No need to send Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh south for the winter just yet.
These 40-something PGA Tour stalwarts are not ready to play their golf at a Florida retirement village. However, the established veterans are cognizant of the new breed of professional golfer. The field for this week’s Tour Championship showcases a group of young up-and-comers.
“The new players are coming out strong and it just adds to the depth,” said Stewart Cink, who failed to qualify for the final stage of the FedEx Cup playoffs this year. “They are not necessarily playing a lot better than the established players. They are just playing closer to the level of the established players so the fields are deeper.”
Seven first-timers made it to the Tour Championship, which begins this week at East Lake Golf Club with a $10 million first prize on the line. That group includes Webb Simpson, 26, who is the FedEx Cup playoff point leader entering the final event.
Twelve first-time winners on the PGA Tour this season are present. Fourteen players in their 20s combined for 16 wins, including playoff winners Simpson and Dustin Johnson, 27, who is second in the point standings. PGA Tour rookies had seven wins, including Keegan Bradley’s PGA Championship title last month at Atlanta Athletic Club.
It’s exactly what the PGA Tour wanted.
“This whole year, the whole focus and the branding of the PGA Tour is the new breed versus the establishment,” said Todd Rhinehart, Tour Championship tournament director. “I think our event and our field exemplifies that. We have some of the great young players, the up-and-comers like Webb Simpson, Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson. But then you have the stalwarts like Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh.”
Eight players are 20-29, 16 are 30-39 and just six are 40-plus. In addition to Simpson, other first-timers in the FedEx Cup final stage are Chez Reavie, Gary Woodland, Mark Wilson, Bradley, Bill Haas and Fredrik Jacobson.
According to Cink, today’s young tour player is able to “hit the ground running.”
“I think it’s something that is going to happen more and more because the players come out seasoned now,” he said. “They don’t take three or four years to break in like we all used to, because they have more to play in than they used to have before they get to the pros. They are just ready to go. They’ve played a lot more. They have better competition. They know more about the game of golf.”
Simpson and Johnson are among the players who control their fate at the Tour Championship. Any of the top five players who win this week are guaranteed to capture the FedEx Cup title. Justin Rose, 31, Luke Donald, 33, and Matt Kuchar, 33, round out the top five. Every other player in the field can win the title, but would need a low finish from the leaders.
Of the established set, Hunter Mahan, Mickelson and Stricker are the only golfers to advance to East Lake every year since the inception of the four-event playoff system in 2007. Defending champion Jim Furyk failed to qualify for the event after he couldn't crack the top 30 at last week’s BMW Championship in Lemont, Ill.
“The defending champion did not play his way in here and that’s what the playoffs are all about,” Rhinehart said.
Of the three previous winners of the FedEx Cup, only Singh is in the field. Two-time winner Tiger Woods failed to qualify. Unless Singh pulls off a major move from 23rd in the standings, a new champion will emerge Sunday. One of the new breed might be posing with the trophy.
“They don’t take any time to get their feet wet like they used to,” Cink said.
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