While last week”s Byron Nelson Golf Classic lacked the pizzazz of a world class field, it found a way to make golf headlines because of two of its youthful competitors. Australian Jason Day won the Nelson, posting a 10-under-par aggregate to outlast Blake Adams, Brian Gay and Jeff Overton by two strokes.
Day made headlines because he is just 22 years old, won a Nationwide Tour event as a 19-year-old, and gets all kinds of props for owning a brilliant short game. Day shared the headlines with Jordan Spieth, a 16-year-old from Dallas who is the reigning U.S. Junior champ. Spieth made the cut at the Nelson and contended throughout the weekend, ultimately finishing six strokes behind Day in a tie for 16th place.
Obviously all the talk was about golf”s youth movement that has also centered around Ryo Ishikawa and Rory McIlroy. Ishikawa won his first Japan Tour event when he was 15 years old, winning the 2007 Munsingwear Open as an amateur. He turned pro in 2008, had one victory that year, and then added four more in 2009. He played for the Internationals last autumn in the Presidents Cup at Harding Park in San Francisco. In early May he shot a final-round 58 to win the Acorn Invitational in Japan, the lowest score ever posted on a major golf tour.
Northern Ireland”s McIlroy first came to our attention when he made the cut at the 2007 British Open as an 18-year-old. Two years later he won the European Tour”s high-profile Dubai Desert Classic, beating Justin Rose by one stroke. Last month he won his first PGA Tour event, shooting a Sunday 62 at Quail Hollow to beat Phil Mickelson by four.
Yes, the youth movement is in full swing on the worldwide golf scene. Although Ernie Els and Jim Furyk have won twice this year and Phil Mickelson won the Masters, golf”s pundits are prepared to send everyone older than 30 to the senior retirement home and begin measuring McIlroy, Ishikawa, Day and the rest for multiple green jackets.
Yet the century-long history of championship golf tells us that sometimes this youth movement thing plays out and other times it crashes and burns. On the plus side, you have some really big names. Walter Hagen was a 21-year-old when he won the 1914 U.S. Open, his first of 11 major titles. Amateur great Bobby Jones won the 1923 U.S. Open as a 21-year-old, too. He would go on to win seven professional majors and six amateur majors. Gene Sarazen was a 20-year-old when he captured the 1922 U.S. Open and the PGA later that summer. He was the first to win all four professional majors.
In the modern era, Jack Nicklaus was just out of Ohio State and 22 years old when he beat Arnold Palmer in an 18-hole playoff to win the ”62 U.S. Open, his first of 18 career majors. Tiger Woods ran away with the 1997 Masters, his first of 14 major titles. He was 21 years of age at the time.
Yet it”s gone the other way, too. In 1976 Jerry Pate won the U.S. Open at Atlanta with a brilliant 5-iron to one foot on the final hole. He was 22, and while he would have six solid seasons, he became injury prone and was off the tour before his 30th birthday. He has two Senior Tour wins playing a limited schedule.
Sergio Garcia made the golf world take notice when he became the youngest ever to make a European Tour cut as a 15-year-old at the Tourespana Open. He won the British Amateur in 1998, and then as a 19-year-old he almost won the PGA at Medinah, finishing second to Tiger Woods by one shot. Now 30 years old, he has titles and money and popularity, but is still without that elusive first major.
Say what you will about Pate and Garcia, there”s the even stranger saga of Ty Tryon. At age 17 he was the youngest golfer to ever qualify for the PGA Tour. He got through 2001 Q School”s three levels, lost his card after the 2002 season and has faltered on golf”s mini-tours. His last real tour paycheck was for a tie for 37th place at the Fort Smith Classic in 2008, a Nationwide Tour event.
You have to go back almost 100 years to learn about golf”s biggest “can”t miss” bust, namely the sad saga of Johnny McDermott. A Philadelphia-area caddie, McDermott dropped out of school and turned professional as a 16-year-old. An avid practice player, McDermott made his first splash in the 1909 U.S. Open, where, as a 17-year-old, he came in 49th.
The 1910 Open was at the Philadelphia Cricket Club and McDermott finished tied atop the leaderboard with Alex and Macdonald Smith, Scottish pros who were also brothers. Alex Smith won the 18-hole playoff the next day. McDermott made amends in 1911 at the Chicago Golf Club, once again finishing in a three-way tie, this time with Mike Brady and George Simpson. He won the playoff by two strokes to win the U.S. Open as a 19-year-old. To this day, he remains the youngest winner of the U.S. Open title. He was also the first American champion of the Open.
McDermott successfully defended his title in 1912, winning at the Country Club of Buffalo by two strokes. He won the 1913 Western Open, the 1913 Philadelphia Open and the 1913 Shawnee-on-Delaware Open, beating Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. He started making real big money for that time with golf ball and golf club endorsements, and he participated in exhibitions that paid him a one-day fee of $1,000.
On his way home from the 1914 British Open, McDermott”s ship collided with another vessel in the English Channel. He was rescued via lifeboat and from that point on had serious issues with blackouts and fainting spells. He was 23 years old when he was first hospitalized for mental illness and would spend the next 57 years in and out of hospitals. He never again competed on golf”s center stage and is largely forgotten.
Last weekend was a very good one for 22-year-old Jason Day and 16-year-old Jordan Spieth. Only time will tell whether this is the start of something special or just another odd ball weekend in the world of golf. With the ways of youth, one can never tell.
