Fifteen straight majors with a different champion, 11 of those were first time winners. This got me thinking. How have these guys done since? How did they do in their next major? Some pretty interesting stuff below, needless to say - I would not be picking Webb Simpson for the British this week...
Major Winner Next Major OWGR (as of 7/1)
Webb Simpson NP 5
Bubba Watson MC 6
Darren Clarke MC 81
Rory McIlroy T64 2
Charl Schwartzel T9 17
Martin Kaymer MC 15
Louis Oosthuizen MC 20
Graeme McDowell T23 11
Phil Mickelson T4 14
Angel Cabrera T54 190
Lucas Glover MC 125
Stewart Cink T67 176
Y.E. Yang T8 70
Padraig Harrington T35 69
Some quick thoughts on the above. Five didn't make the next major cut, the average finish for the eight that did was 29th. Mickelson's T4 at the U.S. Open and Yang's T8 at the following Masters skews this number even more.
There are several logical explanations for poor play at the next major including the fact that the winner of the U.S. Open has just five weeks to prep for an entirely different style of golf at The Open and vice versa for that winner prior to the PGA. And the winner of the PGA has nearly seven months before he tees it up at Augusta. More logically though are the increasing demands on the players' schedule and his elevated expectations of himself heading into that next major. Some of these guys are drained and some may have acheived their lifelong goal and decided to take it a bit easy afterward.
The fact that many have fallen so far down the world rankings isn't as easy to explain however.
Glover was arguably one of the top young players in the game when he won. Although he was relatively unknown outside of golf nerd circles, the guy was a proven player and one of the best ball strikers on tour. Today he's ammassed a whopping $67,000 in earnings on the tour this year and shows little interest in the game.
Cink was a career grinder prior to his win at The Open over Tom Watson in a playoff, he has more than $30M in career earnings. There's not much more for him to prove and he's likely on the downside of his PGA TOUR career.
Clarke has a similar story to Cink but has been through a lot with his family and when he got the surprise win last year at The Open it was likely time to hoist a few pints and have a quiet season in 2012.
Out of the first time "young guns" it will come down to whether they want to be great or spend their time and new found wealth pursuing other interests. I don't know any of them well enough to project which way they'll go, but I hope Rory and Bubba will dedicate themselves. They have talents nobody else possesses but do they love the game enough?
Stay tuned, let's read this again in 3 years. Thanks to Wikipedia's sweet golf major page for the knowledge -
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