BUDDING TALENT HEADLINES 2022 PGA TOUR SEASON

ELDER STATESMAN RORY MCILROY, 32, LEADS PACK OF BUDDING STARS INCLUDING WILL ZALATORIS, TOM KIM

- Jim McCabe

If it is the desired recipe of a sports executive to serve up something new and exhilarating along helpings of popular crowd favorites, then consider the 202122 PGA TOUR season to have been a rousing testament to a parade of talent that tees it up week in and week out.

Were you, at the start of the season, to have put a circle around established stars, surely you would have included the names Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm.

And if asked to highlight some young lads whose talent intrigued you and whose promise certainly tickled your fancy, the ink would have been brushed over names such as Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, Sungjae Im and Will Zalatoris.

As for those names you thought were good, but seemed to be searching for a breakout, it's likely Max Homa, Billy Horschel and Matt Fitzpatrick grabbed your attention.

There is always room for a stunning dessert that you don't think you deserve, but one that pulls down the curtain to a delightful evening. In the case of the 2021-22 PGA TOUR season, that dessert was called the "Tom Kim."

Digest all of these factors and it is understandable why PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan late in the season talked about an indelible strength to this game. "We regenerate and create more talent through the competitive framework," said Monahan.

"That is going to continue to happen."

It's a delightful proposition, especially if one considers how 2021-22 unfolded with bursts of winning play that mixed the young stars with the public favorites.

There was the fall of '21 when on consecutive weeks Burns won the first of his three tournaments on the season and was followed into the winner's circle by Im (at the Shriners) and Mcllroy (CJ CUP) in back-to-back Las Vegas events, then by Matsuyama's compelling "hometown" win in the ZOZO Championship in Japan.