Epic Wimbledon duel reaffirms golf’s need for a true challenger to Tiger Woods

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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Golf and tennis, two hoity-toity country club sports, have served up the gutsiest athletic performances of 2008. If you thought the U.S. Open finish between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate was a classic, you should have seen Wimbledon Sunday.

Roger Federer, the world No. 1 and frequent guest on Tiger’s yacht, and Rafael Nadal, the up-and-coming No. 2, traded blows for the longest Wimbledon men’s singles final ever played. The winner, Nadal, is even withdrawing from his next tournament citing, you guessed it, a knee injury.

It was the kind of match that can rally casual sports fans, just as the U.S. Open captivated cubicles worldwide during its Monday playoff.

But what set Wimbledon apart was that it was a classic dethroning of the champ by the next in line. Any golf fan watching had to be shocked at the outcome: “Wait a sec, No. 1 lost? I think my cable’s broken …”

While Mediate was a cute story at Torrey Pines South, Wimbledon reaffirms golf’s largest void: a need for the “Next Guy,” someone who would make the second half of the season relevant even without Tiger.

And as Tiger spends the rest of 2008 on the sidelines, the time is now for No. 2 to start pounding his chest.

It won’t be Phil Mickelson. His inner demons - the ones that convinced him to go without a driver on the longest U.S. Open course in history - are foe enough for him.

World No. 3 Adam Scott would be a popular pick as an up-and-comer. Then again it’s hard to focus squarely on your game when your caddie is picking fights in the gallery as you compete in a major.

Although I’m still (stupidly) holding out hope for a Sergio Garcia emergence, it looks like we’ll have to look to the future instead, like Rory McIlroy, the teen phenom from Northern Ireland, or maybe Anthony Kim, the 23-year-old who cooly called Tiger “bro” on the phone after his AT&T win on Sunday.

Maybe Tiger’s eventual foe isn’t even on the radar yet. In its latest issue, Golf Magazine highlighted three 5-to-7-year-old golf prodigies as potential Tiger-beaters.

We might have to wait that long.

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