European prowess clear in world rankings
To the surprise of no one who follows the sport week-to-week, the top of this week’s Official World Golf Rankings have a distinctly un-American flavor.
The new king is 26-year-old defending PGA champion Martin Kaymer. It’s an ascension that feels like the rankings now accurately reflect what has been true for several months: that the German is undoubtedly, right now, the best player in the world. Kaymer has five wins — including that major — on the PGA and European Tours since the beginning of 2010. No one else has more than three in that span on the world’s two marquee circuits.
At just about 26 years and 2 months, Kaymer is the second-youngest player to ever sit atop the rankings, trailing only Tiger Woods, who was 21 years, 5 months when he first reached No. 1 back in 1997. He’s the second German player to ever reach No. 1, too;Bernhard Langer held the spot for the first three weeks the rankings existed back in 1986.
In other European overlord news, Luke Donald never trailed in any match at the WGC-Accenture Match Play en route to victory and the world No. 3 ranking. The deepest any of Donald’s matches were all square was just 10 holes. None of Donald’s matches even reached the 18th hole.
Not only that, but Graeme McDowell eclipsed Tiger Woods in the rankings — meaning that Nos. 1-4 in the world all now belong to European players. The last time that happened (March 1992), the first George Bush was still in office, Barry Bonds played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kaymer was 7 years old.
On the other side of the spectrum, Woods has ventured into territory not seen since his historic 1997 Masters victory. This is the first time Tiger has been outside the top four in the world rankings since May, 1997, when he was fifth for the four weeks immediately following his victory at Augusta.
For about 15 years, any evaluations of American golf have been weighted heavily by Woods, so claiming the American touring pros are struggling at a time when Tiger isn’t at his best certainly isn’t unprecedented. But for all the clamor in the PGA Tour’s marketing campaign regarding their next generation of stars, the current rankings certainly do not reflect positively on Americans, specifically the younger ones.
Consider this: There is no American player younger than 32 currently ranked in the top 10 in the world. At 32, Matt Kuchar is the youngest American who is No. 10 this week. Of the top 30 players in the world, only nine are American. Of those nine, only three are younger than 30: Dustin Johnson (14th), Hunter Mahan (19th), and Rickie Fowler (30th).
Compare that to the Europeans — the No. 1 (Kaymer), No. 3 (Donald), No. 4 (Graeme McDowell), No. 7 (Paul Casey), and No. 8 (Rory McIlroy) are all 33 or younger. There are 13 Europeans currently ranked in the top 30. European Tour players won three of the four major championships in 2010, and the only American to win one last year is on the wrong side of 40.
In some eyes, this is an awful downswing for American golf, decreasing interest in the sport stateside. In other eyes, it’s a golden era for the European game, and a sign of the strong global balance and reach of this truly international sport. Both are probably true.
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