Five Players Who Could Win Their First Major in 2009

As we head into the 2009 PGA Tour season, there are many questions surrounding some of the game’s top players.

No one knows when Tiger Woods will return and how affective he will be once he does.

Although we have all learned our lesson in ever betting against Tiger Woods after his shocking win at the 2008 US Open, common sense would tell us that it will take at least some time to get his game back to it’s top form after returning to the tour in 2009. 

However, I certainly wouldn’t recommend running to Vegas and placing any bets against Tiger Woods.

Phil Mickelson has not won a major in two years and has not really contended in a major since his meltdown at the 2006 US Open.

2008 FedEx Cup champion Vijay Singh has not won a major since the 2004 PGA Championship. 

The 2009 majors could very well provide us with several first-time winners.

Here is a list of five players who might just breakthrough and win a major championship in 2009.

Hunter Mahan

Hunter Mahan is on this list for two main reasons.

First is his virtually unmatched ability to string together a large number of birdies.

When Mahan catches fire, there is the very good possibility that he will post an amazingly low score.

In a typical PGA Tour event, it is not uncommon to see Mahan post a score of 62 or 63.  However, it is also not uncommon to see Mahan post a score of 76 or 77 during that same week.

Mahan is the type of player who could start a final round of a major championship five strokes behind the leader, catch fire on the back nine and come out of nowhere to snatch the tournament.

As Mahan continues to mature and become a better all-around golfer, his ability to put together four quality rounds of golf will improve.

Mahan has not faired very well at the majors he has played in during his young career, but he has showed us an ability to excel under the most intense pressure, a quality needed to win a major championship.

Mahan was selected as one of Paul Azinger’s captains’ picks for the 2008 American Ryder Cup team.

Azinger’s decision to select Mahan was largely due to his uncanny ability to catch fire and sting together a number of birdies which could bury an opponent in a match play format.

But Mahan’s performance at the 2008 Ryder Cup went far beyond Azinger or anyone else’s expectations. 

Hunter Mahan accumulated more points than any other member of the American Ryder Cup team.

Mahan has clearly displayed his ability to thrive under the most intense pressure.

If Mahan is able to get hot for four consecutive days, he could walk away with a major championship in 2009.

Paul Casey

Paul Casey is on this list for virtually the same reason Mahan appears on this list.

Casey has the ability to get extremely hot and post some amazingly low scores.

But similar to Mahan, Casey has had difficulty putting together four stellar rounds of golf, particularly in the majors.

Casey could easily follow a third round 62 with a final round 76.

During his third round of the 2008 Masters, Casey put on a display of birdies on Augusta’s back-none reminiscent of Jack Nicklaus’ performance in the '86 Masters.

Unfortunately, Casey followed his up his third round performance with 79 on Sunday.

Over the past two years, Casey has finished in the top-20 at five out of the eight majors, his best finish coming at the 2008 US Open where he finished in a tie for seventh.

Casey is a superb ball-striker but has so far been held back by his poor putting.

In 2008, Casey averaged 30.44 putts per round, which was ranked 196th on the PGA Tour, a shocking stat for an eight time European Tour winner and a perennial Ryder Cup team member.

If Casey can combine his stellar ball striking with some consistency on the greens in 2009, he might just have the ability to snatch a major championship.

Anthony Kim

History has shown us that one great season has never been sufficient enough to accurately determine the course of a player’s career.

Golf is a funny game and time after time, we have seen players lose their game at the drop of a hat.

23-year-old Anthony Kim has essentially had one great season. However, Kim has displayed some un-measurable qualities that provide him with an excellent chance of building upon his 2008 season.

Kim displayed two qualities that could offer him a springboard for future success even more so than his extraordinary talent.

Those qualities are confidence and nerves of steel.

Hogan had it, Nicklaus had it, and Woods has an abundance of both qualities.

Not since a slender young fist-pumping Tiger Woods took the PGA Tour by storm back 1996 have we seen a player with such a combination of talent and confidence.

Tiger Woods has spent the better part of the last decade watching some of the game’s most elite players fold in his path. This can be mostly attributed to Woods’ otherworldly ability to win, but is also partly due to other players being mentally intimidated by the thought of going head to head with the best player on the planet.

With two PGA Tour wins this year, Kim has shown an ability to close out a tournament, which is quite rare for a 23-year-old, second-year player.

At the 2008 Ryder Cup, Kim displayed a unique ability to thrive under a form of pressure many consider to be the most intense in all of golf.

The likelihood of Kim being intimidated by anyone or anything on a golf course is slim to none.

Kim oozes a confidence that says “I don’t care who you are, I’m going to beat you,” along with what appears to be a genuine enjoyment of playing in golf’s most pressure packed situations; two qualities that are essential for winning a major championship and particularly essential in competing head-to-head with Tiger Woods.  

Although Kim is only 23 years old, it would be a disappointment if he did not at least content in the 2009 majors.

Henrick Stenson

Several years ago Henrick Stenson was considered one of the most talented up-and-coming stars on the European Tour. That was, until he simply lost his game.  

Stenson struggled for years to regain his game and confidence before finally finding it again back in 2007, from which point he has gotten progressively better.

Stenson won the 2007 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and finished in the top 25 at three out of the four majors in 2008, including a third-place finish at the British Open and a fourth-place finish at the PGA Championship.

As a member of two European Ryder Cup teams, Stenson knows what it’s like to play under the most intense pressure.

After Stenson’s strong finish to the 2008 season, you can be assured that he has every intention of contending in the 2009 majors.

Sergio Garcia

During the course of Sergio Garcia’s career, he has probably never had a better chance to loose the unwanted label of being “the greatest player to have never won a major” as he does heading into the 2009 season.

Garcia is now the second-ranked player in the world and under the tutelage of short-game guru Stan Utley, he appears to have finally found a putting stroke that is unwavering under the most intense pressure.

Garcia sunk several big putts down the stretch on his way to winning the Player Championship, widely thought of as golf’s fifth major. 

Although he lost in a sudden death playoff at both the Barclays and the Tour Championship, he again sunk several vitally important putts down the stretch just to finish in a tie for the lead.

Another aspect of Garcia’s game that has shown a marked improvement in 2008 is his level of maturity both on and off the golf course.

Prior to the 2008 season, Garcia was quick to point the blame for not winning at anyone and anything else. The players in front of him were playing too slow, the greens were too marked-up to roll a decent putt, the pin placements were unfair, or he was simply unlucky.

However, in 2008, we saw a vastly different, more mature Sergio Garcia.

In several postround interviews, we finally saw him begin to take some responsibility for not getting the job done down the stretch.

Garcia’s worst moments of the 2008 season were his loss to a surging Padraig Harrington at the PGA Championship and his shocking 5&4 defeat at the hands of Anthony Kim during his Sunday singles match at the Ryder Cup. 

After each of these gut-wrenching defeats, Garcia was cordial in giving credit to his competition and even shouldered much of the blame for these losses. 

Combine Garcia’s superb ball-striking ability with a putter that finally seems to hold steady under the pressure as well as more mature character and 2009 could very well be Sergio Garcia’s year.