KAPALUA, Maui >> The talk among the casual fans in golf is all about the return of Tiger Woods. But for those who follow this sport more closely, Woods is a man from the past responsible for all the young guns of the future.
And folks, there are a lot of them out there.
Justin Thomas, all of 23, is the latest example of the 20-somethings who are pushing out the old to make way for the new. His three-shot victory over fellow youngster Hideki Matsuyama, 24, at the SBS Tournament of Champions on Sunday highlighted this winners-only leaderboard dotted with youth that included former world No. 1 Jordan Spieth (23), Patrick Reed (26), Cody Gribble (26), Mackenzie Hughes (26) and Si Woo Kim (21).
Even current world No. 1 Jason Day is only 29 in a sport you can play competitively into your 50s. And if you start doing the math, these guys will be hanging around with each other into 2050 and beyond.
Yikes.
Prior to his win Sunday, Thomas was feeling a little left out when it came to the attention some of his peers were already receiving. He knew in his heart he was as good as close friend Spieth or Matsuyama or Reed or whoever you want to scribble down on a scorecard.
And while his first two PGA Tour victories in Malaysia were a sign of that ability, winning the TOC on American soil cemented that fact over the weekend in this elite field.
Thomas, Spieth and Matsuyama are among the 144 golfers teeing it up this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Spieth and Thomas already have talked about how much they like the Waialae Country Club layout and figure to be right at the top of the leaderboard come Sunday.
Whether they win remains to be seen, but they are part of the fabric of the latest brands of the PGA Tour. And that’s a good thing for local golf fans. For a good part of the 21st century Woods and Phil Mickelson didn’t have a love affair for the Plantation Course on Maui or the flat track of Waialae on Oahu.
Neither played either event regularly or at all, leaving fans here wondering if they would ever see the top-rated golfers of that time. But fortunately for those living in the 50th state, this new breed of swingers love it here and that’s a good thing for the future of golf in the Hawaiian Islands.
Spieth likes the Plantation Course so much, he has said he would do almost anything to keep that event on Maui. And while he has played Waialae only once and missed the cut in 2014, his comments about the course on Sunday were promising for local promoters.
“Michael (Greller) has told me for the last couple of years, I think, what is it, Waialae? I think he goes, ‘Waialae is one of the best courses on tour for you’,” Spieth said. Geller is his caddie. “It’s almost like your Hilton Head, your Colonial, you have to kind of strike it around both ways and play in the wind and we feel like that kind of plays to our strength, kind of trickier reads on the greens. You can make putts from mid-range and off a bunch of ridges.
“Last year, I didn’t play it because I was going overseas and that was just going to be a really tough four-week stretch to go from here to Abu Dhabi to Singapore. But I think this could be a stop that we’ll continue to make as long as we can get into this (Maui) event.”
And he’s not alone in that assessment. Thomas said the Sony Open was a course he really liked and even commented after his SBS win, “I’m more worried about the Sony Open right now. I’m worried about the next event I’m playing in.”
And that’s a good thing for Waialae and the future of golf here. There’s no question what Woods brings to the PGA Tour. But at 41, he will be moving on soon to make way for the movement he helped create.
