The Loop

Jordan Spieth says ‘it’s a bit soon’ to declare a new era in golf

November 04, 2015

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The rise of so many talented young players in the absence of Tiger Woods with his ongoing health issues means it’s a new era in golf. Or does it? “I think it's a bit soon,” Spieth said in this story by Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press. “For Rory, it’s different because it’s been consistent for years now. Jason and I, we’ve played solid golf the last few years. In order to create an era, you almost need a decade of years like this.”

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“We need Tiger Woods. It doesn't matter if he isn't the guy anymore who dazzled us with shots that not even fiction writers could invent. Who cares if he never shrinks that four-victory gap between Jack Nicklaus and himself for most career wins in major tournaments?” Terrence Moore writes at Sports On Earth. “The bottom line: Despite the coronation of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day as the next Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player…Tiger remains huge for golf's present and future.”

Tiger Woods’ former caddie Steve Williams has not fared well in media reaction to criticisms in his forthcoming book of Woods, notably that he likened himself to a slave. “Welcome to The History of Slavery with Steve Williams, in which white men are brutally invited to carry the golf bags of black men, savagely consulted over club selection and putt lines, sadistically given a share of the winnings, cruelly allowed to leave whenever they want,” Jonathan Liew writes in the Telegraph. In the Daily Mail, Derek Lawrenson writes that the first excerpt “said everything about the New Zealander’s inflated sense of his own worth but offered no fresh insight into a relationship that lasted 11 years, delivered 13 majors and for which he was paid the not so slave-like estimated sum of £10million.”

“The United States Golf Association will invest $2.5 million with the University of Minnesota over the next five years in the apparent belief that an academic institution can help the USGA improve turf conditions, speed up the pace of play and bring more new players into the game,” columnist Joe Soucheray of the St. Paul Pioneer Press writes. Or, put another way, “the USGA wants to make the game less expensive, less time-consuming and more fun in order to increase participation…Golf is not fun. It never has been and never will be.”