Are we witnessing a generational shift in golf?
Ciaran Currie
As we approach the first major of the golfing season with the Masters at Augusta National starting next week, a lot of the build up to the tournament has centered around whether Rory McIlroy will be able to finally find himself victor of the competition and take his place in the history books as a grand-slam winner.
It wasn’t long ago that the 32 year old Hollywood native was the new kid on the block and carried the hopes of a nation on his shoulders in his pursuit of sporting excellence.
However, as we now eclipse 10 years since Rory’s first major title, the golfing scene is now completely different to the one he burst onto a decade ago, with players like Bryson DeChambeau pushing the limits of what the human body can achieve on the golf course.
This change is most evident in the world golf rankings, where, since the departure of Dustin Johnson from the top 10, the Northern Irishman now finds himself as the oldest player present just two years into his thirties.
There has been a considerable shift in the age of golfers at the highest level
The average age of the top 10 is currently 25, and consists of golfers whom people from outside the golfing bubble may not be familiar with, although sports fans from these shores should be aware of the current world number two Jon Rahm, who has one twice on Irish soil.
This may be representative of a generational shift within the sport, as just five years ago, the media were discussing the same topic, proclaiming the fact that the average had hit a 50 year low of 30. Now with a further five years knocked from the average, the sport’s best players are younger than ever.
At the time of writing, it is still unclear whether Tiger Woods will tee off on the 7th April when the Masters gets underway, with the 46-year-old’s battle to come back from the brink following his life threatening car crash last year acting as a sad emblem of the shift from one iconic era of the sport to the new one, which is being slowly ushered in.
With the recent announcement that the directors of the hugely popular F1 Netflix documentary Drive to Survive currently have a golfing equivalent in the works, the governing bodies of the sport will be hoping that such a series will have a similar effect in bringing newcomers to golf.
Current fans of the sport meanwhile, will be hopeful that the show will bring them closer to the action and bring out the personalities of the current players, which is something that has been severely lacking in the sport in years gone by. The success of such a show could easily be a decisive factor in tipping the debate in favour of the current generation of golfers on tour in terms of being as or arguably more, iconic and memorable as those from previous generations.
Golf fans are hoping to be treated to an equally as enthralling series as the F1 Drive to Survive documentary.
With just a week to go until the Masters, Spaniard Jon Rahm currently finds himself the favourite to don the much-coveted green jacket in front of the patrons at one of the golfing world’s most sacred courses.
Rory McIlroy will of course be in contention, and he will be hoping to overcome the disappointment of a late collapse at Bay Hill at the start of March in order to return to his best form. He found the lightning-fast greens at the Florida course challenging to deal with as he finished outside the top 10 on that occasion.
He will have been working hard on his ability to respond to changing course conditions as the week progresses following his display on that occasion at Bay Hill but will also be keen to exorcize some of the demons which come in the form of his previous collapses at Augusta. Many people will recall him crumbling during the 2011 edition of the tournament when he gave up a four-stroke lead on the final day of play to concede the title to Charl Schwartzel.
The one question that remains is whether he can finally get over the line and complete his grand slam of having won all four majors, but time seems to be running out for him to do so, and given that he is not getting any younger, this could be his final shot.
Ciaran Currie is a sports reporter for The Scoop and an International Business and Spanish student at Queen’s University Belfast.