Most followers of the PGA Tour can easily name the top five players in the world, based on the Official World Golf Ranking. Though the order of those five seems to change with each passing tournament, the names of the Big Five — Woods, Singh, Els, Mickelson, and Goosen — are universally recognized as the elite.
But who can identify players ranked 6-10 — the Next Five? The list is below, and as the adjoining paragraphs point out, a couple of the members of the Next Five have a great chance of moving up, while others have surely already reached their zenith.
6. Chris DiMarco — The sixth-ranked player in the world has only three career victories and has not won since the 2002 Phoenix Open. Yet DiMarco's recent play, especially in the major tournaments, could be prophetic of promising play yet to come. In his last two Masters tournaments, DiMarco played in the final group on Sunday, succumbing to Phil Mickelson in 2004 and Tiger Woods a month ago.
DiMarco has made a career out of consistency and near-misses, and this season is a perfect example. He lost to David Toms in the final round of the Accenture Match Play Championship after beating Retief Goosen in the semifinals. And the argument could be made that he is playing the best golf on the planet right now despite not having a win. DiMarco's resulting in his last three tournaments: second at the Masters, tied for third at New Orleans, and fourth at the star-studded Wachovia Championships. For his career, he has finished in the top 20 of the Tour Money List for five straight years (soon to be six).
What DiMarco lacks is wins and time. What is DiMarco's most impressive victory? The list is remarkably underwhelming: the 2000 SEI Pennsylvania Classic, the 2001 Buick Challenge, and the 2002 Phoenix Open. Sure, he's set for life, but to have any chance at moving northward in the rankings, he's going to need to close the deal at a major or two.
But at 36, DiMarco's window of opportunity is growing smaller every day. The world has probably seen the best golf of Chris DiMarco, and to this point, it has provided him only material success, not the impeccable golf resumes owned by Woods, Singh, Els, Mickelson, and Goosen. But DiMarco's strength is in his putter, a fact he attributes to the quirky claw-grip putting style. DiMarco is currently ranked as the best putter on Tour. And as Jay Haas and Vijay Singh can attest, growing older does not mean growing less competitive, so long as the putter stays hot. So, should DiMarco retain the putting touch that has earned him over $15 million, he will stay competitive and preserve his top-10 ranking.
7. Adam Scott — Australian-born Adam Scott is as close to a sure thing as the PGA Tour can possibly boast. Like DiMarco above him, Scott has won three times on Tour. Unlike his elder competitor, however, Scott is only 24, and has already won a heavily sought-after tournament, The Players Championship. With five wins internationally also to his credit, Scott is poised to become one of golf's stalwarts for the foreseeable future.
Scott worked with teacher Butch Harmon to model his entire game after one of Harmon's other students, Tiger Woods. Scott's swing is eerily similar to that of his doppelganger, Woods, and from a distance, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between the two. This pedigree, combined with Scott's ability to excel in competition, will doubtlessly lead him into the top five in the World Golf Ranking. The question is when, not if, for Scott.
8. Sergio Garcia — Once considered the best player under 25 years of age, fiery-Spaniard Sergio Garcia has likely lost that title to Adam Scott. At the 1999 PGA Championship, Garcia raised hopes of a Jack Nicklaus/Arnold Palmer-type rivalry with Tiger Woods, but since that Sunday at Medinah, Garcia has not lived up to those lofty and probably unfair expectations.
Still, Garcia has an incredible list of accomplishments already, and he's only 25. He's won five times on the PGA Tour and nine times internationally. He's also been a central character to the European team's success in the last three Ryder Cups. So any talk of Garcia as a colossal disappointment should cease.
But Garcia does have to improve his putting before he can expect to win multiple major tournaments and crack the top five in the world rankings. He is ranked 163rd in putting this season, a shockingly awful statistic for the eighth-ranked player in the world. Should he do so — and it is a good bet that his putting will certainly improve in the coming years — Garcia may find himself in an international rivalry after all. But not with Woods — Adam Scott could be his toughest long-term competition.
9. Padraig Harrington — 33-year-old Padraig Harrington is the biggest mystery on this list. Harrington has an impressive international resume with nine European Tour victories. But this is only Harrington's first year on the U.S. Tour, and so his mere one PGA Tour victory is not as unimpressive as it might seem.
Like Garcia, Harrington is a lynchpin for Europe's Ryder Cup team, and like Chris DiMarco, he makes a living by often being in contention, but rarely winning. In his banner year of 2002, Harrington flirted with victory in all four majors, including top-five finishes at the Masters and the British Open. But Harrington's lack of U.S. Tour victories make it difficult to judge whether or not he's peaked, or if his peak is yet to come. Now that he is a full-time member of the PGA Tour, Harrington's comfort level in the states should increase, and he will avoid the globetrotting fatigue attributed to those who play in tournaments around the world.
10. David Toms — Of the Next Five, Toms is clearly the most accomplished player. He has 11 career victories, including the 2001 PGA Championship. There is no doubt that Toms is going to be remembered as one of the games more accomplished players, but the question remains: are Toms' best days behind him?
At 38, Toms is the oldest player in the Next Five. But he has not slowed down at all in 2005. In winning the Accenture Match Play Championship in January, Toms played some of the best golf that tournament has ever produced. He has also finished in the top 10 four other times this season. He ranks ninth on Tour in greens hit in regulation, and is 18th in putting.
Despite continued good play, however, Toms faces quite a challenging climb ahead if he hopes to reach the top five again in his career. With Scott and Garcia likely on the rise, and no end in sight to the Big Five's domination of the sport, Toms is not likely to ascend much higher on this list.
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