You don't know who Louis Oosthuizen is? How about Graeme McDowell before a month ago? Really, never heard of them? Well those two are the winners of the last two majors in golf, Oosthuizen winning The Open Championship and McDowell taking the U.S. Open.
No there's no typo there. Tiger didn't win, Phil didn't win, Westwood didn't win, Els didn't win; two youngsters named Louis Oostuizen and Graeme McDowell won the championships.
Has the Tiger Woods extravaganza affected every golf star in a negative way, or is there just no other golfer that can dominate like Tiger did? Phil won the Masters, but choked in the U.S. Open when given an opening to win and played poorly in The Open Championship.
Ernie Els had an opening to win the U.S. Open but like Mickelson failed to capitalize, and then failed to make the cut at The Open Championship.
Lee Westwood had a good showing this Open, but couldn't pull through with the win, falling short with a second place finish.
So who's taking over in Tiger's absence? A bunch of no names that's who.
First there's Graeme McDowell, who had received some buzz in the European golf world, but was basically unheard of in the States going into Pebble Beach. A 30 year old Northern Ireland native, McDowell was ranked 37th in the world before the U.S. Open, and had had his two best major performances in 2009, with a 17th place finish in the Masters and a 10th place finish in the PGA tournament.
McDowell was the first to do a lot of things with his victory in what has been an American dominated championship. He became the first Irishman to win the tournament, and the first European U.S. Open winner since 1970. He was also the first player from the UK to win a major in 11 years, and the first Northern Irishman to win a major since 1947.
Then there's the most amazing statistic in my mind: McDowell is only the second man from all of Europe to win the U.S. Open since 1925. That's 85 years, with only two winners from the whole continent of Europe.
But as impressive as McDowell's performance was - although neither Mickelson, Els nor Woods did much to take the lead away from him - 27 year old Louis Oosthuizen stole the title of Golf Upset of the Year from McDowell less than a month later in The Open Championship. Wunderkind Rory McIlroy stole the spotlight in the first round with a 63, which was the lowest first round score ever in the history of The Open, while Oosthuizen came out with a second place 65, two strokes behind McIlroy.
Although many noticed both of the new names at the top of the standings, many wrote off the 27 year old Oosthuizen's performance as a fluke. The South African native didn't have much of a track record going into the tournament, with his best performance coming in the 2008 PGA Championship when he finished 73rd. The only other six times Oosthuizen had even qualified for a major he had missed the cut.
But the doubters (probably even Oosthuizen himself) were all proved wrong, as McIlroy fell down the ladder, shooting himself out of contention with an 80 for the second round. Mark Calcavecchia, Paul Casey and Lee Westwood all worked their way up, and soon enough people were wondering which one of them would pounce on the no name Oosthuizen and take the Open. But although those three, as well as other successful golfers like Retief Goosen, Henrik Stenson, and even Rory McIlroy fought back to try and take down the South African, none succeeded, and Oosthuizen took home the title with a seven stroke victory. Seven strokes! This from a guy who wasn't even in the Official World Golf Rankings going into the tournament, a list that ranks the top 300 golfers in the world. He's playing against the best of the best and he takes them down by a full seven strokes, finishing with a -16, almost twice as low as any other golfer.
The world of golf was changed forever when the stories and literally unbelievable past of Tiger Woods was revealed to the world. Many assumed that the door would open for Mickelson to dominate the tour - naturally so considering his current domination at the second spot in the world - but it wasn't to be. Although he came away with a Masters victory, he failed to come through a door left wide open for him at the U.S. Open, and this tournament tied for 48th with a score of +1.
People are so used to seeing one man winning almost every major, that when a ton of different guys start winning, it seems strange. The thing is, that's what's supposed to happen, and at times has happened. Tiger has dominated the sport so much that it's almost become commonplace for one man to win all the time, but when he doesn't win, it's not always stars who win, but no names as well. Last year, guys like Lucas Glover and Yang Yong-eun won majors. In the preceding years, one hit wonders included Michael Campbell, Todd Hamilton, and Shaun Micheel. Little-known players have been winning majors throughout the 2000s, but Tiger has just always dwarfed their victories.
But, although there have been these little known players that have won majors, very rarely have we seen two guys as unknown as Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen win, let alone in consecutive majors. Were there any reasons that caused this, or is it just another fluke in golf's history?
The first round of play in The Open Championship at St. Andrews was one of the easiest to play in the course's history, as 73 players shot under par. The next day, Oosthuizen as well as many other top finishers had early tee times that allowed them to play in tame weather conditions. The weather didn't fare as well later in the day however, as the ferocious winds led to a suspension of play for one hour, six minutes, and some poor scores, including an 80 from the first round winner, Rory McIlroy. Top players like Tiger Woods struggled through the winds to at least stay in contention, but others like Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Jim Furyk missed the cut because of the terrible weather. Whether those players would have made the cut and done that much better had they played in the morning, and whether Tiger may have even won is impossible to tell, but it certainly helped Oosthuizen, as a ton of players that had been on his tail following the first round, fell apart. But although weather may have played a part in The Open Championship, Oosthuizen was still able to hold off the stars that played in the same easy conditions that he did.
The probable main reason for the no names winning is the lack of a top dog. When there's not a man on top, especially in an individual sport, everyone finally sees the chance to jump at the opportunity. It's happened numerous times before in golf as well as tennis. From 2001 to 2002, when Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras were on their last breaths and Roger Federer was still coming into his own, no names won four of the eight Grand Slam tournaments. The same thing happened in golf when Jack Nicklaus fell off in the 80s, and the world had to wait more than a decade until another player, as, if not more dominant than Nicklaus came along, in Tiger Woods.
It's an amazing phenomenon, that one man can dominate and win almost every single tournament, when there are so many contenders, but in individual sports there have always been players that consistently won majors. One man is constantly favored to win over the entire field, about one hundred of professional athletes, whether it's tennis or golf. Although the McDowells and the Oosthuizens pop up sometimes to insert their names into the record books when the opportunity is right and the scene is set for them to do so, soon enough everything goes back to normal and the players that should win go back to winning.
My guess is that a big name wins the PGA Championship next month and then the following year Tiger will be back on top. Someone who's been on top for so long, and is still in his playing prime can't go too long without being on top of the heap. As much as people like underdogs in this country, players are underdogs and Cinderella stories because they're not extremely talented, and history shows that in an individual sport, that nine out of ten times, either the talented dominant or the elite prevail. As much as we want underdogs like McDowell and Oosthuizen to keep winning, it's important to remember, that in sports, good things don't last forever.
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