Golf’s magnificent seven: How first-time winners took over

Story highlights

Last seven majors won by first-time champions

Royal Birkdale hosts 146th Open this week

CNN  — 

Eight straight, or end of an era?

It’s the big question at the British Open at Royal Birkdale this week.

That’s because the last seven majors have been clinched by first-time winners.

Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Jimmy Walker, Henrik Stenson, Dustin Johnson, Danny Willett and Jason Day all recently joined the major club.

Add Zach Johnson and Jordan Spieth’s second of back-to-back titles at the 2015 US Open and the streak of different major champions extends to nine.

That’s more than two years without a major winner adding to their tally and status in the game.

Is that good, or bad for golf? Does it spread the love, or dilute the interest?

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“I think it’s a really impressive stat and it speaks to the state of the game. A lot of tremendous young players right now,” Spieth told reporters at Royal Birkdale Tuesday.

“And then you’ve got guys like Henrik and Dustin who…have been around in contention many, many times. It was just a matter of time for them.”

‘One-off’

It’s clear, though, that nine years since the last of Tiger Woods’ 14 majors, golf is still recalibrating.

Woods was blockbuster, of course, and brought huge amounts of money to the game.

The sport – fans, sponsors, tournament organizers, TV executives – had become used to a dominant figure.

Even in the era of the Big Three – Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player – there was a rivalry.

But when the likes of David Duval, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson had a nibble at Woods he swatted them all away.

Since Woods’ record streak of 281 weeks at world No.1 came to an end in 2010 there have been nine different top-ranked players flip-flopping for No.1, including Woods himself again for a 60-week spell in 2013-2014.

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Spieth is convinced Woods’ supremacy was a one-off.

“I doubt you’ll see a dominance like that maybe ever again in the game,” he said.

“What Tiger’s done – having experienced a year like he continued to do for years – it just takes a lot out of you. It’s very tough to do. And you have to have a lot of things go right at the right times.”

When Woods had to miss the second half of 2008 for knee surgery after winning the US Open, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington stepped into the breach, winning the last two majors of the year, including the Open at Royal Birkdale.

But Harrington’s flame blew itself out and his US PGA win sparked a run of 16 different major winners, nine of whom hadn’t won one before or since, as Woods battled off-course issues and an ensuing loss of form.

‘The One’

Rory McIlroy snapped this streak with his second major, the 2012 US PGA to add to the 2011 US Open.

And when McIlroy won the British Open and the US PGA within three weeks in 2014, it cemented his status as “The One.” Only he, Nicklaus and Woods had won three, and then four, majors by the age of 25.

The Northern Irishman needed just the Masters to become only the sixth player ever to win all four of golf’s major titles at some stage in his career.

But the Masters became McIlroy’s nemesis, and as he faltered in his Augusta quest, Spieth stepped forward.

CHASKA, UNITED STATES:  Tiger Woods of the US watches his bunker shot on the 18th hole drop into the cup to finish his suspended second round of 2002 PGA championship 17 August 2002 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota. Woods finished the round with a 69 for a two-day total of four under par.    AFP PHOTO Roberto SCHMIDT (Photo credit should read ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)
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A record-breaking Masters win at the age of 21, second youngest only to Woods, followed two months later by a US Open suggested golf had been too hasty in naming McIlroy as Tiger’s true successor.

Spieth was set to confirm as much at the 2016 Masters as he stood on the 10th tee with a five-shot lead in the final round. Back-to-back titles at Augusta, both won wire-to-wire, would arguably eclipse anything McIlroy had achieved.

But, like McIlroy himself in 2011, Spieth suffered an infamous meltdown, putting two balls in the water on the 12th to ultimately miss out to Willett.

‘Not normal’

Meanwhile, Australian Day had finally fulfilled his potential with victory at the 2015 US PGA. A formidable end to the year ushered him to No. 1 spot to end the Spieth-McIlroy horsetrading.

A new “Big Three” was emerging. The trio all enjoyed spells of brilliance, but none could quite sustain the highs.

Golf had become used to Woods’ win ratio – 18% in the majors and nearly 25% in PGA Tour events.

It’s taken a while to realize that wasn’t normal. The next best of those with more than 10 wins in regular events is McIlroy at about 10%.

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Living proof that winning is difficult comes from the greatest of them all, Nicklaus. Behind the record 18 major titles lie 19 second-place finishes.

With Spieth, McIlroy and Day misfiring, Johnson finally crossed the threshold after a raft of near misses with his maiden major at the 2016 US Open.

“I was just fed up with, you know, being good. I thought I could be a lot better,” Johnson told CNN of the catalyst behind his success.

Three straight tournament wins heading into Augusta in April suggested the powerful American was emerging from a fledgling “Big Four” to be the dominant No.1.

But a slip down stairs on the eve of the Masters put him on the sidelines, and he missed the cut at the US Open.

Spieth, meanwhile, is still looking to add to his major tally, although he recently rekindled comparisons with Woods with a 10th title before the age of 24.

McIlroy missed a spell with a rib injury and is suffering a mini slump after a spectacular end to 2016.

And Day is also struggling to rediscover the form that took him to No.1 in September 2015. His mother’s lung cancer has been a major distraction, too. “Golf is like life, there’s ups and downs,” said McIlroy Wednesday. “It’s never that linear sort of direction.”

Spieth even suggested there was no such thing as a Big Four in the current game. “I’m not sure who it would be,” he said at Royal Birkdale.

AUGUSTA, GA - APRIL 09:  Sergio Garcia of Spain celebrates with the Masters Trophy during the Green Jacket ceremony after he won in a playoff during the final round of the 2017 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 9, 2017 in Augusta, Georgia.  (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
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Of the 164 players to have won one of the 320 majors since the Masters was introduced in 1934, only 35% have gone on to win more.

Indeed, Garcia’s breakthrough win at the Masters came in his 74th major.

Spieth added: “I think it’s going to be a very exciting time going forward. You’ll see a group of ten to 12 guys over the next 15, 20 years that are going to have a lot of different competitions that come down the stretch with each other. It’s different than one person being the guy to beat.”

With Garcia off the list, Fowler arguably inherited the dubious honor of being the best of the current crop yet to win a major.

The Californian finished in the top five in all four majors in 2014, and the 28-year-old had to settle for another fifth place in the US Open at Erin Hills last month.

“You have to measure success in different ways, not just by winning, just because that doesn’t happen a whole lot,” he said.

Small acorns

Some good players never even won a major, such as eight-time European No. 1 Colin Montgomerie, who had five runner-up spots. Or England’s former world No. 1 Lee Westwood despite three seconds and six thirds.

Plenty of good players have only won one, such as another former world No.1 Duval, while others have reached the pinnacle once and sunk without trace.

And some great players never won certain majors – Palmer couldn’t win the US PGA, Lee Trevino didn’t win the Masters and Greg Norman suffered widespread heartache, but particularly at the Masters.

So while the Spieth/McIlroy/Day/Johnson axis realigns, others will fill in the gaps, like grains of sand.

OAKMONT, PA - JUNE 19:  Dustin Johnson of the United States speaks at a press conference after winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club on June 19, 2016 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.  (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
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Golf is, and in truth always has been, in a state of flux. Great players and rivalries come and go.

From small acorns grow great oaks, and each first-time major winner could be on the brink of something special.

At this week’s Open venue all but two of the previous nine champions were already major winners, and of those Peter Thomson added another four Opens to his 1954 title at the Southport track.

History would suggest someone will enhance their status as a multiple major champion.

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But with a raft of players stepping up, the new normal could see number eight come in at Royal Birkdale.