Major Accomplishments

The Masters will be coming along soon, and with that, there will be another year’s worth of anticipation as to who will win professional golf’s four majors. Another season to ponder whose era of golfing greatness we are witnessing. It used to be pretty obvious whose era we were in, but it is pretty clear now that there has been a shift AWAY from the Tiger Woods Era and we are now in the Age of Rory McIlroy.

Golf is the one sport where you can define the greatness of that era by the major championships that one (or sometimes there can be more than one) person has been good enough to win during their peak years of excellence. There may be some back and forth jostling for the position of top dog, but there is almost always a historical “scorecard” that is able to sort things out in the end and let everyone know who was really the best player. It’s called “who won the most majors.”

Every year, for the last 80 or so (or at least since the Masters began in 1934, and we’ve had a rotation of four major golf championships), the top golfers set out to try to win each major when it pops up on the schedule. These are tremendous golfers, the best in the world. Winning a major is what they want to do. Winning a major is a very difficult thing to do. It is only when one person (or more, as we will see later) wins a cluster of majors during their peak years that they put themselves in the conversation to be able to maybe say they have earned themselves ownership of a golfing era.

Some people start their ascension to golfing greatness as another former great’s peak years of excellence have pretty much passed. The one on the way up and the one on the way down, so to speak. The latter great golfer’s problem in this illustration, of course, is that THEIR game, while they are on the way down, is seldom as good as the player (especially the younger one) who is either on the way up, or they are even more powerful, they are AT THEIR BEST.

Starting after the era of Bobby Jones (7 majors from 1923 – 30), Walter Hagen (11 majors from 1914 – 29) and Gene Sarazen (7 majors from 1922 – 30) that was too difficult to classify, since Jones was an amateur, professional golf was just starting out, and the Masters hadn’t even been invented yet, we can see the subsequent era’s of golfing greatness start to sort themselves out. (note, Jones’ last major was in his calendar year age of 28, Hagen’s at 37 and Sarazen’s at 33)

Byron Nelson could say he had his era from 1937 to 1945, as he won five majors, scores of other tournaments, and led several other golfer of the year categories during that time. He might have won more had World War II not happened and forced the cancellation of 13 of the majors that would have been contested between the war years from 1939 to 1945. But Nelson quit the game in his prime and left the “best golfer in the world” title to be contested by his rivals Sam Snead and a soon to be growing into his prime Ben Hogan. (note, Byron Nelson won his last major in calendar year age of 33)

The era of Hogan vs. Snead was one of golf’s greatest rivalries ever. Snead was good enough to win six of his seven majors during the 1946 to 1953 time period. But, during that same time, Hogan was able to win nine majors. He had a near fatal car crash during that time that might have kept him from winning even more. So, we can call it the Ben Hogan Era, even though Snead is rightfully also mentioned as one of golf’s all time greats. (note, Hogan and Snead won their last majors at the ages of 41 and 42)

Golfers battled each other for a few years, splitting up the majors in a way that could not define the era, as the Snead and Hogan careers wound down, and the sport found their new “best player of the era” with the arrival of Arnold Palmer. Palmer won 7 majors between 1958 and 1964, and those years were clearly the Arnold Palmer Era. But those years also saw another golfer who was good enough to rival Palmer in a lot of ways in South African Gary Player. Player would go on to win a total of nine majors and be part of a golden age of golf as part of “The Big Three,” as they would also be joined by another player, just getting ready to enter his prime, Jack Nicklaus. (note, Arnold Palmer’s last major came at the age of 35)

The Arnold Palmer Era was partially overlapped by the early stages of the Jack Nicklaus Era. That’s how it usually happens. The younger, up and coming great golfer, starts beating the reigning champ often enough until people realize that the newer, younger guy is the new “best golfer in the world.” Nicklaus would put together a remarkable career and win 17 majors between 1962 and 1980, his “era,” and would win one final time, when he put together a stirring, back nine for the ages, at age 46 in 1986, in a crowd pleasing, come from behind win at the Masters. During the Nicklaus Era, frequent competitor Lee Trevino won six majors, his last being at age of 44.

As it so often happens, the older great Jack Nicklaus was challenged by the young, up and coming player, and the tail end of the Nicklaus career was eclipsed for a time by the Tom Watson Era. Watson won eight majors between 1975 and 1983, including several head to head against Nicklaus. (the truest test of “who was better,” is who wins in majors when you go head to head. But, just as sudden as was the Tom Watson burst of competitive greatness, he lost his putting touch and never would win another major (his last major win was at age 33), although he damn near won one at age 59.

As Tom Watson faded, there was a brief Seve Ballesteros Era, where Seve was able to win five majors during a span from 1979 to 1988. Seve lost his magic touch and stopped being great such that his last major was won at age 31. During the post Watson, Seve period, Greg Norman was right up there in the best golfer in the world category, but he only won two majors, and was either very unlucky to have other people beat him with miracle shots, or, he just did not have the right stuff to have earned himself “an era.” (note, Norman’s last major was at age 38)

The 1987 to 1996 era had a mash-up of different major champions, but the man who emerged with the most was Englishman Nick Faldo, with six majors. During his ten years of competitive excellence, Faldo won the most majors, so one could say it was “his” era. It certainly wasn’t anyone else’s era, that’s for sure. (note, Faldo’s last major was at age of 39) Needless to say, golf was ripe for someone to take over the mantle as “the best player in golf.” Enter Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods began as a pro at the tail end of the 1996 season. By 1997, he had won his first major at the age of 21 (by 12 strokes). He delivered a first round knockout of the entire world of golf. He won a total of 14 majors (many of them stirring victories, or complete thrashings of the field) by the year 2008 and seemed like the Nicklaus record of 18 majors would be his within a few years. (His only real competitor during his era was Phil Mickelson, who won six majors, his last in 2013 at age 43, by the way). But injuries started to happen to Woods. Marital problems. Changing his golf swing problems. More injuries. He has not won a major since his US Open win in 2008, where he was 32 years old at the time. In the history books of greatness determined by success in majors, the Tiger Woods Era appears to have ended in 2008.

And now, Rory McIlroy has won four majors between 2011 and 2014. He won the last two majors contested at the end of the year in 2014. He is young, talented, hungry and ready to hunt bear. He is also ONLY 25 years old. By all measurable criteria, we are in the Age of McIlroy.

And with that, we enter the 2015 season, waiting for the majors to be contested once again. Will the McIlroy Express continue to see him add more substance onto his resume? Will one of the previous major winners, who are in the window of the competitive excellence period of THEIR careers, put it together again and win another major? It happens. Will a non-major winner somehow burst through and come up with the right stuff and win a major for the first time? Also happens. Will Can Tiger Woods come up with a Nicklaus/Watson-like, late in the career, re-discovery of his former greatness? It’s happened before.

But we are most likely to see something happen that falls into the historical pattern of people winning major golf tournaments at certain key periods of their careers (their prime), when they are competitively excellent enough (the right age) to go through all that it takes to win a major. We have a pretty good idea who the likely candidates are to accomplish this. We just don’t yet know who they are and how they are going to pull it off.

And that’s what makes it fun to watch.