What about O'Hair?

Have we been looking in the wrong place for the next great young player? Rory McIlroy, Danny Lee, Ryo Ishikawa and Anthony Kim are the names that routinely surface on this front, but what of Sean O'Hair, who at 26 has become the only American player under 30 with three PGA Tour victories?

It might seem that this is a knee-jerk reaction to O'Hair beating a stellar field at the Quail Hollow Championship on Sunday, but a closer inspection of his record indicates a player whose career is on a linear ascent. O'Hair has finished in the top 25 in nine of 10 starts this year (he missed the cut in the other), in the top 10 in six of them, in the top five in four of them.

He's leading the PGA Tour in greens in regulation and scoring average, too, and to booth has this endorsement from Tiger Woods:

"He's got all the talent. We know that. We've seen how well he's played. It's just he's been through a lot off the golf course, and it's just a matter of time before all that settles in. He's got a great family, and you can see now he's starting to gain confidence with what he's working on."

-- John Strege