Majors power shift rocks US fans

PHIL MICKLESON has been talked about in many terms –exciting and dynamic, pretentious and confounding being some of the extreme descriptions.

But it’s doubtful that anyone would have suggested to you a few years ago that in 2011 we’d be talking of Mickelson as a trivia answer: The last American to win one of golf’s major championships.

Not with the left-hander having run his career total to four Majors. Not with Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover having won Majors in 2009. Not with Tiger Woods having won his 14th major in 2008.

After all, Americans always won the majors, didn’t they? Ben Hogan handed off to Arnold Palmer who handed off to Jack Nicklaus who handed off Lee Trevino and Tom Watson, all of which led us into that major-winning monster, Woods.

So thinking that in 2011 we would be contemplating a drought to present Mickelson as a trivia answer is stunning.

Yet into the 93rd US PGA Championship, that’s what we had. Following Mickelson’s triumph at Augusta National in the spring of 2010, the Majors have been won by Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, Martin Kaymer of Germany, Charl Schwartzel of South Africa, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke.

It was the first time Americans had gone six major championships without a victory. Not that they were threatening to shut down the sport in America, but this fact did have the citizenry reaching for the panic button, especially since the distress signal was apparently not going to be answered by the men in power.

Woods? He’s without a semblance of a quality game or an even mind.

Mickelson? Too erratic, too confused with the putter.

Steve Stricker? Strangely unable to pull things together in the Majors.

Dustin Johnson? Nick Watney? Matt Kuchar? Bubba Watson? Seemingly not ready for prime time.

Sad. So sad that the best Major threat shaded in red, white, and blue during this drought has been Luke Donald. What? He was born and raised in England? So what? These are desperate times for golf fans this side of the pond, which is why we’ll adopt Donald as being from Chicago.

If it were a storyline that American players got tired in the days leading up to this week’s Major at the Atlanta Athletic Club, who can blame them? Yet as one hot and insufferable day led into another steamy and unbearable day, a wild picture unfolded. For all those fans screaming for an American victory in this US PGA Championship, there was sort of a wish come true, a 54-hole leaderboard coloured red, white, and blue; the only thing is, we didn’t know who they were.

IMAGINE that, you wait a stretch of six Majors and nearly 15 months for a compatriot to win a Major and you have to run to the media guide to find out who’s carrying the nation’s flag.

Jason Dufner? Keegan Bradley? Brendan Steele? They had two career wins among them, both this year, and both at events that would hardly be termed noteworthy.

Scott Verplank? Stricker? Polished veterans, yes, but they’ve never got the major job done so it wasn’t like you could hitch a wagon to them.

Indeed, it was a curious situation, not having much allegiance or comfort zone with these Americans, but before you consider the negative aspects to this, there might be a positive flavour to it. Maybe, just maybe, it points to how we’ve come to embrace the pro golf game for what it is – a flavourful sport filled with great talent from all corners of the globe. Maybe, just maybe, it demonstrates an educated view of things that we don’t brush the game in such provincial colours.

The game is better than that, so much better.

As Dufner and Bradley held things together on the outward holes in suffocating heat, a funny thing happened to the leaderboard in yesterday’s final round. That international flavour began to absorb into the proceedings. Sweden’s Robert Karlsson made a move, as did Denmark’s Anders Hansen. Donald got into the hunt and so, too, England’s Lee Westwood.

Heavily red, white, and blue at the start, the leaderboard was coloured with different flags.

Disheartening to an American? Perhaps. But America embraced not only the nation’s flag but the flavour of golf competition, it was a wonderful sight.