by Jeff Skinner
Take a good look at the WGC-Cadillac Championship leaderboard. There’s no Phil Mickelson, no Tiger Woods, no Ernie Els, no Steve Stricker and no Vijay Singh. This is the “New Look PGA Tour 2011.” Gone is the old guard if you will and the new, younger guard has taken control of the tour.
The oldest of the top eight leaders at The Cadillac Championship is Luke Donald at 33, Matt Kuchar is next at 32. Rory McIlroy is the youngest at 21 and the average age of the group is 28. The PGA Tour has been running television ads featuring the old versus young theme and so far this year the youngsters are winning.
No PGA Tour player over 40 has won this season. The oldest 2011 winner is two time champ Mark Wilson at the ripe old age of 36. After this tournament last year the tour had already had two winners over forty, Steve Stricker and Ernie Els.
The tour could certainly use some of the young talent to step up and make a name for themselves. Jhonattan Vegas, 26 and Bubba Watson, 32 are two of the younger winners this season that have provided plenty of excitement on the tour. This could be the year that the junior class takes over from the “old guys.” The battle will certainly heat up next month at The Masters where experience and course management is a huge advantage. For this week it looks like the youngsters get another notch on their gun.
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