Oros out the Claret Jug?

23 July 2015 - 02:03 By Michael Vlismas

The occasion was a prizegiving. The winner made his thanks, and then turned to his younger compatriot, whom he had beaten in a play-off and said: "You're a wonderful golfer and have a great future ahead of you." The winner was 16 and the runner-up 14. This was hardly a case of Tom Watson speaking about Jordan Spieth. This was a kid not yet old enough to drive dispensing wise words to another still sipping on a milkshake.But when you travel to the many tournaments on South Africa's popular Glacier Junior Series, you are again reminded of how young golf has become.Golf was meant to be a game about experience. It mirrors life, and as such you only start to understand it the older you get.This is the game of Old Tom Morris, with his big bushy beard. The game in which you often only reach your peak in your late 30s.Well, that's all a load of rubbish.The world No1 is 26.The world No2 is 21.The world No6 is 26.The world No9 is 27.And then a 22-year-old amateur almost goes and wins the Open on, get this, the Old Course.Young champions in golf are certainly nothing new. Young Tom Morris played in his first Open aged 14 and won it when he was 17 in the late 1800s. Tiger Woods was 21 when he won the Masters in 1997.But the number of young players now in the top 10 in the world, and the high percentage of them capable of winning on any given Sunday, is signalling a new era in global golf.There are a lot more amateurs being competitive in, and winning, professional tournaments.And they believe they have every right to be there. They are young, they are fearless and they have created a depth to the game that means there are now more potential winners every single week than we've had in the game over the past few years.Locally, you can see it in the amateur women's game.Where once there was a very distinct senior and junior national ranking in women's golf the two have now almost merged to the point that a distinction is no longer necessary.The juniors have become that good that they now occupy the top spots in the senior rankings as well.Izel Pieters recently returned from college in America to compete in the Sanlam SA Women's Amateur at Kloof Country Club. She has been out of the local system for a year as she competes for Mississippi State."In that short time I can't believe how many new young faces there are out here," said the 21-year-old.There was another occasion this year when Western Province star Luca Filippi, 16, was asked in a television interview what his thoughts on the future of South African golf were. Those are usually questions reserved for Gary Player.But such is the youth flooding the game at present that golf writers are getting used to quotes like this one from Filippi: "It's quite hard to balance school and the golf, but I do my best."Perhaps there will soon come a day when the Open champion is legally allowed to only drink Oros out of the Claret Jug...

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