Butch Harmon salutes the young talent dominating the world of golf
Wednesday 4 November 2015 11:09, UK
Butch Harmon believes the dominance of young players in the world of golf over the last year has put the game in "fantastic" shape.
The Sky Sports pundit spoke frankly about the state of the sport in the NBC studio during second round coverage of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, and the renowned coach is excited about the "new generation" of young talent.
Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy currently occupy the top three slots in the world rankings, while Harmon pupil Rickie Fowler breached the top five after an excellent campaign that yielded three wins worldwide.
"The state of the game is fantastic," said Harmon. "You look at these young players and all of these guys are still in their 20s. The game is in a great place.
"We're seeing a changing of the guard. Tiger is going to be 40 soon and he's a little injured, Phil is 45 and we don't know what's going to happen with him, although I think he'll still get some wins here and there.
"But the young players coming along? It's phenomenal how good they are, and they're fearless. It's a new generation, the kids hang out with each other and there doesn't seem to be any jealousy - they're happy when one of their crowd does well.
"Jordan Spieth is the best putter I've ever seen, he's been phenomenal on the greens over the last 18 months. People say he doesn't drive the ball far enough, but he's longer than average and plenty long enough. He had a couple of weeks where he missed the cut, but I think that was probably good for him and gave him a bit of a wake-up call.
"He's back to playing well again, and as for his putting? He makes 28 or 29 per cent of putts within 25 feet? I've never heard of that. I thought Nicklaus, in his heyday, was the best pressure putter I ever saw, then Tiger came along, and now Jordan is even better than both of them."
But while it's a young man's game at the top of the world rankings right now, Harmon hopes Tiger Woods can recover from his latest back surgery and hit the headlines for the right reasons next year.
He added: "Let's hope the surgery is good, and that he takes the time he needs to rehab. The game needs Tiger to play good, it's a lot more fun when he's out there playing well. I think it's going to be difficult for him to get back to the level he was, let's just hope he can compete and be a factor in these tournaments."
Watch the video to hear Butch talking about the "changing of the guard", and find how out he transformed Rickie Fowler's swing to turn him into a top-five player in the world.
