Embarrassing isn’t quite the right word, but there’s something a little… awkward… about the way the golf media has handled the phenomenon that has been “Spring Break 2016” . If you’re old enough and hip enough, you remember: Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, and Smylie Kaufman went on vacation and posted a few photos and videos, and for a few days it dominated our little ecosystem. But while I don’t feel entirely comfortable with the absurd level of attention given to this quartet by me and my peers, I can’t be too hard on us: They were having fun, and they were ambitious. They were four nice, friendly young men, close to the top of their game, and for be one of them seemed like a really good gig. If we wanted to enjoy it vicariously for a week, why not?

Looking back, almost nine years later, you couldn’t have picked a better moment to freeze time. Two weeks earlier, Kaufman and Spieth faced off Sunday at the Masters in the final group, with Spieth leading his friend by one stroke. While Kaufman shot an 81, and Spieth suffered his famous quad on the 12th hole put it back green jacket to Danny Willetttheir stars shone. Spieth, of course, was coming off a stellar 2015, when he won two majors and came close in the other two. Fowler achieved the rare feat of finishing in the top five at every major in 2014 and, a year later, won the Players, the Scottish Open and a FedEx Cup qualifier. Thomas had stepped out of Spieth’s shadow by winning his first PGA Tour event the previous fall and had just qualified in his first Masters appearance. To varying degrees, they were all rising stars. Fowler was 27 years old. Kaufman was 24 years old. Spieth and Thomas were 22 years old.

Time and destiny took hold of them. Kaufman’s golf star faded quickest, and today he carries out his profession on TV. Spieth and Thomas won major tournaments in the summer of 2017, and Thomas won another in 2022. Fowler embarked on a long journey that took him into the depths of the game, before being reborn thanks to his former coach Butch Harmon to put together a strong 2023. , competing in the US Open and winning his first PGA Tour event in four years. All three competed in the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup, they went through ups and downs, and despite their struggles, they never left.

And yet, there was something about 2024 that felt like an end…or at least the beginning of an end. Golf is notoriously unpredictable and it takes longer for a player to mature than any other major sport. It is therefore far too early to exclude anyone. But consider last season’s results:

Hunter: Zero wins, one top 10, only three top 20s.

Spieth: Zero victories, three top 10s, none since the beginning of April.

Thomas: Zero wins, seven top 10s.

We wouldn’t call it a “bad” season for any of them by reasonable standards – hell, Thomas won the Tour Championship! – but for the first time since the start of their careers, it was as if all three had taken a back seat in popular discourse. . They were all less relevant and it all happened in the same year. And for the first time since the 2013 Presidents Cup, the United States played a team event – ​​the 2024 Presidents Cup – without at least one of them on the roster.

In the meantime, new stars have emerged and old ones have eclipsed them in the spotlight. Rory McIlroy struggled to win another major after his brilliant 2014, but his game remained elite and his immersion in the LIV Golf-PGA Tour madness kept him on the tip of everyone’s tongue. the world. Brooks Koepka went up and down, but his highs were ultimately higher than those of the three Americans. Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau have sketched their own infamous arcs, thanks to leaps to LIV Golf, while the relatively silent Scottie Scheffler has climbed to the top of our consciousness simply by playing generational golf.

Against these stars, Thomas, Spieth and Fowler seem to fade in comparison. They are older now too; Fowler 35, Spieth and Thomas 31. And it’s hard to say whether what happened to them is remarkable, given what their trajectories once looked like, or whether it’s an entirely ebb and flow predictable, beholden to the big truths, which are that weather affects everyone differently and golf is difficult.

It bears repeating that the stories aren’t over – Thomas’ second-place finish last weekend at the Hero World Challenge suggests off-season speed training work could have him winning again soon – and that almost all fans and writers support a resurgence of all three. It also bears repeating that the stories are not the same. But the most difficult reality they must face is that game did not stay still. Golf doesn’t wait for them to return to their old form; it continues to improve and rejuvenate over the years.

And that’s the ultimate surprise when we take stock of their current situation. The future is unwritten, but what might have seemed like temporary declines nine years ago now seem a little more acute, a little more worrying, a little more permanent. In a sense, it’s as if the guardian has already changed, but no one wants to acknowledge it. This is happening in a sport where Tiger Woods continues to dominate the discourse even as he approaches middle age (and indeed, in a sport where someone like Woods or Mickelson might still do the unthinkable at end of quarantine). The timeline may seem infinite and the future opportunities limitless.

But for three stars who first captured the sport’s imagination a decade ago, 2024 was further proof that even as the window to a great golf career slowly closes, it nonetheless always closes, every Sunday that passes.