New golf stars on a world stage
At the start of a new year, on the two largest professional golf tours, players are no longer recognized as just elite European Tour players or top tier PGA American Tour players. Instead, they’re a young 20-something cast of World International stars — stars that are quickly moving into the talented mix of aging veteran legends that have dominated play for decades.
That is, emerging youth like Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory Mcllroy, will find themselves battling each other for the next 10 to 15 years, like we witnessed the play of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player in the 60’s and 70’s.
Like the Men’s PGA Tour, and European, on the Ladies’ LPGA Tour there exists a similar situation with an influx of elite international players, especially Asian players led by Inbee Park, ending the season with the LPGA lowest scoring average, and Lydia Ko, the LPGA 2015 player of the year. Both players are South Korean and four of the top ten in the recent tournament season final were Asian players.
Tom Brennan, Myrtle Beach
This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 7:56 AM with the headline "New golf stars on a world stage."