Why golf's new 'big three' of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day owe a huge debt to Tiger Woods
World's leading trio can now claim to rule the international roost, but it was the sport's superstar who helped put them there
The heavy lifting has been done; you can relax now Mr Woods. The progeny have officially arrived.
Whatever you might think of Tiger Woods these days, and as a playing professional it admittedly cannot be much, the debt the sport of golf owes him is simply immeasurable and growing by the second. By the time Australian Jason Day captured his first major title at the PGA Championship in the gloaming of Wisconsin's Whistling Straits last Sunday, Tiger was long gone, having missed the cut two days earlier. His fingerprints, however, were all over the moment.
It's a completely moot point now because all three readily admit Tiger was the reason they became consumed with the game
Fifteen years ago, Day was a bitter and broken 12-year-old who had just lost his father to cancer. He was running with a bad crowd in his small Queensland home town and his mother, who migrated from the Philippines herself some years earlier, was admittedly at wits' end. "He was drinking and listening to his peers, instead of his parent," Dening Day told Brisbane's . "But he was committed to his sport. Golf saved him."
A large part of that commitment was to his idol Tiger Woods. Fifteen years ago, Woods was at the apex of his storied career, winning five majors in six starts. Like Tiger, Day was not of the manor born, growing up in a largely impoverished household.
Also like Tiger, Day was multiracial playing a sport that most definitely was not. To bring the mainstream into one of the least mainstream sports, Woods had to be transcendent and he was.
How else could someone of Day's background ever be suitably inspired to dream of playing golf for a living? Tiger put the game in front of millions of young people who never before dared to dream of a career in it. Fifteen years ago, an 11-year-old kid in Northern Ireland was hypnotised by everything Tiger did, while a precocious seven-year-old in Texas was equally smitten. I
t's possible Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Day would have found a passion for golf without the influence of Woods in their life. But it's a completely moot point now because all three readily admit Tiger was the reason they became consumed with the game.
By the time the freely flowing tears had dried from Day's emotional and record-setting victory of 20 under par, the lowest score ever in a major championship, the sport of golf officially had a new big three. With nine top-10 finishes in the majors over the past four years, all Day needed was to win one to cement his place in the pantheon alongside McIlroy with his four and Spieth with his two. They are now the number one, two and three ranked golfers in the world and it's not like the next 97 guys in the top 100 don't matter.
But from here on out, any tournament the big three are in they will be the clear favourites to win. The bookies will fixate on them, the promoters will bank on them, the media will suffocate them, the galleries will devour them and the TV viewers will be rapt in adoration for them. Yes, it's official.
You have got the huge American market covered with Spieth, Europe with McIlroy and Australasia with Day, and if that international blanket is not enough, all three are not only insanely talented, youthful and telegenic, they are cooperative and pleasant to a fault. Day and Spieth, in particular, put on a rare show of sportsmanship and camaraderie while playing together during the final round of the PGA.
Blessed with a ready and glowing smile, Day has his home country completely smitten with his down-to-earth charm and rags-to-riches tale. Thousands upon thousands of his countrymen have flooded chat rooms and Twitter to rave about how J.D. makes them proud to be Australian, and well he should.
It's been seven years since Tiger won a major and two years since he finished in the top 10 at one. The 10-year-old kids who go gaga for Rory and Jordan and Jason have virtually no first-hand knowledge of his greatness. To them, Woods seems like this old dude stuck somewhere between tabloid purgatory and golfing hell, which he kind of is. But much like Tiger of 15 years ago, the recently minted big three that will grow the game are now pure and fresh. And yet occasional missteps are bound to follow, it's inevitable.
Hopefully, though, Tiger's golfing greatness is not the only inspiration he imparted on the keepers of the flame. And hopefully for Tiger his unfailingly decent progeny can teach him a few things as well. They owe him that much at least.
