Rory McIlroy Tops List of Best Golfers Under 25

Rory McIlroy Tops List of Best Golfers Under 25
Rickie Fowler and Emerging Crop of Talented Young Players Could Challenge McIlroy for Years to Come











Mark McLaughlin April 24, 2013 9:20 PM






COMMENTARY


b> | Tianlung Guan, the 14-year-old Chinese phenom, parlayed a historic Masters performance into an invite to this week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Guan's showing at Augusta National, where he made no worse than bogey on any hole and went the full four rounds without a three-putt, could arguably propel him near the top of rankings of the world's best young golfers.



But one tournament does not make for a reasonable assessment so I'll hold off on including Guan on my list of Best Golfers Under 25 until he at least obtains a driver's license.

Such an exercise gets tricky when you're evaluating players so early in their careers. It's a good bet that several golfers now toiling under the radar on the Web.com, European or other low profile professional tour will emerge to challenge this list of early arrivals. With that caveat, here goes.

1. Rory McIlroy

No surprise that the Ulsterman stands atop the under-25 set. McIlroy is so dominant among golfers of all ages that being on this list almost belittles his achievements. To put his early career into perspective, Rory won his second major (2012 PGA Championship) five months earlier than Tiger Woods won his second (1999 PGA Championship).

McIlroy, who turns 24 next month, has more PGA Tour wins (six) than every other player under 30 except Dustin Johnson. When you count European Tour victories, he has won 10 times since turning pro at age 18.

While Rory does not have a win since last September, that's hardly cause for panic. Sure, the equipment change to Nike hasn't exactly gone swimmingly but McIlroy has shown signs of form in recent weeks. Don't forget that a young Woods suffered through a similar slump when undergoing his first swing change, winning just once in nearly two years from 1997 to 1999.

The next few years will tell us if McIlroy can win more majors and stay on the rarefied career trajectory of Woods or if he will settle into a more normal rhythm of winning once or twice per year. I'm hoping for the former, if only to keep talk of the Tiger-Rory rivalry alive.



2. Rickie Fowler



Many of you took me to task for my column last month criticizing Fowler's poor game management and lack of wins. There's no debate that he's made a bigger impact on golf than just about anyone since turning pro. The problem is that he started on such a high note - losing a playoff in his second pro start and sinking clutch putt after clutch putt as a captain's pick at the 2010 Ryder Cup - much more was expected than one PGA Tour win in the ensuing two and a half years.



I believe the 24-year-old Fowler will start winning more as he continues to mature. He's still young and having the time of his life riding dirt bikes, hanging with "The Golf Boys" and making fashion statements every week with his pastel Puma wardrobe. I think the fun factor will prevent burnout and allow Fowler to stay in his prime longer than most pros.

Short of a victory, Fowler is having a consistently strong season. He's missed only one cut and has three top 10 finishes in eight starts. His putting is the best it's ever been. Fowler just needs to find a few more greens to let the flat stick make a difference.

3. Matteo Manassero

Manassero, who turned 20 last week, was almost an afterthought playing in the same group as Guan at the Masters. It didn't help that he missed the cut while the 14-year-old squeaked into the weekend.

The young Italian has made his own history, though, becoming the youngest-ever winner on the European Tour when he captured the 2010 Castello Masters as a 17-year-old. Manassero has added another Euro victory in each of the last two seasons and improved his chances of making it four straight years with a win by committing full-time to playing in Europe for the rest of 2013.

For Manassero to elevate his stature, however, he will need to play more here. In 17 U.S. starts since 2010, he's recorded just a single top 10 finish. But as the second youngest member of this list, he's got plenty of time to acquaint himself with the PGA Tour.

4. Russell Henley

Winning has come quickly for the 24-year-old Henley. He first won on the Web.com Tour as an amateur in 2011, added two more Web.com wins last year after turning pro and kicked off his PGA Tour career by winning in his first rookie start at the 2013 Sony Open in Hawaii.

Henley has posted two top 25 finishes since breaking through in Hawaii and is solid in all facets of the game, as shown by his top 5 ranking in the Tour's All-Around category. With his accuracy off the tee, he could be a factor at some of the tougher venues on tap including Quail Hollow, the U.S. Open at Merion and Congressional.

Henley's early success is no fluke. He was a three-time All-America and 2010 College Player of the Year at the University of Georgia as well as low amateur at the 2010 U.S. Open.

5. Jordan Spieth

Select few players have made it onto the PGA Tour without grinding through Q-School or apprenticing on the Web.com or mini-tour circuit. Spieth is poised to join Woods, Phil Mickelson and most recently Bud Cauley in playing their way to Tour membership.

Spieth, 19, has recorded three top 10 finishes in his first seven pro starts, earning enough prize money ($662,398) to gain special temporary Tour membership for the rest of 2013. This status enables him to accept an unlimited number of sponsor's exemptions into tournaments and should allow him to earn enough to gain full-time status by year's end. Spieth, who finished ninth last week at the RBC Heritage, is in this week's field in New Orleans.

Spieth first made headlines by finishing tied for 16th at the HP Byron Nelson Championship as a 16-year-old. The only golfer besides Woods to win multiple U.S. Junior Amateur titles, he led the University of Texas to the 2012 national championship as a freshman before turning pro at the end of the year.

6. Ryo Ishikawa

Ishikawa has built his reputation on tremendous success in his native Japan. The 21-year-old has 12 professional wins on the Japanese Tour, including a maiden victory while only 15.

He has yet to make his mark in the U.S. but it's not for lack of trying. Ishikawa played a full PGA Tour schedule in 2012 -- earning a second place in Puerto Rico and four top 25s -- and plans to do the same this year. He's missed the cut in half of the 54 Tour appearances since 2009 so consistency is an issue that will need to be addressed.

Ishikawa has struggled in 2013 as a typically strong putter has failed to cooperate. On the bright side, he was in contention at last week's RBC Heritage before closing with a wind-blown final round 80.



Mark McLaughlin has reported on the PGA Tour for the New York Post, FoxSports.com, Greensboro News & Record, and Burlington (N.C.) Times-News. He is a past member of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association. Follow him onTwitter @markmacduke.

Merion Calling All Tin Cups for the U.S. Open

Merion Calling All Tin Cups for the U.S. Open











Travis Mewhirter April 24, 2013 9:33 PM




COMMENTARY | So, you want to be the next Tin Cup, you say? The old guys at the club convinced you to try to slug it out through local and sectional qualifying, beating out thousands for a coveted U.S. Open spot, stand toe to toe with the pros, become the darling of the golfing world, and make one of the most spectacular finishes in major championship history? Well, at 5 p.m. on April 24, all
of the potential Tin Cups were in -- U.S. Open entries were closed.



And this is why we love the Open: anybody can get in. Or, rather, anybody who can consistently put together a 75 and probably fire the occasional 60-something or other can get in. It's the most democratic event on the planet, in any sport, on any professional level. You don't see -- well, aside from the '76 Philadelphia Eagles, who actually did hold open tryouts -- NFL teams opening up roster spots to anybody who can run a sub-five second 40 or throw around weights like dolls. NBA front offices don't just invite any kid who can rain 3-pointers on the blacktop.

The U.S. Open does -- the golf version of that at least.

Last year, when the Open traveled to The Olympic Club in San Francisco, the USGA had to wade through 9,006 entries. It was just the fourth time in the event's history that entries surpassed the 9,000-entry threshold and was only 80 shy of the all-time record, set in 2009 when it was held at Bethpage Black.

For all you hopefuls and reverse-sandbaggers (yes, everybody knows that when you go out there and hack a 96 at your local qualifier, you're not actually a 1.4 handicap or below. Rick Reilly did a fantastic piece on you lot), here's how the Road to Merion, this year's venue, shakes out.

A little more than 94 percent of you will begin your Open quest with local qualifying, an 18-hole test hosted at courses all over the map. Eighteen holes, as everybody knows, is not a lot of holes. You snipe one out of bounds on the third tee and scrape together a triple-bogey and that's probably the end of the road. Hey, there's always next year. But there are always a few scratches or plus-handicappers that invariably play well -- really, really, well -- and it's on to sectionals.

We started with more than 9,000 of you in the local qualifiers. Now at sectionals, that number is already deflated to around 500 (last year's was 550). The good news -- or bad, depending on how you look at it -- with sectionals, is that this stage is 36 holes, meaning there is more time to make up for a bad hole, but also more time to have one.

At sectionals, the local qualifying champs are lumped into a field with those who received exemptions from stage one. This group includes pros from various tours around the globe and "elite amateurs who meet certain performance criteria," as described by the U.S. Open website.

This is where most of our Tin Cups will find themselves in well over their heads. Just take a look at a few of the names from the 16 who qualified from just one sectional qualifying site last year: Davis Love III, Blake Adams, Charlie Wi, D.A. Points, Steve Marino, Scott Piercy. There is a monumental difference from winning the club championship and winning a qualifying spot in the U.S. Open. Here, have a glance at some of the guys who were cut from that same qualifier: J.B. Holmes, Kevin Stadler, Jhonattan Vegas, Jimmy Walker, Ryan Moore, Ben Curtis… you get the idea.

There are always, of course, our U.S. Open darlings, wrought from the local and sectional qualifiers. Beau Hossler showed us that a kid with braces can take on the most elite field in the world after brawling through the qualifiers. Had it not been for a final-round 76, he would have hovered around the top 10 (he finished T29, 6-over).

This is what makes the Open fun. Are we likely to see another Hossler, some anonymous high school teen who climbed the leaderboard after squeaking through qualifiers? Realistically, no. But that's the beauty of the U.S. Open: we won't know. It's the mysterious element it provides, that "who in the world is this guy?" moment on Saturday when the field should have been trimmed down to former major champs and world leaders, that we love.

By June 4 we will have our field. And maybe, just maybe, we'll have a Tin Cup in it.

Travis Mewhirter has been working in the golf industry since 2007, when he was a bag room manager at Piney Branch Golf Club in Carroll County, Maryland, and has been involved, as a player, since 2004. Since then, he has worked at Hayfields Country Club, where the Constellation Energy Classic was formerly held, and has covered golf at the high school, college, and professional levels.

Local Knowledge: 2013 Zurich Classic in New Orleans

Local Knowledge: 2013 Zurich Classic in New Orleans











T.J. Auclair, Interactive Producer April 25, 2013 9:54 AM


Based strictly on location, some PGA Tour stops are just a whole lot more fun than others.

That applies this week, as the PGA Tour visits New Orleans for the Zurich Classic at TPC Louisiana. Jason Dufner returns to the Big Easy (New Orleans) as the defending champion after taking down the Big Easy (Ernie Els) in a playoff a year ago.

The golf will be great to be sure, but there's always a lot going on in NOLA, as TPC Louisiana PGA General Manager Luke Farabaugh explained to us in this week's Local Knowledge.

PGA.com: Luke, thank you for joining us. Let's talk for a minute about your defending champion, Jason Dufner. His victory last year at the Zurich Classic was his first on the PGA Tour. People knew with his talent it was only a matter of time before he broke through. What was it like to have Dufner break through at your event and what was it like to watch him soar after that victory?

Farabaugh:Jason was knocking on the door for a while and to see him break through for his first win here was great. As an Auburn grad myself, I take a lot of pride in Jason's first win happening at my facility. He made a huge 40-foot par putt on the 70th hole and battled Hall of Fame golfer Ernie Els in a playoff. His win here was a huge springboard for the rest of his year as he won the HP Byron Nelson Championship and posted a stout 3-1 record at his first Ryder Cup.


PGA.com: I can't ask you about Dufner without also asking you about "Dufnering." Has there ever been a funnier photo of a golfer?

Farabaugh:It's hard to top any of the Golf Boy stuff but Jason may have done it. Pretty amazing how it went viral with all the other players posting pictures of themselves Dufnering. Bubba Dufnering with the General Lee is a classic.

PGA.com: Certain PGA Tour events are known for certain things. At the Phoenix Open, it's the party atmosphere at the par-3 16th. At the Players Championship, it's the island green on No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass. At the Zurich Classic, hands down, it's the great food. How difficult is it to live in New Orleans and not just eat all day long?!

Farabaugh:I guess there are worse challenges than avoiding the amazing food this town is known for. It's just a part of our culture and way of life in New Orleans that sometimes we take for granted. But there's nothing quite like a dozen chargrilled oysters, boiled crawfish and a cold beer.

PGA.com: Describe for me, if you would, the perfect day in New Orleans. What are we doing (after breakfast at Ralph's at the Park, of course. We remember that's your favorite from last year)? Where are we going?

Farabaugh:Depends on the time of year, but we always have something going on in this town. More than likely I'm jumping on my motorcycle and headed to a local festival. We currently have Jazz Fest for the next two weekends. The French Quarter Fest was a couple of weeks ago and another favorite is the Greek Fest during Memorial Day weekend. Aside from providing another opportunity to eat, these festivals have some great music and provide for some great people watching.

PGA.com: Here's our last question for you, Luke. Which stretch of holes at TPC Louisiana are your favorite and why?

Farabaugh:My favorite stretch is Nos. 4, 5 and 6. It's the toughest part of the course and it requires each players' full attention. No. 4 and No. 6 are extremely long, requiring big drives and long approaches. The main reason why I like these holes is that they require all the shots in the bag. I like to play No. 4 with a fade off the tee and a draw approach, No. 5 with a draw off the tee and a fade approach and a draw off the tee and a fade approach on the sixth. Anytime I go through those holes even par is a great day. Water hazards line the fourth and sixth hole, so we may see an occasional double or triple during the Zurich Classic this year.