Young, talented wave of golfers set to help us move on from Tiger Woods

HAVEN WIS. – The last time Minnesota hosted an epic golf tournament, Tiger Woods wilted in a final round for the first time in his career at the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National, signaling a career downturn that continued this weekend at the PGA Championship.

The last time the U.S. Ryder Cup team played on home turf, the Americans relied on a group of familiar veterans and folded on Sunday, much like Woods at Hazeltine.

The last time golf fans envisioned and craved a career-long rivalry between two spectacular golfers, Woods and Phil Mickelson disappointed, rarely dueling for a championship on the back nine at a major, often seeming to prefer avoiding each other to inspiring each other.

The spectacular majors of 2015 hint that as Hazeltine prepares to host the 2016 Ryder Cup, golf has changed, perhaps for the better.

Woods is no longer the singular story line in the golf world. We may never see a player of his dominance, but we may see a dozen young players who hit it as far as he ever did and are as capable of dominating a course with athletic ability and intensity. This weekend, Jason Day twice played a 565-yard hole by hitting a driver, then a pitching wedge pin-high, and he may not hit the ball as far as Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson.

Woods transformed golf by acting like modern athletes in other sports, by working out, dieting and channeling raw emotions into intimidating performances. Now acting like an athlete is the norm on tour.

The United States relied on Woods, Mickelson, and often a bunch of short-hitting nice guys in recent Ryder Cups. In 2012, U.S. captain Davis Love III, who will captain again at Hazeltine, chose Jim Furyk, Brandt Snedeker and Steve Stricker among his captain's picks. All three lost during the U.S. Sunday collapse. The only captain's pick who won that Sunday was the long-hitting Johnson.

After years of defining American golf, for better and worse, Woods and Mickelson may not even make the team.

Woods' rivalry was never defined by his play against Mickelson. He was too dominant for any other individual to have mattered much during his reign. Woods was always playing against Jack Nicklaus' legacy.

Spieth's career may be different. With two majors and the top world ranking shortly after turning 22, he will have to beat the likes of McIlroy and Day to make a run at Jack or Tiger. He seems eager to try.

From the early-week news conferences during which Spieth and McIlroy politely parsed their rivalry, to the final pairing in which Day and Spieth amassed the best winning score and best second-place score relative to par in major championship history, this week's PGA felt as much like an appetizer as a main course.

Spieth, McIlroy and Day have displayed admirable sportsmanship. Each has openly stated that he wants to be the best player in the world, and yet there was Spieth on the 17th hole Sunday, watching Day's long lag putt essentially ice the tournament, offering a thumb's up gesture in congratulations on the green.

There may never be another winner like Nicklaus, or intimidator like Woods, but today's golfers are the best players and athletes in the sport's history.

Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee, a former tour pro and the one of the most incisive analysts in any sport, noted that when Usain Bolt breaks a record, nobody laments that he is wearing high-tech shoes, and yet when golfers break records, traditionalists whine about the intrusion of modern golf equipment.

Chamblee noted that club-head speed on tour has increased every year since the PGA Tour began measuring it in 2007. At some point, Chamblee said, "you have to celebrate the athlete."

That should be the motto of modern golf, and the 2016 Ryder Cup.

Jim Souhan's podcast can be heard at MalePatternPodcasts.com. On Twitter: @SouhanStrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com