Golf's next generation already creating buzz

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(From left to right) Jamie Lovemark, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and Ryo Ishikawa represent the next generation in golf.

One lost a Nationwide Tour playoff two years ago when he was a sophomore at Southern California.

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Another has a head of Irish curls that won't quit. Think Harpo Marx when it's humid.

A third falls somewhere around that Chace Crawford-Ed Westwick-young-Leonardo DiCaprio-omigosh juncture on every gossip girl's giddy scale. Even with the painter's cap pulled low.

And the fourth? He's an 18-year-old Japanese multi-millionaire with a heck of a swing, a charismatic smile and a nickname -- the Bashful Prince.

Meet, in order, the newest faces in professional golf -- Jamie Lovemark, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and Ryo Ishikawa. And they have the game's insiders buzzing about what's still to come.

We're talking solid future here. Guys who could step in and become the next generation Stewart Cink or Justin Leonard or Steve Stricker or maybe Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood or Paddy Harrington. Players with loads of potential. The faces of Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams down the line. And if they live up to their potential, just maybe, a major champ or two in the future.

Not the next Tiger.

There's only one of those, and to think in those terms would be ridiculous. Not to mention utterly unfair. To everyone concerned.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s everyone was looking for the next Jack Nicklaus. It was John Cook. It was Hal Sutton. It was Ben Crenshaw.

It just wasn't.

So we learned to sit back and wait. To watch a hotheaded Curtis Strange win two U.S. Opens -- and challenge for a third -- and become the best player in the game for a couple of years. To watch Sutton blossom, slip-slide away and bounce back. To marvel over a talented kid from Arizona State and wonder when he would find the patience to become a major champ. To see the other side of golf, too -- an Adam Scott fall from third in the world to 76th or the scores of players with potential who have a great season or two only to fade away.

We've had our eye on McIlroy and Ishikawa for a while now. McIlroy won the Dubai Desert Classic early this year and is ranked 16th in the world. Ishikawa is a rock star in his home county, has six Japanese Tour wins -- four this year -- and is ranked 36th. McIlroy has a winning smile and a solid game. Ishikawa has that charisma that makes us snap our heads and overlook a miscue or two.

Both have taken their game to the next level. The one after that? Contending at majors.

And Fowler and Lovemark? Both got serious TV time last weekend when they wound up losing a playoff to Troy Matteson Sunday afternoon at the Frys.com Open. Make that two weeks in a row for Fowler who slid into the top 10 the week before at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Lovemark won the NCAA Championship as a freshman at USC and lost a playoff to Chris Riley at the 2007 Rochester Area Charities Showdown at Somerby presented by Think on the Nationwide Tour. He's 21, a strapping 6-foot-4 and he had a little luck on his side Sunday when his approach on the first extra hole splashed into the water and back out to keep his hopes alive.

Fowler has that look -- dark eyes, chiseled face, brooding guise and background that includes BMX and dirt bikes -- that turns twenty-something heads. And, at 20, the former Oklahoma State player has a mean short game and impressive putter. Like Lovemark, he too lost a previous professional playoff -- to Derek Lamely at this year's Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational.

The downside? Neither one is exempt for 2010, although a win last week would have given either his playing card. Fowler has cracked the top 150 but needs about $100,000 to get fully exempt status so he'll play in the Viking Classic. Lovemark, who is still out of the top 150, will go the q-school route this week.

Both need time to settle into the game and the travel. Both need to work on consistency and rounding out their games.

But the bottom line here is this quartet has piqued our curiosity. They've made us wonder if we're seeing into the future. If this is the next group Tiger and Phil and Westwood and Geoff Ogilvy will be paired with in 2016 or 2017.

They're all players with talent, but a few question marks in their games. It might be patience or putting or finding the fairway off the tee. It takes time to build a rock-solid game and even then it's not a given that it will stick around. It takes even longer to find a way to contend consistently at majors.

We know how fickle this game can be; how it's so easy to follow a great season with one where you're grinding to keep your card. How nothing -- not even a 12-inch tap-in -- is a sure thing.

So when you watch this quartet, keep that in mind.

Appreciate their talents and the enthusiasm and charisma they bring to the game. Watch them contend and mature. Wonder about their futures.

But keep it in perspective. Today's fresh faces may well step up and challenge Tiger and Phil and Paddy. But if they don't, well, enjoy what they're bringing to the table now.

And remember it won't be long until there's another group catching our eye and making us wonder.