These rising stars hail from every
golf-playing continent. Young North Americans like Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas,
Daniel Berger, Brooks Koepka, Smylie
Kaufman and Adam Hadwin. Europeans
Matthew Fitzpatrick, Paul Dunne, Victor Dubuisson, Tommy Fleetwood and
Thomas Pieters. Africans Branden Grace
and Brandon Stone. Australians Cameron
Smith and Ryan Ruffels. Asians Hideki
Matsuyama, Ben An, Anirban Lahiri and
Kiradech Aphibarnrat. South America’s
Emiliano Grillo.
“They are just coming out and nobody
is afraid,” said Spieth of his already accomplished peers.
The fascination with youth has long been
a staple in golf. After Tiger Woods became
the youngest player to win the Masters at 21
in his first major as a professional in 1997,
it became popular to search for the “next
Tiger.” This endeavor led to the conversation about the “Young Guns” who were
going to step up as his long-term rivals. The
club of so-called can’t-miss kids included
Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Justin Rose,
Charles Howell III, Luke Donald, Matt
Kuchar, Paul Casey, David Gossett, Bryce
Molder and teenage phenom Ty Tryon.
they arrive on tour ready to compete
immediately. Their new muse is Spieth—
who turned in one of the five greatest
seasons in golf history at age 22.
It seems like the younger guys are picking
up momentum as far as building more and
more confidence just off of seeing other guys
play well, and it helps elevate their game.”
— RICKIE FOWLER
While this group includes two major
champions and two players who briefly
reached No. 1 in the world and some sustained stars, it never quite measured up in
the shadow of Woods.
Now comes along a generation of golfers
who were inspired to take up the game
after seeing Tiger Woods dominate, and
“I think that given junior golf and amateur golf has become so well organized
and courses have gotten more challenging—they have become very similar to tour
events,” Spieth said. “Players just seem to
be more equipped when they first get out.
They see the course, they make a couple
birdies early and they are ready to go.
24
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 6
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Young Argentinian Emiliano
Grillo graduated from the
Web.com Tour last fall. Two
weeks later, he won his first
PGA Tour event.
vsga.org