There's always plenty of room for perspective, for sure. It's easy to jump on bandwagons, and it's just as easy to write players off after they've been out of the limelight for a few years. We forget that as dominant as Tiger was during an 11 year stretch, someone other than him won 78% of the time he was competing. Longevity was always going to be a concern with him, as he entered the tour back in '96 or '97 as this freak of nature, this skinny kid who was blasting it 20-30 yards beyond even the longer hitters back at that time. Butch Harmon did everything he knew to do to try to get Tiger to throttle back, but Tiger wasn't interested in softening his swing aggression. And who could blame him? His length certainly gave him a huge advantage. But it did come at a price long-term.
The same can be said of other players. Jason Day is one of the more recent players that come to mind.
But who could possibly blame Bryson for adapting to the bomb-and-gouge era? Obviously the longer hitters have a huge advantage today. That doesn't automatically move them to the top of the favored-to-win list, but with non-US Open type setups where there is little risk and huge reward? It is what it is. And it's been this way for a fairly long while now, its not like this distance obsession is a new fad. Tiger changed the game when he burst onto the scene, and the Tour recognizes the value of their players entertaining the fans. After all - sports are essentially an extension of the entertainment industry! If we didn't find what they do impressively entertaining, we'd have little to talk about!
All that said, Bryson would do well to capitalize on his physical ability while he can, if he plans on staying the course with his "all or nothing" approach, that is. Once the injuries start occurring, that window of opportunity starts to close rather quickly.
Then again, who cares more about longevity than winning now these days? These guys are backing armored trucks up to their garage and unloading millions. Who needs to dominate for a decade or longer when they can amass that kind of coin in half that time?
The purses today have compelled some of us to move the goal posts quite significantly regarding what we once considered the true definition of a "great" player. It used to be that we would consider the entirety of a career to come to that conclusion, not just a 3-4 year window of pocket-lining dominance.
! On the tour for 4 years, has 8 professional wins, 1 Major, finished 3rd in the Fed Ex, and heās just a journeyman. My goodness, if only everyone could be a journeyman. Heās already done more in 4 years than 98% of professionals will do their entire career.
