Golf: Low-scoring rookies shake up golfing world

CHARLOTTE - It's perhaps premature to hail a changing of the guard, but yesterday may turn out to be an important day in the history of golf.

Only hours after 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa shot 58, the lowest score on a major tour, to win the Crowns tournament by five strokes in Japan, it was as if Rory McIlroy decided he was not prepared to play second fiddle.

The Northern Irishman, who turns 21 tomorrow, carded a course record 62 to blow away the world-class field with a four-stroke victory at the US PGA Tour's Quail Hollow Championship in North Carolina.

Both performances were stunning, and it's difficult to separate the two but first let's try to put Ishikawa's performance into perspective.

Consider that Australian Paul Sheehan started the final round in second place, five strokes ahead of Ishikawa, shot a respectable 68 and got dusted by five strokes.

"I thought if I shot two or three under I could win. "I played a pretty much flawless round and got lapped," said Sheehan.

Sheehan, who tied for second, dispelled any suggestions that the par-70 course was a pushover, despite its short 6545-yard length.

"There was no wind but the greens are raised, they were rock hard and the pins were tucked. It's the trickiest course we play all year.

"There are a lot of short holes but the fairways were really narrow and coming from the rough you had no chance of stopping it on the greens. You were on a knife-edge with every shot.

"For an 18-year-old, he [Ishikawa] is absolutely phenomenal."

Ishikawa's score stunned Craig Parry, who tied for 34th.

"It's the best score I've ever seen," Parry said.

"The greens were concrete."

McIlroy's performance was also stellar as he posted his second professional victory, his first on the US tour.

Padraig Harrington, one of the game's more thoughtful players, was asked who was more impressive, McIlroy or Ishikawa.

"Up until now I'd give it to Ryo, because he is winning, and winning regularly, but Rory puts something else on the table if he wins today," Harrington said before McIlroy's triumph.

"Winning in Japan or Europe, that's very important too but to be a world beater they've got to leave their comfort zone and win.

"If Rory wins today, that's what he's done. Ryo's winning in his homeland so he now needs to take it over here and start winning here (in the US)."

McIlroy joked that he was just trying to keep pace with Ishikawa.

"He shoots 58 to win and I shoot 62. He's a great player and with myself winning today, it looks good for the future," he said.

But Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are not quite ready to concede their world No 1 and 2 rankings just yet.

Woods is only 34 and unlikely to fade away any time soon, while Mickelson just last month won the Masters, and finished second today.

Still, it's an astonishing coincidence that the game's two best youngsters produced the best rounds of their lives on the same day.

For one day at least, Woods and Mickelson were after-thoughts. Whether its a sign of things to come, or a mere aberration, only time will tell, but Sheehan was in no doubt.

"I think over the next five to 10 years Ishikawa and McIlroy will be vying for world No 1," he said.

- AAP