Forget the Big Four, Meet the Big Six

The emergence of young players like Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas amounts to a sea change at the top of the PGA Tour, according to Nick Faldo, and one that’s good for the game. Gone are longtime top-of-the-food-chain guys like Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. Instead, Kim, Villegas and Sergio Garcia are now the face of golf — along with veterans Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh.

"Tiger being out, we've had Phil and we've got Camilo Villegas and we've got Sergio and still got Vijay in there, and Anthony Kim there maybe bubbling under,” Faldo said at the USB Hong Kong Open. “So it's kind of a change at the top, the leading players, so that's exciting. And they are all good characters, as well, so that's really good for television.”

I’d give  Villegas’s spot to Padraig Harrington, but Faldo is right on the money. Woods’s absence has been terrible for TV ratings, but it energized the Tour’s younger generation, who got more time in the sun this summer as the World No. 1 recovered from knee surgery. Now you get the sense that guys are hungry to take on Woods. For all the talk about the economy’s effect on the PGA Tour, including players' possibly having to rent cars at tournaments (OMG!!!), 2009 could be the most entertaining PGA Tour season we’ve seen in a while.

Comments

[Roy Johnson]

What the tour really needs is for Tiger Woods to come back and for somebody to go up to Big Sur and get Bagger Vance!!!!!!!!

[Jusitn]

Camillo is a talent... I agree... Has anyone seen this? tigertempo.com it seems to make sense

[Jusitn]

Camillo is a talent... I agree... Has anyone seen this? tigertempo.com it seems to make sense

[Jusitn]

Camillo is a talent... I agree... Has anyone seen this? tigertempo.com it seems to make sense

[You]

I'd think you should let Villegas keep the spot on the Big Six. I mean, so Padraig won two majors this year. Great achievement. His only two wins of the year. But who was he beating? Not a whole lot of people were in contention for a major this year, so Padraig decided to up it, and he's a hero for it. He didn't do anything special. Nobody else is playing with enough motive to win. Even the Shark ranked higher than most of the hopefuls at the Open Championship, and the only thing he's been doing the past couple of years is adoring his wife (who is a beautiful and talented woman, indeed!). As for player of the year, Tiger is still the one. He beat the same lame tournament pool as Padraig at the U.S. Open, sure, but he did it when he wasn't 100%. He did it when people said he couldn't. Nobody said that Padraig couldn't do it. It's just that people outside of golf didn't know who Padraig was, and people inside golf didn't necessarily think he was a solid contender. And Tiger had to beat a guy at the top of his game in a playoff, and it made for some great TV. Can't say that either of Padraig's wins managed to garner any spotlight in the sports arena for more than a few minutes. Meanwhile, Villegas won the last two events of the FedExCup playoff, which are also the first two wins of his career, and even a serious run at winning $10 million. Sure, Vijay already had the cup, but Camilo managed to close out any other people who wanted more money. Another reason why Padraig isn't Player of the Year? Two words: Ryder Cup. There isn't a soul in here that can say Padraig had a better Ryder Cup than Tiger did. Meh, who are we kidding? Padraig had a hell of a year for himself. Just take Phil out of the Big Six, and then there's plenty of room for Paddy.

[You]

What DJ said.

[DJ]

Ernie who? Retief what?