All of this season's Majors and World Golf Championships titles are in the hands of first-time winners at that level. That's never happened before. Tim Maitland investigates whether it means the sport has truly entered a new era.
Something is happening in the golf world: 10 of the last 11 Major winners have been first time winners. Six of the last seven World Golf Championships winners have also been new to winning at the highest stratosphere of the world game.
Since the World Golf Championships's were introduced in 1999 the titles have never all been simultaneously in the hands of newcomers to that echelon of winning. Since the end of World War II only three other years have ended with the Majors claimed by first-time winners: in 2003 (Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel), 1969 (George Archer, Orville Moody, Tony Jacklin, Raymond Floyd) and 1959 (Art Wall, Billy Casper, Gary Player, Bob Rosburg). Clearly, something is going on.
The only comparable time to this era -- where only Phil Mickelson (2010 Masters) and Ernie Els (2010 World Golf Championships-CA Championship) have struck blows for the established names -- is the period from 1957 to 1959. Back then, in a run of nine Majors, apart from Peter Thomson of Australia winning the fourth of his five Open Championships, the rest of the champions were newcomers to the upper echelon of tournament winning.
In 50 years, fair to assume, some of our recently crowned champions will be remembered in the same way we remember a couple of those first-time Major winners from back then. Like 1958 Masters winner Arnold Palmer or 1959 Open Champion Gary Player, it's quite possible that a Martin Kaymer, a Rory McIlory or maybe a Keegan Bradley will be legends too.
What is clear right now is that Europe, and the European Tour in particular, is dominant... or at least enjoying a period of unrivalled parity with the U.S. In the last two years, three Northern Irishmen (Graeme McDowell, 2010 U.S. Open; Rory McIlroy, 2011 U.S. Open and Darren Clarke, 2011 Open Championship) have claimed their first majors along with Germany's Martin Kaymer (2010 PGA Championship). PGA TOUR members Louis Oosthuizen (2010 Open) and Charl Schwartzel (2011 Masters) have done likewise for South Africa.
England's Luke Donald (since May 30), Kaymer (two months) and Lee Westwood (22 weeks) have each held the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking since Tiger Woods relinquished top spot in Shanghai last November. Donald, fellow Englishman Ian Poulter (respectively, the 2011 and 2010 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship winners) and HSBC Champions titleholder Francesco Molinari have all claimed their first World Golf Championships titles.
"We're just very good at the moment. There's no other reason than that. A lot of the players at the moment have been around a while, but also a lot of the good young players have just come through and are getting comfortable too," says Westwood.
However the shift is not just in Europe. During the PGA TOUR's regular season there were 12 first-time winners ranging from 40-year-old Harrison Frazar who popped the champagne after 354 futile attempts -- "I hate to say it, but I had pretty much given up," -- through to five rookies, something that has only happened one other time since 1970.
"I think this is a tremendously exciting time, but not especially because of the shift in power from the USA to Europe," declares Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
"There are some far more significant longer term shifts. Firstly, the sport is appealing to a younger generation in a different way. Whether you look at the media profile of Rory McIlroy, the impact Martin Kaymer's success has had in Germany or the way that Rickie Fowler's image is resonating with teenagers... they're all touching a new demographic," he adds.
"The other thing that excites me is how the game is growing geographically. Golf is pushing into new frontiers. We're certainly seeing it at our tournaments in Rio, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Shanghai... and it's only going to accelerate the closer we get to golf's return to the Olympics in 2016."
The steady internationalization, however, doesn't help make sense of the PGA TOUR's 2011 winners, which appear to be a swirling void. Perhaps it's best to regard it as exactly that. Tiger's dominance, almost unprecedented, ended relative suddenly by injuries and his off-course issues has created a void and the swirling vortex of winners has yet to settle into a recognizable pattern.
One of the most compelling explanations for why the golf map seems so confused at the moment is the ratio of Tigers wins to appearances at his peak. In total, from the start of his rookie season in 1996 through the end of 2009, Tiger played in 239 PGA TOUR events and won 71 times. That's a winning percentage of nearly 30 per cent... even before you start to refine the numbers for the periods when he was at his red-hot, red-shirted, fist-pumping best.
Relatively few of the current top professionals will give much credence to the argument that the decline of US golf, at least when it comes to winning the top tournaments, may be the result of Tiger simply denying so many other players the opportunity to work out how to win. Statistically it seems significant.
"One in three years! One in three seasons was stripped away!" exclaims Australian veteran Stuart Appleby, a nine-time winner on the PGA TOUR.
"Then also, you wonder about the subliminal message of how do I beat this guy? When Tiger's was on his best? I don't think people are thinking like that. They're probably a bit more back into their own thing."
The reality is that, in the void left by Tiger, all kinds of golfers have been given the opportunity to work out how to win.
Rookie Keegan Bradley, in less than two seasons, jumped from winning on the Hooters Tour to becoming only the third player in history to win the first major he played in. He says nothing really prepares you for the moment when you first get in contention as a pro.
"It's a pretty intense experience. It's a feeling that only people in sports can experience; it's just intense," Bradley says.
"It's everywhere. It's physically and mentally, especially mentally."
The champions have come from every conceivable angle: Whether it's Webb Simpson -- a first time winner who arguably was the PGA TOUR's hottest player through the second half of the 2011 season -- Bill Haas, whose TOUR Championship win also netted him the biggest payday in golf in the form of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, or Harrison Frazar, who in his 17th season as a pro finally figured out what all those people who told him he was trying to hard actually meant.
All that is left to wonder is just how much more global the game will have become by the time one of the first-time top-level champions emerges from this period in the way that Player and Palmer did in the late 1950s... and the fact that the 12 first-
