Changing of the Guard?

By BRIAN KORESSEL
Senior Producer, GolfChannel.com

Editor's Note: TheGolfChannel.com is counting down its top 5 stories from the world of golf in 2006 and looking ahead to the five 'Big Questions' on the PGA TOUR in 2007. This is our No. 4 question for the upcoming season.
 
The term ‘changing of the guard’ refers to a formal ceremony in which sentries providing ceremonial guard duties at important institutions are relieved by a new batch of sentries.
 
In sports, it is usually used to describe a gradual or sudden shift in power from a once dominate team, conference or single individual athlete to another.
 

And in golf, while there looks to be no ‘changing of the guard’ for the foreseeable future – at least not at the top where Tiger Woods resides - we might, however, be starting to see a shift, or ‘changing of the guard,’ in the small group a players who will challenge Woods with his stiffest competition for the next several of years.
 
A quick look at the current world golf rankings shows the slide of what once was known as the Big 5 – Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen (Tiger, of course, excluded).
 
Lefty (No. 3) and Ernie (No. 5) still reside in the top-5, but Vijay and Retief have been replaced by now world No. 2 Jim Furyk and young Aussie Adam Scott (No. 4). It marks the first time in three years that the so-called original Big 5 will not inhabit all of the top five slots in the rankings at the end of a season.
 
Is there anything to make of this? Will the floor right below Tiger’s penthouse permanently become occupied by a new host of challengers? If so, who?
 
Well, the potential list of renters includes the aforementioned Furyk and Scott, as well has Padraig Harrington, England’s up-an-comer Paul Casey, current U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, and, of course, Sergio Garcia and the seemingly never-ending talk of his potential.
 
Of the new crowd, it’s hard to argue that Furyk won’t be a fixture for several years to come.
 
“Jim Furyk could be the most overlooked player today – and he’s ranked second in the world. He doesn’t have the power of an Els or a Singh, but with his swing and his lack of power he has (still) gotten to No. 2 in the world,” said Golf Channel and CBS Sports analyst Peter Oosterhuis. “I think that is an amazing accomplishment.”
 
Furyk, who finished a career-best second on the PGA TOUR’s money list this past season with $7,482,275, appears to be becoming more comfortable in his role as one of the top players in the world.
 
Already with one major to his credit, Furyk had a monster season in ‘06 with wins coming at the Wachovia Championship and the Canadian Open. In addition, he had four runner-up finishes as well as three third-place showings. As a result, the 36-year-old Furyk rose from seventh in the world rankings at the beginning of the year to second at season’s end.