And while Woods was away, the focus shifted to youth -- especially Kim and Villegas.
Kim broke Woods' scoring record at the Wachovia Championship with a five-shot victory, then won Woods' tournament with a 65 at Congressional in the AT&T National. He was sixth on the PGA Tour money list and moved up 63 spots to No. 12 in the world ranking.
Villegas took baby steps until bursting through with victories in the BMW Championship and Tour Championship -- both won by Woods the previous year -- to finish second in the FedEx Cup and move up 49 spots to No. 7 in the world.
The 23-year-old Kim faces the highest expectations, which is fine with him.
"I've always thought that I was able to achieve some pretty high, lofty goals," Kim said. "I never thought it would be any other way. I thought one day it was going to happen, and it happens to be now. Hopefully, if I just stay on the right path, I'll have a pretty bright future."
Els remembers when he was part of the younger generation. He won the U.S. Open at 24, an era that included the arrival of Mickelson, Leonard and Darren Clarke.
"Fifteen years ago, I was that age, and you come through and you want to run through walls," Els said.
Maybe he has enough energy left to run through them again.
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