2011 British Open: American golfers face uphill battle to end drought

When the British Open begins Thursday at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, the contingent of Americans who will contend for the title will be not only on foreign soil, but will arrive in a truly unprecedented spot. None of the last five major champions — dating from Graeme McDowell’s victory in the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach — is from the United States. Moreover, none of the top four players in the world — Englishmen Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, German Martin Kaymer and Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy — is American.

In a sport in which Americans won every Masters from 1934 to ’73, every U.S. Open from 1926 to ’63 and even 12 of 14 British Opens from 1970 to ’83, this amounts to a continental shift.

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“It’s obvious that world golf as a whole has become so much stronger,” said Phil Mickelson, the last American to take a major, the 2010 Masters, “and that international and European golf has become world-class and top-notch and [boasts] some of the best players in the world.”

This week’s event appears to represent the Americans’ least likely chance to break through. Since 1934, the year the Masters was founded, Americans have won 29 British Opens, compared to 62 U.S. Opens, 62 PGA Championships and 55 Masters over the same span.

Since the 1980s and early 1990s, when an international contingent led by Seve Ballesteros of Spain, Greg Norman of Australia, Nick Price of Zimbabwe and Nick Faldo of England began to broaden the game’s scope, the once-presumed American dominance in golf has been iffy at best. In 1994, when the major titles went to Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal, South Africa’s Ernie Els and Price (who won both the British Open and the PGA), golf seemed global. Never, though, had it reached this level, in which choosing an American who might win the next major seems so muddled.

Tiger Woods, winner of 14 majors and the de facto top American hope for the past 15 years, will miss his second straight major because of persistent injuries to his left leg.

Mickelson can hardly be considered a contender; he has one top-10 finish in 17 Open appearances. The top-ranked American, No. 5 Steve Stricker, hasn’t finished in the top five at a major since 1999. Matt Kuchar, ranked eighth in the world, has never posted a top five.

There is an American group — including Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler — from which much is expected, a group constantly referred to as the next generation of American golf. It is that group that allows Mickelson to say, “I’m actually very encouraged with where our American golfers are.” Americans are getting past the Woods-Mickelson era, and it’s only a matter of time before one or more of the younger players breaks through.

“For a while there you had Tiger, you had Phil, obviously Steve Stricker,” said McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion from Northern Ireland. “You really didn’t have a lot of standouts outside of the big two or three. I think they have a lot of talent spread across the age brackets now, and I think they’re sort of on the verge of being very strong again and winning major championships and winning globally.”