Youth V Experience

Players from two generations are excelling on tour: an old guard and a new breed of 20-somethings. What does it all mean for men’s pro golf?

- Fergus Bisset

There’s great diversity within the upper echelons of men’s professional golf today – 21 countries are represented in the top 100 on the Official World Golf Ranking. But this geographical spread is not the most striking variance between the top players. At the time of writing, the youngest player in the top 20 on the OWGR is 23-year-old Jon Rahm. The oldest is Phil Mickelson, aged nearly 48. There are very few sports where such age gaps are visible at the elite level.

Although representing the furthest points of the age spectrum at the pinnacle of the game, Rahm and Mickelson are by no means an exception. So far on the PGA Tour in 2018, we’ve seen wins from the likes of Rahm, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed – all players in their 20s. But we’ve also seen wins from Mickelson, Paul Casey and Ian Poulter – all in their 40s.

To a certain extent, many of today’s leading players can be placed into two distinct camps. But why have these two groups, some 15 years or so in age apart, come to exist?

Numerous factors 

Let’s start with the youngsters. They have been inspired to play the game to the very highest level by the likes of Tiger Woods and Mickelson and are looking to replicate, and improve upon, their considerable achievements. As they do so, the older players are, in turn, taking their own inspiration. They are driven to continue to push forwards by this new generation.