MAJOR WINNERS: Philip Reidon how Louis Oosthuizen became only the latest member of the breakthrough-major club – the fifth in seven events
ON THE face of it, the club for first-time champions in the majors is over-flowing with new members. After all, with Louis Oosthuizen lifting of the British Open at St Andrews on Sunday, he became the fifth first-time winner in the last six majors. It would seem, at first glance, the mystique of majors and those capable and able of laying claim to the green jacket, the US Open trophy, the Claret Jug and the Wanamaker Trophy has been broken.
While the run of winners since Lucas Glover took the US Open title at Bethpage last July has brought a stretch – where only Phil Mickelson has managed to infiltrate the hold of the maiden major winners in that time – which equates to almost an 85 per cent hit rate of maiden champions, the cyclical nature of these things is demonstrated by a broader look back over the past two decades.
It shows the major breakthrough is actually achieved at a regular hit rate when taken in five-year blocks, even allowing for the manner in which Tiger Woods has dominated the major championships since his arrival on the scene in 1997.
The strike rate for first-time winners since 1991 equates to marginally above 25 per cent when taken over the five-year periods: in the 20 majors from 1991-1995 (inclusive), there were 12 first-time winners; from 1996 to 2000, there were nine first-time winners; from 2001 to 2005, there were 11 first-time winners, and in the period from 2006 to 2010 (with the US PGA still to come), there have been 10 first-time champions.
So, is the 83 per cent rate of five winners in the last six an aberration? Or does it provide confirmation that the Woods factor – for whatever reason – has diminished, that players no longer fear him?
For sure, it has been a quite remarkable run of first-timers – taking in Glover (2009 US Open), Stewart Cink (2009 British Open), YE Yang (2009 US PGA), Graeme McDowell (2010 US Open) and, now, Oosthuizen(2010 British Open).
Yet, it is worth noting that, year-on-year, the majors more often than not throw up at least one first-timer and you have to go back to Woods’s all-conquering year of 2000 for the last time that there was no breakthrough major winner.
In that season, Woods took three titles (US Open, British Open and US PGA), while Vijay Singh took the second of his three majors in the Masters.
While Woods has not added to his career total of 14 majors since his US Open win in 2008 – his second longest barren spell in majors after the stretch from the 2002 US Open to the 2005 US Masters – his theory is there is far more depth now in the fields and equipment and fitness factors also come into the equation.
“Technology certainly has been a huge step. Back in 2000, the average length of shaft was still about 43 and a half (inches). And now you buy it off the rack or you see these guys are 45, and I think Paddy (Harrington) was using 47 inches at Quail Hollow
“So I mean that’s changed quite a bit. The ball’s gotten harder. Guys are hitting it just a lot further. And the guys have really taken fitness seriously. There weren’t a whole lot of guys in the gym when I first came out on tour and look at now, most of the guys carry trainers, week to week.
“Guys are trying to stay fit, trying to make sure that they’re in the best condition possible to win every week, which is very different than what it used to be,” said Woods of the changes in the past decade.
McDowell, who reignited the cycle of first-time major winners at Pebble Beach, intends to speak to the likes of Harrington and Ernie Els to guard against the dangers of not following on winning one major with another.
As he explained, “How I deal with it in the long-term boils down to decisions that I make, schedule, just big decisions like that. I’m very aware of the pitfalls, complacency, expectation levels, really trying to change my game now that I’m a major champion – there’s all kinds of mistakes that guys have made in the past.
“I know plenty of the guys well enough, Ernie and Pádraig and guys like that to be able to seek them out here in the next few months to have some dinner with them and chats with them and understand how they have dealt with it in the past.
“I’ve got a great team of people working with me, and I believe they’ll not let me make the mistakes that will sort of drag me down. I’m a 30-year-old guy, 31 in a couple of weeks’ time, I feel like I have my best days ahead of me.
“So I’ll be making sure I don’t fall into any of those traps. I’ll be trying my best not to make any mistakes for my future,” added McDowell.
After Immelman made his major breakthrough in the 2008 US Masters, there was a stretch of four successive majors where multiple winners came to the fore before Glover’s breakthrough win in Bethpage.
He is likely to be one of those players that Oosthuizen, the newest member of the club, will seek out in the weeks to come.
As Immelman explained of what it means to win a major, “Every person who ever decides to take up golf for a living wants to win a major. That’s all you ever work for.
“And, once you win, it takes a little time to let that sink in. It takes a little time to come to grips with the fact that you’ve done it. And then it also takes a little time to figure out where you’re going to go from there . . . it took me time to come with grips with that.”
Immelman also touched on that which faces McDowell and now Oosthuizen.
“It’s kind of a double-edged sword. On the one side, I sit back and say, ‘well, at least I’ve won a major championship. I’ve proved to myself I can do it. Whatever happens, I’m going to be able to retire from the game saying that I’ve won a major, so that’s fantastic’. And then on the other side, you know, you really want to be able to show that you’re worthy of winning a major championship and you’re worthy of having your name up with the greats of the game that came before us. So it’s an interesting scenario, so you kind of bounce between the two.”
One thing is for sure, none of them would swap places with someone who has never won a major.
