Golfing generations

Connecting the best with what comes next

Author

Sean Melia
January 26, 2024

Friday, January 26

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for opening this email. Plenty of ways to kill time on a Friday morning on the Internet, and this is where you ended up.

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Let’s get to it.

Golfing Generations

For 33 years, Phil Mickelson had the distinction of being the last amateur to win on the PGA Tour. The hatless, and nearly logoless, 21-year-old from Southern California won the Northern Telecom Open over two pretty good professionals at the time - Tom Purtzer and major-winner Bob Tway.

Enter amateur Nick Dunlap, who won the American Express this past weekend, facing down two Ryder Cup players - Justin Thomas and Sam Burns.

(Note: Nick Dunlap turned pro on Thursday morning while I was writing this. I wrote this breakdown on AmateurGolf.com about why Dunlap made the choice. He’ll play at Pebble Beach next week.)

When Mickelson on in 1991, he only broke a six-year drought for amateurs on the PGA Tour. Scott Verplank, one of the best amateurs ever, won the Western Open. Verplank was the first amateur in 29 years to win on the PGA Tour.

When Nick Dunlap’s 7-foot par putt rolled into the dead center of the cup on Sunday evening, he reset the amateur clock. Maybe it’ll be decades before another amateur wins, or maybe it will be just six years.

However, I did notice something that connects Mickelson’s win with Dunlap’s win. Jack Nicklaus won his final major, The Masters, in 1986, five years before Mickelson’s win. Tiger’s Masters win in 2019 was five years prior to this Dunlap win.

Does it mean anything?

Maybe not.

But maybe it does.

Mickelson (and Verplank) grew up in the age of Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Mickelson was born in 1970, this is after Nicklaus came onto the scene. He didn’t see Nicklaus win as a young pro. He caught Nicklaus in the second half of his career, probably starting in 1975 (Although Mickelson might tell you his earliest memory is watching Nicklaus in 1971…).

Dunlap is the same. He was born in (gulp) December of 2003. Tiger had completed the Tiger Slam and the career grand slam before Dunlap was even alive.

Many people rushed to call Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Rory McIlroy the “Tiger Generation.” Shane Ryan even wrote a book about it called Slaying the Tiger.

My buddy Paul and I have discussed Tiger’s impact on people of various ages. Tiger is not why I started golfing; Tiger is what made golfing (somewhat) cool when we were in middle school and high school. We would have played golf either way, and we were swinging clubs before Tiger hit the scene.

Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas were born in 1993. Rory McIlroy was born in 1989. They were swinging a club before Tiger was on the scene, too. Did they grow up watching Tiger? Idolizing Tiger? Of course. I did, too.

But this next generation of Dunlap and Michael Thorbjornsen and Gordon Sargent and Ludvig Aberg feels more like the generation that won’t compete with Tiger on the course, but it might be the actual “Tiger Generation.”

Tiger won his first major in 1997 (The Masters), six years before Dunlap was born. Nicklaus won his first major in 1962 (U.S. Open), eight years before Mickelson was born.

Do you know who was alive for Jack’s wins and Tiger’s wins?

Mickelson’s parents and Dunlap’s parents.

Parents in the 1960s and the 2000s witnessed the influx of cash into the game. They were probably the two timeframes when the game exploded the most commercially (this is also due to Arnold Palmer’s drive to commercialize golf and the boom in sports popularity, too). The Masters was first televised in 1956 on CBS.

This is the long-tail impact of golf booms. Parents see the opportunity, the game has some momentum due to generational talents at the professional level, and kids gravitate to the sport.

From 1986-1991 golf was in a weird place. It depended on guys like Nick Faldo, a robotic figure on the course, to carry Nicklaus’ torch. There were quirky figures like Ian Woosnam and Payne Stewart or choke-artists like Greg Norman. But in 1991, Mickelson won, and then John Daly won the PGA Championship as an unknown alternate (those two results might be a referendum on that post-Nicklaus era in general).

But the churn was starting. Seve won his last major in 1988. Faldo did dominate the early 90’s, winning six majors (maybe a Brooks-type career…win the majors in that “in-between” era).

So back to Dunlap. The kid is a stud. He and Tiger Woods are the only golfers to win both the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur. He’s now just joined Mickelson as the last two amateurs to win on the PGA in the last 33 years.

This batch of young amateurs and pros all have more connective tissue to Tiger Woods than the guys on tour who got to compete against him over the last decade.

Dunlap grew up watching Tiger Woods, never competing against him. Mickelson (and Tiger) grew up watching Jack Nicklaus, but never really competed against him. He was 51 in 1991.

But Dunlap’s parents watched Tiger Woods. Even if they didn’t watch him, they were aware of him. They understood the impact Tiger had on the sport and the financial doors he kicked down when he came onto the scene.

If history repeats itself, we might see another amateur win in the near future. We had some close calls leading up to Dunlap’s win. Michael Thorbjornsen finished fourth in the 2022 Travellers Championship, and Sam Bennett was in the final group at The Masters in 2023 on Saturday.

Heck, look at March Madness; once a 16 seed toppled a 1 seed, it happened again pretty quickly.

The other piece is we could be heading for another incredible generation of golf in the next 15 years. Obviously, since Tiger won The Masters (and Phil the PGA Championship in 2021), golf has quite a story to tell with LIV Golf diluting the playing pool. While current pros are worried about their bottom line, the real fear is that this talented group of young players coming up now will be split in half between the PGA Tour and LIV.

However, it feels like with the youth that’s coming through the pipeline, golf might be looking at another professional talent bonanza. In 1991, when Mickelson won, no one really knew who Tiger Woods was. He was about to win his first U.S. Junior Amateur in 1991 at Bay Hill (another Palmer connection) as a 15-year-old.

Nicklaus and Plamer begat the Tiger and Phil era. Let’s not forget about how Gary Player affected Ernie Els and, then later, Relief Goosen.

Now, we’ll really get to see the Tiger Generation come through and compete.

News and Notes

  • It’s been 12 years since Anthony Kim hit a shot on the PGA Tour. Now, after basically turning into the golf version of a Sasquatch for the last decade, he’s testing the waters to see if he can rejoin the PGA Tour or LIV. Dylan Dethier broke the story for Golf.com.

  • While Nick Dunlap was winning as an amateur, another amateur, Michael Thorbjornsen, finished T11 in the Dubai Desert Classic. He hadn’t played competitive golf for five months. The future is bright…

Merch Table

One way to help support me in my quest to play every course in the Bay State would be to spend a little money on some Bay State Golf swag. Check it all out here.

When I’m not golfing…

I’m gambling….(Every week, because it's now legal in Mass. I'm going to make five NFL picks and keep track of them here.)

  • Last Week: 3-1 (Playoffs: 6-4)

    • Kansas City (+4) over Baltimore

      • It feels like a close game. no matter how you slice it. Tough to doubt Patrick Maholmes right now.

    • Lions (+7.5) over 49ers

      • I think the Niners pull this one out. But Purdy was so bad last week that it’s hard to imagine him blowing out the Lions. Massive back door cover potential here, too. Could see the Lions scoring late to make it a seven-point game.

I’m reading…

I’m listening to…

  • I thought I’d share my regular podcast rotation:

  • I’m also using Spotify’s daily playlist pretty regularly when people talking is distracting.

I’m eating…

  • Spaghetti and meatballs. The simplest of dishes. We have an awesome pasta shop in Charlestown called Main St. Pasta. Fresh pasta makes all the difference. Their meatballs slap, too.

  • Tiff made English Muffins from scratch this week. Incredible. Did you know they mainly bake in a skillet on the stovetop?

  • On Sunday I made a “kitchen sink” frittata. Super simple and gets some items out of the fridge. Just make sure you have eggs and half and half.

  • Baked chicken wings are so much easier than frying them in oil. I used this recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch. Will be making these again for playoff football.

I’m drinking…  

  • I made another shrub! Might be the easiest thing in the world to do, considering how expensive they are in the store. I used blueberries and ginger this time. Gotta press the blueberries so they mix with the sugar. Again, it’s a 1:1:1 ratio fruit, sugar, and vinegar (I’ve used less vinegar). Here’s the entire breakdown from Food52.

I’m watching…

  • True Detective is BACK! I love the weekly Sunday release’ it adds some suspense. We missed the first week, so we had two to watch this week. It’s very good so far. As creepy and weird as ever. It takes place in northern Alaska in December, so it’s dark the entire time. Really messes with my head as I watch. No sense of the time of day. Eating lunch in complete darkness is a no for me, dog.

  • American Nightmare might be the wildest crime doc we’ve watched in a long time. A true rollercoaster ride. It’s so unclear who is actually telling the truth.

  • Heat is on Netflix until Jan. 31. The movie rocks. It took me a couple of nights to watch it. The 2 hr. 50 min. length would have kept me up way past my bedtime.

  • I watched Saltburn last week and forgot to mention it. What a weird, wild movie. It was less suspenseful than I thought as far as jump scares. But holy cow, is it creepy. Some very uncomfortable scenes, and I watched alone.

PLUGS

New stuff:

  1. This week I had Garret Salvucci on Bay State Golf Podcast. Salvucci just started a new IG account called DropZoneGoldCo. The last two weeks, I’ve had guys I met on IG join me on the podcast. Last week Nick Eliopoulis, a Myopia and Essex caddy, was my guest.

  2. David McLay-Kidd was the guest on the Amateur Golf Podcast. He is best known for designing Bandon Dunes as a 26-year-old in the late ‘90s.

  3. I joined a new podcast called Talkboys. It’s not a golf/sports podcast. We talked about my quest, growing an audience on IG, LIV Golf, pro golf, my family, fish printing, and other things! Go give Chris, Tim, and Hunter a listen.

Old stuff: 

I'm (shamelessly) plugging...

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