster.
As a golfer, Ishikawa clearly has a bright future. While the Japan Golf Tour is not at the level of the PGA or European tours, it is a legitimate professional tour nonetheless. Ishikawa hasn't even hit his 20th birthday, but success will follow him everywhere he goes.
In Japan, he shot a 58 in the final round of The Crowns to win 2010's edition of that tournament. A 58 is impressive, no matter what golf course your are playing on. Anyone who shoots a score that low can win anywhere.
At 18, Ishikawa scored a respectable three points for the international team in the 2009 President's Cup. He will become a fixture at that event.
The game of golf has never been more popular Internationally than it is right now. The top 10 finishers at the Masters hailed from a total of six different continents.
While Ishikawa was not a part of that group, he is the face of the international explosion. We've seen Americans, we've seen Australians, we've seen Europeans (notably northern and western Europeans) and we've seen a small but effective group of South Africans that dates back to Gary Player.
The Asian market has remained comparatively untapped, at least in men's golf. It won't be that way for long, and Ishikawa looks to be the first of a large group.
Gary Woodland
7 of 11
Age: 26
Professional wins: 1
Major victories: 0
It's not often that Alvaro Quiros plays in a group where he is not the last person hitting into the greens. That happened in the first two rounds of the 2011 Masters.
The ball has been clocked coming off of Woodland's driver at 200 mph. He is the only golfer on tour who can make that claim.
Woodland has played in only three majors in his career. He has made the cut in two of them, with his best finish coming at last week's Masters.
His progress can best be shown in his other tournaments in 2011. He lost a playoff at the Bob Hope Classic in January. In March, he won the Transitions Championship.
He is something of an unknown quantity. That is somewhat troubling, as he is the oldest person on this list. Fortunately, that only means he will be 27 in May, which gives him plenty of time to establish himself.
Jason Day
8 of 11
Age: 23
Professional wins: 1
Major victories: 0
When we look back at the 2011 Masters, what will we remember?
Will we remember Tiger Woods and his front-nine charge on Sunday? Yes.
Will we remember Rory McIlroy and his final-round collapse? Yes.
Will we remember Charl Schwartzel winning the tournament? Yes.
But there is one other performance that needs to be remembered from that tournament. Jason Day finished T2 in his first Masters. He nearly became the first person since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 to win the tournament on his first try.
His second-round 64 was one shot off the course record. Not bad for a guy playing only his second competitive round at Augusta.
Day has only played in three majors. His first was the 2010 British Open, where he finished T60. Then came that year's PGA, a T10. His third professional major was the 2011 Masters, a T2. He is going in the right direction.
Anthony Kim
9 of 11
Age: 25
Professional wins: 3
Major victories: 0
We haven't seen much of Kim since he won the Shell Houston Open in 2010. He finished third at the Masters the following week before an injury kept him out of the US and British opens that year.
He missed the cut at the 2010 PGA and did the same at the Masters last week.
Kim won twice in 2008, which was good enough to earn him a spot on the victorious American Ryder Cup team that year.
In 2009, he broke the record for birdies made in one round at the Masters, making 11 in the second round.
Besides the 2010 Masters, his only top 10 in a major came at the 2008 British Open.
He's been around so long that it's easy to forget that he is only 25 years old. He is a proven winner and is not a flash in the pan.
His talent is obvious. Along with Fowler, Woodland and Johnson, Kim is likely the future of American golf.
Jhonattan Vegas
10 of 11
Age: 26
Professional wins: 1
Major victories: 0
His major career is impossible to judge. The Masters was the first major that Vegas ever played in, and he missed the cut.
But the early part of 2011 gave us a glimpse that Vegas may be a factor on tour for a long time.
After winning the Bob Hope Classic, Vegas finished T3 at the Farmers Insurance Open. That tournament is not only played at a major venue (Torrey Pines), but it consistently brings one of the best fields in golf.
He has slipped a little bit since his performance at Torrey Pines. Vegas finished T12 at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, another major venue.
Since then, he has only one top-20 finish and has missed three consecutive cuts.
We don't have much more to draw from with Vegas. In 2010, he won once in Argentina and once on the Nationwide Tour.
No, that's not much of a sample size, but three wins in a calender year is a pretty good indicator of a guy who knows how to finish tournaments.
Matteo Manassero
11 of 11
Age: 18
Professional wins: 1
Major victories: 0
In 2009, Manassero became the youngest person to win the British Amateur Championship.
Later that year, he was paired with 59-year-old Tom Watson at the British Open. Manassero made the cut and finished T13, which was good enough to win the silver medal, which is given to the tournament's top amateur.
In 2010, Manassero was just more than a week away from his 17th birthday when he became the youngest person to make the cut at the Masters. That broke Bobby Cole's 43-year-old record. Like at the previous year's British Open, Manassero was the low amateur.
In October of 2010, he won the European Tour's Castelló Masters Costa Azahar.
He hasn't won since then, but his 2011 he has not been bad since, including second place at the UBS Hong Kong Open in November and 13th place at the Volvo Golf Champions in January.
He also advanced to the third round of the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. He lost 3&2 to eventual champion Luke Donald.
His first victory came against Steve Stricker, who is currently ranked eighth in the world.
His second victory that week was against Charl Schwartzel. Maybe you've heard of him.
As is the case with anyone as young as Manassero, we don't have much to draw from. What we do have is quite impressive.
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