The 23-year-old Californian shows the US are ready to regain their leading role in world golfThe wheel always turns in professional golf but over the past year it has almost spun off its axis. Twelve months ago, Europe was billed as the new superpower, its superiority apparently set while an era of US dominance gently faded away.Alas, the future is not as clear as it used to be, albeit that Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood occupy the top three places in the world rankings. European players win regularly in the States and they win with style. But dominant? Not if the results of the past two major championships are indicative of anything after they were both won by Americans, Keegan Bradley (PGA Championship) and Bubba Watson (Masters). And not if the list of winners on the world`s biggest tour is anything to by as the players go into its flagship event, the Players Championship, at Sawgrass on Thursday.There have been 20 events on the PGA Tour so far in 2012. Sixteen have been won by Americans, including Watson at Augusta National and Hunter Mahan, who has won twice - beating McIlroy in the final of the Accenture World Matchplay and then holding off the field at the Shell Houston Open the week before the Masters.Both Watson and Mahan were members of the `Golf Boys`, a spoof boy band which released a video poking fun at the sport last year. And they were joined in the winners enclosure by a third member of the troupe, Rickie Fowler, whose win at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow on Sunday has been greeted by the yet another redrafting of the sport`s future, this time with Fowler in a starring role.The reasons for this are fairly obvious. Fowler, a southern Californian is aged just 23 and looks like he might have been in the Beach Boys in another life. It helps too that he is likable and, by the standards of your average PGA Tour pro, fairly approachable. `It was so cool to see Rickie win,` said an effusive Phil Mickelson of his 2010 Ryder Cup ...
|
