Golf Central

No. He does not need a Stannah Stair Lift just yet to navigate the glittering spiral staircases to heaven at his stately Isleworth manor. But Tiger Woods is still hobbled and he's still weeks away from his return at the US Open at Torrey Pines. He's grumbling about limping around that big gaff of his and complained a few weeks ago that he's lucky to hit the old Nike pellets even 30 yards these days.
 
Some may say that makes Tiger sound a bit of a grumpy old man. Surely enough, the fairways in the USA have been noticeably absent of any predatory cats on the prowl - much to the relief of Sergio García, who thanked Tiger for his no-show after winning The Players Championship.
 
But guess what? Tim Finchem's tour did not collapse after all - in fact, instead we've had a couple months of great golf, thrilling finishes, and a posse of young guns joining circles as winners.
 
Not to say it wouldn't have happened anyway had Woods been about - even though it probably wouldn't have. But if you go back to late March, seven of the last eight champs on the US PGA Tour have been younger than Tiger. Only two are barely into their 30s. The writing was on the wall even before Tiger came second at the Masters to Trevor Immelman, and then collected his signing-off from the doc in the form of jetting off to Vail, Colorado for knee surgery that put him off the Tour til ... as we speak.
 
But please consider the following...
 
1. During Woods' "preparations" for the Masters (spear-fishing and hob-nobbing with stars of other sports don't count), the 26-year-old Argentine hombre de los birdies Andrés Romero struck first, winning a nail-biter at New Orleans on March 30. That was a week after Tiger fell flat in losing out to Geoff Ogilvy at Doral, stopping all the talk of Byron Nelson's win streak being erased from the record books. Nearly ignored amongst all that mumbo-jumbo was how Romero showed the form that has made many in the business (including humble old IGWT) predict greatness for him.
 
2. Next along came an unknown 28-year-old tall Texan named Johnson Wagner (or was it Wagner Johnson?) who won at Houston and captured the final automatic Masters qualification with it.
 
3. Augusta was supposed to be Tiger Time, except Trevor Immelman wasn't having anything to do with that. It was Trevor Time instead, and uber-nice guy South African Immelman (also 28) took the Green Jacket by three shots over Woods and sent the Big Cat, with a surgeon's touch, off to the surgeon's wand in something probably south of a good mood.
 
4. The media-savvy hillbilly Boo Weekley (age 34) broke the run of twenty-something winners by taking his second straight title at Harbour Town the week after the Masters. But in terms of "golf years", in this day and age of champions being groomed from the time they are out of nappies, Boo may as well count as a twenty-something, especially considering the guy did a heck of a lot more huntin', fishin', and spittin' tobacco juice than golfin' before turning pro in '97.
 
5. And there's no doubting the under-30 credentials (golfing or otherwise) of the next winner, former next-big-thing Adam Scott (27), who took the Byron Nelson Championship for his sixth PGA Tour title.
 
6. Then it was the turn of Tiger's buddy Mark O'Meara to turn prophet when street-tough Los Angeles kid Anthony Kim - all of 22 years of age and armed with a swing that O'Meara has said is better than Tiger's at the same age, put a 5-shot can of whoop-ass on the field at the Wachovia. The fact that a healthy Woods probably wouldn't have won anyway, given the fact Kim beat Tiger's tourney record by three shots, was lost on few.
 
7. It was back to more proven talents at The Players Championship two weeks ago, when the enigma that is Spanish 28-year-old Sergio García notched the season's "fifth major" by conquering both his putting problems and Sawgrass' devilish 17th green in a playoff. Like Scott, García has been long tipped for greatness: Is that time starting now?
 
8. And then last week may have been best of all, when that perpetually sunny fella from the Land of Rising Sun, the beaming Ryuji Imada (31), notched his maiden win last week at Sugarloaf in Georgia. Imada has long been an InGolfWeTrust favourite, especially after John Daly inadvertently shafted Imada out of a dream ticket to Augusta. There's something cute-silly about little Ryuji in a very Japanese-Americanised way. But mostly, we love a guy who just can't stop smiling on the golf course and the tears of Imada's wife Kanae only made his win seem even more heart-tugging.
 
So what does it all mean? Heaps to all of these winners, clearly, but Tiger ought to be hearing some footsteps, considering that DJ Trahan, JB Holmes and Sean O'Hair - all in their 20s - are already winners on the 2008 PGA Tour. Daniel Chopra is not exactly old either at 34.
 
The majors are where it will all shake down. Immelman, along with his Green Jacket, has virtually a lifetime pass to take on Tiger for those. García and Scott won't miss major starts either; Imada suddenly finds himself No. 3 in the FedEx points standings and heads for Torrey Pines and next year's Masters. The fearless Kim, from LA's Koreatown, has the ballsy look of a future superstar.
 
Weekley is older than Woods, but he's shown he is going to be a factor, and not just at Harbour Town. Paul Azinger will count on Boo at Ryder Cup time.
 
Ho-hum? Well, it would surprise no-one, really, if Tiger waltzed back to Torrey Pines next month and strolled out to a 15-stroke victory without even breaking a sweat stain on his red shirt on Sunday, June 15. But things look a bit different today than they did before Augusta. It's been years since everyone started moaning for someone to seriously challenge Tiger's supremacy.
 
The thing is, from where we sit, it looks like Tiger may not have just one contender, as it was in the good old days when a tangle between Woods and the once-great David Duval was something like pay-for-view title fight.

Instead, Woods may have more trouble on his hands. These are not "young pretenders" at all. Instead of just David Duval, there's a whole posse of them this time round