Time for golf’s new generation to rise to the challenge

In the absence of Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy must step up to the plate.

As the world’s top players gather for the Players Championship, the game is crying out for someone to fill the void left by Tiger Woods.

While The Masters was enjoyable, TV viewing figures in the US and the UK were down. That has been blamed on Tiger’s absence.

There is no date fixed for his return following back surgery, but he has to be careful because we want him to come back when he is 100%.

That means he could miss all this summer’s Majors and even the Ryder Cup in September.

Without Woods, someone has to step up to the plate.

So I’m looking at Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy, and to a lesser extent Sergio Garcia, to rise to the challenge.

Golf thrives when there is a superstar for everyone else to beat. That was the case when Jack Nicklaus was around and again when Tiger came along.

The superstar dominates the sport and sets the path for everyone else to follow.

There was a little spell in the doldrums when Jack left the scene, and before Tiger emerged, and we don’t want the same to happen now.

Put simply, Woods is the Jose Mourinho of golf. Some people want him to win, others hope he’ll get beaten.

Either way, they’re just desperate to see him.

There is always a story with Tiger. He’s changed his coach, suffered off-the-course issues and stumbled in the chase to beat Jack’s record of 18 Majors.

That narrative drives the sport. Now we need someone to overtake him at the top of the World Rankings, so Tiger has that incentive when he returns.

So far this year, there have been lots of first-time and unheralded winners. While it shows the strength in depth, it creates the stereotype of a bland golfer, which is hard to shift.

McIlroy and Scott have obviously got the talent to stand out, and more importantly, they along with Garcia have the charisma to carry the game.

Rory is showing glimpses of his best but needs to win a tournament. Scott should have won at Bay Hill to get to World No.1 but blew up in the final round.

Those faults must be quickly remedied. It would be great if they could be in a tussle down the stretch at Sawgrass next Sunday and set the tone for the summer.

It was interesting to hear Nicklaus at Augusta say that he wanted young Jordan Spieth to win that week.

He could see the bigger picture of a 20-year-old breaking through. He’s right.

With fewer people playing and viewing figures down, golf needs an injection of star quality to give it that X-Factor.