Phoenix Arizona is ground zero for any sports fan this week. The Super Bowl is the biggest needle mover in all of sports and this week is all about the Super Bowl, soft balls and all.
But Phoenix is also home to the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Open, otherwise known as the NFL’s opening act. And it’s not a bad opening act at all.
Tiger Woods comes off the bench and returns to the scene of one of the loudest aces in golf history. Phil Mickelson fresh off his warm up last week is back to his second home and looking for his fourth WMO crown.
Those two alone will generate plenty of buzz but couple them with a field that includes Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and the rest and we have one heck of a golf tournament.
But with Phil and Tiger past their peak there is a new regime that rules the PGA Tour and American golf. Phil and Tiger, for whatever reasons are not the golfers they were but that doesn’t mean American golf is in trouble.
Of course we’ll all agree that everyone is chasing World No.1 Rory McIlroy. Winning back to back majors has him firmly entrenched in the top spot. But the Americans, despite their inability to win a Ryder Cup still pose a very strong lineup of golfers.
Bubba leads American golfers in the Official World Golf Rankings at No.4. Even though Watson acts like a teenager he isn’t a youngster. He’s 36, which is normally considered the prime years for golfers.
Jim Furyk in next at No.7 but at 44 he’s closer to the Champions Tour than he wants to admit.
Matt Kuchar is another American that ranks high at No.10 but he’s also 36 and still majorless. 
Another new face that laid waste to the PGA Tour recently is four time winner, Jimmy Walker. Walker, 36 may seem new to many but his is more of a late bloomer (thanks Butch Harmon) that a young gun.
All good golfers with plenty of wins and bulging bank accounts but none of the aforementioned will be taking on McIlroy for the next decade.
But there are a few Americans that will be around to battle McIlroy for the top spot and the major championships. The top young American in the OWGR is 21 year old Jordan Spieth who ranks ninth.
Spieth had a sophomore slump in 2014 after charging onto the scene with a remarkable 2013. But two recent non-PGA Tour wins has shown Spieth is primed for a big season. He will be around for decades and a very plausible rival to Rory.
Rickie Fowler, No. 11 seems to have been on the tour forever but he is only 26 and a year spent with Butch Harmon had him top five in all four majors last season. Detractors will point to his lone PGA win but the way he is playing lately shows he is more than just a sharp dressed pop idol.
Billy Horschel, 28 sits at 14 on the OWGR and his ’14 finish with two wins including the Tour Championship has him among golf’s elite.
Right behind him is probably the hottest American player right now. And he’s not shy about letting us know. Patrick Reed has three PGA win in twelve months, four overall, just won the Tournament of Champions and is one of the few players that held their own at the Ryder Cup. 
Reed, 24 boasts about how good he thinks he is and that rubs some of us the wrong way but he backs up his mouth with his play.
He wears Tiger’s traditional red shirt and black pants on Sundays and isn’t afraid to take on the biggest challenges in the game. Big courses, big names, big reputations don’t shake Reed. He’s just cocky enough to think he can beat the best, whoever they are.
We can get a good look at golf’s past and future this week in just one grouping at the WMO. Tiger will play the first two rounds with Reed and Spieth.
Tiger is the greatest of his generation but struggling to regain that championship form. At 39 he isn’t getting any younger and that battered body of his has failed him recently.
Reed and Spieth are the young guns that are on the cusp of a new era in American golf.
Woods and Mickelson may have a few wins and some majors left to win but their heydays are passed.
Spieth, Reed and the rest are leading American golfers into a new era. The days of Tiger and Phil are dwindling.
It is now up to these young, American studs to step up and carry the load and lead American golf into the next decade.
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