Rozner: Young American pals dominating golf

Rickie Fowler is quickly rising to the top of the charts of the "Best Golfer Never to Win a Major."

At the ripe old age of 28, he's certainly in the top three.

It's still a 5-iron from 44-year-old Lee Westwood, who has missed his chance. Westwood has 18 top 10s in majors, nine top 3s and three second-place finishes.

He will probably retire with the title.

Fowler already has eight top 10s, including four top 5s in 2014 when he finished second twice.

It has to happen sooner or later.

Fowler had an excellent chance to win three of the four this year, including over the weekend at Quail Hollow, when he used a big Sunday charge to get within striking distance. Just 3 shots back, it was another tie for fifth.

But rather than sulk about the PGA Championship, wonder why it hasn't happened or ponder the back nine on Saturday when he played the Green Mile - the last three holes - in 4 over par, hitting his tee shot on the par-3 17th short and in the water, Fowler hung around after his round Sunday and waited for his pal Justin Thomas to tap in on 18 and win his first major.

And this is nothing new.

This has become a thing on the PGA Tour, where the best young Americans - the Brat Pack, if you will - have become very good friends, and after trying to best one another on the course, to achieve the dream of a lifetime, they wait for their pals to walk up 18 and finish off tournaments.

Opponents on the course, these guys live together, travel together, take vacations together, rent houses together and then root for one another in groups if they can't win it themselves.

Among those who waited for Thomas to finish Sunday - and then celebrated with him - were Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Bud Cauley, the latter of which finished his round before Thomas even put a peg in the ground Sunday.

"It's a good rivalry between all the young guys," Fowler told reporters behind the 18th green. "We're all good friends. We all travel together. We all play practice rounds together.

"JT and I live right down the street from each other. It's only going to push me harder to go beat him up the next time we tee it up."

It's a scene that's been repeated over and over again, including at the Open Championship last month when so many of Spieth's friends met him behind the 18th green.

"It's awesome and I think they know I would do the same for them," Thomas said Sunday night. "It's a cool little friendship we have.

"I just didn't believe Bud Cauley stayed around. He's one of my best friends. We live together in Florida. I was about 10 minutes from going to tee off and he was walking off to go sign his scorecard.

"So he hung around for 18 holes, not knowing what could happen."

Many of them are referred to as the high school class of 2011. While you ponder that for a moment, there are currently 10 players on Tour from that class.

Thomas is in that group, as is Spieth, Ollie Schniederjans and Daniel Berger, to name just a few.

"We've been playing (against each other) since we were 12 or 13 years old," Spieth said earlier this year in Hawaii. "Whether we believed it was as hard as it is or not, we just chose to shrug it off, and (say) hey, 'We're just going to go to the next level and the next level.' "

This will be known as the "Tiger Wave," the players in their 20s and 30s who got into the game while watching a guy named Tiger Woods.

"I'd say it's because of him, honestly," Thomas said. "I think what Tiger did, you can't put into words what he did and continues to do for this game. I got into golf, as much as I did, watching him play in his early 20s and winning majors."

And now Thomas has won his first, with all those young Americans by his side to drink from the trophy after it was over.

"I think that kind of shows where the game is right now," said Thomas, who won back to back in Hawaii to start the year, carding a 59 at Waialae. "Obviously, we all want to win. We want to beat the other person.

"But if we can't win, we at least want to enjoy it with our friends. I think we'll all be able to enjoy this together, and I know it's going to make them hungrier, just like it did me."

Spieth and Thomas won majors this year. Spieth, Thomas and Fowler are all in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings. And Thomas, Spieth, Fowler and Berger are all in the top 10 of the FedEx Cup Standings.

Those four have combined for 9 victories this season.

They are young, fearless and talented. They have taken over the game, and they are all friends.

It's a new era and a different way of viewing the world.

And for these guys, it works.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.